Lost at Sea

He slept peacefully, curled on his side with his cheeks rough with hair that grew there. He was covered in blood of a fish from the smell of it. Eleanor’s heart clenched as she stared at him, though she wasn’t certain why.

Emotions that she didn’t know she was capable of pulsed through her body, seizing her muscles and making it hard to take her eyes off of him. He was so beautiful to her, despite his rugged appearance. When she looked at him, she imagined she was looking straight down into his soul.

He began to stir as the early morning light peeked through and slowly flushed color back into their surroundings. The water turned crystal blue, the rocks regained their rich reddish hue, but the sand remained just as white as it had started out as. The blood in his white shirt became a dull, dried brown. This was usually her favorite time of the day to watch, when vibrant yellows and blues streaked across the morning sky, but watching him wake up was far more interesting to her.

He curled tighter first, as though desperately trying to hold onto the last of his dreams. Then his face crumpled, ruining the picture of serene sleep. Pain rippled across his handsome features, which forced Eleanor to bite back her instinct to comfort him. A deep groan escaped his lips before his body stretched out, a few joints cracking in broken music. Those stunning brown eyes opened last, the soft sunlight igniting them the a rich amber color.

She’d never get tired of staring at him. The way his eyelashes caught the light and reflected gold, or the heavy set brows that pulled together and raised and contorted with his every thought. He looked friendly, open. Even when he scowled, she still wanted to spill her very soul to him.

Those eyes met hers. Instead of the agony that had ripped through them last time, they just looked resigned; guarded, even. She didn’t move, just watched as he sat up and massaged his right temple with his palm.

“I have to say, that’s a sight to wake up to,” he muttered sleepily. He rested his arm lazily on his knee in front of him, staring at her with an unreadable expression.

She replied with silence, refusing to lift anything more than her eyes from the water.

“I believe its still considered impolite to ignore someone,” he chuckled, leaning both his arms on his knees now. She snorted, the bubbles giving away her sarcastic laughter. With the kind of attitude Eleanor only obtained when surrendering her pride, she rose out of the water to her collar bones, but no more. Her tail was safely hidden in the wavy distortion of the water. He was speaking to her now, but she wasn’t sure how long that would last once he realized that she was not as human as he thought.

“What are you?” He whispered, a dull echo of the same pain as last night in his eyes. She smiled softly.

“Something that men like you have only ever dreamed of.”

Before he could ask more questions, she slipped beneath the water line yet again and disappeared through the hole in the bottom. She planned on coming back, of course, but he had to be hungry. Aside from the fish that he had scarfed down, she wasn’t entirely certain what humans ate. Seaweed seemed to be a safe bet, and a little bit of her go-to when she wasn’t sure what to do for him.

She swam swiftly through the currents to a shallower portion of her familiar ocean. There the seaweed grew tall enough to reach several yard up to the surface and served as a home to multiple species of underwater creatures. She’d always thought it a little sad that they rushed to hide whenever she got close enough to look at them.

With her hands full of the long, salty weeds, Eleanor returned to her cove and tossed them at his feet. He had not moved, his knees still bent in front of him with his elbows resting lightly on top of them. The light made his hair look almost like pure gold. He stared at the green glob, then back to her, and back again. His brows pulled together tightly and she could almost see the gears working in his head.

“What is this?”

“I- I did not know what you would like to eat.”

“What is this?” He repeated.

“Seaweed,” Eleanor replied, tilting her head at his confused expression. She watched with rapt fascination as he flipped through different emotions. Understanding, disbelief, and sadness before finally settling on humor. His laugh filled every crevice of the cove and echoed out of the hole at the top. The sound whipped several new memories through her mind.

A bright, sunny day. This man’s hand in hers. Her tinkling laugh mixed in with his deep, joyous chuckle.

Sitting across a table from him as he talked to another man. Every time he laughed, he’d toss his head back. The smile lines in his handsome face made her insides quiver. He was too good to be true.

A gasp ripped down Eleanor’s throat as she tore herself from her forgotten memories. “Who are you?” She whispered, horrified in the fact that she had no memory of someone who had obviously been so important to her at one point. He stopped laughing to smile at her sadly.

“My name is Jasper James. I’m afraid I’m loathe to tell you anything else just yet.”

“I- I-” She couldn’t get her mouth to form the words. “I remember things. Just flashes. The edges of memories.”

“We both have our secrets, it seems. I don’t know why you can’t remember me, and until I’m sure you aren’t just a figment of my imagination, I would like to not have to relive the moment you were taken away from me just yet.” Was it Eleanor’s imagination, or did his eyes seem to shine with tears?

“What should I bring you?” She asked to find an excuse to leave. He seemed to understand, for he gave her a sad smile and described his favorite type of fish to her. Flat, with both of its eyes on one side of its head and usually lays on the bottom of the ocean floor. She committed his words to memory and before he had time to bring up their previous conversation, she was gone again.

While she searched, a piece of her mind wandered. Jasper, she mouthed, loving the feeling of her mouth forming his name. With his soft brown eyes and thick lashes, he’d ripped her heart out and gave it back to her on a stake. She’d never felt so human as when she was with him. Emotions that she’d forgotten even existed swirled in her chest, leaving her with a vaguely hungry feeling. How was she supposed to sate this type of hunger, though?

His proposition came to mind. To get information out of him, she would have to reveal who-- what-- she had become. Somehow, she didn’t feel as though he would take that sort of thing lightly. There was no way he’d simply shrug his shoulders and honor their compromise. Helplessness consumed her as she distractedly snagged the fish from the sand by its tail and carried it back to her cove, where Jasper awaited.

He smiled at her when she surfaced, and suddenly it was like nothing had ever troubled her. All the tension in her shoulders and the grief in her heart melted instantly, leaving her feeling just as pure as when she’d first opened her eyes in the salty cold waters of the Atlantic.

How could something this wonderful possibly go bad?