Chapter 6: Silver-haired, Finned Girl

Max wandered. No! His destination was, of course, home. He had to see the person who might save him from the sin he had committed. He had killed the girl. Ivory must have died from falling into the cold, deep sea. Plus, with the height between the bridge and the sea, there was no way her body wouldn't have been blown away.

Even if the girl survived, she would probably suffer a concussion and memory loss. However, it seemed better than losing her life.

Max walked into the house, his clothes in tatters due to his haphazard and uncontrollable changes. He didn't understand why that had happened, but it was the truth.

He was a monster now. Plus, he had killed a girl who had no part in his condition.

"Mirielle! Where are you, Elle!" called Max, a worried look on his face. His twin sister, holed up in her room, jumped to her feet when Max finally burst into her personal space.

"Jeez, Max! What are you doing in my room?" snapped Mirielle, annoyed by Max's presence. She almost poured the liquid in her hand on her brother.

"Whoah! What are you holding? Is that wolfsbane?" asked Max, who couldn't understand his sister's hobby of making strange potion experiments in her private room. "You should ask mom and dad to get you a lab room! It's so dangerous, Elle!"

Mirielle laughed at Max's terrified expression as the beaker in Mirielle's hand was now right in front of his face.

Mirielle motioned for Max to wait while she slowly poured the liquid into different ampoules, then stored them in the refrigerator in her room.

Indeed, Mirielle's room looked more like a chemistry lab than a girl's.

"Tell that to mom and dad because I've asked dozens of times. All I get is a glance," said Mirielle, who realized that her twin brother was in trouble.

She turned her head suddenly and stared into the hazel irises of the man before her. If that was the case, there was no way Max could lie to his sister.

"What happened, Max? Did you do something wrong?"

Max, who was asked such a question, just paced back and forth while squeezing his curls.

He recalled how it happened, the origin of his meeting with Ivory, then how he intended to eliminate Ivory from falling off the bridge. The memory made him close his eyes forcefully. If he could, he wanted to forget everything he had done with that girl. However, it was clear that he would not be able to do that.

Even now, the scent of Ivory's body continues to swirl in Max's nasal cavity, which inevitably brings memories of a beautiful night with the girl.

"Elle, I'm sure you must know something. You've always been the one who knows best; you can even predict anything."

"What do you mean? I'm not psychic, Max! I can't tell fortunes!" she snapped. But what Max said about her was almost one hundred percent true.

Max forcibly took what was in Mirielle's hand, and he would make sure not to return it until Mirielle answered the questions he was going to ask her.

"Max, hey! That's dangerous, Max; give it back to me!" Mirielle tried to take the box in Max's hand, but the man moved faster and managed to hide the object from Mirielle's sight. "Alright, tell me what you want me to do. Say it now before I change my mind!"

It was a coincidence for Max to ask his twin sister so many questions about Ivory. Mirielle could have known whether the girl was dead or alive and somewhere she had been.

"Elle, do you know about the girl named Ivory?" asked Max, somewhat afraid Mirielle could read that he had done something terrible to the girl.

Mirielle, who was initially uninterested in Max's question, now seemed to be concentrating and trying to find the girl's whereabouts—as well as discovering everything about Ivory and her relationship with Max.

Mirielle focused her attention and concentration. Her eyes turned completely white, and soon she was back to her true self. However, she shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Max, I couldn't find anything about that girl. Maybe she never existed in this world. Is she your favorite anime character? Or maybe the girl who appears in your dreams? The girl of your imagination? Which one of my guesses is right?" Mirielle urged, still pretending not to know anything.

"I'm serious, Elle! Do you know anything about her? Don't you see anything in your vision?"

Mirielle shook her head and deliberately waited for Max's reaction, who looked downcast in disappointment.

"Alright then. I'm going to my room. Thanks, Elle."

Mirielle just looked at Max's back as he moved away and disappeared as the door to her room was slowly closed.

***

In the deep ocean, there was no telling how deep it was that made the girl's body almost sink to the bottom. Ivory slowly opened her eyes. She felt she was bound, but her legs and arms could still move.

Tightness, that's what she felt at the moment, especially when her eyes found nothing but darkness and cold that pierced into her bones.

Where was she at this moment? Was she being held captive by the hairy man? Why did it feel like her body was having trouble moving? Or perhaps ...

Ivory's eyes were now fully open. Her sapphire-colored eyeballs sparkled, and the dark surroundings began to show. She tried to move her legs and arms to rise to the surface.

She began to see the moonlight, a sign that she would soon be safe.

Ivory swam and did her best to climb to the shore. She lay down on the warm sand. She was breathing heavily after struggling to stay alive, and now she should be grateful that nothing was missing from her.

She was arriving at the shore, and the wind blew against her bare skin, making her shudder momentarily from the cold. She should be grateful for being alive even though she realized that the clothes she was initially wearing had fallen off and disappeared somewhere. It could have been carried away by the current without her realizing it.

Her memories were fragmented, scattered like pieces of a puzzle that were not fully complete. She was still trying to put it all together.

Ivory's eyes were closed as if trying to remember the events that happened to her in sequence. About her misfortune of being sold by her father to pay the debts owned by that man, then meeting a mysterious man with extraordinary charm who saved her from Benjamin Agony's men, then ...

Ah! Ivory's head felt dizzy and throbbing. Slowly she tried to get up while collecting pieces of events that were quite frustrating because it was so difficult to remember.

When she managed to remember one event, the other events would disappear. One thing she could not forget was her beautiful night with Max, which brought other memories slowly popping up when she tried to get the memory back.

Beautiful ... but painful.

"Shit! What a crazy man! I almost lost my life. What exactly is in his mind? He said I'm a bad luck charm. Well then, enjoy your bad luck from now on, stupid wolf!" cursed Ivory, still dragging his body to the edge.

Her body was in pain—from the waist down, especially her abdomen, which seemed to have been scratched by sharp rocks when she recklessly jumped off the bridge, until now she saw that the wound was oozing fresh red liquid.

"Ah! What's happening to me? It hurts!" Ivory touched the wound slowly, and her gaze stopped on the part of her body, from the waist down, which was no longer a pair of legs but a vast and glittering fin.

Glittering and beautiful. However, it made Ivory shudder in horror when she realized that something that looked beautiful was part of her own body.

"No way!"