There was this terrifying moment when Atalanta went into a horrible fit. Her eyes snapped open, and she released a scream I couldn’t hear, thrashing around so much she pushed her way out of the cocoon of the blanket I had wrapped her in.
Jason, being unable to hold her in her fit, moved back as she tumbled to the floor. Hip came running back in, and when I looked up at him, I saw him saying, ‘what's going on?’
I looked down at her. This was a particularly violent fit. Her now naked body thrashed about. Her hands were shifted, nails long and very sharp, a thin webbing between each finger. Scales rippled along her skin. These were the ubiquitous signs of a Mer in distress as our true forms fought to the surface to defend us, but the question was, what was wrong with her?
Percy grated her flailing arms and easily held them down to her chest with one hand as he looked at us.
‘I think she needs to be in the water.’
‘It’s too dangerous for her to be in the cold water right now,’ Hip said.
I looked over at Hip. "Does she have a tub? We could fill that up with warm water and pour salt into it.”
He nodded, ‘There's a large tub in the master bathroom.’
With that, Hip rushed off to, I assume, fill said tub. Carefully, Percy lifted Atalanta, being sure to restrain her as she bucked and screamed.
Jason and I stayed close, useless, as we didn’t have the ability to restrain her or calm her down. I tried singing, my desperation filling the song, but it was no use. She couldn’t hear me and if anything, it was making it worse as the others could only stave off my power’s affects for so long. Percy, who was closest to me, stumbled and almost dropped her. When he shot a look at me, I shut my mouth, realizing he had almost fallen into sleepy land.
I followed him into the first room. Like the rest of the cabin, the room was very bare, with only a blowup mattress and a few boxes stacked up in one of the corners.
Opposite from the entrance was another door. Percy carried Atalanta into it. Peaking my head in, I saw that it was a small bathroom. Hip stood by the tub, his hand out, face scrunched in concentration. The water was gushing out of the faucet with the power of a waterfall, much more powerful than any faucet I’d ever seen.
I’d met a few elementals over the years, but it was always amazing to watch their abilities in action. They were rare and coveted in the city. Especially the fire wielders. Lighting fires deep underwater was a feat that showed the wondrous magic of our species. It had come as a surprise that the rumors had been true about Hip’s abilities.
With Hip’s help, the tub filled up in mere moments. Behind me, I felt the vibrating thud of heavy footsteps on the floor. Looking back, I saw that Jason had run off somewhere, probably to the kitchen. A few moments later he came back and in his outstretched hand was a bottle of sea salt. I took it from him and carefully maneuvered into the cramped room, Percy with Atalanta in his arms pressed up against the wall and Hip wedged between the toilet and tub.
I tore open the bottle and dumped most of it into the water. Even though it no longer poured out of the faucet, the water churned, stirring the sea salt until it all dissolved. I looked over at Hip, whose hand was still up.
Quickly I moved back, switching places with Percy. Gently, he lowered the thrashing girl into the tub, submerging her under the water. She continued to thrash for a while. It was weird to watch as she flailed around underneath Percy’s hands. The water in the tub sloshed with her but never left the tub; any water that should have escaped somehow sprung back. Almost as if it had turned to loose gelatin.
After a few moments, Atalanta’s fit ceased, her movements in the water around her calming. Looking over Percy's shoulder, I could see that she wasn't technically unconscious. Her eyes were open, but their heterochromic colors were unseeing, just wide, staring up at the ceiling.
I rushed forward and pushed Percy aside. Shoving my hands into the water, I checked her pulse.
It wasn't there.
Immediately, I hauled her body out of the water, bringing her to the floor and beginning chest compressions.
It was chaos around me. I could feel the other three moving, probably shouting at me or each other, I didn’t know. All I knew was that I had to get her heart beating again.
28…
29…
30…
I put my mouth over hers and breathed into her lungs. She couldn’t have drowned because her gills were fully formed. Which meant that the change was too much, and it had stopped her heart.
Well fuck, if I wasn’t gonna—
Suddenly, Percy was beside me, a blue box in his hand. Curious, but not wanting to stop, I continued to perform my second round of CPR while Percy began wipe down her skin with a towel and put patches in place that had long wires attached to the box.
During chest compressions, Percy hit my shoulder to get my attention. I looked up at him while continuing to mentally count.
15…
16…
‘It’s going to search for a pulse and tell us when to shock her. Keep going and step back when I hit you.’
I nodded. He said it so quickly I was worried I hadn’t caught all of it but when a few moments when he tapped my shoulder, I stopped the compressions and leaned back away from her.
Her body jerked upward slightly. Glancing at the blue box that Percy had brought, I saw that it read DEFIBRILLATOR. Where the fuck did they find that?
When Atalanta's body slumped back to the ground, a red light on the box flashed for a few moments before turning green. Percy sat back, relief flooding his features. I quickly moved back to Atalanta to check her pulse. Sure enough, there was a small bump-bump, bump-bump beneath my fingertips.
I let out a shaking sob and tucked her body close to mine.
That had been far too close.
After a few moments, I looked up and studied the room. Jason was on his hands and knees right next to me, his eyes filled with tears, pleading for me to let him hold her. I conceded and as gently as I could, I moved her into Jason's arms.
He rocked back and forth with her, his head buried in the crook of her shoulder.
I saw Hip standing just inside the door. He was shaking and breathing heavily. His arms were wrapped around himself like a lifeline.
I looked back over to Percy who looked equally shaken. “Where did you find the defibrillator?”
His response was to point back at Hip. I looked back at him and watched as his lips formed the words:
‘I saw it when I was snooping through the sister's room earlier. She practically had a whole emergency room tucked in there. Bandages, packages of IV kits, antibiotics.’
I was curious as to why they would have such an excessive amount of first aid supplies.
‘Where did you learn CPR?’ Hip asked.
I shrugged. “I used to teach classes at the center before some of the people thought it was unethical for a deaf person to train in first aid.”
His lip raised in disgust, ‘That’s stupid.’
I nodded but didn’t say anything else about it.
I looked back at Atalanta. With her heart beating again, I could see that the changes were underway. Her naked body was covered in small scales: over the back of her hands, at her hips, and running the flat of her stomach up all the way to cover her breasts. Below her hips, the scales got larger and crept down the sides of her thighs, tapering off at the knees.
They were a beautiful mix of blue and purple, the same color as Jason's. There was something I noticed, though. Her scars, which were still there, were covered in electric blue scales, making them stand out against the darker hue of the other ones.