Kira Nepseidia

By Grant Wilde

I stared into the warm Mediterranean Sea off the bridge of the ferry. It was a deep shade of turquoise and the light of the sun reflected off it like a thousand stars; it was truly mesmerising. The texture made be the gentle breeze combined with the wake from the boat gave the impression that the sea was in fact made of silk. I couldn’t take my eyes off it; it drew me in. Suddenly, I couldn’t help myself; I dived in. The water felt amazing against my skin as it washed away the heat; I seemed to fall through the sea forever. Then I caught a glimpse of her, her blonde hair dancing wildly in the water. I tried my hardest to swim closer but with little luck. She smiled at me warmly and waved one hand gently in the direction of my eyes. As she did so her hair turned a wild shade of shadow black that had a subtle hint of turquoise intermingled. It was at that point that I blanked out.

* * *

I awoke the next morning in the bed of what I guessed was my new house, situated smack-bam in the middle of my new life. “Why can’t I remember moving in?” I whispered to myself puzzled. “The last thing I remember clearly is the ferry, then I remember something strange happening… it was probably just a dream; and I remember hearing somewhere that intense dreams can sometimes make you forget recent events.” I shook my head. “Already talking to myself on the first day, I can’t go mad that quickly!”

 I got dressed as quickly as possible once I had realised that my alarm clock hadn’t gone off and that I was already 10 minutes late for my first day at collage. Once I was ready I ran my way there, which wasn’t that bad as I didn’t live too far away. It took me and extra 5 minutes to find classroom 1D, as the instructions on the sheet weren’t as straightforward as they made out to be. When I did eventually find it I gave myself a minute to stop panting and compose myself; I took a deep breath and opened the door. I immediately apologised for my lateness whilst the teacher glared at me, she didn’t seem too impressed and angrily asked me to take a seat once I had finished my explanation. I turned around to face my mixed-expressioned classmates; it was at that point that I saw her. I literally lost my breath (which I always thought was just a saying). I just stood there fixated on her. Her most striking feature was her piercing green eyes, which suited her sun-blond hair perfectly. She smiled at me warmly… why did this feel so familiar? I came crashing back down to reality when I noticed everyone around her sniggering. I felt like such an idiot, ‘great first impression’ I though to myself. I took my place in the last remaining seat, which was guess where? Right next to her! Talk about rubbing it in.

I spent the rest of the day trying to avoid eye contact with her. “OK, good job class, I expect to see you promptly tomorrow” the teacher said glaring at me once again. “Hi, I’m Kira, its nice to meet you.” SHIT! She was actually talking to me, what the hell was I going to do now? She was beaming at me; I could feel my throat swelling up. “Ryan” I squealed… “I mean, my name’s Ryan and its nice to meet you to,” I shook her hand whilst scratching the back of my head with the other in an embarrassed fashion. “Are you new” she said, “I haven’t seen you around here before, but that might just be because I’ve only been here a term myself.” I felt my embarrassment fading away… “No your right, I’ve only just moved to this island yesterday, I’m lucky to have found such a nice island with an English-speaking school on it.”

“Yeah I guessed you weren’t from here, you’re from England aren’t you?”

“How do you know that?” I said slightly shocked.

“Your accent,” she said laughing a little at my expression, I couldn’t help grinning myself. I tried to work out where she was from but I had never heard an accent like hers before; it couldn’t have suited her more though. “I’m sorry but I can’t work out where you’re from, I don’t think I’ve ever heard an accent like yours before.”

“It’s a secret” she replied flirtatiously with a wink; my heart melted. “Would you like me to show you around? Well the places I have discovered so far.” She was beaming once again.

“That would be great, well as long as you’re sure you don’t mind.”

“Of course not, I’d love to.” Maybe this day wasn’t going as badly as I thought…

 She showed me random places that I wasn’t really interested in but it was nice just to spend time with her; I didn’t feel at all awkward either, in fact I felt completely comfortable around her. After around half an hour we sat on the swings of a park facing the sea and talked for a bit. “Nice view” she said softly as we both stared into the sun setting on the horizon and rocked gently “I have always felt at one with the sea” she continued, “maybe we should go there one weekend.”

* * *

 That time finally arrived just under four weeks later. I had gotten to Kira a lot better in that time, I suppose you could say she was my best friend although there were times that I wished it could be more. The first thing we did that day was play volleyball, I was intending on letting her win but upon finding out she was actually surprisingly good I ended up getting a bit competitive and beating her three games out of the five we played; although I have to admit it was pretty close. After that we decided to take a swim to cool off. I was surprised at how good she was at volleyball but that was nothing compared to how good a swimmer she was; she really was jaw-droppingly good; I hadn’t seen anything like it before. She really came into her own, and managed to look incredibly pretty whilst doing so. That was one of the things I most loved about her; she was full of surprises. The sea was so warm and it was practically completely clear apart from the light-turquoise tint. There were also a lot of brightly coloured fish that seemed to really like Kira. She seemed so happy and was laughing almost the whole time. I don’t think I could have been much happier either coming to think of it.

 After we had finished messing around in the sea we decided to sunbathe. The sand burnt our feet where it had absorbed the heat of the sun. We looked like complete idiots of course as we frantically danced our way back to our beach towels. We flung ourselves on them as quickly as possible and then looked at each other and burst out laughing.

 We talked for ages after that, with the sun that was directly above us slowly cooking us. “What’s England like?” She said enthusiastically, “I’ve always wanted to go there.”

“Well it really isn’t as great as you…” then all of a sudden she kissed me! It was amazing and she seemed really into it but I slowly felt myself getting weaker and weaker, as if I hadn’t had any sleep for nights. I turned my head and looked her in the eyes with my last remaining strength. The green of her irises was slowly spreading through the rest of her eyes like a disease; it was as if she was sucking the life right out of me. It was at that point which I passed out.

* * *

 I was woken up hours later by the site of the full moon just rising over the horizon and the sound of Kira sobbing. She had noticed that I had opened my eyes. “Please, please forgive me,” she screeched, “I only did it because I was lonely.” I didn’t have time to think. “I’m so sorry but its all been I lie, well it started off that way at least.” She struggled to get the words out through the tears. “I’m not who you think I am, I wasn’t born on the land like you, for I am the product of the goddess Neptune and the god Poseidon. I am the daughter of the sea; I am at one with it and it with me.” She was becoming more and more coherent. “Twelve years ago I decided that I was sick of guarding the sea and I longed to explore that land, you couldn’t even begin to imagine how lonely I was down there for 3000 years. This led me to make a pact with an old sea hag. I could have what I most longed for which was to become human and discover what makes you all so happy but to sustain it I have to regularly get my revenge on the thing causing my gradual destruction, which is ironically humans, as you have been slowly killing me through your selfish pollution. So once every full moon for the last twelve years I have fed a human to the sea, moving from island to island whenever anyone got suspicious. At first I didn’t mind, in fact I enjoyed it, but as time went on I discovered human emotions and it became harder and harder. Do you remember the first time I saw you?” She looked at me for an answer but I couldn’t speak. “It was during that time that I was feeding the… Alas! Because I have not fulfilled what I am bound to do I must pay the ultimate sacrifice.” She gracefully floated up so that her figure silhouetted against the moon, which had just risen above the horizon. “I am so sorry, but thank you for teaching me the most important human quality.” She screamed as her hair turned the same shade of black with the tint of turquoise it had before and started dancing wildly around her head. Her now glowing green irises spread to completely cover her eyes as they had before. She started dripping, “Ryan, I lo…” at that point she exploded into the water that she was built from. I just lay there unable to move and watched as she dribbled gently back into the ocean that had meant so much to her and made her so happy.