"Come on, Erik, just do it!" Ryan said.
I groaned at his insistence and leaned back against the side of my bed.
We were hanging out at my house in California. I had a private beach on the Pacific Ocean and everything. I was damn lucky that my rich parents felt guilty after kicking me out when I came out to them. They still paid for college and gave me this beautiful house in return for me never visiting them. I was fine with that. I had no friends back in my hometown, and I had stopped loving my parents long ago.
Right now, my only friend Ryan and I were in my bedroom playing 'Truth or Dare'. Slightly immature for two juniors in college on their summer break, but we didn't care.
Earlier in the evening, we had been screwing around on the internet. After numerous porn websites ("Gross, Ryan, hetero-love!") and numerous gay porn websites ("Erik, I will never be able to look at you the same way again."), we had somehow ended up on a sad, strange little fantasy blog.
I couldn't tell you how we got there, but once we did, we couldn't stop laughing. The entire site was based on make-believe creatures - the saddest part being that the owner of the site seemed to believe everything she had written on it. It had information about witches and ghosts, fairies and vampires. However, its main focus was on mermaids.
It had what 'powers' mermaids had, mermaid F.A.Q.s, and even spells to turn oneself into a mermaid.
Ryan had just dared me to go out to the ocean and try the first spell on the site.
"Come on, man," he said with a grin. "The site owner said it worked wonders for them!"
I rolled my eyes. "Do I seriously have to?"
Ryan's grin grew. "Yes."
I groaned but got up and went over to my laptop. I went back to the website and printed off the 'spell' before turning around and facing Ryan.
"Are you coming?" I asked.
"Duh! I wouldn't miss you making a fool of yourself for the world!" he said and ran out of the room.
"You know, you're going to see me naked!" I yelled after him.
"It's a good thing I'm not gay like you then! No need to worry about me spontaneously jumping you!" he yelled back.
I chuckled to myself and went over to my dresser. After shifting through a lot of junk, I finally found an old necklace with a tiny, real sea star as the pendant. I fastened it around my neck and walked into the kitchen. Then, I grabbed a large plastic bag used for freezing meat and put the spell inside. That way, the paper wouldn't get wet when I got into the ocean. Once the bag was airtight, I went outside.
Ryan saw my annoyed face as I walked down to the beach and chuckled. "Don't look so miserable!" he said. "Maybe some sexy merman will come and swoop you off your feet!"
"You mean tail," I said with a wink.
We both laughed at the stupid joke and I walked closer to him. Once I was standing next to him, I sighed and looked into his eyes.
"What would my punishment be if I didn't do this?" I asked him.
Ryan smirked. "What, think it'll actually work and you'll be stuck as a merman for the rest of your life?"
I shoved him playfully. "Hell no, if I were a merman I'd get all the tail, if you know what I mean," I said with a flirty wink.
"Can merpeople even have sex?" he laughed.
"Well of course!" I said, pretending to be offended. "Your best friend is about to become a merman and you don't even care enough to know that he can become human whenever he wants to get laid." I wiped away a fake tear and sniffled.
Ryan played along. "Oh, I'm so sorry babe. I care, really!"
He looked at me solemnly as I looked at him with my big, tearful blue eyes. After a moment we both burst into laughter.
Now wiping away real tears, I finally settled down. "Alright, I'm going to do this for real now."
Ryan nodded with a grin still on his face.
I took a deep breath and walked down to the edge of the water. Right before my feet got wet, I stopped and began to take off my clothes. Ryan wolf-whistled behind me and I flicked him the bird before continuing. Once I was completely naked, I waded into the water until it was up to my belly button.
"Jesus, this water is cold!" I yelled out to Ryan.
"Stop complaining and get on with it, Erik!" he yelled back.
Figuring that Ryan was right, I took a deep breath, counted to three, and dunked myself fully into the water. I stayed under for a bit, shaking my head to make sure all my hair was soaked, and then came up for air. Once I had my breath back, I began to recite the words of the spell.
"Insouciant inclemency, redoubtable mediocrity, refutable humanity. Make me what I wish to be: a mermaid. Witches one and witches all, give this power to me."
After repeating myself four more times, I began to feel... Strange.
First, I started coughing horribly. It was only after reciting the spell again that I realized I was coughing up water.
Now, right then and there, I wanted to stop. I was scared. But for some reason, I couldn't.
"Erik?" Ryan asked. He sounded worried. "Are you alright, man?"
I gave him a thumbs-up and continued. After having recited the spell seven times, my legs began to itch and burn. I looked down and saw that the skin was peeling off.
'Shit.'
Now I was completely freaking out, but I recited it again. My legs began to pull together of their own accord.
One more time and my stomach began to hurt horribly, along with the sides of my neck. I hunched over to try and alleviate the pain.
One last time. "Insouciant inclemency, redoubtable mediocrity, refutable humanity. Make me what I wish to be: a mermaid. Witches one and witches all, give this power to me."
Pain immediately racked my entire body. I cried out and fell into the water, writhing uncontrollably. I could hear Ryan's muffled shouts, but couldn't understand what he was saying.
Suddenly, the pain stopped. I had managed to go deeper into the water with all my thrashing, and was able to be stretched out up and down. Poking my head above the water, I yelled out that I was fine to Ryan. With the moon only being a sliver in the sky, it was difficult to see him.
Right after yelling to Ryan, I felt out of breath and began panting. My panting seemed to make it worse, and black spots appeared behind my eyes.
'I'm gonna drown!'