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Description
!!Disclaimer: Due to small edits I made to the story I exceeded the upload size limit and had to separate the original story into 2 part (A and B). These edits do not affect the overall story itself, so if you’ve read it before you’re not missing out on anything, I won’t discourage anyone from a second read though.

For those who haven’t read Part A, a link will be in the description below!

***

Left on his own again Samuel hung the hose back into the aquarium and turned it on for a bit to offer Lilly a change of water which she readily accepted. He meanwhile took the time to wash the dishes, then returned to turn off the hose and add some salt to the water and get back to his laptop. While working on his little project, his eyes would wander over to the curious mermaid every so often, giving her a sort of guilty glance as he knew she would like to know what he was working on. About a half hour of work and a little bit of polishing later, however, he finally finished his work and was ready to present it to her, pulling the table all the way up to the aquarium and directing her attention at the screen that was now turned towards her.

On the bright screen, a small figure appeared, a depiction of a little mermaid happily swimming in water. When she waved at the two watching the video, Samuel pointed at Lilly, indicating that it was supposed to represent her. Next, the figure of a man walked in, clothes painted in the same color Samuel was wearing to make recognizing him easier. When the figure waved, Samuel pointed at himself to clarify. The scene then cut to the mermaid swimming in a tiny aquarium, much like Lilly was now, standing on a patch of grass with a pond next to it. Inside, the little mermaid was swimming slowly in her small circles, looking unhappy as her glance was transfixed on the larger body of water that once was her home. The man walked up to her and watched her in the aquarium, he too looking unhappy with the situation. Above his head, a bubble rose up in which they could see the mermaid happily swimming in her pond again, making both her and the man happy. Finally, the animation ended with the man sighing in defeat as he was left clueless and on his own.

Samuel wasn’t exactly sure how she would take it considering that it really was just a quick piece of work and clearly not perfect, but the encouraging smile he received from her told him that she understood what it was all about and that she was counting on him. He spent the majority of the night accompanying her, his thoughts buried in the task at hand; he’d have to find a solution eventually after all. At some point, he even considered renting some construction machine to lower the aquarium itself into the water, but he’d have to find a place that’d rent him one to begin with. The security measures he had planned to take care of today only struck him as barely more than an afterthought. As if to distract him from his slacking off with such an important measure, a thought struck him and he smiled idly. Getting up, he stood in front of the glass and gave Lilly a slight smile, when he got her attention he proceeded to make a face at her, seeing how she and Jessica seemed to have enjoyed it earlier. Lilly picked up the gesture and proceeded to make a face in turn, unsheathing her fangs to revealing almost comically long and sharp teeth at him. The terrifying sight caught him by surprise, however, so much so, that he stumbled and fell backward with a look of surprise and horror on his face. Noticing his fearful look, Lilly immediately retracted them and glanced at him with a sorry look. Trying to fake that it was all just an act on his part, Samuel got back up and tried to reassure her with an uneasy smile before he waved her goodnight and made his way back into the house.

It was weird, he thought as he laid in bed, that he was so much more concerned about freeing her from her temporary prison than his own safety, perhaps in an effort to suppress the fear that accompanied the insecurity he was now much more aware of. He did care for his own safety, of course, but somewhere in the back of his head he knew that in part he did because he knew she relied on him right now. Whether it was the right impulse or not, he then knew he had to finally get to it the next day.

***

Samuel awoke to a loud noise drawing closer, interrupting the peace that he loved so much about this place. Coming to, he immediately noticed that it was still the middle of the night when he got up, indicated by the lingering darkness all around him. It took him a moment to figure out what had disturbed his sleep, but when he finally did, moments before it was cut off by the door of a car slamming shut, he recognized it as some very loud music he couldn’t quite place. A few seconds passed before he realized what all of this meant, but the moment it hit him he was immediately fully awake, his heart racing at an alarming rate: the burglars had come back for seconds! Hearing the door on the ground floor open, probably after one of them had climbed through the still broken window again, he knew he had to get out of there. If they weren’t already aware of it, they would soon figure out that he was still alive and very much present inside the house. With nowhere else to flee, seeing as the stairs would lead him directly into their arms, he quickly threw some clothes on and approached the open window, mentally preparing himself to jump. It would’ve been no good if he was seen or even caught doing so though, he had to buy himself as much time as possible to make it out of here alive. With a last gulp and a prayer to whoever was watching this hell unfolding before him a second time, he jumped and, to his surprise, landed relatively unscathed on the ground below as he did his best to cushion his fall as he landed. Taking a glance behind him he noticed that he successfully landed in front of the wall and not in broad sight of a window, allowing him to sneak off unseen. Approaching his pond, however, he realized that his escape wasn’t complete just yet. Uneasily watching him from within her glass confinement was a disturbed Lilly, giving him a concerned look while the house behind him got lit by flashlights in several places.

Samuel knew then and there that it was up to him to save his savior, or he would never be able to live with himself from here on out. If they were readily able to dispose of him, failure or not, he couldn’t even fathom what they were able to do to a female, even if she wasn’t human. With not much of a choice, Samuel leaned against the aquarium at the far side of the pond with all his might, but to no avail. Glancing down he realized that the soil underneath the wagon the aquarium was resting on was still soaked and so the small tires wouldn’t budge. Cursing under his breath he hurried back towards the house, picking up a bucket he had left outside, then got back to the aquarium and started shoveling water out of it. He knew Lilly needed at least some water to swim in and that she couldn’t be exposed to air as she transitioned into the pond, but he would have to get rid of as much excess water as he could if he wanted to get her moving. Luckily, the gods were in his favor for once as the light inside of the house were blinding the burglars and leaving them oblivious as to what was happening outside, covering up Samuel’s desperate attempt to save Lilly. A few minutes and a few hundred gallons of water later, Samuel had emptied a decent portion of the aquarium and spent a notable amount of his own strength and stamina on his task, forcing him to stop and try once more as he was convinced he wouldn’t be able to bring up his full power for the shove if he kept going much longer. As he laid his hands on the glass and got ready to push, he saw Lilly’s hands approaching his, pressing against the glass from the other side. Glancing up, off the unforgiving, wet soil he looked into her eyes and a gleaming smile of encouragement, making him forget about the pain and his muscles practically screaming at him to stop, as the tires slowly but surely started moving underneath him.

He had only moved the wagon for a few seconds on its luckily short way over to the pond, when the light coming from the house suddenly intensified: someone had turned on the lights in one of the rooms, illuminating the backyard outside much more brightly and bathing him in a revealing light that presumably made him much more easily visible to anyone who happened to glance in his direction. Trying to ignore the heightened risk, however, he kept pushing on, focusing on Lilly’s encouraging stare, clearly trying her best to ignore the signs of impending danger that were no doubt even obvious to her at this point. Eventually, Samuel made it far enough for the wagon to approach the rather steep slope ahead of it. Not that he had much of a choice at this point, but he was glad that it was a steep edge so the aquarium would inevitably tip over, allowing Lilly to transition into the pond with the flowing water, he would just have to hope that she could evade the falling glass prison as she did. When he was certain the next shove would send her off, he briefly stopped and mouthed her a “good luck” and waved goodbye, then he pushed the wagon over the edge to send it driving on its own, tipping over slowly but surely as it drove down the slope and finally tipping fully when it hit the water, sending its content splashing into the water before it collapsed into the pond.

“Hey!” Samuel heard a dreadfully familiar voice coming from the house, “did you hear that? There’s someone outside!”

Over the joy of having made it and his worries for Lilly, Samuel was briefly beside himself before reality caught up to him. He had been spotted, likely thanks to the noise of the aquarium, and was now in dire need to get out of here himself. His escape hadn’t really gotten too far, however, to the far side of the pond to be exact, before he could see three of the burglars approaching him, now already outside of the house. He had to make a choice and he had to make it quickly: the woods behind him were, as he knew, not particularly dense, allowing a group of three to easily keep track on him and catch him, especially with this little of a head start. Ironically, the only way to reliably save himself was to rely on Lilly to save him once more, just after he had barely managed to get her back into the water in time for them to miss the ordeal. He had pretty much already made his decision when he glanced down at the water and froze for a moment, the trauma that he was left with after his last encounter with the pond catching up to him. Giving his approaching attackers a last glance however, he knew that it was going to be the lesser evil even if he did drown this time around, so he jumped into the pitch blackness, head first, and hoped for the best. Knowing that he had at least no solid obstacles inside of the pond he dove forward as far as he could, certain that he’d still have a bit of a swim ahead to get to the center of the pond. As he emerged from the water, he glanced around to find one of the three men to his right and two to his left side standing there and shining their flashlights at him, trying to figure out what they were looking at. Meanwhile down below Samuel felt a sudden rush of cold water, catching him by surprise at first, until he realized the steady stream of water swirling around him was Lilly, spinning in rapid circles around him in joy. He even briefly felt her touch his hand, covering it with a thin layer of the familiar slime only that this time it simply washed off into the pond after a few seconds.

“You’re shitting me!” One of the two to his left exclaimed, laughing in disbelieve, “We drowned you, how are you still alive?”

“Took diving lessons,” Samuel shouted back sarcastically.

“Funny aren’t you?” The same guy snapped back, “Go get him, this time he’s got to go for real.”

With that the one standing to Samuel’s right jumped into the water and started swimming towards him, meanwhile, the two on the other side seemed to be getting in a fight of their own.

“I told you I can’t swim!” The other one yelled back at the guy giving the commands.

“Don’t be such a bitch, get going you idiot!” The other one snapped before he nonchalantly dumped his comrade into the water.

Quite to both his and Samuel’s surprise the young man did barely more than struggle up to the surface after he had been dumped into the water, trying to catch his breath and find some footing around what happened to be the very steep end of the pond, before he sank like a stone, leaving both of the onlookers baffled. After waiting for him to emerge again for a few seconds, their apparent leader gave up on waiting for him and instead got into the water himself. Meanwhile, on the other side, Samuel could see the young man trying to approach him struggling for some reason, fighting harder and harder while trying to swim upwards until he too sank, though in his case it looked more like he was being dragged underwater despite or because of his struggling. Samuel waited for him to reemerge any second, but eventually even the bubbles of air that indicated his position disappeared. Suddenly he felt someone touch him from behind, as two strong hands grabbed him by his shoulders and did their best to shove him under water. Over the sudden panic, he accidentally inhaled some water, making him struggle even harder and lose way more air than necessary. Eventually, he managed to fight his way up to the surface for a brief moment, before he was once again pushed under water, testing the endurance of his lungs. He was at the edge of his own stamina, unable to get back up and nearly fading out when he suddenly felt a rush of water shoot past him, followed by a strong pull on him from the side of the guy trying to drown him, who quickly lost his grip on him and got dragged away into the dark water. Returning to the surface Samuel caught his breath, then wiped the water from his eyes quickly to reassess the situation, finding Lilly swimming up next to him near the surface. The other guy was nowhere to be seen until he suddenly emerged again a few feet away from him.

“What the fuck was that hu?” he snapped at him after he caught his breath “And where’s John gone?”

He left his questions unanswered as he instead directed his anger and irritation at Samuel, trying to swim towards him quickly, before he suddenly vanished under the surface again. Lilly was this time visibly holding him underwater, detaining him as of now, but clearly being in control and easily able to drown him. As Samuel looked on he felt increasingly sick watching her kill somebody with his own eyes, until he caught something else: she was unsheathing her fangs as she did earlier! A million thoughts rushed through his mind at that moment and, amongst shock and terror, the thought that as things were right now, he could actually call the police this time. If she were to bite him, he’d have no way to explain her bite marks, leaving him no other choice than to dispose of the corpses and act like this never happened. Lilly must have seen his face, however, probably remembering his expression from earlier, and instead took off towards the bottom of the pond, taking the burglar with her.

Samuel waited for a while but eventually decided to swim back to the bank and get himself dried up. He wasn’t exactly sure if there were only three of them, considering that the day before it was four, but he made his way into the house regardless, making sure to pay extra attention to any sounds while he made his way up the stairs and into the shower. He was going to call the cops if the other corpses had no bite marks, that much was for sure, but he wasn’t going to do it right now.

***

“That should wrap things up for us for the day. You sure you’ll be OK on your own out here?” The officer asked as everyone else began packing up equipment and any evidence they were able to find.

“I think I’ll be alright,” Samuel replied. He was a bit sleepy but otherwise fine.

“Well considering what you’ve been through tonight it might be better if we take you with us, but if you insist I won’t force you. Get some sleep then, we might come by again another time,” the policeman said as he turned to leave, “and I’ll see what I can do about the aquarium, I will let you know as soon as I know anything.”

The whole ordeal was over faster than expected and certainly with fewer awkward questions too. After he got out of the shower and dressed in dry clothes, Samuel checked on Lilly who showed him to a side of the pond where she had placed the burglars. He confirmed that they were all dead and that they had no bite marks on them, then he got on his laptop animating another movie telling Lilly about the police and that she should hide from them instead of attacking. The entire awkward wait for them he had been sitting by the side of the pond waiting with her, praying that she understood and would remain calm. When the police showed up, he told them that he was robbed and attacked like he did on the phone, then told him that the burglars had all died when he escaped into the water so they couldn’t gang up on him. His side of the story was that one couldn’t swim, which was the truth as far as he knew, the other one got tangled up in some algae and struggled himself into drowning and the third was trying to drown him but got overpowered and eventually got drowned by Samuel in self-defense. After the initial shock had passed, he had gone out to free the corpses and drag them back to land before he took a shower and eventually called the police. While this story sounded pretty weird for anyone thinking reasonably, and the cops agreed there, they found it reasonable enough and blamed it on trauma as he had hoped they would. It was the weirdest feeling lying to the police about how a crime went down not because he had done anything wrong himself, but to protect what was essentially an alien creature living in his backyard. When they asked why he had an aquarium laying in his pond, upside down no less, he explained that the burglars apparently just felt like it and pushed it into the pond, an act of blind vandalism pretty much. The officer interviewing him even offered to look into getting it out of the pond for him, which he gladly accepted considering that one of this size was pretty expensive to get and he would definitely have to get it out of his pond since it kind of ruined the picture.

Once the investigation was over, at least for the day, Samuel saw the officers off and turned to walk back into the house as soon as they were out of his sight. It was already past noon and while he had his dinner while the police were still running their investigation, he knew someone who didn’t. He quickly prepared some noodles, easy to make and quite filling, spread them on two plates and headed out into his backyard. Laying down at a rather steep side of the pond with the plates next to him, he tapped the surface of the water a few times, then he waited for a few moments. Almost immediately he was greeted by a small wave pushing towards him as the quickly approaching Lilly sent the water splashing forward. She stopped a few feet away from the bank so she wouldn’t break the surface by accident and floated there for the time being. Knowing that she must have been in hiding for most of the time they hadn’t seen each other, he skipped greetings and reached her a fork full of noodles which she devoured greedily. The two shared their meal in the usual silence, enjoying each other’s company and the gentle glow of the descending sun, bathing both of them in warmth. Once they had finished their meal together and the dishes were taken back into the house, Samuel returned to the pond after a quick change in attire. Much to Lilly’s surprise, he didn’t stop at the bank but instead, cautiously but with determination, walked right into the water until he was about waist deep in. The pond was still giving him a few second thoughts considering that it was still a mere two days since he nearly drowned in it, but what he had planned to do was not just his way of taking the fear head on and getting over it, but also a way to celebrate that it was all over now. Taking a deep breath to prepare himself, he leapt forward and sent himself off the bank and into the open water.

Moments after he had pushed himself off, Samuel already felt Lilly accompanying him from beneath the surface. Once they were a few feet out into the water, Samuel held his breath and fully submerged, giving his eyes a brief moment to accustom to the new environment before he gazed around in the dark water. His eyes quickly found the surprised looking Lilly not far away from him, hovering a little lower to keep her distance from the surface. After resurfacing to fill his lungs with as much air as he could hold, Samuel once again dove down and, before he even opened his eyes, opened up his arms towards her, inviting her to take him with her. Despite his doubt that she would immediately understand his intentions, Lilly seemed eager to accept as he found her face to face with him when he opened his eyes, just before she wrapped her arms around his upper body and began to set into motion rapidly. While it felt like she was going slower than usual for his sake, moving this quickly underwater was still an awkward feeling. This was also the first time since he had carried her into the tank, a moment where she was outside of her natural element, that he was touching her, this time with most of their upper bodies touching directly as she pressed her chest into his while trying to keep a firm grip on him. They were darting around the pond like a dance led by Lilly excitedly showing him her home, slowing down occasionally to allow him to take in more of their surroundings, although the lack of clarity of the water made him terribly nearsighted. This only went on for a short while though, until Samuel was running out of air quickly, beginning to struggle in her grasp as he needed to resurface to catch his breath. Getting that at least something had to be wrong, Lilly let go but gave him a concerned look as he lightly pushed himself off of her and quickly returned to the surface.

Once he was surrounded by air to fill his lungs again, he took several deep breaths to recover as he had absentmindedly allowed her to take him around the pond for longer than he had intended to just to make the moment last. Once he had recovered decently well though, he took another deep breath and dove back under water, looking for the still concerned and slightly upset looking Lilly. It became quite clear to him that she didn’t quite understand what was going on yet so he tried to at least get back into an embrace with her, holding out his arms and giving her an apologetic look.

***

A few weeks had passed and the aftermath of the burglary had been pretty much fully cleaned up. The broken window had been replaced, the aquarium was firmly standing on dry soil again and Samuel had done his part of cleaning up the house after the investigation had officially ended. His stolen belongings were also already back in his possession and the few things that were still missing were due to be replaced soon too. The only lasting traces of the incident were a feeling of vulnerability that finally got him to invest in home security and a notable change in Samuel’s daily routine. His swimming and most notably his durability while diving had improved quite a lot, he started investing a bit more in keeping his pond clean and he took breaks from work more often. Jessica also seemed to be even more eager to come visit him, to the point where his sister asked him what she was looking forward to so much since she refused to tell her. Speaking of his niece, she was actually never too eager to learn to swim or to get near water, really. The prospect of swimming with a real mermaid, however, she couldn’t possibly resist.

Samuel had been prepared in advance, eager to earn himself some memorable moments with his niece by teaching her how to swim. He had once again prepared a video to let Lilly in on what was going on and since it was about the little girl, she was immediately on board. The next time she came over, he told his sister to secretly pack her swimsuit and a towel in advance, convincing her that they’d go to the water park, of course. Jessica knew immediately that Lilly was back in the pond when she saw that the aquarium was missing since it was still in the pond at the time. Her uncle was naturally prepared and didn’t even attempt to do anything else for the day, he just went down to the bank and tapped the water a few times, prompting the giddy Lilly to show up in the shallow water. The little girl was obviously overjoyed both that she was back in her natural habitat and to see her again. She also immediately wanted to get right into the water, something she would naturally never ask for. With a knowing grin on his face, Samuel then told her to check her bag, half praying that his sister hadn’t forgotten to pack up her swimsuit. A few minutes of Jessica disappearing into the bathroom later she came running back out, almost tripping in the grass as she did, and running right into the water. Much to her dismay, however, she didn’t get particularly far in while trying to stay close enough to the bank to stand up easily before the pond took a rather steep drop and most importantly, she didn’t come very close to Lilly.

“You have to swim to get far enough into the pond,” Samuel commented, grinning at Lilly as she made sure to stay just out of reach for the increasingly upset Jessica.

“I don’t wanna!” She replied.

“I know you want to play with Lilly though and we’re both here to help you, OK?” Samuel offered.

While she didn’t seem too happy about giving in, Jessica eventually gave up on fighting back. As she received an approving nod from Samuel, Lilly came a little closer and stretched out her arms towards Jessica, allowing her to lean forward onto the mermaid’s hands so that she could hold her. Samuel was meanwhile taking off his clothes too, revealing that he had put on his swim shorts in preparation to join the two girls. Once he was inside the water, after Lilly had taken Jessica around the pond for a bit, he showed her how to move her arms and legs in order to keep herself above the water and sure enough, when Lilly let go of her confidently, she didn’t even notice that her support was long gone until Lilly showed up in the water right in front of her to give her a little wave.

It was small things like this, making his niece come out of her shell and enjoying the water way more than she ever thought she would, that made Lilly more than just a neighbor or a good friend to him, but a life companion instead.

Description
!!Disclaimer: Due to small edits I made to the story I exceeded the upload size limit and had to separate the original story into 2 part (A and B). These edits do not affect the overall story itself, so if you’ve read it before you’re not missing out on anything, I won’t discourage anyone from a second read though.

For those who haven’t read Part A, a link will be in the description below!

***

Left on his own again Samuel hung the hose back into the aquarium and turned it on for a bit to offer Lilly a change of water which she readily accepted. He meanwhile took the time to wash the dishes, then returned to turn off the hose and add some salt to the water and get back to his laptop. While working on his little project, his eyes would wander over to the curious mermaid every so often, giving her a sort of guilty glance as he knew she would like to know what he was working on. About a half hour of work and a little bit of polishing later, however, he finally finished his work and was ready to present it to her, pulling the table all the way up to the aquarium and directing her attention at the screen that was now turned towards her.

On the bright screen, a small figure appeared, a depiction of a little mermaid happily swimming in water. When she waved at the two watching the video, Samuel pointed at Lilly, indicating that it was supposed to represent her. Next, the figure of a man walked in, clothes painted in the same color Samuel was wearing to make recognizing him easier. When the figure waved, Samuel pointed at himself to clarify. The scene then cut to the mermaid swimming in a tiny aquarium, much like Lilly was now, standing on a patch of grass with a pond next to it. Inside, the little mermaid was swimming slowly in her small circles, looking unhappy as her glance was transfixed on the larger body of water that once was her home. The man walked up to her and watched her in the aquarium, he too looking unhappy with the situation. Above his head, a bubble rose up in which they could see the mermaid happily swimming in her pond again, making both her and the man happy. Finally, the animation ended with the man sighing in defeat as he was left clueless and on his own.

Samuel wasn’t exactly sure how she would take it considering that it really was just a quick piece of work and clearly not perfect, but the encouraging smile he received from her told him that she understood what it was all about and that she was counting on him. He spent the majority of the night accompanying her, his thoughts buried in the task at hand; he’d have to find a solution eventually after all. At some point, he even considered renting some construction machine to lower the aquarium itself into the water, but he’d have to find a place that’d rent him one to begin with. The security measures he had planned to take care of today only struck him as barely more than an afterthought. As if to distract him from his slacking off with such an important measure, a thought struck him and he smiled idly. Getting up, he stood in front of the glass and gave Lilly a slight smile, when he got her attention he proceeded to make a face at her, seeing how she and Jessica seemed to have enjoyed it earlier. Lilly picked up the gesture and proceeded to make a face in turn, unsheathing her fangs to revealing almost comically long and sharp teeth at him. The terrifying sight caught him by surprise, however, so much so, that he stumbled and fell backward with a look of surprise and horror on his face. Noticing his fearful look, Lilly immediately retracted them and glanced at him with a sorry look. Trying to fake that it was all just an act on his part, Samuel got back up and tried to reassure her with an uneasy smile before he waved her goodnight and made his way back into the house.

It was weird, he thought as he laid in bed, that he was so much more concerned about freeing her from her temporary prison than his own safety, perhaps in an effort to suppress the fear that accompanied the insecurity he was now much more aware of. He did care for his own safety, of course, but somewhere in the back of his head he knew that in part he did because he knew she relied on him right now. Whether it was the right impulse or not, he then knew he had to finally get to it the next day.

***

Samuel awoke to a loud noise drawing closer, interrupting the peace that he loved so much about this place. Coming to, he immediately noticed that it was still the middle of the night when he got up, indicated by the lingering darkness all around him. It took him a moment to figure out what had disturbed his sleep, but when he finally did, moments before it was cut off by the door of a car slamming shut, he recognized it as some very loud music he couldn’t quite place. A few seconds passed before he realized what all of this meant, but the moment it hit him he was immediately fully awake, his heart racing at an alarming rate: the burglars had come back for seconds! Hearing the door on the ground floor open, probably after one of them had climbed through the still broken window again, he knew he had to get out of there. If they weren’t already aware of it, they would soon figure out that he was still alive and very much present inside the house. With nowhere else to flee, seeing as the stairs would lead him directly into their arms, he quickly threw some clothes on and approached the open window, mentally preparing himself to jump. It would’ve been no good if he was seen or even caught doing so though, he had to buy himself as much time as possible to make it out of here alive. With a last gulp and a prayer to whoever was watching this hell unfolding before him a second time, he jumped and, to his surprise, landed relatively unscathed on the ground below as he did his best to cushion his fall as he landed. Taking a glance behind him he noticed that he successfully landed in front of the wall and not in broad sight of a window, allowing him to sneak off unseen. Approaching his pond, however, he realized that his escape wasn’t complete just yet. Uneasily watching him from within her glass confinement was a disturbed Lilly, giving him a concerned look while the house behind him got lit by flashlights in several places.

Samuel knew then and there that it was up to him to save his savior, or he would never be able to live with himself from here on out. If they were readily able to dispose of him, failure or not, he couldn’t even fathom what they were able to do to a female, even if she wasn’t human. With not much of a choice, Samuel leaned against the aquarium at the far side of the pond with all his might, but to no avail. Glancing down he realized that the soil underneath the wagon the aquarium was resting on was still soaked and so the small tires wouldn’t budge. Cursing under his breath he hurried back towards the house, picking up a bucket he had left outside, then got back to the aquarium and started shoveling water out of it. He knew Lilly needed at least some water to swim in and that she couldn’t be exposed to air as she transitioned into the pond, but he would have to get rid of as much excess water as he could if he wanted to get her moving. Luckily, the gods were in his favor for once as the light inside of the house were blinding the burglars and leaving them oblivious as to what was happening outside, covering up Samuel’s desperate attempt to save Lilly. A few minutes and a few hundred gallons of water later, Samuel had emptied a decent portion of the aquarium and spent a notable amount of his own strength and stamina on his task, forcing him to stop and try once more as he was convinced he wouldn’t be able to bring up his full power for the shove if he kept going much longer. As he laid his hands on the glass and got ready to push, he saw Lilly’s hands approaching his, pressing against the glass from the other side. Glancing up, off the unforgiving, wet soil he looked into her eyes and a gleaming smile of encouragement, making him forget about the pain and his muscles practically screaming at him to stop, as the tires slowly but surely started moving underneath him.

He had only moved the wagon for a few seconds on its luckily short way over to the pond, when the light coming from the house suddenly intensified: someone had turned on the lights in one of the rooms, illuminating the backyard outside much more brightly and bathing him in a revealing light that presumably made him much more easily visible to anyone who happened to glance in his direction. Trying to ignore the heightened risk, however, he kept pushing on, focusing on Lilly’s encouraging stare, clearly trying her best to ignore the signs of impending danger that were no doubt even obvious to her at this point. Eventually, Samuel made it far enough for the wagon to approach the rather steep slope ahead of it. Not that he had much of a choice at this point, but he was glad that it was a steep edge so the aquarium would inevitably tip over, allowing Lilly to transition into the pond with the flowing water, he would just have to hope that she could evade the falling glass prison as she did. When he was certain the next shove would send her off, he briefly stopped and mouthed her a “good luck” and waved goodbye, then he pushed the wagon over the edge to send it driving on its own, tipping over slowly but surely as it drove down the slope and finally tipping fully when it hit the water, sending its content splashing into the water before it collapsed into the pond.

“Hey!” Samuel heard a dreadfully familiar voice coming from the house, “did you hear that? There’s someone outside!”

Over the joy of having made it and his worries for Lilly, Samuel was briefly beside himself before reality caught up to him. He had been spotted, likely thanks to the noise of the aquarium, and was now in dire need to get out of here himself. His escape hadn’t really gotten too far, however, to the far side of the pond to be exact, before he could see three of the burglars approaching him, now already outside of the house. He had to make a choice and he had to make it quickly: the woods behind him were, as he knew, not particularly dense, allowing a group of three to easily keep track on him and catch him, especially with this little of a head start. Ironically, the only way to reliably save himself was to rely on Lilly to save him once more, just after he had barely managed to get her back into the water in time for them to miss the ordeal. He had pretty much already made his decision when he glanced down at the water and froze for a moment, the trauma that he was left with after his last encounter with the pond catching up to him. Giving his approaching attackers a last glance however, he knew that it was going to be the lesser evil even if he did drown this time around, so he jumped into the pitch blackness, head first, and hoped for the best. Knowing that he had at least no solid obstacles inside of the pond he dove forward as far as he could, certain that he’d still have a bit of a swim ahead to get to the center of the pond. As he emerged from the water, he glanced around to find one of the three men to his right and two to his left side standing there and shining their flashlights at him, trying to figure out what they were looking at. Meanwhile down below Samuel felt a sudden rush of cold water, catching him by surprise at first, until he realized the steady stream of water swirling around him was Lilly, spinning in rapid circles around him in joy. He even briefly felt her touch his hand, covering it with a thin layer of the familiar slime only that this time it simply washed off into the pond after a few seconds.

“You’re shitting me!” One of the two to his left exclaimed, laughing in disbelieve, “We drowned you, how are you still alive?”

“Took diving lessons,” Samuel shouted back sarcastically.

“Funny aren’t you?” The same guy snapped back, “Go get him, this time he’s got to go for real.”

With that the one standing to Samuel’s right jumped into the water and started swimming towards him, meanwhile, the two on the other side seemed to be getting in a fight of their own.

“I told you I can’t swim!” The other one yelled back at the guy giving the commands.

“Don’t be such a bitch, get going you idiot!” The other one snapped before he nonchalantly dumped his comrade into the water.

Quite to both his and Samuel’s surprise the young man did barely more than struggle up to the surface after he had been dumped into the water, trying to catch his breath and find some footing around what happened to be the very steep end of the pond, before he sank like a stone, leaving both of the onlookers baffled. After waiting for him to emerge again for a few seconds, their apparent leader gave up on waiting for him and instead got into the water himself. Meanwhile, on the other side, Samuel could see the young man trying to approach him struggling for some reason, fighting harder and harder while trying to swim upwards until he too sank, though in his case it looked more like he was being dragged underwater despite or because of his struggling. Samuel waited for him to reemerge any second, but eventually even the bubbles of air that indicated his position disappeared. Suddenly he felt someone touch him from behind, as two strong hands grabbed him by his shoulders and did their best to shove him under water. Over the sudden panic, he accidentally inhaled some water, making him struggle even harder and lose way more air than necessary. Eventually, he managed to fight his way up to the surface for a brief moment, before he was once again pushed under water, testing the endurance of his lungs. He was at the edge of his own stamina, unable to get back up and nearly fading out when he suddenly felt a rush of water shoot past him, followed by a strong pull on him from the side of the guy trying to drown him, who quickly lost his grip on him and got dragged away into the dark water. Returning to the surface Samuel caught his breath, then wiped the water from his eyes quickly to reassess the situation, finding Lilly swimming up next to him near the surface. The other guy was nowhere to be seen until he suddenly emerged again a few feet away from him.

“What the fuck was that hu?” he snapped at him after he caught his breath “And where’s John gone?”

He left his questions unanswered as he instead directed his anger and irritation at Samuel, trying to swim towards him quickly, before he suddenly vanished under the surface again. Lilly was this time visibly holding him underwater, detaining him as of now, but clearly being in control and easily able to drown him. As Samuel looked on he felt increasingly sick watching her kill somebody with his own eyes, until he caught something else: she was unsheathing her fangs as she did earlier! A million thoughts rushed through his mind at that moment and, amongst shock and terror, the thought that as things were right now, he could actually call the police this time. If she were to bite him, he’d have no way to explain her bite marks, leaving him no other choice than to dispose of the corpses and act like this never happened. Lilly must have seen his face, however, probably remembering his expression from earlier, and instead took off towards the bottom of the pond, taking the burglar with her.

Samuel waited for a while but eventually decided to swim back to the bank and get himself dried up. He wasn’t exactly sure if there were only three of them, considering that the day before it was four, but he made his way into the house regardless, making sure to pay extra attention to any sounds while he made his way up the stairs and into the shower. He was going to call the cops if the other corpses had no bite marks, that much was for sure, but he wasn’t going to do it right now.

***

“That should wrap things up for us for the day. You sure you’ll be OK on your own out here?” The officer asked as everyone else began packing up equipment and any evidence they were able to find.

“I think I’ll be alright,” Samuel replied. He was a bit sleepy but otherwise fine.

“Well considering what you’ve been through tonight it might be better if we take you with us, but if you insist I won’t force you. Get some sleep then, we might come by again another time,” the policeman said as he turned to leave, “and I’ll see what I can do about the aquarium, I will let you know as soon as I know anything.”

The whole ordeal was over faster than expected and certainly with fewer awkward questions too. After he got out of the shower and dressed in dry clothes, Samuel checked on Lilly who showed him to a side of the pond where she had placed the burglars. He confirmed that they were all dead and that they had no bite marks on them, then he got on his laptop animating another movie telling Lilly about the police and that she should hide from them instead of attacking. The entire awkward wait for them he had been sitting by the side of the pond waiting with her, praying that she understood and would remain calm. When the police showed up, he told them that he was robbed and attacked like he did on the phone, then told him that the burglars had all died when he escaped into the water so they couldn’t gang up on him. His side of the story was that one couldn’t swim, which was the truth as far as he knew, the other one got tangled up in some algae and struggled himself into drowning and the third was trying to drown him but got overpowered and eventually got drowned by Samuel in self-defense. After the initial shock had passed, he had gone out to free the corpses and drag them back to land before he took a shower and eventually called the police. While this story sounded pretty weird for anyone thinking reasonably, and the cops agreed there, they found it reasonable enough and blamed it on trauma as he had hoped they would. It was the weirdest feeling lying to the police about how a crime went down not because he had done anything wrong himself, but to protect what was essentially an alien creature living in his backyard. When they asked why he had an aquarium laying in his pond, upside down no less, he explained that the burglars apparently just felt like it and pushed it into the pond, an act of blind vandalism pretty much. The officer interviewing him even offered to look into getting it out of the pond for him, which he gladly accepted considering that one of this size was pretty expensive to get and he would definitely have to get it out of his pond since it kind of ruined the picture.

Once the investigation was over, at least for the day, Samuel saw the officers off and turned to walk back into the house as soon as they were out of his sight. It was already past noon and while he had his dinner while the police were still running their investigation, he knew someone who didn’t. He quickly prepared some noodles, easy to make and quite filling, spread them on two plates and headed out into his backyard. Laying down at a rather steep side of the pond with the plates next to him, he tapped the surface of the water a few times, then he waited for a few moments. Almost immediately he was greeted by a small wave pushing towards him as the quickly approaching Lilly sent the water splashing forward. She stopped a few feet away from the bank so she wouldn’t break the surface by accident and floated there for the time being. Knowing that she must have been in hiding for most of the time they hadn’t seen each other, he skipped greetings and reached her a fork full of noodles which she devoured greedily. The two shared their meal in the usual silence, enjoying each other’s company and the gentle glow of the descending sun, bathing both of them in warmth. Once they had finished their meal together and the dishes were taken back into the house, Samuel returned to the pond after a quick change in attire. Much to Lilly’s surprise, he didn’t stop at the bank but instead, cautiously but with determination, walked right into the water until he was about waist deep in. The pond was still giving him a few second thoughts considering that it was still a mere two days since he nearly drowned in it, but what he had planned to do was not just his way of taking the fear head on and getting over it, but also a way to celebrate that it was all over now. Taking a deep breath to prepare himself, he leapt forward and sent himself off the bank and into the open water.

Moments after he had pushed himself off, Samuel already felt Lilly accompanying him from beneath the surface. Once they were a few feet out into the water, Samuel held his breath and fully submerged, giving his eyes a brief moment to accustom to the new environment before he gazed around in the dark water. His eyes quickly found the surprised looking Lilly not far away from him, hovering a little lower to keep her distance from the surface. After resurfacing to fill his lungs with as much air as he could hold, Samuel once again dove down and, before he even opened his eyes, opened up his arms towards her, inviting her to take him with her. Despite his doubt that she would immediately understand his intentions, Lilly seemed eager to accept as he found her face to face with him when he opened his eyes, just before she wrapped her arms around his upper body and began to set into motion rapidly. While it felt like she was going slower than usual for his sake, moving this quickly underwater was still an awkward feeling. This was also the first time since he had carried her into the tank, a moment where she was outside of her natural element, that he was touching her, this time with most of their upper bodies touching directly as she pressed her chest into his while trying to keep a firm grip on him. They were darting around the pond like a dance led by Lilly excitedly showing him her home, slowing down occasionally to allow him to take in more of their surroundings, although the lack of clarity of the water made him terribly nearsighted. This only went on for a short while though, until Samuel was running out of air quickly, beginning to struggle in her grasp as he needed to resurface to catch his breath. Getting that at least something had to be wrong, Lilly let go but gave him a concerned look as he lightly pushed himself off of her and quickly returned to the surface.

Once he was surrounded by air to fill his lungs again, he took several deep breaths to recover as he had absentmindedly allowed her to take him around the pond for longer than he had intended to just to make the moment last. Once he had recovered decently well though, he took another deep breath and dove back under water, looking for the still concerned and slightly upset looking Lilly. It became quite clear to him that she didn’t quite understand what was going on yet so he tried to at least get back into an embrace with her, holding out his arms and giving her an apologetic look.

***

A few weeks had passed and the aftermath of the burglary had been pretty much fully cleaned up. The broken window had been replaced, the aquarium was firmly standing on dry soil again and Samuel had done his part of cleaning up the house after the investigation had officially ended. His stolen belongings were also already back in his possession and the few things that were still missing were due to be replaced soon too. The only lasting traces of the incident were a feeling of vulnerability that finally got him to invest in home security and a notable change in Samuel’s daily routine. His swimming and most notably his durability while diving had improved quite a lot, he started investing a bit more in keeping his pond clean and he took breaks from work more often. Jessica also seemed to be even more eager to come visit him, to the point where his sister asked him what she was looking forward to so much since she refused to tell her. Speaking of his niece, she was actually never too eager to learn to swim or to get near water, really. The prospect of swimming with a real mermaid, however, she couldn’t possibly resist.

Samuel had been prepared in advance, eager to earn himself some memorable moments with his niece by teaching her how to swim. He had once again prepared a video to let Lilly in on what was going on and since it was about the little girl, she was immediately on board. The next time she came over, he told his sister to secretly pack her swimsuit and a towel in advance, convincing her that they’d go to the water park, of course. Jessica knew immediately that Lilly was back in the pond when she saw that the aquarium was missing since it was still in the pond at the time. Her uncle was naturally prepared and didn’t even attempt to do anything else for the day, he just went down to the bank and tapped the water a few times, prompting the giddy Lilly to show up in the shallow water. The little girl was obviously overjoyed both that she was back in her natural habitat and to see her again. She also immediately wanted to get right into the water, something she would naturally never ask for. With a knowing grin on his face, Samuel then told her to check her bag, half praying that his sister hadn’t forgotten to pack up her swimsuit. A few minutes of Jessica disappearing into the bathroom later she came running back out, almost tripping in the grass as she did, and running right into the water. Much to her dismay, however, she didn’t get particularly far in while trying to stay close enough to the bank to stand up easily before the pond took a rather steep drop and most importantly, she didn’t come very close to Lilly.

“You have to swim to get far enough into the pond,” Samuel commented, grinning at Lilly as she made sure to stay just out of reach for the increasingly upset Jessica.

“I don’t wanna!” She replied.

“I know you want to play with Lilly though and we’re both here to help you, OK?” Samuel offered.

While she didn’t seem too happy about giving in, Jessica eventually gave up on fighting back. As she received an approving nod from Samuel, Lilly came a little closer and stretched out her arms towards Jessica, allowing her to lean forward onto the mermaid’s hands so that she could hold her. Samuel was meanwhile taking off his clothes too, revealing that he had put on his swim shorts in preparation to join the two girls. Once he was inside the water, after Lilly had taken Jessica around the pond for a bit, he showed her how to move her arms and legs in order to keep herself above the water and sure enough, when Lilly let go of her confidently, she didn’t even notice that her support was long gone until Lilly showed up in the water right in front of her to give her a little wave.

It was small things like this, making his niece come out of her shell and enjoying the water way more than she ever thought she would, that made Lilly more than just a neighbor or a good friend to him, but a life companion instead.