Archive of Our Own ^beta

It is vital to remember to not go to the beach past sundown.

Robin tapped her hands against her knee. She didn’t want to be here. But she was still only 17 years old and that meant she wasn’t treated like a human being yet. Instead, her parents got to decide whatever she had to do. And right now, that meant a two and a half month vacation to the coast of California. Not to Los Angeles or San Francisco or San Diego but to a small town called Sola Virgo.

It was so small that it wasn’t even on any of the California maps, Robin had checked. As far as she had been informed, the town lay somewhere north of San Francisco. It wasn’t well known for anything. And the worst part might have been that the beach was closed past sundown. There were signs all over the roads leading up to Sola Virgo that indicated just that.

The one thing that had made the idea of the vacation somewhat bearable was the idea of escaping to the edge of the ocean to stare at the stars that decorated the skies. She had looked forward to seeing the ones she had read about in books, the ones that she couldn’t see back in Hawkins. In Sola Virgo there was no light pollution. The stars would be perfectly visible, if only she was allowed to lay down on the beach after the sun had set.

But no, even that last bit of pleasure was taken away from her. The last spark of hope that this summer wouldn’t be a complete waste had dimmed out as they drove into the town.

Her parents parked the car in front of a cabin. It wasn’t near the beach at all. The beach wasn’t even anywhere in sight. Robin groaned.

“Are you going to complain the whole time?” her mom asked from the front seat.

“Probably, I could have spent my summer with Steve checking matinees of old movies. But no, I have to be stranded in a town that doesn’t even have a movie theatre.”

“If you wanted to spend your summer with your boyfriend, you’d be slinging ice cream for little kids and their impatient parents.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

Her mom rolled her eyes, getting out of the car. “Why don’t you help me unpack instead of moping?”

Her room was tiny, not that she was expecting anything else. The bed was crammed in against the furthest wall, right below a window. There was no closet, no desk, nothing beside the bed.

Robin dropped her bags on the floor and sat down. Tonight, she’d call Steve, she’d complain to him for hours on end and she wouldn’t give a shit that her parents would be forced to pay the bill. But until then, she’d go to the beach.

She left her stuff in her bedroom and snuck out of the front door to start her walk to the ocean. It was going to be the first time she’d ever see the ocean. Despite having dreamed about it plenty of times.

When she reached the edge of the stone path, where it turned into a pile of sand, she crouched down to take her shoes off. The sand was hot under her feet and Robin ran as fast as she could toward the water. It was only when the cold waves licked at her probably burned feet that she stopped running. The bottom of her jeans was getting wet with the ocean water and Robin looked at the dark patches with a sense of pride.

She looked in front of her, at the water and the clear blue sky. A frightening thought popped into her head. That maybe this trip wouldn’t be so bad after all.

But as she looked at the ocean, taking it all in for the very first time, she noticed the upper body of a girl washed up against a rock near the beach. The girl had curly brown hair that seemed to be stuck against her face and a frail body with thin arms.

Before thinking better off it, and before realizing she couldn’t swim, Robin rushed into the water getting her clothes even wetter. The girl wasn’t moving, and Robin tried to remember if she knew how to perform CPR. She hadn’t seen anyone else on her way to the beach, she very well might be the girl’s only chance. By the time she reached the rock, her legs had disappeared below the surface, together with half of her upper body.

“Hello? Are you alright?” Robin hesitantly reached out to shake the girl’s shoulder. A brief touch appeared to be enough, because the girl shocked awake, gasping for breath. “I’m sorry, I— I was just checking if you are alright.”

The girl had deep blue eyes that now stared into Robin’s with a questioning gaze. A thin cut adorned her cheek. 

“Hey, get out of the water.” A man had rushed up to the beach and was shouting at Robin, motioning with his arms. “Get out of the water.”

“I’m sorry, sir. I was just checking up on her.”

“Get out of the water, it’s not safe!” the man shouted again.

Robin ignored his comment for the time being. She turned back toward the girl. “Are you alright? Oh God, you’re bleeding.” The girl had lifted her arm, showing a deep wound below her shoulder. “Let me take care of that.”

She ripped off the wet bottom half of her shirt and wrapped it around the wound.

“It’s best we get it checked out. Can you swim? I can’t but I can just walk back.”

The girl instead turned to swim father into the ocean. Robin quickly, but carefully, grabbed the girl’s arm.

“It’s that way. Are you sure you’re alright? Do you have a concussion?”

“Let me go,” the girl snarled out, pulling her arm back.

Robin was entranced by the girl’s voice and released her arm instantly. There she stood, in the middle of the ocean, watching as the pretty girl swam away. She knew she was going insane when she saw a tail sweeping behind the girl.

---

Robin tried to sleep. She really, truly, tried. But whenever she closed her eyes, she saw the beautiful girl and the unexplainable tail. It seemed that the longer she was away from the girl, the more the tail took shape in her mind. Robin would have been able to paint it from memory. Shimmering blue and gold and green.

The sun had set. Robin could easily see the moonlight filter through the very thin curtains. It wasn’t helping. It was like everything was drawing her back to the beach, back to the ocean, back to the girl. The nameless girl.

She wasn’t allowed to. She shouldn’t. Then why was she getting out of bed? And why was she getting dressed? Shorts and a thin t-shirt. Why was she walking out the door?

The air was humid and hot and sticky. It didn’t feel like Hawkins where even in the summer the night air was ice cold. But maybe Hawkins was the anomaly. Maybe Sola Virgo was the rule. Maybe this was what Robin had been wanting all along.

She shook her head, suddenly remembering the life she had left behind. She had forgotten to call Steve. She had forgotten that there was ever a life before Sola Virgo.

The beach was deserted. When her feet sank into the sand, she felt an ominous feeling course through her. She wasn’t supposed to be here. She was supposed to be sleeping in her bed, far away from the beach and the ocean and the girl.

She kept walking.

The girl was waiting for her in the water. She was looking over the beach with sad eyes. Eyes that warned her to turn around, to leave.

“You came,” the girl spoke with that angelic voice.

“Of course, I had to see you. I… had to… see… I had to see you.” The words felt foreign in her mouth, like they didn’t belong to her, like she wasn’t the one speaking them.

“You shouldn’t have.” The girl turned away.

“Why not?”

“It’s not safe out here.”

Robin took a step into the water.

“Don’t!” the girl shouted, causing Robin to stumble back.

“What’s your name?”

“Nancy.”

“I’m Robin, it’s pleasure to meet you. How is your arm? Does it hurt?” Robin reached for the girl’s, Nancy’s, arm.

“No, it doesn’t hurt. Now, please leave.”

“Why do you want me to go?” Robin stepped forward again.

“I’m trying to protect you. You helped me earlier. Why did you help me?” The girl shook her head. “You have to go. You must leave this town and never return.”

“I can’t. I can’t leave you. Nancy, I—”

“No,” Nancy interrupted. “You don’t. It’s all magic. You don’t like me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Robin, I’m a mermaid. I lure people in, and I kill them. It is how I survive. I enchanted you when I spoke earlier… I didn’t mean to. You saved me. The people in this town… they have started attacking me and my kind. Perhaps it’s only fair. But you protected me, you cared for my wounds and all while you are unable to swim. I don’t want to kill you!”

“Then don’t.”

“It’s not that easy. You will return every night to search for me. You won’t be able to rest until you find me. All because you now believe you’re in love. You must leave.”

“I won’t.”

“That’s what I was afraid off.” Nancy sighed loudly.

“Tell me more about you,” Robin asked, sitting herself down in the sand.

And so, Nancy did. Perhaps she was equally as enchanted by Robin as Robin was by her. Maybe this girl was magic in the same Nancy was. Maybe for the first time what happened between them was truly real.

Nancy spoke of her past, her family and her life under water. She didn’t talk about the young man she had killed in open waters last week, or about the group of drunks she had lured in a few months ago. She wouldn’t speak of what she did with their hollowed out corpses. Instead, she shared a bedtime story her mom used to tell her, and stories about her brother and sister. She talked about her hopes and dreams.

They continued their conversation for hours without end, without ever running out of a new topic to discuss. Robin talked about college and part time wages. Nancy replied with stories about under water villages. Robin complained about her parents, and Nancy also complained about her parents.

“Aren’t mermaids supposed to sing to lure in their prey?” Robin asked. She was laying down in the sand with one arm supporting her head as she looked at Nancy.

“We don’t have to. We just have to use our voice. Some like to sing, I don’t.”

“Are you secretly a bad singer?”

“I will have you know I’m a wonderful singer.”

“I’m inclined not to believe you, Nance.”

“What? You want me to sing for you? Is that it?”

Robin nodded with a teasing smile on her lips. “Serenade me, siren.”

“You are unbelievable.” But Nancy cleared her throat and started a lullaby her parents had shared with her.

Bring me to the ocean

Take me to the sea

Wander in the waters

Wonder about me

I’ll be home without you

Hoping in a prayer

You’ll come home soundly

You’ll come home safe

Nancy watched for Robin’s reaction. Her face gave nothing away as she simply listened with a smile. It was as beautiful a sight as Nancy had ever seen.

“Not bad, not bad at all. But I’ve heard better.”

Nancy was taken aback but delighted at the revelation. Perhaps it was real after all. But as she opened her mouth to respond with a teasing remark or maybe even a demand to hear the girl sing herself, she noticed the rising sun.

“I have to go.”

“No, don’t leave me.”

“It won’t be safe for me. The villagers… they want my head on a stick and my body on their plates.”

“Okay, then take me with you.” Robin stood upright, stepping into the water once again.

“You can’t swim.”

“Turn me into a mermaid, make me like you. You are the only girl I’ve ever met that I’ve felt this way about. I don’t believe I can live without you anymore and I don’t believe it’s a magic spell. It’s because despite everything I know I also know you are a compassionate girl with a dream of seeing the world and escaping your home who has an annoying brother and a darling sister. You are amazing and I’m a fool. But this world has never treated me kindly and they never will. And you have.”

“It’s not just foolish, it’s dangerous, Robin. I’ve never tried to turn anybody. It’s possible but— your intentions need to be true and pure. If you are still under my enchantment it will kill you.”

“I’m willing to take that risk.”

“What if I’m not?”

“I think you are. Because you awaited me on the beach knowing the risk and you have told me the truth knowing the risk. We have taken plenty risks in the past few hours that could have killed either of us or both of us. So, please, Nance.”

It was for the first time in her life that Nancy grabbed onto someone’s collar hoping not to kill them. It was the first time she prayed to Poseidon to save the person in her grasp. And then she pressed her lips against Robin and felt electricity course through her body. It had never felt like this before and without separating herself from her first lover she realized life had granted her a pleasure for once. A single dream becoming reality in the shape of a young girl.

---

The search for Robin Buckley lasted for 9 days. Steve Harrington searched for 20 more. They never found a trace of the girl. The police stated she must have run away, her parents feared suicide. But perhaps the townspeople in Sola Virgo came closest to the truth. They penned down Robin Buckley as another victim of the mermaid plague. But they would never realize the truth. Not even when her bright blue eyes stared out over their town as she searched for her first victim.