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I can't believe this happened! I bloody well can't believe this happened! I left for two months, discovered that I don't like living among humans at all any more, then go back to the sea and discover they're just like humans now!
No...not them. Just the old governor, really...
It started when I plunged into the sea, although I didn't know it at the time. It was a long night swim from Barton Coast to the palace, and it was light by the time I got into thought range. Immediately, I knew something was wrong. The thoughts were a jumbled mass of horror and pain, worse than even what I'd felt after the massive jellyfish attack. What made it so much worse was the wave of existential agony that came from them. I'd felt that way before, when I saw the consequences of my feeding while in my monster form, but to feel it in such a massive way, from so many minds... I plunged toward the palace.
I found my way barred by my governor, who swam out of a seaweed bush. "No further, queen," she thought, and her thoughts felt stifled, as if she were choking. "He will destroy you."
"Who?" The question seemed pointless among the nameless sea-people, but the thought of the old governor who had craved the crown flashed into my mind, stifled like the other thoughts. Quickly following it came a thought that said something like "he-will-kill-you-if-he-knows-you're-here-be-quiet", and I realized that my governor was doing something I had never known a sea-person do do. In this world of the group-mind, where all thoughts were one, she was trying to whisper.
Trying to focus my thoughts on the governor, I thought, "What, why, how?" I felt as if the overly-concentrated thoughts were choking me.
What followed was a wash of information piped straight into my mind, like a huge lake squirted through a plastic drinking straw. Some of it felt as if my governor had been wanting to tell me it for a long time, but some was raw, unedited memories, ones that seemed too painful to explain even in passing.
The gist was this: After I left, the governor had taken over as regent. All had been well for a few weeks, until one day, the old governor had taken my crown from where it lay on the throne, placed it on his head, and proclaimed himself king. That act of human-like avarice had had a terrible effect on the sea-people: Mentally programed by their group-mind to obey their ruler, they were stuck in a bind. They knew I was their queen, but here was someone proclaiming himself king. The group-mind rocked on its foundations, and slowly went mad. At first the sea-people ignored the usurper, obeying my governor instead, but none could take the crown from the old governor. All he had to do was wait, and slowly make suggestions about me: that I might be dead, that I might have left for good, or be helping Gambino find a way to destroy the sea-people... As the group-mind grew more unstable, sea-people, seizing at straws that could remove them from the paradox they were in, began to believe him...and fell under his control. Then the governor revealed one more horrid, human-like trait: Unlike the other sea-people, he could kill, and make others kill. He took to carrying around an old anchor he had found somewhere, and those who didn't accept him as king were soon found with their heads bashed in. He had kept my governor alive to cement his grip on power, but she could do nothing to stop his growing reign of terror. Now all the other sea-people were armed with whatever weapons they could get, and they were all under his control. Only one thing could possibly break the spell, and that was my presence as queen. But...
"They will kill you, or he will," my governor thought. "He has worn the crown so long, they will only see you as their ruler if you wear it." She gripped my hands with her black webbed ones. "You must go back. I will get your crown from him...you will know if it is found on the beach of the land? At the end of the current from our place of refuge?"
"The ship?" I thought as quietly as I could.
"You think of it as that," she thought. "I will get the crown and give it to the current. When it comes up, return to us wearing it, and you will rule again."
Suddenly a horrific wave of bloodthirsty thoughts crashed over us. I looked up at where they had come from, and saw a swarm of sea-people, armed with the ugliest pieces of heavy junk, diving from a window of the palace toward us. The old governor, my crown on his head and waving a large anchor, was at their head. "Kill the monster!" his thoughts screamed.
"Go!" my governor's thoughts screamed. "You are our only hope!"
I went, swimming as fast as I could, and somehow outswam them. It was the most cowardly thing I've ever done, but...she who sees and swims away lives to rule another day, right? I hope my governor didn't pay for my escape...
I got back on land after several hours of swimming, and managed to hitch about halfway back to Cindy's house. Then I walked through the woods, nearly freezing in my still-damp clothes... I got back half an hour ago, and found the house empty, although the back door was open. Cindy's probably working late...or elsewhere. I don't care, and I hope she brings Gambino home with her. I'm going to give him something to really think about, besides his newest conquest!