The opened easily and carried a slight creaking sound with it as it did so. It was something you had been meaning to fix and it also created a result you were also hoping to avoid.
"Mike, is that you?" came your wife's voice from inside the house, "I got back from the store and found your note about going for a walk."
Elizabeth didn't say anything and neither did you. You only took a couple of steps in and let her enter your home. You were still at a loss as to how to explain to her that you'd done something totally stupid and now had less than twenty four hours to take her back to the beach where you had been turned into a mermaid... a siren... and considering what you'd just earlier done to two people, jerks maybe, but still people, a monster. You only just began to shut the door when you heard your wife walking towards the entryway to the house.
"Did you have a good time?" your wife asked as she came around a corner, only then stop and stare in surprise at both you and Elizabeth.
You stood dumbly and fearfully, as you were afraid she'd explode into anger over Elizabeth and the "you" that she saw as "other women." And you knew she would be perfectly justified to think so. You'd gone for a walk and saw a group of mermaids playing in the surf at the beach near your home. You didn't didn't live right on the beach, but you were within easy walking distance. You'd walked there, saw the mermaids, and enticed by their bodies and by forces you couldn't identify, you walked up to them joined them. Soon after you found out that you were joining them in more ways than one. You became one of them and thus didn't look like your old self, and if you didn't convince your wife to also become one of them within twenty four hours, Elizabeth would have to kill you to protect her kind's secret. It was too weird for you to accept and it had happened to you. You thus also figured that your wife wouldn't understand anything either. She'd assume that you had been cheating on her and the you she saw and Elizabeth were "other women."
Yet, the look of anger was not what she had. She looked to you and was a little puzzled, but as she looked to Elizabeth, you caught a look of recognition on her face. In fact, Elizabeth looked like she recognized your wife as well.
"Elizabeth!" your wife exclaimed with a great smile and came forward, her body waddling slightly to accommodate the nine month swell of her womb, "what are you doing here?"
"Selene!" Elizabeth also exclaimed and moved forward, "where have you been? It's been forever!"
You only stood there dumbly as your wife hugged Elizabeth like she was an old friend she hadn't seen in years. Elizabeth found herself held back a little more than she expected, but then the swell of your wife's womb was more than enough to keep her from getting as close as she wanted. You only stood there dumbly with a very surprised look on your face. Eventually Elizabeth released her hug and looked over to you.
"Well... Michelle... things should be easy, you never told us you married Selene," Elizabeth gave a smile.
That only gave you a more confused look and actually raised a more surprised look on your wife's face. Selene looked over to you, raising one eyebrow.
"Michelle..." your wife looked to you and then her eyes widened, "Elizabeth... you didn't...?"
"Well me and my friends did," Elizabeth answered, "a man saw us and was enticed by our magic... but he was a good man and he became Michelle, here. We didn't even know he had a wife until he snapped out of our magic's hold on her. Michelle actually wanted very much to come back to you."
"And you couldn't let her go? Let her become human again and come back to me? Michael would have never betrayed you," your wife argued.
"You and I both know that a mermaid or siren can't let a human male know our existence," Elizabeth answered, "either they become a siren with us... or we drain them of their life force."
"But Michael was a good man!" your wife argued.
"It's the rules, Selene, you know that," Elizabeth answered, "and since Michelle is married to you, her problems are lightened."
"I came here to get away from those rules, Elizabeth," your wife answered, "You can't just live by rules that demand turning good men and eating bad men...because freshly turned will be too hungry to make a conscious decision on who they eat... and you also know that your magic can be tricked if someone knows about it..."
"Not all sex is about eating," Elizabeth answered and slowly placed a hand on your wife's womb, you could see her smile when she felt your child move within your wife's womb.
However, you couldn't take this sort of friendly reunion anymore. You'd expected having to prove that you were really the man she married and you hadn't even figured out how to do that. You had not anticipated the way in which your wife and Elizabeth talked with each other. It was far too friendly and was as if they already knew each other. That was something you were not prepared for, and it was driving you crazy.
"Hey!" you gave a shout, "would one of you mind explaining how you know each other."
Your wife looked to Elizabeth and then back to you. She then gave a very heavy sigh.
"Well... Michael... Michelle," your wife began, "I..."