The Mermaid Spell

Punishment

I would like to dedicate this next chapter to a girl named Hannah.  She was 9 when she died Easter morning from an aneurysm.  She was in my brother's class and even though I didn't know her that well, I still wanted to dedicate this to her.  Rest in Peace Hannah...

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Some people react to bad things like nothing has actually happened, others shed a few tears and have a cup of hot cocoa before eventually getting over it.  I was different.

It seemed like slow motion as I raced outside and ran through the grass, tears running down my cheeks.  I tuned out my dad's call and mom's cries as I sprinted towards the dunes.  I had no intentions of going in the water nor did I want to talk or see anyone, so I just ran. 

I crouched down under a magnolia tree and burst into tears.  It wasn't fair, none of it was.  The only reason Ian was gone was because of me.  I had gone missing, he had come to search for me, he was gone.  It was all so simple, it made the situation more depressing.

Magnolia petals rained down in the gentle breeze onto my hair and shoulders as I silently cried.  I almost expected someone to come and find me, but nobody came.  I cried there until the sun went down and eventually fell asleep under the stars.

"Come on, up and at 'em!"  Someone nudged me.  I looked up and saw Tristan.  She frowned when she noticed my puffy red eyes and sad expression.  "Hey what's wrong?"  Ididn't bother to answer her, it would just make me cry again, so instead I stood and gestured for her to follow me.

"Where are we going?"  She asked for the billionth time as I stepped over a tide pool on the beach.  I stared at the waves, took a deep breath and confessed.

"My human friend.  He's dead."  I sighed and took a seat in the soft bleached sand.  Tristan gasped.

"What happened?!"  She askedbefore plopping down next to me and patting my shoudler.

"I don't know.  They found his body, that's it."

"Maybe you should go back to your family and let them talk to you."  I glanced at her and remembered to her, I was a hlf mermaid. I wanted to protest though, but there was nothing to protest.  Tristan was right.

"They never came when I ran away though, I'm not even sure exactly where I am..."

"Just walk along the beach.  I'll wait here for you, it won't be much trouble."  I finally agreed and gave her a hug.

"Thanks."  I muttered as I began to walk.  She waved to me and I waved back.  Soon enough, she was no longer in sight and I could see the beach house in the distant.  I ran the rest of the way and in a matter of minutes I was opening the door.

"Mom!"  I called, but there was no response.  "Dad?!"  I looked around but the house was totally deserted.  I noticed a newspaper on the counter with a picture of Ian on the front with the title 'Missing Boy's body found.'  I began to read.

By: Amanda Klein

It was a breezy morning on the beach in Cape Cod when a little girl collecting shells found the body of Ian Fields washed up in a nearby cove.  Investigators discovered nothing wrong with the boy who had no signs of physical death.  Officers were skeptical, baffled even on how this boy could have been killed.  It was said he went missing three days ago after the storm at hit the coast hard.  Some said they saw him with a mysterious girl in the water but had no proof that it was true.  After long hours of going through the body, surgeon and doctor John Wilcox found that the boy died of drowning, turning this mystery into something very simple, but after questioning with a family he had been staying with at the time, we discovered that Elly Moss, the girl who had gone missing at the beginning of the week herself had been gone at the time, and didn't turn up until morning, thus proving that the girl and the boy in the water during the storm must have been them. The police have yet to question Miss Elly Moss, who disappeared, once again, last night.  The strangest thing is, the girl survived but the boy didn't.  You may think this is confusing yourself, but there will soon be an end to this eerie case.