Found at Midnight

Chapter 1

Pain.

If there was something I understood the most, it was pain. The feeling of a cracked heart, the aching of an empty stomach, the stinging of cuts- those were the pains I was the most familiar with because each of them were amplified every time I looked at the people who were supposed to care about me. I was haunted by my step-mother's look of disgust every time I was in the room, the look of contempt of my siblings' faces and the look of utter hatred in my father's eyes; I was nothing more than a person who just happened to share blood with them, an object to be scorned and used a slave. Every day was the same routine: wake up, cook, clean, daily whipping and beating, cleaning more, and cry myself to sleep. It was the same never-ending cycle that made my hope of ever being loved to deteriorate at a rapid pace.

I didn't know the feeling of euphoria, and I'd only ever seen that strange movement of the lips on my parents' faces when my brother came back from battle- it was a look of happiness, but I didn't know what it felt like. When I looked in the mirror, all I saw was a pale, sickly little merman with matted and tangled black hair, a skeletal small body, big sunken in eyes that were surrounded dark circles, scars that covered the pale flesh, and a dull sapphire blue tail.

Right now, all I could worry about was how was I going to make it to the shore. I could feel the wound on my side bleeding even though my hand was covering it, but I had to get away from them.

"You'll never escape, you little whore!" My brother screamed, firing another arrow at me, this one hitting it's mark in my tail which made me cry out in agony. Still, I swam faster, willing the water to help me get to where I was going. Escaping was my only option, becoming a perfide was my only chance at a new life, and I knew it was possible as I saw the edge of the shore and willed the water to shoot me out of it. I landed hard onto the sand, but at least I was away from the people who made me miserable. My brother and father glared at me from the water but sank beneath the waves, knowing that they couldn't come here. The impact from the landing made me groan, and I was bleeding out onto the sand. With no strength left to change into my human side, dark spots were starting to creep into my vision, and eventually I succumbed to the darkness.

SURPRISE! New story! I entered to get this story from @kaedengalaxy, the original author who didn't want to continue it, and I was lucky enough to get it. This will go similarly to how I am writing "Possession"; the first few chapters that were already written by the original author  will be relatively short but increase as I start to add my own parts. I hope you enjoy!