Adia hates Halloween.
Even though she was born with her legs fused together into something resembling a fish tail, she can't help but feel angry when people ask why she didn't wear a mermaid costume.
But this Halloween, finally wearing the dreaded A...
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THE UGLY MERMAID A retelling of The Little Mermaid
Halya did not belong with the mer-people.
As her head broke the surface of the water, and she bathed in the dying fuchsia of the sun, Halya could not help but long to be with them.
To be with the humans.
She knew it was a wretched wish; one full of selfishness and a want for love, but she could not help but wish it anyway.
Ever since she could remember, Halya had always been different.
It wasn't just her unattractive face with unbecoming features, and it wasn't even her hair; her thin, short hair that refused to grow longer than five inches.
No; it was her legs.
Mermaids didn't have legs. Mermaids had tails. But not Halya.
Halya had two scale-covered legs with feet on the bottom of each of them.
If she hadn't been able to breathe water and choke on oxygen, everybody would've been convinced that Halya was a human with blue scales on her legs instead of hair.
Halya gazed at the shore and the remaining people lingering in the young evening.
They couldn't see her, and while Halya knew it was better they didn't, she couldn't help but wish they could.
As Halya dove back under and kicked her legs, allowing the force to propel her back to the underwater city, she began to feel a presence.
A presence full of power; of magic.
'Halya.'
Halya reached the city and wrapped her legs around Neih, her seahorse.
Neih bolted forward through the busy streets, weaving between the graceful bodies of mermaids and past towering buildings made of coral and stone.
'Halya.'
Halya wanted to breathe a sigh of relief when she saw her apartment building. Finally, she could rest, and hopefully the voices in her head would be silenced.
Leaving Neih outside, Halya kicked forward through the archway and swam to a bubble. As soon as she entered the round sphere, her breath became a suffocating wheeze. Mermaids used bubbles to travel up higher floors, but not often.
Too much oxygen and they could die.
Halya, however, had spent so much time out of the water that her lungs were starting to become accustomed to the thin air.
'Halya.'
She was almost there. As the bubble rose through the holes in the ceilings, leaving behind hallways with small, square rooms lining the sides, and mermaids swishing their tails and they swam to and fro, Halya felt a chill prance down her spine.
'Halya.'
Halya emerged from the airy sphere, breathing in the salty seawater as the bubble popped.
She swam in front of her room, and touched her feet to the gel-like floor mat in front of the door. The substance glowed green before admitting her to her room.
Normally, the doormat recognized the ends of a mermaid's tale, but Halya's had to be programmed specifically for feet, something she never forgot every time she entered her apartment.
The door shut automatically behind her, sending a flurry of white bubbles around Halya.
When the bubbles dissipated, however, a scream elicited from Halya's throat.
Standing right before her, was...
Halya.
It was a complete mirror image of herself.
The short brown hair, the flat nose and slitted black eyes, all the way down to her waist. That was where the resemblance stopped, because this Halya had a mermaid's tale.
'Halya.' Her voice echoed a thousand times in Halya's head.
Halya wanted to swim away, to scream until her voice was raw. This mermaid was nothing but a joke of who Halya could never be, and in that moment, Halya wished she had never been born.
'You are suffering.'
Halya tried to say something, anything, but she couldn't. She was as speechless as she was immobilized.
'You want to be in the world above.' The mermaid smiled. 'I can help you.'
"Who are you?" Halya choked out the words, instilling a throb of pain around her neck.
'I am Halya. I am me. I am you. And I will give you a chance.
'When the golden bubble rises from its slumber in the sea, you will awake on the Earth. I will give you three nights, and only three nights in our time, to find her. And if you do, then it is up to her to find you.'
"Who?"
'The girl who stole your mermaid's tale.'
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Word Count: 719
Thank you so much for reading and please tell me what you think so far!! - Gemma
