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It was the height of summer, and the sticky air felt stifling without the relief of the coastal breezes they were usually accustomed to. The smell of sunscreen and chlorine permanently lingered around them and it was during these months that they lived in the sparkling clear water of the pool.
The water was where Belly had always felt happiest and she treated the pool as her biggest treasure, as though it was a trove filled with glistening aquamarine rather than chlorinated water. She would spend hours submerged, legs firmly clenched together as she flipped her tail through the water, arms fanning out in front of her, practicing her laps. The tendrils of her dark brown hair would float around her, moving and curling in the water like it was a sentient sea creature and not the hair attached to her head.
Belly often felt the most safe when she was underwater and given that she seemed to spend more time there than on dry land, she felt like it was her true home. She would only leave the pool when forced to apply more sunscreen by her mom and she would hate the burning of the hot stone tiles against her skin as she sat in the blistering heat, impatiently waiting to return to the depths of the water. As she would stare out at the yard, her vision distorted by the heat, she would wonder if it was all a mirage and the only world that was real was the one underwater.
At any given moment that summer, Belly could be found in the pool with the boys, playing a convoluted game of make believe. It was her favourite way to spend those hot summer days - submerged in the icy water, the sounds of chaotic splashing, loud cries and laughter filling the air. They all had their set roles: Conrad was the dutiful prince, expertly sailing over treacherous waters to lead his armies to victory. Jeremiah was a pirate, whose goal was to sabotage the prince from his great quest and steal the prince’s most prized possession. Steven was a mercenary, whose allegiance would flip depending on who he believed would prevail in the ensuing battle. Belly was the mermaid, watching and waiting in the distance for her moment to save the prince from a harrowing fate with her mermaid's magic kiss. As much as he tried, the pirate was never successful. He could never outshine her perfect Prince who would always escape walking the plank, avoiding certain death, and would triumph against the evil forces at play. It was, of course, a stretch to say that Belly had really been included in this game, her role leaving her mainly watching from the sidelines, but she remained there eagerly watching on with pure joy. The Prince had always insisted the others let her join in and that alone had felt like the sweetest victory.
Those days had been perfect while they lasted. But then one summer, everything changed and the boys stopped playing make believe. She had been used to feeling left out of the boys’ antics in the past - always following after, pleading to be involved until they relented, but this summer was different - the boys were older now and insisted that such a kids game was beneath them. Instead, the boys would return home with tales from faraway lands and of Princesses that had caught their eye, while Belly would be left playing make believe alone, making up scenarios where her Prince would return and save her from her lonely fate. Sometimes, the boys would take pity on her and the four of them would take on new adventures, cycling around the neighbourhood or going down to the boardwalk, but Belly longed for her Prince to return to the waters. She would have been content just to watch on from a distance again, but she felt as though their worlds were forever separated.
That was when Belly first started considering that her gift of being a mermaid might actually be a curse.
The summer Belly turned sixteen there was an element of magic in the air, simmering under the surface with promises of change. Everything seemed enhanced; the sun shone brighter, casting a golden glow on everything the light touched. The sea glittered and gleamed like polished silver as waves gently lapped the sandy shore. The air was thick with a sweet and heady fragrance from the floral blooms that peppered the landscape. All of it combined together to build her excitement and anticipation for what she was sure would be the best summer ever.
Belly felt like she had spent her entire life waiting to turn sixteen, even though the restlessness she had started to feel had only come on a couple of summers ago. It was the age when mermaids were allowed to interact directly with the human world instead of watching on from afar and Belly was certain this would be the summer when the prince would finally, truly, see her.
Just like she had during past summers, she allowed herself to imagine the moment when he would tell her he loved her - breaking the curse that confined her to the depths of the water, merging their worlds and giving them the freedom to be together for all eternity. The prospect of failing had never crossed her mind; Her Prince would never leave her doomed to become the foam that settled on the surface of the ocean, a fate that befell other lovelorn mermaids.
But the Prince was different this summer. Gone was the boy who had her heart and in his place a kind of changeling stood. The resemblance was uncanny, though he smiled less, but his actions and mannerisms were all wrong. Belly felt helpless as she watched on from a distance, her chest aching, wondering what had happened to the sweet Prince that she knew and loved. As the days and nights bled together, she would grow more sorrowful waiting for a glimpse of her true Prince to return to her.
She spent the muggy evenings swimming as usual, but the typical safety of the pool was gone. Now she felt more like a goldfish stuck swimming circles within the confines of the pool’s boundaries and she longed for freedom. She had always wished to join the Prince in his human world but now a seed of doubt had been planted and a small part of her wondered if she should stop waiting for him, give up on her dream, and return to the expanse of the ocean.
By the end of August, the source of the change in the Prince was finally clear. An evil force had taken hold of the Queen once again and was threatening her already fragile life. The Prince’s actions these past months had been a valiant attempt to preserve the sanctity of their final summer all together, even if it had meant he had spent it in turmoil, fighting his losing battle alone.
So there they sat, by the towering pale yellow sand dunes next to the sparkling ocean as he finally opened up to her. She was so glad she hadn’t given up on her brave Prince. She had maintained her hope and hadn't dismissed him as a lost cause and now she was claiming her prize for being so patient.
“I don’t want you to need me, I want you to want me.”
“I do want you.” The Prince had assured her.
Their kiss felt like two worlds colliding. The distant cacophony of waves crashing along the shore a soundtrack to the life-altering experience. The mermaid’s dreams were coming true. This was surely the start of their happily ever after and soon she would join her beloved Prince in his world and leave her watery prison behind her.
As they laughed and ran along the beach holding hands, the warm glistening sand seemed to sing beneath their feet. She thought it was the most beautiful song she’d ever heard and never once thought to listen carefully to its warning of what was to come. But the hourglass had been flipped and the countdown had begun as the sand trickled slowly through the narrow gap in the glass contraption.
The months that followed did nothing to dampen her hopes of the curse being lifted.
Though physically they remained apart, she felt like she had never been closer to her sweet Prince. Everyday, she would wait eagerly for his contact. She would hold the pale pink spiral conch to her ear and instead of the ocean, she would hear the Prince’s voice echoing through the shell. He would regale her with tales from the human world - about his roommate in his dorm and his new classes - and as they talked, they would sit in their separate worlds but under a shared night sky, staring up at the stars that glowed like lustrous pearls above them, wishing they could stare at them together.
When, after Christmas, the Prince had arrived in his great ship to sail them back to Cousins, her heart was so full she was sure it would burst. They had run along the beach as icy crystals fell from the sky and she wondered why she had never swam up to the surface in winter before - she was sure she had never seen anything so beautiful before in her life. Afterwards, they lay by the fire, skin burning from both the flames and from the heat of their desire. She felt their souls joining, fitting together so perfectly and it was in this moment she knew she was right in thinking she belonged in his world. A normal mermaid would never feel so comfortable playing with fire.
She was sure they loved each other. Every day spent basking in his presence felt like pure bliss. But she was unaware of the storm that had been brewing in the distance, approaching slowly and threatening to break.
It was prom night when she realised too late that they were already in the eye of the storm. At first she thought this night would be just how she had always pictured it. She had imagined how she would look perfect in her purple gown with a matching orchid corsage and her Prince would be there by her side in his black tuxedo. She pictured them spending the whole night dancing and laughing and then after, they would retire to their hotel room and make love until the early hours. But the reality was much different. Instead, it was the shell of the Prince that stood in front of her, trying and failing to go through the motions and forgetting her flowers. They didn’t dance and they didn’t laugh.
His soul had been stolen. He had been seduced by the dark witch who had whispered promises in his ear that his loved ones would be better off without him. She tried to fight the witch off but she couldn’t seem to convince him of the truth, despite her best efforts, and she could only watch on in horror as she felt him slipping away.
“All I’ve done today is disappoint you and you don’t deserve that.”
“Just stop acting like this and come back inside,” she pleaded as the wind howled around her, rain soaking their clothes.
“I can’t. I just can’t.”
And so he left her there, standing all alone under the dark grey sky, drenched as the rain poured down around her and it was the first time in her life that she had hated the feel of water on her skin.
At first, she had believed he would come back. If there was one thing she could place her faith in, it was the inherent goodness of her darling Prince and she believed with all her heart that he would return and tell her that he had defeated the evil witch and it had all been some horrible mistake. She would stare in bowls of water as images of them in happier moments reflected back at her and knew it would be impossible for him to give up on a love as strong as theirs. At night, she would clutch at the conch but his voice remained silent and instead only the sound of the waves crashing violently against the rocks could be heard.
Then the queen died and she knew she had lost him for good.
They returned to the house that summer. It hadn’t been planned, not with everyone still fractured from the loss, but it was necessary. The reunion had felt healing and seeing the prince again was like a balm to her aching heart.
At first they celebrated the memories they had spent at the house; All the summers they had spent filled with love and joy in their hearts but something in the night twisted, like a sickness had infiltrated and the only thing Belly could feel was the loss of their futures; The party now a funeral for the version of their lives that would never be possible now that the Queen was dead.
In the moonlight, she wandered down the beach to the waters edge. The starry night sky was reflected back against the sea, completely surrounding her vision, and she felt like she was floating alone in space. The place where it had started would be a fitting place for it to come to an end, she thought.
Her Prince had followed her to the sea shore. Of course he had - even with his own soul still captured, there was no stopping the hero from saving his love from imminent death.
The wreckage of his crashed vessel littered the sands that surrounded them, evidence of the aftermath of the recent storm. He was still alive but barely, stuck suspended in the in-between. Why wouldn’t he let her save him? Didn’t he know her mermaid’s kiss was magical and all he needed to stop from drowning? She was sure it would return his soul to him too - It must be an extension of the same curse that afflicted her.
“If I had known- If I had known that you had done that…that you had cared so much about me, and about us…If I had known that I would have fought for you!”
“I thought you knew! I thought you knew! From the moment we kissed on the beach I thought you knew!” The prince had cried out.
But how was she meant to know? The curse was still unbroken after all.
“Then why did you throw it all away? I thought that we had loved each other,” she prompted, staring up at him. Her brown eyes were wide and glistening with desperation in the moonlight, praying he would save them both with those three words she needed to hear.
“We did.”
With that, she knew their fate was sealed. The Prince had never told her of his love, never said the words out loud and the little mermaid's time had finally run out.
She made her way towards the edge of the surf and fell to her knees, the water gently washing over her legs. She was crying in earnest now; big fat teardrops dripping into the ocean adding to her watery grave. She lowered herself fully to the sand, tiny grains scratching her skin - a stark contrast to the soothing licks of the lapping water and she reached out, fist desperately grabbing at the wet sand, trying to keep herself anchored to the human world she had longed to belong to.
“Belly, you know you can’t go into the sea at night, you’ll die!” The prince reminds her.
The bubbling white sea foam trickled over her skin and the sound of the fizzling makes her think her body is dissolving into the tide.
Don’t you see I already have?