Ambys 2023 Winner. REWIND THE CLASSICS 2022 Honourable Mention. Featured by @retold for AAPIHM.
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Mahina is determined to exact revenge for the death, nay, the slaughter of her sister. But is she prepared to pay its price?
A dark Little Mermaid...
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The sun raised its heads from behind the clouds.
Its golden light played with the water of the sea, a perfect cyan blue. Birds flew in flocks above while fishes leaped out of the water beneath. A ship swayed in the water. On the boulder beside lay a writhing form.
Mahina could no longer move. After she had killed her sister's killer, she barely crawled to the deck. From there, she leapt onto the shore and then onto the boulder. She had lost the dagger amid this.
"Oh lord!"
She clenched her palm tightly. Her nails tore open her skin, drawing blood. First it was only her feet, but now her entire body was burning in the flames of pain. Her face was turning red like the blood on her lips, slowly turning brown. Black spots appeared in her vision.
Soon, her consciousness slipped away.
It was not all dark. In the dark was the light of her life, her sister. Not like the way she looked upon her death. She floated like the beauty she was. With a tail of fire and gold, just like her hair. Her yellow eyes glittered like two orbs of light. However, she was not smiling. Tears ran down her plump cheeks.
Mahina wanted to rush by her side and hold her in her arms. She found herself unable to do so. Something held her from reaching her sister. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out of it.
"What did you do, sister?" She heard Nera say. "Don't you want to be with me?"
Her heart yearned to say she did, yet her lips still refused to obey.
"You knew this would happen. This was its price."
Mahina watched her with widened eyes. Her ears heard the words, but her mind could not register what she meant. What price was she speaking about?
"This is the price of vengeance. Thi-"
Yet before she could finish her words, out of nowhere a dagger emerged and pierced Nera's chest. She dispersed into a thousand pieces, splashing blood. Blood, which Mahina could taste. Nera's words echoed around relentlessly.
"This is the price of vengeance."
"This is the price of vengeance."
"This is the price of vengeance."
"NO!"
Her eyes opened to the sun and sea. There was no Nera, no blood. The ship beside the boulder still swayed in silence. News of the prince's murder had not yet spread. With red eyes, she averted her gaze from it.
But then another wail escaped her lips.
Her fingers. The fingers of the hand with which she had used the dagger were gone. They weren't there. Not cut off, but gone wholly save for the foamy blood on the boulder. Slowly, realisation dawned on her.
The spell took what it wanted. There was always a price for vengeance. No doubt she had felt the aches growing stronger and stronger after she killed him. It was demanding its price.
It would not end with her fingers: soon she would disappear into a mess of bloody foam.
She would do it on her own terms. If death was coming, she would die within the sea, not on the land. Thus, she mustered the last of her strength and threw herself off the boulder onto the sea.
For one last time Mahina looked at the sun, the sky and the birds flying. She took in their music, her mind at peace. No more pain, no more sadness. She would miss them for sure, or would she? Sleep, only sleep would remain.
"Life is so beautiful."
She smiled, as the sea took her deeper within its bowels, never to be seen again.
