Once upon a time there was a girl named Rosa. She had three older siblings: Krauss, aged 18, Eva, aged 16, and Rudolf, aged 13. She had always been an outsider, being a lot younger than the other three. The others used to bully her a bit, playing mean games on her. Her oldest brother intimidated her, her sister lied to her, the younger brother of the two betrayed her time after time.
One summer they went on a holiday with the whole family. The coast of California was their destination. They had rented a summerhouse, which was more of a villa than a house, near the beach where the four siblings went to do their own things. Krauss swam in the ocean, trying to impress the girls with his muscles, Eva chose to sunbathe, while being admired by countless, hormonal guys and Rudolf was hitting on girls, as usual. Rosa however, decided to stay away from the water and played in the sand all by herself, building castles for princesses, who had been captured by dragons and needed to be saved by the handsome prince or the knight in shining armour.
While Rosa was busy placing shells on the castle, a small crab crept onto her knee, startling her. Once the young girl saw what it was that had given her such a scare, she smiled and took the crab in her hand. "Hello there little fellow!" she greeted the small animal. A high giggle escaped from her mouth and she placed the crab on her sand castle.
A few days passed like that; one night however, Rosa disappeared. At first no one noticed, but then Eva, the one who used to look after her little sister started to get worried. Yet, when she alarmed the others she was hit in the face by her father and laughed at by her older brother. Nothing would have happened to the girl and she should have paid attention. Only Rudolf was willing to help her search for the youngest of the four siblings. With their coats and flashlights they went out into the dark night, the wind howling around their ears. They searched the beach for hours, but found nothing. They were about to turn and try the other side when a police car approached them. No, the policemen had not seen Rosa, but a dead body of young man had been found, washed ashore, his body completely distorted by the long time he had spent in sea. A strange woman had been spotted as well, with green hair and long nails. Even though Eva didn't love anyone from her family, she cared enough for her little sister to not let her die. Without noticing, both teens started walking faster, the woman and the dead body gnawing at their minds. Would she be fine? "Rosa! Rosa! Where are you!?" The screams got more desperate with the time and Krauss, not being a bad person, had joined the search for her. Soon more people joined the siblings in their search for the young girl.
At dawn no one had found her yet, and the group decreased in numbers again until only Eva was left. It had been her job to look after her little sister, and now because of her selfishness she had brought Rosa in danger. "Rosa! Rosa!" The screams echoed back from nothingness and Eva started running. Her feet carried her further and further away from the family's beach house. "Rosa!" she screamed once more, and as the sun threw his first rays over the horizon she saw her: the woman with dripping green hair, as sea weeds, a dress wet and sticking to her body, a hand reaching out for her. Eva couldn't help it, she was trapped in a spell that bound her body and made her legs move toward the woman while that one stepped back into the roaring waves, losing her legs to a tail and her dress to shells that covered nothing but her round breasts. As Eva followed her into the water, a voice began to ring in her ears and she lost her grip on reality. Deeper and deeper she walked into the calling water, hoping to reach the magical creature of the ocean.
"Rosa." A hand shook the girl awake roughly. Eyes opened slowly and as the girl sat up, she rubbed her eyes. All the time she had slept in the car, dreaming of a city underneath the shore, hidden somewhere in the ocean, populated by mermaids, that came on land once a year to claim a human sacrifice so that they could survive. The others laughed away the dream when she told about it, but Eva was never to be seen again.