1Above and Below
Just a little oneshot I came up with randomly, inspired by the old-school Little Mermaid.
Disclaimer: No, can't say I own the little mermaid.
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Above
"Say you'll remember me," she whispered, her lips brushing his ear. Finally she was able to speak again. The handle of the dagger her sisters had tossed up from the sea burned her palms as she clutched it behind her back. He wasn't awake. Would he feel it? She wouldn't dare wish that upon him, not once. She did love him.
His wife shifted on the other side of the bed, suddenly. She drew the dagger and herself back again, but extended it in front of her with trembling fingers. How long had she been there? It felt like hours. Closing her blue eyes, she let out a soft breath, and leaned into his ear again.
"My name was-is-" -her eyes widened, catching herself with the past tense- "Aelita. It was my voice." She swiped a piece of her sandy brown hair away from her delicate face and, again, hesitated with the dagger. Breath quickened as the wife shifted again; she must've been a light sleeper. With sorrowful eyes, Aelita ran to the balcony of their room, shoving open the door, and throwing her dagger into the open sea, which swallowed it gladly. With one last glance to the bedroom, her curls tossing in the wind, she stood up on the balcony.
"I loved you." She cried out, her voice turning into the breeze as she hit the sea and became foam, sea foam and came back and went up above, above, above everything and everyone.
And unknowingly, the wife had woken to her words, had seen this strange woman, startlingly beautiful, and gazing at her husband as though he were the sun itself. Her brown eyes couldn't believe what she saw when the woman threw a knife-a knife?- into the sea, and jumped in herself.
Echoing in the wind, she heard, "I loved you."
"Love?" She clapped her hand over her mouth when she heard herself speak out loud. Who was that?
Her husband stirred and asked, "Did you just say something?"
She just smiled and said, "No, love, go back to sleep." Whoever she was, she'd disappeared and would never trouble them again.
Hearing this, Aelita laughed.
The seas churned up only sea foam and a clean knife, slightly scorched and sanded by the rough waves. The mute girl had disappeared that same day, and was never seen again. Everyday thereafter the prince's wife would wake moments before him to see if the girl was back, if she would ever be back. They named their first child Elita, for reasons they couldn't seem to find. It just seemed perfect.
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So this is what happens when a plot comes into one's head and you HAVE to post it. The Little Mermaid's original ending never quite seemed to settle with me, no matter how many times I read it. It just needed something a little more, and I had to tack on a semblance of a happy ending. So I did, and this small vignette came into being. Happy reviewing! -dreamer303