"'The 'Attack of the 50 Foot Crab', as locals are beginning to call it, was the result last night of a vicious monster crab attacking the city of Wellington. While there were no injuries reported, it came too late for locals, Daniel Walters and Sharon Roberts-"

"-Local gang leader Joaquin Smith was arrested under the suspicion of having something to do with Roberts' disappearance. Smith confessed he had been in contact with Walters three days before his death and had conspired to kill Roberts' mother, Alice. The seventy-year old woman was believed to have suffered and died from a fatal heart attack last Friday, but according to Smith, he had broken into her home and murdered her by injecting her with hydrogen cyanide. Smith is in current custody of the police and his trial is to take place this Monday-"

"-Local authorities have tried to make contact with Walters' younger brother, Bret, but have been unsuccessful in finding him. He had no knowledge of the conspiracy, according to Smith-"

"-I've known Alice Roberts ever since her daughter was an adolescent. And to loose both of them within a span of just a few days apart is just too heartbreaking and unbelievable for words to describe. The fact that Sharon had been spirited away and killed by that monster makes me feel as though I've lost a daughter-"

"Bah!" John scoffed, sounding disgusted as he turned off the television and rose from the couch. The old man tossed the remote control aside and walked into the kitchen. "You never cared about Sharon! You're not even her father!" John shouted, taking a bottle of beer from the fridge and unscrewing the cap. He was about to take a drink and calm down his hot, boiling, rage-filled nerves, but once the aroma of bitter amber liquid hit his nose and filled his nostrils with the scent of malted barley, the old man stopped himself and sighed deeply, a look of shame on his face. Knowing that drowning his misery in alcohol would not bring Sharon back from the dead, the old man decided to tip the bottle over and poured the beer down sink and into the drain.

Hearing the doorbell ring, John turned his head left and looked toward the living room. He groaned in annoyance and set the empty bottle down on the counter. He went into the living room and took the shotgun from off of the wall and walked over to the door, cocking his gun. If it's another one of those damn, crooked reports or interviewers again, the old man thought to himself.

John placed his hand on the door handle and opened it slightly, before kicking it open with his foot and holding the shotgun to the other person's eye level...Problem was, there was no other person. Nobody was standing outside his door. Just the the open area, the gold Plymouth parked next to the red barn, and an array of trees surrounding his property. The old man lowered the shotgun a bit and looked to his left, but all he saw was the river in the distance.

John lowered the shotgun to his waist and looked at the envelope that was taped to the outside of his door. It had his name on it. He placed the shotgun under his arm and took the envelope off of the door, opening it. Inside, he found close to three-thousand dollars in cash. There was also a note. John unfolded the note and read the message to himself: Your son would have wanted you to have this. I won't need it were I'm going. - Bret.

John stood on the front porch for a minute, staring at the note, before he looked around the area and stepped back into his cabin, shutting the door behind him. He placed his shotgun down on a sidetable next to the door and walked over to the fireplace. He looked up at the mantel, where a cream-colored seashell decorated in pearls and gold glitter glue laid next to a photograph of Sharon and his son, Tom.

The old man took the picture of the deceased young lovers off of the mantel and placed the envelope of money in its place. He then walked over and sat down in a chair, staring down at the smiling image of Sharon and Tom, how happy and alive they were. Oh, how he wished he could have been there for them in their time of need. The feeling was too much for the frail old man that he began to cry and lowered his face down to the picture, the glass shield protecting the only image he had of them together from his tears. He blamed himself for not being a good father to Tom, but he also blamed himself for what happened to Sharon. He did not know why Tamatoa had taken her away, but neither was he angry at him. All he knew was that wherever the three of them were, they were in paradise.

...

Meanwhile, under the sea, a beautiful mermaid with shoulder-length golden yellow hair was just waking up from the painful transformation she had endured the other night. She moaned in distress and slowly opened her eyes, light brown in color, and felt herself surrounded by the cool temperature of the ocean around her. She sat up at once and found herself lying down on a soft, sponge-like bed, the blanket covering her fell from her chest, revealing she was without any clothes on. Looking down at herself, the little mermaid pulled back the blanket, and gasped in fear and surprise, placing her hands over her mouth. Right where her legs should have been, was now replaced by a shining fishtail of golden scales. The young mermaid girl turned her head and looked to her left. She swam over to the corner of the coral room and looked upon her unrecognizable reflection in the silver mirror adorned with a frame of pearls. Upon realizing her glasses were gone and that her vision was crystal clear, the frightened mermaid shook her head in disbelief and put a hand to her face, wondering who or what had brought her to such a metamorphic state and unfamiliar place. Am I dead? She asked herself, feeling as though she was about to cry.

"Sharon?"

Upon hearing her name being spoken by a stranger, Sharon gasped and turned around, only to see a handsome creature with the face and torso of a man, but with a fishtail of cream-colored scales appear through a curtain of seaweed. He was tall and youthful in appearance, and had a lean, but muscular built to his half-humanoid frame. He had long blonde hair almost down to his shoulders and light brown eyes. He had her eyes. Or rather, she had his.

As the blonde merman swam over to her, Sharon leaned her back closer to the mirror and covered her breasts, thinking this man would hurt her and take advantage of her.

His eyes, however, were not looking at her breasts, but rather more at her face.

"Are you hurt?" He asked her.

Sharon shook her head slowly and answered, "I-I don't think so...Who are you?"

"Do not be afraid, my darling", he spoke softly, placing his left hand to her right cheek, caressing the side of her face in hopes of soothing away her fear. "To you, I look like something out of a dream. But I am so much more than that, Sharon. I am one of two people who gave you life and brought you into this world. I am the one person in your life who you claim was never there for you. You are right, but you are also wrong. If I hadn't met your mother, you would not be here right now."

Sharon did not understand what he was talking about, but she could not help the feeling that there was something very familiar about him. The way he spoke about her mother gave her the answer, as Sharon remembered back to the dream she had told Tamatoa about once. The dream in which her mother had just given birth to her and was visited by a strange man with blonde hair. A man she barely had any knowledge of, a stranger who her mother trusted to hold her newborn baby. And although she had no acknowledgement of anything yet, the infant baby girl could not help but look up at the man holding her safely in his arms and smile at him, giggling as he smiled down at her in return. Unlike the last time, in which she could not remember seeing his face, Sharon could quite clearly see that the face of the blonde man this time and saw it was none other than the face of the merman now standing right before her. The blonde man looked at her mother and kissed her on her soft lips, telling her how proud he was of her. Tired as she seemed, Sharon's mother was the happiest she had ever been in her whole life.

Upon realizing that her "dream" was actually a memory from the past, Sharon looked into the eyes of the blonde merman and placed her left hand to the right side of his face, searching for the answer she had been wanting to hear all her life. "Daddy?"

The blonde merman smiled warmly at her and said to her, "Yes, Sharon."

Sharon's face lit up like a Christmas tree upon hearing his response, but then, as she looked down and saw both of their fishtails, her smile slowly started to disappear.

Sharon looked up at the blonde merman, who looked at her with hurt in his eyes, as she moved herself away from him and shook her head in anger. "No...No, I...That's impossi- No! You're lying! My father's dead! He's never coming back!"

Before the blonde merman could stop her, Sharon swam out of the nearby window and out into the dark blue waters of the sea. She swam as far away as she could, not daring to look back at the castle of coral miles behind her.

Sharon wasn't sure how far she had gotten, nor did she care. All she knew was that she was no longer a human. She was not dead either. She was a mermaid.

Feeling lost and alone, Sharon lowered herself down to the ocean floor, scaring away a school of tuna in the process, and lied herself down in the sand, burying her face into her arms and sobbing uncontrollably. She was scared to death and trapped in a world she knew nothing about. No friends, no family. Just a bunch of fish. So this is what Tamatoa felt like when I lost him, Sharon thought to herself, crying harder. She did not even know what happened to him. The last thing she remembered was Tamatoa saving her from Daniel and then she lost consciousness. She was afraid that something bad might have happened to the giant coconut crab and that he really was dead for sure. Even if what the blonde merman told her was true, and that he really was her father, Sharon still refused to believe him. Without Tamatoa, she did not want to live. Without him, she was nothing.

Unaware that a giant shadow was looming over her, Sharon felt a giant claw gently stroke her entire body and heard a familiar voice asking her, "Sharon, are you okay?"

Sharon stopped crying for a minute and lifted her head up, her eyes filled with hope. She turned her body around and raised herself up on her elbows. She looked up to see who it was that had spoken to her, and who should it be but a giant coconut crab looking down at her. His face was a mixture of pink and purple, as were his antennas. He had red and dark blue shell colorings all over the rest of his hard body. The tips of his big, strong claws were bright orange. His front left leg was missing and he had a brand new hoard of golden treasures mounted on the back of his massive shell. But most important, he had blue eyes. Big, innocent blue eyes, just like when he was a baby.

"Tamatoa?"