A long summer day slowly came to an end as the sun set over the ocean. She ran across the dunes, the hot sand shifting beneath her feet, already caked with salt and sand from a day playing in the surf; her cheeks still sticky with watermelon juice.
"Don't wait for me," she said. "I'll be right behind you. There's just something I need to take care of."
And then she ran off without a glance, not waiting for a reply.
She leaped over the fringe of foam left behind by the surf, and the sand turned hard and wet beneath her feet. The water drew back to the sea in front of her, running over the seashells and rocks embedded in the sand, to rear up into the crest of another wave, already rushing toward the shore.
She squinted against the sun and tried to shield her eyes from the blinding glare. The colors of the sunset danced across the water in shimmering rivulets, but she only had eyes for a small dip in the current. For an instant, a glittering fin seemed to catch the light as it broke the surface. And then it was gone as another wave came crashing in against the shore, to lap playfully at her feet.
"You came back," said a voice like the rolling waters.
A woman lay upon the shore propped up on her elbows, her lower half submerged in the surf, though shining scales glinted from beneath the waves.
"Of course," said the first. "I promised I would."
"Are not some promises made to be broken?"
"Sounds like a bad excuse to me. I wouldn't."
The mermaid laughed like the rippling water. "You will come with me then, beneath the waves?"
She held out her hand, glittering with a thousand tiny scales.
The young woman waded into the surf and the mermaid slid into the water after her with shimmering grace. At last, when the water was up to her chest, the mermaid gently took the woman's hand—she took a deep breath—and drew her beneath the waves.
Day 1 of my combined August challenge!
Writer's Month - word: promise | setting: beach episode
AUgust - Underwater