Ariel woke up alone on the beach. Joseph and Grace were leaning over her, asking where Coral was but she couldn't speak. It was like she had given her voice to the sea-witch again. Eric tried to taker her hand and lead her back to the castle but she wouldn't let him. "I need some space." The sound of her voice rang in her ears, yet she was only speaking quietly. "I'm going to the library." Usually the library exited Ariel. The aisles of books, waiting for her to explore, gave her a happy feeling. Not this time.

Ariel silently made her way across the creaking library floor. Her feet felt so light it was as if she were floating across the room.

Fiction Section.

"B. No, what was his last name? C. There it is."

Ariel peeled out a book. It seemed old, yet she knew it couldn't be. She made her way over to a seat and fell into it, immediately comfortable.

'Far out in the ocean, where the water is as blue as the prettiest cornflower, and as clear as crystal, it is very, very deep; so deep, indeed, that no cable could fathom it: many church steeples, piled one upon another, would not reach from the ground beneath to the surface of the water above.'

Ariel couldn't tell you how long she was there. All she knew was that she finished the book.

"After three hundred years, thus shall we float into the kingdom of heaven," said she. "And we may even get there sooner," whispered one of her companions. "Unseen we can enter the houses of men, where there are children, and for every day on which we find a good child, who is the joy of his parents and deserves their love, our time of probation is shortened. The child does not know, when we fly through the room, that we smile with joy at his good conduct, for we can count one year less of our three hundred years. But when we see a naughty or a wicked child, we shed tears of sorrow, and for every tear a day is added to our time of trial!"

There the book ended and Ariel placed it back in it's original spot, where someone could find and read what happened to Coral. What could've happened to her.

The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Anderson

The End