Chapter Fourteen

The white void was unlike anything Melody had experienced. There was no yanking like when she had jumped between locations. Instead, it felt as if a weight was pressing upon her, trying to keep her in place. It wasn't quite swimming, or walking, whatever Melody had done to move forward. If anything, it felt as if her body was suspended in an empty space.

But finally, it was over, and Melody and Atiana had passed through to the other side. Melody found it easier to breathe and took a few minutes to catch her breath.

Atiana, by comparison, looked fine. She now appeared Melody's age; a wreath of lilies encircled her head, and eight oysters were attached to the tip of her tail.

"These hurt," Atiana grumbled, inspecting the oysters closer. "But grandmother says pride must suffer pain."

"Just take them off." Melody suggested. This was a tradition Mr. Andersen must have made for the story. But Melody wondered if there was any truth to it.

I'll have to ask Mother.

Melody felt the tiniest bit of sadness. The young princess didn't know how long that would be.

Atiana hesitated and made the attempt several times for her hand to remove one of the oysters. "I think I'll keep them on for now." Atiana turned her head to the left. "I'm glad my message worked."

"Now you remember the message?"

"Well, yeah. I mean I was here when I wrote it."

"But when you went back you couldn't remember because it hadn't happened yet," Melody finished and shook her head in confusion. "Like you can't remember what will happen, even though you've done it before."

"I think we should go this way." Atiana pointed to her left.

Melody followed her lead and saw they were approaching a ship floating above them. The water echoed with the sounds from above deck, which Melody assumed was a mixture of voices and music.

"Stop!" Melody pulled on Atiana's arm. "We can't go that way. That's part of your story."

"Then shouldn't that be where we go?"

"No. Then you'll just be stuck in the same place until…until…well, I don't have that part figured out. All I do know is we have to keep swimming through those white spaces."

Atiana looked longingly at the ship above but followed Melody at her urgings. The two went ahead again through the whiteness and entered a churning sea.

"This must be the storm you keep talking about."

"Yep. Come on, let's keep going. But I want to try something different this time. Once we're in the void, we'll stop and try exploring it a little. Agreed?"

Melody's companion nodded. Once they arrived at the void, they gave two thrusts of their tails. Melody once again felt the weight pressing on her. Stopping was easy, but the princess found it hard to turn towards Atiana. She tried to speak but no words came from her mouth. The weight grew heavier and heavier by the second until it was impossible for Melody to draw a breath. The whiteness in front of Melody started to grow hazy as her lungs demanded air.

The next thing Melody felt were arms pulling her forward.

"Melody, are you all right?" Atiana was above her, looking at her very concerned.

"I think so," Melody sat up on the ocean floor. A quick look around showed they were back at Atiana's garden. "Oh, no! We must have gone the wrong way."

But Atiana had not gone back to looking like a seven-year-old girl. On closer inspection, the purple flowers that had once grown in her garden were dead. All that remained was the marble statue surrounded by a barren ocean floor.

Atiana swam towards her statue and embraced it, her head resting against the stone chest. She looked so forlorn and sad.

"Hey, everything's okay," Melody consoled her.

"I'll never see him again. He doesn't even know I'm real."

"Atiana, I promise, you'll see him again. I heard your story, remember? And you can see him if we keep swimming forward."

It took a while for Melody to pull the character from the statue. Melody paid little heed to what they swam into after leaving the whiteness. She forced them to keep going forward. After three trips through the void, Melody and Atiana were on land.

Atiana looked older now, and could no longer speak, her tongue the price for her new legs. Melody gagged at seeing the trail of bloody footprints the mermaid left behind.

Mr. Andersen, how could you have written such a thing?

Melody only felt slightly guilty as she forced Atiana to keep walking forward through the story. Finally, they were on a ship's deck. The sky was streaked red, and the sun would appear very soon. Atiana looked sad again and, in her hand, held a twisted looking knife.

"There," Melody pointed ahead to the white void. It was closer than any of the others had been. "That must be the end."

But will I get out?

Atiana must have sensed Melody's hesitation and put a hand on her shoulder. The Little Mermaid couldn't speak, but she pointed to herself and then the void.

"I don't know if you can follow me this time. But you can try, if you want to."

Her cellmate nodded, and both plunged off the ship back into the water and swam forward. Both found it slower to swim without their fins. Once inside the whiteness, Melody felt the familiar weight. She willed herself forward and thought of home.

Forward. Forward. Out! Out! OUT!

By the time Melody knew she should have been on the other side, it was as if she had bumped against a wall. Melody could not move forward and found herself frozen and unable to retreat her steps. The weight began to grow again, making it hard to breathe.

And all Melody could do was wait for Atiana to grab and pull her to safety once more.