Charlie and Alastor had spent the entire part of the morning and the afternoon cleaning up the house and straightening things up. The swept, dusted, mopped, washed dishes, did the laundry, even pulled some weeds. They did so much work, that Charlie had to pull her long hair up and tie it back just keep the stray locks from falling into her face. Hell, they were so busy that they barely had any time to say more than five words to each other. But Charlie was acutally glad for that because she had woken up in no mood for a long period of conversing.

She had no idea what in the world she was going to do. She couldn't believe what she had allowed to happen. It was the oldest cliche in the book and it had brought nothing but trouble to her kind for years. She should know better than to let her heart succumb to such a foolish notion. But like it or not, it had happened.

She had fallen in love with a human.

"This is ridiculous." She kept telling herself as she was wiping the windows. "I can't love a human. I mean, I know I've always wanted to live in peace with humans but I've never once in my life had any desire to choose a human for my mate. After all, what kind of life could we possibly have together? He can't live in my world and I can't stay in his forever."

Yet despite the words of her internal voice, she could not stop thinking of him. She could not stop yearning to always be by his side every hour of every day. She could stop her heart from fluttering each time he smiled at her, nor could she stop it from feeling pain whenever she thought of the day when Summer would end and she'd have to leave him. She knew that once she returned home, her father would never let her leave again. At least not for a hundred years, and that meant she would never see Alastor again. Not even in death, because he had an afterlife and she didn't. It truly would be goodbye forever.

Though she was fascinated with the world above, she was sure nothing could ever make her even think of leaving the sea, and her family for good. But recently she had been thinking, perhaps she had come to love him more than her father, her mother, and her sisters. That she loved him to such a degree that she couldn't possibly continue living if he wasn't with her, and that she would willingly trust him with the happiness of her life. Oh how confused she was about all this. Confused and frightened. More so upon learning a disturbing fact about her human form from Rosie.

At the early dawn, when they drove down to check on Beth, Alastor had gone upstairs to show his sister the dress he bought. While he was gone, Rosie pulled Charlie aside for a private chat. Imagine the young mermaid's surprise to learn that Rosie was the granddaughter of the sea witch her father had banished a long time ago. She apologized on her father's behalf but Rosie could have cared less. In truth, she was more concerned with Charlie's new found love.

"Don't do it." Rosie warned her. "No guy is worth it. Don't get me wrong, Alastor is a decent fellow. Probably the most decent one you'll ever know. But he's still human and the human heart is always fickle."

"You mean he might leave me for another woman?" Charlie had asked.

"Not that kind of fickle. Fickle doesn't always mean someone will leave one person for another. It just means a person's interest could change. In Alastor's case, one minute he could say he wants a relationship with you but then later change his mind because he's not ready, or because he'll never be ready. The human heart is very unpredictable. It's not like your kind, where it's one mate for life and there's no fear of commitment."

"I know it's a terrible idea." She said. "I know merfolk's history with being romanitcally involved with humans. It always ends tragically."

"More tragic than you think. Because if you pursue Alastor and fail to win his heart, then you're sunk."

"How do you mean?"

Rosie suddenly looked nervous.

"Oh no, tell me that Beth warned you about the side effect."

"What side effect?"

Rosie faceplamed.

"Well I guess Auntie was right, never trust a child to remember something important all the time." Rosie then checked to make sure Alastor was still upstairs and not close enough to hear them talk before she continued. "Alright here's the deal. The potion you took has a side effect. If you fall in love with a human and if he breaks your heart, then three days after, at the very next sunrise, you will turn into sea foam."

"What?!"

"Shhh! Keep it down!"

"Sorry but...You're saying that...If I get my heart broken I'll die?"

"Technically you have to be heartbroken by a human. But yes, you die."

"How does that happen?"

"Don't ask me, I don't make this stuff up. I just know the rules of the game. But honestly it's tame compared to what would have happened, if you had drank the entire potion instead of a few drops."

"So what should I do?"

"In my opinion, keep things platonic between you and Ally. Then at the end of Summer, go home and find yourself a nice young merman."

Rosie's suggestion was very logical. One of the most logical bits of advice anyone had ever given her. She and Alastor should just stay friends. It was the only way to ensure that her heart wouldn't break, that she wouldn't fade before her time, and that she'd never have to leave behind her homeworld and her family. Unfortunately, love had stabbed her far too deep, and with her heart now pierced by it, her life would never be whole again. What a mess.

Charlie wasn't alone on this, Alastor was just as confused by these new feelings as she was. His mind had spent all this time trying to come up with the right words to tell Charlie, to explain to her that he can't afford to have a romantic relationship with anyone. His sister would always come first, and he couldn't have a wife as long as that fact remained. Sadly something kept standing in the way of that logic.

Charlie had become so dear to him, that now she was mixed up with all his thoughts and wishes. So dear that he wanted to love her to with his whole heart and soul. So dear that he would almost forget all others in his life, including Beth. And that scared him.

His thoughts and fears on the matter remained until he heard the hurricane warning on the radio. After that, all he could think about was getting Beth somewhere safe before the hurricane hit. He was about to go out and get her himself, but then Rosie called and assured him that she was perfectly safe spending the night with her. He hesitated to give his consent at first when he learned that Husk, a middle-aged man, whom he did not know very well, would be staying over as well. But Rosie was able to convince him that no harm would come to Beth that night.

"What's a hurricane?" Charlie had asked Alastor as they were pulling thick drapes over the windows to avoid glass breaking.

Alastor looked at her strangely.

"You're not serious, you've never heard of a hurricane?"

"Oh I've heard of them. But they're not very common where I live and I've never really been told what they are. Could you tell me?"

"Sure. A hurricane is a tropical storm in which the winds have reached a constant speed of baout 74 miles per hour. They can be very destructive and dangerous with high winds, excessive rain, and rapid flooding. Best thing you can do is get to high ground, and keep yourself in a secure place with no windows. But every room in this house has windows so hopefully these thick curtains will keep the glass from breaking."

His tone was calm but his body was trembling.

"Are you okay?" She asked him.

"I'm fine. I'm just making sure that neither one of us will be swept away tonight."

"Swept away?"

"Well if the flooding gets in the house then a wave could swallow us up."

Now Charlie was trembling. Because if a large amount of water made it's way into the house and she got wet, it would be instant tail, and right in front of Alastor of all people.

"Will the curtains keep the water out?" Charlie asked, trying to hide how nervous she was getting.

"No. All we can do is just hope that the water doesn't rise too high. The house is on a hill so there's a good chance that we'll be fine. Still it wouldn't hurt to knock on wood or say your prayers my dear."

Alastor then put a silk shawl around her shoulders, a gift from Niffty, and sent her back into the house for her safety. She wanted to protest, but she could smell the rain approaching.

She couldn't see the storm from inside due to all the windows being covered but she could hear it very well. She could hear the thunderclap sounding off, followed by the wind rising up and howling all around. The sea crashing and slamming against the shore as it became wild. Storms were no foreign concept to Charlie under the sea, but down there a storm was barely any trouble at all. At most it was a just a brief quake they'd all feel from the current. Nothing at all like this.

To keep herself calm, she sat down on a chair in the main room, grabbing a brush from a nearby desk. After that she let her hair down and proceeded to comb through it while singing to herself.

"As I went down in the river to pray,

Studying about that good old way.

And who shall wear the starry crown,

Good Lord, show me the way."

She had learned that song some years ago, when she rose up from the surface to watch as a group of humans gathered around a part of the shore where the water was most calm. Hand in hand, they sang that song while a man in robes was dipping some humans into the water for a brief moment. To this day, she didn't know what it was they were doing, some kind of ceremony perhaps? But she liked the song and memorized it well.

"O' sinners let's go down,

Let's go down, come on down.

O' sinners let's go down,

Down in the river to pray."

As she sang and carefully de-tangled the knots in her hair, she could feel her nerves subsiding and her body started to relax, not at all considering that maybe someone who had heard her sing that song before might recall it from a very dangerous moment in his life.