A Mermaids Tale

This is the story of our f****d up world. No, this story is not about me perse but, I will be the one telling it. The story is hers. Yet I wonder if she'll ever be able to tell it herself. She wrote her story in a book. A book I found a couple of weeks ago. I guess it is more of a diary than a book. The scariest part? I think the story is ongoing. Why you might ask? Because of the dates. Every piece of the story has a date written at the top left corner. The last chapter is dated the same day as when I found the book. That night, I was taking a walk with my beloved golden retriever. We walked along the shore of my private beach. I have been walking the same route every night at sunset for the past 6 years. The beach is located on a small and personal island somewhere between Canada and Ireland. Completely isolated and hidden from the human world. It was a calm night yet the change of wind speed suggested an upcoming shower. The sun was setting slowly onto the horizon and the soft breeze spread a sweet scent of wildflowers. My dog Eliya slowed its pace as she suffers from arthrosis. We were on our way back home when something shiny caught my eye. I bend down and brushed some of the white sand aside. There it was, half-buried in the sand. About a meter from the water's edge. The receding sunlight cast a yellowish glow on the small silver buckles. The lock, which purpose was once to keep unwanted eyes away from the pages, was broken and fell off the moment I lifted the book. The book itself was bound with brown leather and gave no indications about the previous owner. My curiosity got the better of me as I opened the book. The pages were drenched yet the squid-ink was still readable. Not wanting to invade any more of the mystery person's privacy, I closed the book slowly. Careful not to damage it. I looked around but there was no one in sight except for Eliya. Who, was snoring softly at my feet. Old age did quite a number on her. I smiled while petting her soft fur. It woke my grumpy friend up. She got up and shook the sand off her fur before walking back towards the house. I smiled and started walking next to her. Eliya was the first to reach the house. I opened the wooden door and took off my flip-flops before entering the hallway. I studied the outside of the book once more before taking off my coat and hanging it on the coat rack. I stepped into the living room to see Eliya already fast asleep on the couch. I turned around towards the kitchen and placed the book to dry close to the radiator. It was only the next day, I dared to touch the book again. I made myself a cup of earl grey tea before taking a seat at my round dining table. At first, I tried to find more information about the owner. An address or maybe a name would suffice but I was unlucky. Because of this, I started to read the first pages of the book. What I read made me downhearted. Mostly because I recognized some of the struggles she had or still has. Weirdly enough, a part of me also felt excited. She appeared to be like me. You see, I am one of the last mermaids alive. As our species suffered a lot during the last 300 years. Humans and the mermaidia species lived together in harmony for many years until humans received the curse of selfishness. Cast by some stupid witch and our mutual enemy Miranda. She told the human that the curse revealed their true nature. Then, she vanished. Humans began to put themselves first. For them, money was more important than our friendship. They began their hunts at our species. Using our scales for medicine and the decoration of their homes. But also our blood, our tears, and our life-saving breath were reasons for them to kill us. Out of a couple of thousand mermaidia, only 19 survived. These 19 individuals were the lucky ones with the gift of shapeshifting. They were able to use it to hide among the humans. Eventually, our species became so rare that specialized hunters were deployed to erase the last of our species. Some of the surviving mermaids became pregnant. One of them gave birth to my great-grandmother. When she became pregnant herself, years later, when the elders had already passed. She hid my grandma in plain sight. She made her go to school like the human kids her age until she came of a shifting age. Around that time, they bought this very island as protection for our family. The story of our species was passed on from mother to child. Kind of like a bedtime story but it didn't keep the children from getting killed. This is one of the many reasons I chose to continue my life on this island. Luckily my job as a fantasy book writer made it easier to explain my absence. I told my editor that isolation was needed for my imagination to come to life and she seemed to believe it. She told me that she was okay with it as long as I kept delivering good-quality books. And I did. Most of them became best-sellers. She does stop by once a month to discuss the writing progress. Other than that, no one knows of my existence here. I have the whole island to myself. Despite this, I prefer my human form. There is no way I would even take the risk of getting caught. The only time I shift to my true form is when it's the night of a full moon. Still, I would only shift in the moon cave, hidden on the island. A full moon for a mermaid is like that of a werewolf. You shift even though you don't want to. It is not like we go feral or something but it is more inconvenient. When in mermaid form, we need water. It is either that or dying from dehydration and besides, shifting underneath the moon gives us strength and power. Without it, we feel weak and slowly lose control of our shifting. Okay, I think this is enough backstory to understand her diary so enough about me. As I said, this story is about her. The next chapters of this book are pages from her diary.