For the Frightful Fairy Tales contest hosted by the Dark Fantasy profile.

The Little Mermaid entry. Rewrite The Little Mermaid remixed with a known horror genre.

Rating: Everyone

Word Count: 998

~~

Her name is Calypso, but she's not been called that in a very long time.

            She's never seen the shore nor the sun, but she has no need to. In a cavern buried in the deepest of seas, tucked beneath fallen stones and wayward shipwrecks, she trades wishes for secrets from the world above.

            Choose your wish wisely, she tells those who seek her. One you are willing to die for.

            They don't need to die.

            But they always do.

~~

            The first time the mer-princess finds her, the girl is but a child, a curious thing. She stumbles upon the cavern as Calypso is shelving her sea crystals. Memory crystals.

            The mer-girl watches her with careful eyes.

            What is your name? the mer-girl asks.

            Calypso turns. She has many names, Sea Goddess, she's most often called. But that is not the name she gives.

            Calypso, she replies.

            The girl is thoughtful in her silence. I've heard you are a monster, she finally says. That you kill those who dream.

            Calypso scoffs. Hardly. I hand them their dreams and they kill themselves.

            Why would they?

            Because balance must be preserved, she sighs. And they are not willing to preserve it.

            The girl says nothing in response.

~~

            From then on, the mer-girl visits Calypso every now and again. Through the years, her hair grows long, her eyes wide, her voice lovely.

            I want to see the sky, she says one day.

            Calypso smirks. Careful what you wish for, child.

            The girl's gaze goes cold. I know what it is I wish for.

            Calypso pauses, surprised by her vehemence. Then is that your wish for me?

            The girl stares at the mirrors lining the cavern walls. No, she answers. Not yet.

~~

            Years pass, and on her fifteenth birthday, the mer-girl returns to Calypso.

            Have you come for your wish, child? Calypso muses.

            The girl smiles. I've come for two.

            Two?

One for my fifteenth birthday, one from you. I'm no fool, Calypso. Can you make me human?

            Calypso raises her eyebrows. And?

            The girl pauses. And let me live.

            Calypso trails her fingertips over the crystal memories adorning her shelves.

            Of course, she finally answers, dark eyes lowered. I can give you anything, for a price.

            What is the price? The girl's voice is as strong as it is beautiful.

            Two prices for two wishes. Calypso smiles. One, for every year you live as a human, you must give me one memory. She leans close. Two, you must learn to be human.

            The girl's brow furrows. How?

            Your eldest sister. Calypso takes the girl's chin in her hand. Kill her.

            Her eyes widen. How could I—

            Do you want to be human?

            . . . Yes.

            Then do as I say.

            And to Calypso's shock, she does.

            For each day in the week that follows, Calypso gives the same order. Your eldest sister. Kill her. The mer-girl is the youngest, and every day that week, the title of eldest is passed down, until only she is left.

            Unshed tears line her eyes, but that lovely voice holds. I've done what you asked. Send me to shore.

            Your father, Calypso smiles a devil's smile. Kill him too.

            And she does.

~~

            Do you remember what I told you about balance, child? Calypso asks. Do you vow to preserve it?

            I do, the girl whispers.

            Calypso smiles. I will send you to shore now. Remember your promise.

            She hugs the girl close and stabs her heart through her back. A life for a life, suffering for suffering. One earth-soul dead for each sea-soul you've taken.

            Calypso releases the girl, having killed her to be reborn human above.

            What will you do, little mer-girl?

~~

            Days pass, dull and silent.

            The mer-girl human visits once a year, giving Calypso memories she's collected. Forests and strange furred animals adorn them, princes draped in atrocious finery called clothes. But nothing compares to the blood and destruction in them, all at the hand of the human mer-girl.

            Why are you still killing? Calypso asks her. The seven sea-lives you've taken have long been balanced.

            'Suffering for suffering,' the girl quotes. There may be only seven dead, but the suffering here is endless.

            Calypso simply smiles in return.

~~

            In the years that follow, human mer-girl visits Calypso only once more before she returns to shore for good.

            Have you seen fire? she asks.

            It surprises Calypso. No, I haven't.

            Then let me show you.

            In the memory, the girl stands at the balcony of a prince's castle, clothed in a black dress, face painted in that matte way humans love. But the gardens, green before, drown in shades of orange and grey. Specks akin to bubbles drift to the sky. Ashes, the mer-girl calls them.

            What of your prince? Calypso asks.

            Dead, she answers. Dead, like the rest of them. A royal soul for a royal soul.

            Calypso spares her a glance. It seems you are truly human after all.

            Am I? the girl asks. I've killed men and turned kingdoms to ashes for the sake of only myself. If anything, I am a monster.

            Calypso watches her, chin propped in her hand, the slightest of smiles at her lips. And what else would it mean to be human?

            The girl doesn't answer, and Calypso doesn't see her again.

~~

            Calypso returns to her antics at sea. It's not the same with the mer-kingdom fallen, but slowly, vengeful spirits rebuild it. She hears their whispers, carried to her by eels. Sea Drowner, they breathe, Earth Burner. The goddess of the sea is dead. A monster lives on in her place.

            She smiles at the whispers, taking them in stride. She's no longer a wish maker. She is nothing but ruin.

            She goes by the name Sea Witch now, for the men she's killed, for the seas she's drowned, for the monster that she's always been.

But to the mer-girl who walks the beaches and burns the land, she will always be Calypso.

~~ The End ~~

Song: The Sea by HAEVN

"We sell our lives to the sea, the sky lights up from the beach."