I slowly awoke, my vision slowly going from dark and foggy to clear. But when my eyes fully adjusted...

I sat up quickly.

Too quickly. My head throbbed and spun. I held my head in my hands and flopped back down onto the bed...

Which wasn't a bed. It was sand. My breathing hitched. All I could see around me was sand, rocks and...

Seaweed. I sat up more slowly. I looked at my feet and my heart stopped.

"This isn't real, this isn't real, this isn't real..." I whispered, looking up. I looked down again. Yes. It was real.

No, no, no, no...

In place of my legs and feet was a shimmering blue tail.

The memory of what had happened earlier came rushing back to me. I now realized the true meaning of the mer's ominus promise.

Ava and the mer had turned me into a mermaid.

***

I heard a noise in the seaweed and quickly lay back down on the sand, pretending to be asleep. I know, it's cliche; it's what everyone does when they wake up in a strange place and hear someone coming but can't figure out what else to do, but I couldn't move at the moment. My hands were tied, so to speak.

"Don't bother, Sophia. I know you're awake."

I groaned and sat up, trying and failing to ignore the pain in my head.

Ava knelt next to me on copper fins, a tiny seahorse floating happily next to her. It chirped at me merrily and I attempted a small smile.

Ava laid a strand of what looked to be a combination of moss and seaweed on my head after gently pushing me down.

I sat up as soon as she pulled back, the moss falling into my lap. Or, more accurately, my tail. Ava sighed.

"Mossweed does no good there, you know."

"What the heck is this?" I yelled. "First you were a ditzy girl from my art class, now you're my kidnapper who dragged me into the ocean and turned me into a fairy tale! I could call the police, you know."

"You don't have your phone." Ava pointed out. "Besides, it would be dead right now. Electronics don't work in water." Ava pointed out.

I growled at her for some reason. She jumped a little, her copper hair swirling and then falling around her. I started hyperventilating. I don't want this! I yelled to myself. I want to be human!

Ava's eyes widened. "No, Sophia! Don't-"

Too late. I didn't know why Ava was so afraid, but as soon as I looked back at my tail I knew. My tail was gone. My human legs, covered again by my jeans, and my feet, still in my black combat boots, were back. I would've been overjoyed, but I realized...

I couldn't breathe.

My eyes widened, larger than Ava's, and I began to panic. Ava grabbed my shoulders.

"Sophia! Sophia, stop!" She shouted, panicking nearly as much as I was. " Sophia, you want to be a mer! Think it! You want to be a mer!"

I squeezed my eyes shut. I want... I froze. Do I? Do I want to be a mer...

The ocean, my favorite place to be. Swimming...my favorite thing to do. Water...the only reason I didn't hate myself and my life and my parents who abandoned me and my friendless, lonely existence...

Yes, I wanted to be a mer. Yes! I want to be a mer! I thought, I screamed to myself. I was getting dizzy now. My vision was slowly fading...

And suddenly, I could breathe again. My tail was back. I was a mer again.

Yes. This is what I want. This is what I want.

In the water, I have a best friend. Ava. Yes. I count her as a friend. The mer...she could be a freind. An acquaintance, at least.

On land, my only friend is...

Elizabeth. No, I couldn't leave her. But maybe...

"Ava." I turned to her.

"Yes?" She asked, startled but relieved that I was alright.

"How did that happen?" I asked. "How did I...become human again? "

"Ummm...sometimes, mer can be shifters, which means they can shift from being mer to being human. I can do it. Apparently, you can too..."

"How do you turn a human into a mer?" I pried further. "Like what you did to me?" There was a slight edge to my voice. Okay, I was still holding a grudge. But hey, it's not like I said, "Yeah, you can totally turn me into a mer and take me from the only life I've ever known! I'm cool with it!"

Like I would ever say that.

"Well, we have a certain kind of magic, but we have to give the human anesthesia because it hurts really bad. But it could be done on anyone..."

Something dawned on her.

"Why? Do you...have someone in mind?"

"Well..."

***

I walked up the street to the orphanage. It was eleven PM. Apparently, I had been knocked out for longer than I thought.

I climbed the oak tree up to my old room and saw that the window had been left open.

Elizabeth was probably hoping I would come home through the window. Poor little one.

I slipped through the open window and walked silently over to where Elizabeth slept, her face streaked with dried tears. I shook her gently. Elizabeth. "I whispered into her ear.Her eyes slowly opened.

"Sophia!" She cried, jumping into my arms. "I-i-i t-t-thought you were gunna l-l-leave me f-forever!" She whimpered as she creid.

"Shh." I whispered. "Shh. It's okay. I'm not going to leave you again."

She looked up at me with her big blue eyes.

"Everyone thought you died. Even my watch died when you died." She told me, showing me her glow in the dark watch. She tapped the watch face, and it glowed faintly before sputtering out.

I hugged her again.

"Elizabeth." I began when I pulled back to look at her again. "Remember how you used to say that you've always wanted to become a mermaid?"

She nodded vigorously. "Yeah."

I looked at her sideways. "Do you still want to be a mermaid?"

***

"Weee!" Elizabeth cried, looping in the water. "This is the bestest thing ever!"

I smiled and grasped both Ava and the mer's hands in my own.

"Thank you for letting me bring Elizabeth too. Especially you, ma'am." I said, nodding to the mer.

She laughed. "Please. Call me Elenia."

She hugged me warmly.

"You two are like my children now.

Turns out, Ava is the mer's daughter. They lived on the outskirts of the city, in a more rural area. I found it remarkable how the merpeople managed to make buildings out of different colored sandstone that look like a real city, like New York or San Francisco or Los Angeles. But Elenia's home looked like a quaint brick farmhouse.

And Death's Reef is what merpeople call the underwater part of the rocky beach.

"I'm happy you finally figured out my message to you." Elenia added, breaking me out of my thoughts. I nodded. Yes, I understood her message.

When she promised to save my life, she technically wasn't actually saying that she'd save my life, but rather that she'd save me by giving me a better life, one in the sea with the merpeople. Her life would've been miserable if any other human had found her, and she thought that my life would've been miserable if I had stayed at the orphanage. See, I can do logic puzzles. Twisted logic, but still.

I thought of Miss Victoria and hoped that she would be able to forgive me. I imagined her walking into Elizabeth's room and gasping, one hand over her mouth and one over her stomach when she sees Elizabeth, gone. Then she sees the white envelope propped up on the windowsill, with her name in loopy writing on the front of it. I can only hope that she knows we're somewhere safe when she sees the simple note inside the envelope;

We're alive, and we are happy.

And my note told the truth.

"Come on, Sophia!" Elizabeth said, now at my side tugging on my arm. I laughed and swam away with her, looping in the water. I was finally free and finally, truly happy.

*Thank you for reading! I know this is different from what I usually write, but I wanted to try this competition. Like I said, The Prophecy should be out soon, so don't worry. But check out the OnceUponNow voting process if you want, and vote, vote, vote (Voting is mostly/only counted on the 1st chapter)! Thank you!*