Sneaking out is a speciality of mine I must say. The water is still facile to maneuver through at night, but every creature is asleep under the sea making it ten times easier. I hide behind the many tentacles of a mother octopus, waiting until I'm a hundred percent sure no one is watching me from a rock or anemone.

The surface is breath taking at night. The moon is much bigger up here than down at home, the opaque orb floating in the air, a ball in black water. The birds are asleep, the humans asleep, just a cricket or two playing their midnight lullaby. I wade closer to shore, avoiding a fishing net and getting as close to the boy as I can. Reaching out my hand I smooth it out across the square, feeling the rough textures of its sides on my skin. Running my fingers to the glass, cooled from the night air.

I've been wanting, waiting, watching for months now. I can't wait any longer! I heedlessly rush around the square as fast as my arms can drag me, my tail leaving awkward marks in the sand like a burrowing sea-worm. The cool metal electrifies me as I place my palm on the knob.

Wish I

My nerves are strung now, sweaty seawater dripping down me. I could be jailed for this!

could be

I'll finally be able to see him, touch him, lay next to him! What do they feel like? Smell like? Sea cucumbers? Maybe....or the beach? Water possibly?

part of that

To kiss him! Pressing my lips to his. Breathing his breath, combing my hands through his hair, dry and warm and sunny just like land. I'll confess my love for him and I'll live up here with him! It's a dream come true! I twist the knob in my hands clockwise, a breeze coming from who-knows-where as a small crack appears.

world

"You're under arrest." A voice rumbles behind me, a hand matching it's roughness groping my tail. "Visiting humans is against the law, Aries. I'm afraid you'll be sleeping in a cell tonight."

So close. The man drags me back into the water the same way Caspian did the day before, pulling me into the water's depths. The jail cells have always been one of the scariest parts of being a merfolk. Every bar is made of fish skeletons, the beds are debris from human ship wrecks. The decor just screams "you're in big trouble".

"Please I wasn't visiting!" I plead with the guard, clawing the water trying to reach his jet black fin.

The guard reluctantly turns to release me. "You get a conch call."

Frightened beyond belief, I take the smooth conch from the merman and dial Caspian's mobile. I almost drop the shell as a groggy voice picks up. "Who is this?"

"Err...it's Aries...I'm in jail."

He attempts to bite back the acid in his tone, a mental image of him smoothing his thick brows comes to mind. "Aries...were you at the surface again?"

I don't have time for this! "Just come get me!" I whine into the shell.

The conch clicks off and I'm immediately taken back to my cell to await Caspian's arrival like...like...like some mermaid in distress! I pick at the scales on my tail, comb my fingers through my red-brown hair and straighten my fin out. Well that wasted a good five minutes.

"Will I have to stay in here forever?" I ask the guard through the bar.

"Possibly."

I sink into the sand on my back, repeatedly moving my tail back and forth in the water, the frayed ends of my fin swaying like a flag. The man adverts his attention to the door and away from me before pointing back in my direction angrily.

Swimming upwards to face my savior, I reach a small hand through the cell bar's in excitement. "Caspian!"

"Aries." He mutters less enthusiastically.

He drops a few sand dollars into the guard's outstretched hand, motioning for me to follow him out.

><> • <><

"Aries. Sit." He gestures towards a large stone in the sand. "Aries. Sit. Now."

"Before you say anything just know that I-"

"Mom is getting worse Aries! That money I just paid him with could of helped her!"

"Please just-" I stand to negotiate but am forcefully pushed back into the rock, a sharp point digging into my back.

"Mom is dying and you don't even care! You just care about this human!"

"I do!" I cry, my tears getting lost in the mass of seawater around us.

"Then stop seeing that boy, Aries! You need to stay away from the surface before someone sees you!"

"But-" I protest, balling my fists angrily. "How am I to see him if I can't go to the surface?"

His bister eyes become fierce and full of rage, staring into my soul. "That is the point, Aries."

Poking his chest with my index finger I say: "Now that's not very nice."

"You don't get it do you? Mom is dying, dad is dead, we have no one but each-other. If I lose you to some fisherman I don't know what I would do. Aries, I'm begging you to stay away from that human."

Caspian heads back in the direction of home, leaving me behind in the dark. "I love him."

Caspian halts, slowly revolving so that we are eye to eye from a distance. "You're a child, Aries, you don't know what love is."

Wailing, I cover my face with my fin and sink back down to the rock. "It's for your own good." Caspian pats me on the back before leaving me in the dark for good.

><> • <><

"Do you all sell spell books here?" I ask the cashier of the fifth shop I had been to.

"I'm sorry but we don't. Maybe try across the street?"

Reluctantly, I exit the shop and enter the one across the street, barely avoiding a collision with a seahorse and its driver. The shop is darker than the one I had just left, its windows tinted and interior decorated with black. A noticeable contrast from the bright pinks and blues of the previous shop.

"Do you sell-"

"Spells?" The cashier answers for me with a wicked smile. As one eye turns to the door of the shop the other remains glued to me, searching my mind. "We sell spells here."

"Oh great that's-"

The man cuts me off and begins rubbing his chin stubble, a motion I associate with Caspian. "Are you eighteen or over?"

"I'm sixteen." I frown, laying my head on the blackened coral counter.

"Then here is what I suggest to you. Go find a sea witch- no, the sea witch. She'll give you a spell and cast it too just make sure you can pay her back, she even grants a wish to anyone who visits her for free."

Intrigued, I lean in closer to the now whispering man, our hair tangling together in the waves. "How do I find her?"

"I suggest going at night tomorrow but she lives out of city bounds so it may take a while. Just be careful what you ask for boy, I'd hate for you to get hurt."

"Wait but-"

"Sorry boy but I have another customer to attend to."

Well, I know what I'm doing tomorrow...

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Caspian to the side ----->