Short Story Collection by Anna Pink Mystic

Bleeding Heart

Far out in the vast ocean, where the sea meets the sky although not quite, where the sun gets swallowed at the horizon although that's not the fact. Deep within the blue crystal clear waters dwells a beautiful mermaid who was filled with sadness, loneliness and oblivious by others. Happiness is all she ever wanted to make her life enough.

Once, she swam to the surface and saw humans laughing happily. Those laughter echoed across the vast ocean. She has seen merfolks laugh and feel joy, however, the joy she sees in these humans seem so unlike the merfolks. The merfolks feel joy although not quite. It feels as though there is a void in the hearts of the merfolks. She could feel their bleeding hearts as well as her own yearning for something she does not quite know. Something, which without, would never be enough for their 300 years of life.

Therefore, she vowed to go to the land to seek what makes the humans so happy and enough, to find what the merfolks' bleeding hearts were yearning for. She went to the king and asked him for permission to go to the land. The king was reluctant at first but finally granted her request with a condition. He would make her human and she could return anytime after she has completed her quest. However, she had to return with the one thing which could cure their bleeding hearts. The king gave her a necklace with a seashell, the size of her palm to bring back the cure. With that, the mermaid agreed and she was transformed into a human. No part of her will resemble a mermaid down to her very core.

The mermaid was washed ashore and could feel the sand surrounding her new pair of feet which replaced her once tail. Quickly, her legs started to feel numb and wobbled. Then, she splashed into the water. There was no one on the coastline, save for a chest half-buried in the sand with rusted metals bordering it and decaying wood with bits of sand stuck to it. A fishnet and some glass bottles were strewn all around it. She felt the warm sun shining on her bare skin and heard the sound of humans talking nearby and saw them in their puffy clothes. Clothes. She had none save for the seashell necklace around her neck, then, she drifted her gaze back to the chest and struggled to walk towards it. The inside of the chest was filled with more fishnets tangled with more glass bottles. She dug her hand deeper into the chest and finally felt soft cotton and pulled it out to reveal a pink dress with puffed sleeves where one side was slightly torn as well as the hem of the skirt with a few stray threads hanging loosely from it. This will do, she thought and immediately slipped on the dress over her head. Suddenly, she felt something prickling over her foot and noticed a sand bubbler crab moving quickly away. She looked down at her bare feet and reached her hand into the abandoned chest once again but to no avail.

She shrugged and walked towards the market with the soft sand beneath her feet with every step. The market was very noisy and it was packed with humans bumping into each other on the narrow pathway between stalls. Many of them wore plain and simple clothes but unlike her who was in rags. Those who passed her shot glances from top to bottom. In one of the stalls, the humans seemed to be shouting at one another over the wooden table right before exchanging some silver. She could feel the tension and nervousness among them as well as profound anger which she had never seen before. Overwhelmed with emotions, she quickened her footsteps out of the packed market and finally came to a vast, quiet and peaceful land that was filled with slabs of stones vertically planted into the ground.

There were a few people dotting the horizon. Some kneeled in front of the stones while some carried flowers, some were even talking to it. She had never talked to a coral undersea nor brought them flowers. Curious, she walked closer towards the people and felt sadness, grief and loneliness within the tranquillity of the stone field. Those of which she felt when her mother had left her. However, they were not the same, here, it felt complete. Towards some other people, she felt remorse and anger. Their emotions were shown through those glassy eyes. There were some people leaving with a sense of relief and tears rolling down their cheeks. So much grieving emotions are expressed and let out here.