The Little Water Elf

24- Last Sunset

「 The knife trembled in the
hand of the little mermaid,
then she flung it far away
from her into the waves. 」

Callum's head hurt.

He couldn't get rid of the aching familiarity of Rayla's new appearance.

Claudia had hugged him, feeding him comforting words of reason.

"It's okay, Callum, she'd fooled everyone."

Then why was it that he didn't feel fooled. It was as if he'd known the whole time without realizing it. He'd seen the way she'd been fascinated with ever small detail, every insignificant object.

Claudia was amazing through it all, but when Callum told her he wanted to be alone, she simply kissed his cheek and left him, complying with his wishes.

He finally gave in that evening, right before sunset. The prince snuck down to the dungeon area, his steps light and calculated as the floor turned to a mix of sand and cold stone.

When he found the cell Rayla was located in, he found it hard to look at her.

She was curled in the far corner, the floor around her covered in crumbling scales and bits of dried, crusting blood. Her skin had taken on a grayish-blue tint, a ghostly paleness that made Callum believe she could crumble and fade away with the slightest touch. They hadn't thought to change her clothing or clean her up after the storm, and the clothing that cling to her thin frame was the same, white sundress she'd been wearing on their voyage, stained and muddied with dirt and sea salt.

"Rayla..."

He moved forward, his foot catching on the corner of the discarded key and sending it skidding across the floor.

Rayla didn't move.

Callum crouched down, picking up the small key.

"Hey, Rayla, are you okay?"

The elf shifted, her silvery hair shifting and falling over her face. She slowly opened her eyes, glancing in Callum's general direction. Her bright coral eyes seemed to look straight past him, shifting in and out of focus.

His heart hurt to see her like this. He kept telling himself that she was an elf, a creature who existed in a different world from him, that she was a dangerous creature built entirely to seduce and enchant people like him. Yet she looked so helpless, so innocent, so painfully beautiful, even in her state of decay.

He clutched the small key until it bit into his palm painfully. In the next second, he made his decision. Callum carefully slipped the key into its lock, hearing the metal shift and click and pulled the rusted bars open. Callum let go of any amount of doubt in his mind.

Elf or not, Rayla was still Rayla.

She was still Rayla.

Callum knelt down next to her frail figure, sucking in a choked gasp as he saw the damage on her body closely and vividly. Her legs were lined with cracked skin and paling scales, color fading from her skin and every bit of her being.

Her feet were the worst part.

The soles were a bloody mess, the skin shredded, cracked, and mutilated beyond recognition. The tips of her toes had begun fading into what appeared to be a fish's tail, the ends jagged and split, crumbling away like the sand that covered the cell's floor.

"Rayla? Can you hear me?"

Her lips moved, and she weakly pushed her body from the wall, shifting her weight onto her knees in a desperate attempt to straighten her broken posture.