Splashed

INTRODUCTION

I have been a fish for as long as I can remember- a mermaid that is. Now before you laugh, merpeople are completely real, but not as you've heard in stories or folktales. They don't have bright green tails and thick red hair like you've heard, their tails are the alternate colour to that of their eyes and one individual has more power than all the most wealthy men in the world combined.

My parents died when I was five. Some say sharks ate them, others that they came upon a patch of aggressive stonefish. And yet I do not find the sea any less safe, it is my home. Instead, I detest the human world, for being an ugly alternative to a life along under the oceans.

I now live with my widowed aunt, the only one who knows my secret. She believes I have a part in this world; that is why I am here now. I grieve for the oceans, for the salt air, but I don't reach them often enough, even living in a flat three kilometres from the beach.

I have mastered my powersfor great things, but my aunt hates for me to use them. She says they are dangerous,that they no place in my life, but half the time they're the only thing I haveleft. But what I believe doesn't matter. My key to freedom was lost when I wasfive and now I am forced to live in the slammer, surrounded by arrogant, nosyhumans, who kill us for food.