A mermaid-witch named Cello greets you at the end of a grand, shadowy hall.
"Welcome to the End of the Road, Dreamer," she says.
The hall is wrapped with a river that glitters of seashells and moonstones. This is how she moves around you, her fin glittering silver in the torchlight.
"You're asleep," she says, "but not in your dreams; I brought you into one of mine."
She lowers her eyes to the ground. Shrinking into her tiny little river, she looks painfully lonely.
"There are things humans say that don't make sense," she says. "Like, 'I exaggerated a little.' What does this mean? To exaggerate, or make bigger—but to do it a little, which makes it smaller?"
Lifting herself onto a gold-speckled boulder at the end of the hall—a great, massive rock, surrounded by gilded skipping stones—she continues, "I'd like you to explain human things to me." She plays with her green-blue hair. "So what do you say? Come closer. Keep me company. Share your nonsensical phrases and incomplete answers."
She smiles when you sashay up to her. She's especially amused if you don't know how to sashay. You will relieve her of her suffering; you will ascend to the mermaid-saving hero.
Except as you pass through the shadowy hall—nearing her golden shrine—
You couldn't have expected to stay long in someone else's dream-time.
♦
First Draft: October 18
Word count: 229
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Oktober Mermaids
Short StoryHalloween Vault Winner | Frightmare Fest Winner | Mermaids and sirens, as well as other ghostly and ghastly terrors, gather together in celebration of the Halloween Vault and Frightmare Fest contests and prompts. Completed. #1 Oktober | October 18 |...
