After Alastor left the house, Charlie decided that a walk on the beach would be just lovely on a morning like this. But she had to be careful where she stepped because the ground had been left soaking wet and muddy from the hurricane last night. A serene smile was on her face as she took off her shoes and treaded along the sandy shores, gazing upon the sun rising above the horizon. In that moment she felt blissful and full filled, she felt complete. She felt as though she had found a part of herself that she didn't even know was missing. Was this what being in love felt like?
Suddenly her peace was disturbed when she heard the sound of voices singing sorrowfully over the waters. Voices that were beautiful but haunting, capable of leading whoever heard it to a terrible demise. But she also heard an incredible sadness laced with that frightening tune. She recognized the song without needing to think, and she followed it to the singers. To both her instant fear and joy, she saw her sisters rise up to the surface arm in arm.
She was afraid of how they would react once they found out what Charlie had been doing. She was also scared of what they might do and why they were here. Had they come to take her home? What would they do to Alastor and Beth when they learned about them? Yet at the same time, she was so happy to see them. While half of older sisters could be bullies toward her, she knew all five of them loved her dearly and for all their faults, they had never gone as far as their father had when it came to their disapproval of her fascination with humanity. Helena and Aurora in particular has always been especially kind and warm, though Helena could be bossy.
"Helena, Beatrice, Evelyn, Delilah, Aurora, what are you all doing here?"
When the five mermaids saw their youngest sister with human legs, they became horrified and feared the worst.
"Charlotte! What have you done?!" Aurora practically shrieked.
"She's taken the sea witch's potion!" Helena cried out. "We're too late! It's happening again! We've lost her!"
"No wait! I can explain!" Charlie moving closer to them, but careful not to let her feet touch the flowing water. "This form is only temporary, whenever I get wet my tail will return."
"How is that possible?" Beatrice asked. "Once you took the sea witch's potion, you should be unable to ever become a mermaid again."
"Not if I didn't take the whole potion. I only took one swallow. I can still come back to the sea."
The mermaids anxiously looked up Charlie's bare feet. They were completely white and clear. Not one sign of blood or blisters or scars.
"Your human feet do not bleed." Evelyn said observantly. "Are you not in constant pain whenever you walk?"
"No." Charlie said looking confused. "Why would I be?"
Her sisters started whispering among each other, then they sent their eldest sister to demand answers.
"What has happened here?" Helena said.
"Well first of all, I'd like to know, how do you all find me?" Charlie asked.
"It was a hard trial, but not an impossible one." Beatrice said.
"I can't believe you came all the way from the Southern Oceans and the West Waters of Denmark to this place." Delilah said. "And why here? American humans are by far the most crude, careless, and ugly."
"They are not ugly!" Charlie argued.
"Charlotte what have you been doing?" Helena said. "And you better tell us the truth or we'll get Mother and Father involved."
"Are they here?" Charlie said getting a little pnaicked.
"No." Aurora said. "They don't even know we're here."
"But will send them a very quick question if you don't start talking." Beatrice said.
"Alright, alright." Charlie sighed. "It's like this."
For the next fifteen minutes, Charlie told her sisters everything that had happened since she arrived in Chant de la Mer. She told them about befriending Beth, about living with Beth and Alastor, about how Alastor was the boy she saved long ago and how their relationship had developed over the Summer.
"So it is true, you have fallen in love with a human!" Beatrice scoffed in disgust.
"I didn't mean for it to happen. Honest." Charlie said. "I tried to stay friends, I tried to keep it platonic but the heart wants what it wants."
"This isn't funny Charlie." Aurora said. "You're in serious trouble here. A human and a mermaid cannot be together. Ever."
"I know, I know, but I don't think there's anything I can do. I love him. It's crazy and impossible, but I don't care. I love him and he loves me."
"Hoe do you know he loves you, really loves you?" Evelyn asked. "Any male can just say he loves you. Especially human ones."
"And did you forget your betrothal?" Delilah reminded her. "You are promised to Seviathan of the Northern Seas and the East Waters of Greece."
"Yeah about that." Charlie blushed a little, grinning and playing with her hair coyly. "I don't think he'll want me anymore. I am no longer a vestal sea maiden."
An awkward and eerie silence fell over her sisters as they quickly realized the meaning of her implication.
"You didn't." Helena said looking mortified. "Please tell us, you didn't."
"I did." Charlie admitted freely and without shame. "I mated with Alastor."
Beatrice was enraged, Evelyn and Delilah looked ill, and Helena and Aurora were stricken with horror.
"Have you lost your mind?!" Beatrice thundered. "How will you explain this to Mother and Father?! It'll destroy them! It'll shame them to death!"
"And what merman will want you now?" Delilah asked. "You're unclean! Tainted! Impure! And by human seed no less!"
"You have disgraced our entire family!" Evelyn said. "Our family name is ruined! We'll never be able to live this down!"
"Sisters calm yourselves." Helena said. "As terrible as family shame and disgrace is, it's minor compared to what Charlotte will suffer if she is rejected by this human."
"Oh...You know about that?" Charlie asked looking solemn.
"Yes we know." Aurora said. "We know all about it, and we can't believe you took the potion knowing the risk."
"In my defense I didn't know the risk." Charlie said. "I didn't find out until it was too late."
"Oh this is bad! This is very, very bad!"
"He'll never marry you Charlotte!" Helena said. "Human men may worship innocence but they marry experience. He probably already has a betrothed."
"what are you talking about?" Charlie asked.
"We're talking about how if this human marries another woman, you'll die!" Evelyn said. "Just like last time!"
"Last time? What do you mean last time? And what's this talk of marriage? I thought I would only die if my heart get broken. Where did getting married come from?"
Again the sisters became quiet, but because of a long repressed sadness and a deep dark secret. One that Charlie had been innocent of since birth. Helena looked like she was about to speak again, but the grief in her heart was too great. She feared that if she uttered word, she would burst into tears. Same applied to the other three older sisters, only Aurora had the strength to hold back her sorrow to speak the truth.
"Charlie we...We didn't just come here to check up on you, we also came because we...Or rather I, felt that the time to come to talk to you about Celeste."
Charlie slowly sat down on the sand, her undivided focus on Aurora.
"Do you have any idea how Celeste died?"
"I know humans were somewhat involved." Charlie answered. "I always assumed that it was an accident with a ship or something."
"It's more complicated than that. It was the 19th century, Grandmother lived with us, and Father was a much different merman. He only feared humans, he didn't harbor any hatred toward them and despite his feelings, he respected those who who took an interest in the above world. Grandmother was among them, she used to tell countless tales to the surface and we were all curious about that world, so Father allowed us to venture up there once we turned fifteen. We all went at the right time but Celeste was the only one of us who didn't remain the same after her trip. She was just like you Charlie. Kind, curious, innocent, gifted with a beautiful voice, and she wanted to learn all about the land and it's creatures. She would spend countless days listening to Grandmother's stories of her adventures and then spend the nights dreaming of her own."
"I didn't know Grandmother was interested in humans and the land. All I ever knew was that she a little vain." Charlie said.
"A little vain? Where do you think Evelyn and Delilah get their vanity from?" Aurora chuckled lightly before turning to her other sisters. "Remember how she would always make us where oysters clamped onto our tail?"
"My fins still flinch whenever I see shellfish." Evelyn shuddered.
"Indeed. 'One has to suffer for position' that was her motto in life." Helena said. "And Father will sometimes take that motto too far."
"Vanity aside though." Aurora continued. "Grandmother was very wise and intelligent, she knew more about human beings than anyone else under the sea. If we ever had any questions about that world or those who lived within it, we had to go to her. Celeste wanted to know as much about them as Grandmother did. No one paid more attention to her words of wisdom than she did."
"Strange." Charlie said. "I always thought I was the only one who would even give the above world and humans a second thought. That I was a freak with freak interests."
"No, an interest in humanity runs in the family. Uncle Gabriel was that way too. But Celeste was the only one who wanted to become human herself."
"She wanted to be a human being? How did that happen?"
"It was when she turned fifteen and ventured up to the surface for the first time. Like you, she rescued a human from drowning and like you, she fell in love with that human. This love led to her visiting the surface almost everyday, watching the humans and learning more about them. As if loving a human wasn't bad enough, soon she began to long for an immortal soul. She didn't want to become sea foam at the end of her life like our kind did, she wanted to someday enter the kingdom of Heaven. She used to say 'I would gladly give up my three hundred years if I could be a human being only for a day, and later share in that heavenly realm.' "
Charlie could understand Celeste's desire all to well. She too had yearned for a soul and a chance to reached Heaven's gates even if it meant a shorter life span. After all, what was the point of living for so long if in the end, all it amounted to was a mere speck of foam.
"When Grandmother told Celeste that the only way to earn an immortal soul was to marry a human, she went to see the old sea witch who made her a potion that would give her legs. But she warned her that once she took the potion, she could never become a mermaid again, that she would suffer pain with each step she took, and that if the human she loved married another, she would turn to sea foam the morning after his wedding. To add even more agony, the sea witch took Celeste's beautiful voice as payment for the potion. She never spoke or sang again for the rest of her life."
For a moment, Charlie trembled, she couldn't imagine giving up her voice forever. She loved music, she loved to sing. It was apart of who she was. She wondered how Celeste had the strength and courage to make that sacrifice.
"Celeste left without a word to anyone, she swam to the shore where she drank the potion and her tail was then transformed into legs. As fate would have it, she was found by the human she had saved and he was the prince of Denmark. He allowed her to live within him in his castle, leading her to believe that he returned her love. But it turns out he was already engaged to the princess of France. On the day of the royal wedding, we went to the sea witch for someway to save her and the hag made us give her our hair for a magic knife. At nightfall we gave the knife to Celeste, if she plunged it into the prince's heart and let his blood fall drip on to her feet, then she would become a mermaid again. But she couldn't do it, she loved him too much. At the next sunrise she threw herself into the ocean and turned to sea foam."
Charlie could see tears streaming down the cheeks of each sister, feeling their pain for the tragedy that took place so many years ago.
"We were all devastated and heartbroken." Helena held back a sob. "Grandmother died of grief, Mother was spent a century in mourning, and Father swore vengeance on all humanity. He vanished the sea witch from the ocean and he forbade merfolk to ever swim to the surface."
"For the next hundred years, our kingdom became one of misery, gloom, and loss. There was no music, no singing, no laughter, no smiling, nothing. All we could feel was sadness." Beatrice said.
"Then a miracle happened. Mother became with child again and gave birth to you. After you were born, light and music finally returned to our kingdom. It felt like home again." Aurora said. "But when Father noticed how much you behaved like Celeste, he became terrified of losing you the same way. He maybe unreasonable, but you have to understand, he lost a daughter and it traumatized him to the point that he'll do anything to ensure he doesn't lose another one."
If Charlie didn't consider forgiving her father and reconciling with him before, then she did now. Deep down she knew Celeste's death had to have something to do with his hatred and anger, but she never knew just how hard it was on him.
"So you see? You can't love this human." Aurora insisted. "Humans do not feel the way we do. They fall in and out of love so easily. And they break hearts easily too."
"I am so sorry for what happened to Celeste and I understand how horrible it must have been for you all." Charlie said compassionately. "But I am not her, and Alastor is nothing like that prince. He loves me. I know he does."
"How can you be so sure?" Beatrice said bitterly.
"Because my heart tells me so and I always trust my heart. It's never steered me wrong before. My heart told me to save him all those years ago, my heart told me to trust him as a friend, and now..." She put her hands over her heart for emphasis. "It's telling me that he's my one and only love, and that we belong together."
But her sisters were still not convinced and still very afraid for her.