The Mermaid’s Love
The Mermaid’s Love
Serena was a thousand years old. She dwelled in the sea world, where all of the mermaids lived. Things were peaceful there. The mermaids danced the nights away amongst the Starfish, in the sea, where all was kind and gentle.
Yet Serena knew of the mortal realm, where life was not eternal. She knew love there was more than lust and the desire to form strong alliances in marriage. Love there was something that defined the human experience. It bound souls together.
Serena lived in the sea universe, which dwelled beyond the mortal realm in a magical portal that separated both dimensions. She was almost one hundred years old but looked like a girl in her late teens. Beautiful for eternity.
As Serena thought of the sea universe, she hoped she would never return. Not to her drunken father who was always merry with mead, dancing with merwomen. Or her mother, who cared for nothing but looking pretty.
Her father was a muscular merman who was very handsome, like all of his kind. For hundreds upon hundreds of years he had been married to Serena’s mother, yet he had other mistresses and countless other children he was unbothered by.
Serena’s family was not impressed she had chosen to use the magic that would allow a merperson to enter the human realm. They knew that if she found what she was seeking in this human world, she would never return to them. Never return to endless days and nights dancing and drinking. A merry existence that posed no dangers or worries, unlike the human world which was cruel.
Serena emerged dressed in a white dress, her body drying quickly in the dead of night as her fins turned to slender legs. She felt the magic buzz all around her. She had a chance for real love.
The magic that bound her to this world meant she knew where she must go. She found the key was in her hand, and she walked from the sea towards the flat in the seaside town of Paignton in Devon.
As she entered the flat, all the things she had pictured were there—a phone, laptop, and fashionable clothes. She was a young girl in her late teens, supposedly living in the modest flat her parents bought her. In truth, her parents were Mer and belonged to the world of the sea, where no human had or would ever enter.
Serena stayed up late, as mermaids didn’t need to sleep. She remembered times when she had allowed herself to sleep, and she would always dream of the mortal realm. In those dreams she could see what it was like to be human—how different it was to live only hundred years if a person were lucky compared to an eternity of partying. Yet whether Mer or mortal, each soul lived on beyond death. So Serena felt it was worthwhile to become mortal, knowing she could find love that was so much more meaningful than the shallow life of the sea.
Serena spent the next week walking around the seaside town of Paignton. She loved the town and found it peaceful. She loved her cosy one-bedroom-flat. She liked all her things, such as her sleek Windows laptop and pretty clothes.
As she became accustomed to life in Paignton, she would often dress in slim-fitting jeans and comfortable jumpers. Her long blond hair would flow in the breeze when she walked through the seaside town.
She thought about how, in the sea dimension where she had lived all her life, there wasn’t technology but magical trinkets. Technology fascinated her. It was peculiar living in a world with no actual magic. Yet there was magic in the sunset and the beautiful people of this world.
Serena researched nights out on Facebook; she wanted desperately to meet a young man. She didn’t care if he was beautiful or not, so long as he was kind and caring. She just wanted to experience love.
So, for the next few weeks, Serena immersed herself in making friends with girls her age. Through the magic that bound her there, she started college in September, doing her A-levels. She’d chosen to study history, art, and philosophy, genuinely wanting to learn about human subjects. She may have been almost one hundred in Mer years, but she looked exactly like a gorgeous teenage girl with long blond hair.
No guys at the college approached her to ask her on a date. The interactions she had with other guys in her class were purely platonic. The college was a modern building, full of students studying various subjects. There was a buzz of youth in the air which Serena loved.
One night in November, Serena and a girl named Edith went to the Spinning Wheel, a popular pub in Paignton.
‘You look so pretty in your dress. I’m so jealous,’ said Edith, who wasn’t as beautiful as Serena.
‘Aw, but you are lovely too,’ said Serena with a smile.
‘Don’t look now but there’s a guy walking towards us. Nerd alert,’ said Edith.
Serena looked up to see a short guy who was obviously in his late teens. He was dressed in a preppy style jumper.
He introduced himself as Tristen. He was very polite to Edith, yet it was instant when he smiled with Serena. He asked her if she wanted him to buy her a drink. She agreed, and he shortly returned with drinks for her and Edith.
Serena learnt Tristen was from a private school in Cornwall. He spoke with a soft yet articulate voice and had a confident yet kind aura.
Serena was taken back by how he blushed as they drunk alcohol in the pub. He asked her questions about herself, genuinely seeming curious about the answers.
The next time Serena saw Tristen was they went to the cinema. Serena wore a black coat which Tristen complimented, describing as very elegant. They saw a Marvel movie and she thought the film was amazing. More incredible though was spending this time with him. He wasn’t devastatingly handsome, but there was a spark in those bright blue eyes and that well-kept smile.
‘I think you’re rather amazing,’ said Tristen as the young couple talked over more drinks after the movie.
‘I’m so glad we met,’ Serena said, hoping he would be the one to give her his heart too, yet it was too soon to know. She only had one shot at it.
That night, Tristen told her a lot about his life. How his dad had cheated on his mum with a younger woman. How his parents had not gotten divorced and his belief that this was because his dad was a very wealthy man.
Serena listened and thought of the sea world. Her dad had told her how she could go to the mortal world if she wished; what did he care when he had so many daughters and sons?
Life in the sea world felt like a drunken hazy joke in comparison to the serious experience of life on Earth. The urgency of needing food and air to survive. The short years, which Serena welcomed if she were to stay in this world.
******
A few weeks passed and Serena was happy with Tristen. She was falling in love with him; he seemed so sweet and gentle in nature. Serena could have chosen anywhere in the world to live her life, yet her soul had been drawn to the town of Paignton.
She often laughed at the huge seagulls as big as small dogs which frequented the town. She liked Paignton’s lazy energy and the feeling of safety it gave.
When Tristen and her finally moved into a physical relationship, it was at a time she was sure he loved her. She could feel it from him. When they made love, she was confident in spiritually giving her heart, letting the magic enter him. She gave him the power to either love her back and keep her on Earth or to break her heart so she would have to return to the sea world for one hundred years before she could try living as a human again.
Serena was sure that Tristen was right for her. She could hear the honesty in his voice when he talked about his feelings for her.
The weeks passed with joy. Serena felt as though she had the best boyfriend she could ever dream of. Some of her friends commented on how Tristen wasn’t very good looking. She would try and convince them that looks didn’t matter. She knew how incredibly beautiful she was because all Mer were gorgeous.
By the time the following autumn came around, Serena was in her second year of A-levels, en route to study history at whichever university she pleased due to her A grades. She knew when the time came she would follow Tristen to which ever university he went to. If they didn’t have history, she would study something else.
Yet her life shattered in one cruel evening. Tristen revealed he had a new girlfriend in an uncharacteristic manner: in a WhatsApp message that stated Serena was too weird because she was too literal and seemed to act as if she were from another planet.
Serena knew her spell was broken as she checked Facebook and saw pictures of the posh girl from his private school that was his new girlfriend. She was not beautiful like Serena. Yet the magic had been destroyed.
The room was starting to fade. Her things were turning to dust as the spell was shattered. Soon the world would forget she ever existed.
Serena screamed as the feelings of immense sadness overwhelmed her. She looked at her flat one last time before it became an empty shell, feeling immense sadness.
When night fell, she stood in the water. It was cold and felt cruel. She waited in the dark lonely sea, watching as her legs turned back into fins. No one was around to watch this magical spectacle, and even if they had been, they would not remember.
The magical portal to the sea world opened up, letting only Serena enter. She swum deep and entered the sea dimension. She swum through the beautiful fishes and magical beings, amongst the architecture of sea homes which looked so different to Earth’s houses.
Her father was waiting for her at the entrance to her home’s village in the sea world.
‘You were gone a long time. I felt the boy loved you, but his heart was that of a coward,’ said her father.
‘I guess I was a fool to think I’d ever be human.’
‘Enjoy the next hundred years. Maybe you’ll find the kind of love us Mer enjoy, something so much lighter than what the crazy Earth world has.’
‘There’s only highs. No lows with Mer love,’ Serena said.
‘Well, yes. Why suffer like humans do?’
‘Tristen was kind. He won’t remember me now. I wonder what will become of him.’
‘Yes. Well. We have ways for you to watch his life through a looking glass, but daughter, why bully yourself with such glum things?’
‘Yes, father, you are right. I shall not dwell on the mortal realm. At least not until I can return in one hundred years’ time.’
‘Plenty of time for me to enjoy your strange ways, daughter. My dear daughter.’
Serena had missed her father, even though he was a pompous fool. She missed her mothers high pitched laughter. She wondered if she had any new siblings.
That night, she returned to her home, which was untouched since she left. She wrote in her diary about Tristen. He wouldn’t remember her. Yet she would remember loving him.
She would do her best to enjoy another hundred years of parties and gossip. Drinking alcohol and dancing in the sea with the fishes.
She missed her history books. There was no room for philosophy in a world of the sea, where there was no disharmony. She would wait. She would do her best to be happy, but she knew she would try again in one hundred years, longing to end her immortality in the only way Mer people could: by finding love with a mortal human in their world. It was the only way to live beyond this water world.
