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A light splash, and a cold current embraced his whole body, filling every inch with icy freshness that sent shivers down his spine. For a moment, panic overwhelmed him, but then his body, as if waking up, instinctively began to move—his tail drifted lazily, flowing into slow yet precise motions.
His body, heavy and awkward on land, suddenly felt alive and agile in the water. Breathing turned out to be unexpectedly simple—his lungs filled with air without even needing to rise to the surface, and for a moment, the panic was replaced by wonder. Jason looked around, feeling an unfamiliar, thin, high pulse beat in his ears. The tight shell-bra that had been pressing on his chest was gone, and it was as if the pain dissolved; in the water, all discomfort in his body seemed to melt away.
He raised his head, looking up at the surface, where his friends and Monica were crowded at the edge of the pool. Their faces were distorted by the water, but Jason could hear them clearly: loud laughter, shouts, and mocking comments.
—Hey, Jason, how’re you even breathing down there?—one of the guys shouted, and a few others joined in with laughter. It seemed none of them realized what was actually happening.
Jason tried to shout something back, but instead, the water seemed to gently pull him back into silence. He instinctively took a deep breath right underwater and realized he could breathe. Air flowed freely into his lungs. The absurdity of the situation finally hit him, and Jason looked down in horror at his tail, slowly swaying beneath him.
'No... this has to be a dream,' he trying whispered into the empty water, desperately hoping he would wake up any second. 'This can’t be real.'
…
Monica’s grandmother hadn’t hidden this costume without reason—there was a secret behind it that no one in the family fully understood. She loved telling so-called fairytales about her journeys at sea and the strange creatures she met, and people often said she herself was “a little different,” considering her odd. Though, probably anyone would seem strange if they spent half their life as a mermaid and then suddenly ended up on land.
Once, in her youth, she had made a deal with a sea witch to take on human form, but the price was leaving behind her tail and her life in the ocean forever. That tail ended up looking more like a carnival costume. But Monica’s grandmother couldn’t part with it—it held too many memories. She hid it away, hoping no one would uncover that part of her past. She had no idea that the witch had thought of everything down to the last detail.
One of the hidden clauses of the contract stated that if she ever broke the terms and wished to return to the sea, all she had to do was put it on again and speak her desire to return to the ocean aloud, and ancient magic would restore her mermaid form—but not without a price. Anyone who wore the tail would be forever bound to the witch’s will, becoming her obedient servant.
Monica’s grandmother knew this but hadn’t seen all the traps in the contract until the end. Becoming human, she had accepted the terms, deciding she’d never give in to the temptation to return to the sea. And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to get rid of the tail, leaving it more as a keepsake...