Prologue.

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Flip. Flip.

What a familiar sound.

The unique noise of the wealthy. The most disturbing sound of all.

There my father sat again, counting those filthy money with a smug grin on his face. Disgusting.

I turned around and left the study room. I walked through the long and grand corridor, looking at the photos that were hung on the walls. The frames made of gold shined under the sparkling sunlight, however my eyes only lingered on the wooden framed photo. It was the photo where mum and dad were smiling genuinely while holding a scared and tiny me in their arms. My arms slowly circled themselves around my petite and cold body. I wonder how it felt to be in my mother's arms...

I hated being locked in this grand castle. It had been seventeen years. Seventeen years of loneliness. Days of endless silence... How I wish to be freed from this prison...

I sat on my bed and looked outside of the window. The house was built next to the beach so I could see the sea clearly from my room. I noticed the moon hanging alone in the sky. What if there were moons accompanying the moon just like the millions of stars twinkling at me? But then if there were moons, the moon would face bullies, just like me. Perhaps it would be better to stay alone. To stay protected.

I pulled up the blanket to cover my body as I prepared myself to sleep. I yawned then it was silent again. It had always been.

For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to sleep. Whenever I tried to drift off to my wonderful dreamland, where there were lots of friends and wonderful people, I heard the crashing waves, rushing onto the shore, and then retreating back into the sea.

I sighed and decided to spent my night strolling on the seaside.

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It was just as I had expected, the sea was calm and peaceful. I watched the sand between my toes as I wandered along the seashore. It was indeed a beautiful night, but it still lacked something. It lacked the thing that I craved for. It lacked the sense of acceptance, as if everything were just too beautiful for people to get close with, perhaps its beauty even scared people away.

I felt my feet getting sore so I sat near the water, watching it bringing the sand away into the sea. This constant motion was so boring that I felt my eyelids started to drop finally. But then, a voice woke me up.

It was so ear-piercing that it was almost like a yell, or a scream. I flinched at the sound and froze. Who could possibly be screaming at this late hour on our beach?

I was frightened. I got up and was ready to walk back to the house when I heard the screaming again. This time, much louder and it seemed to be much closer. I flinched again. My heart was pounding hard due to fear but my feet was stuck and refused to move.

Should I go and see what happened? Or should I just go back to the house? But it seemed as if the sound had lured me in, and unconciously, my feet began to move on their own. With every step, my breath became shallower, until I stopped and noticed something beside a huge rock. I squinted my eyes but it was so dark that I could only see a black thing. So I moved closer towards it. It was all so silent that I could only hear the waves splashing.

When I was close enough, I was shocked. In front of me was a merman! I rubbed my eyes a few times to ensure I wasn't hallucinating. That black thing had an upper body of a man and a lower body of a fish.

It was really a merman. And it was looking right back at me.

 

author's notes.

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Prompt used: Hearing.

This is an official entry for The 5 Senses Writing Contest.

Poster and background credits go to: ━ QUOD; (sintaxe.co )

Credits to World of Literature Readability Testing Shop for the readability test and the review: