1 One Breath

I hear her crying, feel her tears rippling in the waves. Sliding through the water, I approach where she sits on the shore.

"Child, why do you cry?" She hears my soft voice call out to her from the water.

She jumps, and turns to me, her face ugly from crying. Her eyes mostly swollen shut, red blotches, and snot smears, cover up what would've been an average 20 year old human face.

"My boyfriend left me for my sister, and my parents kicked me out because they don't want me interfering with their... love." I could feel the venom, as she spat that last word.

"It sounds like you've been through a lot. You can talk to me until the tide falls, it's not like I'm going to tell anyone." I speak quietly to her, encouraging her to tell me her story.

It turns out that although she has an average face, she was from a rich family, and she had been engaged to her boyfriend, who was from the most wealthy family in the area, since they were in diapers. However, unlike her sister who had blossomed with age, she had begun to wilt. Her sister, had been seeing her boyfriend for over two years all behind her back.

"You poor thing... I wish I could help you, but..." I crooned as I swayed in the water.

"But???" She asked crawling towards the water.

"But I don't have the strength to do it..." I told her sadly.

"Do you need to eat? I have a candy bar..." She said digging in her pockets, pulling out her prize, " Well half a candy bar."

"No, child, nothing like that, you see magic takes a different kind of strength. My kind has to use our own life essence." I tell her sliding my mermaid body on to an outcrop near the shore.

"Oh," she says eyeing me with a mixture of suspicion and wonder, her eyes wandering of my beautiful face. "How could you help me, if you had the strength?"

I smile softly at the smart child, "I could give you my face for as long as you live."

She gasped, clearly pleased with this idea. "How much life force would you need?"

"For such a feat, I'll need is ten years worth." I tell her, as I slowly touch my face.

"What if I bring my sister here, would she be payment enough?" She asks thinking quickly.

"I can't say for sure, because each person's clock is different. You would have enough to do it, and have time leftover. However, if you'd like to bring your sister, I could tell you if she's enough."

She nodded her head, and slowly got up.

"However, this may not be the best spot to bring her yourself. She might think you've planned something for her, so how about you tell her this is a place with a romantic legend."

She agreed and ran off, I slipped back into the water smiling.

---The Next Day---

A younger more beautiful girl came with soft features and light steps. I watched as she climbed near my rocks. I could hear her praying, "please make him hate me."

"Why do you want to be hated, young child?" I asked softly.

She jumped, and turned to me less than an arms reach away. "I didn't wish for beauty, and yet the man that my sister loves has decided to marry me. He even attacked me two years ago while I slept, and tried to plant his seed in me. I tried telling my parents, but they hit me and asked why I didn't keep his seed. My sister believes I seduced him."

"Poor child, I can fix this for you, but I'm afraid I'll need your family, and the man your sister loves. Could you bring them here?"

She nodded to me resolutely.

Once again, I slipped out into the water.

Hours later, I see the elder sister approach.

"Doesn't she have enough life force? She's young and pretty!" She demanded at me.

"Unfortunately, no she carries a sickness in her. I'm surprised your family hasn't noticed." I could see the elder sister pause for a moment, and slowly nod.

"She has been bruising easily lately. I only lightly hit her arm, and it was black and blue for a week."

"I convinced her to bring your parents and boyfriend with her so hopefully they will have enough. I doubt your parents have much to add, but perhaps the boyfriend has enough life."

"What?! But why would you take him? He's the whole reason for this!"

"Child, he's cheated on you... with your sister... are there not better fish in the sea? I'm sure you can think of bigger, better men than a young boy from a small island." I leaned towards her. "Perhaps, someone from the screens you humans watch?"

I watch as I see a sparkle light her eyes, "Well there is this one idol I've always loved, but he's from another country."

"I can take you anywhere that the water touches."

"Ok, l will help her bring them here."

"Good child, I expect to see you soon."

---Two Days Later---

I see a small group of people walking towards the shore, a middle aged couple, the younger sister's hand is forcefully captured by the boyfriend, and the elder sister pushing them along.

The sky was filled with clouds hanging heavily ready to break out into a full storm any minute. "See this is where I think little sister should get married."

"I'm glad you're over your little phase, this would be very beautiful had the weather been nicer. What does the happy couple think?" The group turns to the two who have been walking hand in hand. The younger sister half smiles, half grimaces as a new set of bruises join her wrists.

The groom-to-be frowns, and shrugs. "Whatever, I don't really care."

I skip up out of the water slightly, and catch the groom's eye whom loses rationality and begins to dive into the water towards me. This sets the older couple into a frenzy, where the wife starts screaming. Opening my mouth, I begin to sing, and shortly after the father joins the boyfriend in the water swimming towards me.

The girls are the only ones left on land, and making eye contact with the elder sister I nod my head. She gives a swift shove to the younger sister whom she was standing behind. The mother is still freaking out, and trying to pull her phone out of her purse as the first torrent of rain hits down. The elder sister then tries to shove her mother, but the mother latches on to her wrist, and they both fall down.

Smiling, I stop singing in time for the groom-to-be to arrive I swim up to him and watch as his glassy eyes meet mine, I put my lips to his, and in one quick gulp his life force is gone. A year, and he'd have had a horrible car accident killing twenty others.

The father then arrives, and two gulps and he begins to sink as well. Heart attack while in his Mistresses bed, tsk.

I glide quickly through the water, and pull up next to the flailing mother. I reach for her face and press my lips against hers I drink long and deep from her. Thirty years, and she ends up shutting down the factory they own eliminating sixty percent of the island's income, forcing most of the island's into poverty and starvation.

I finally swim up to the elder sister, "I have what you want," I tell her as I watch her blank eyes drift behind me to where her mother was slowly sinking. Her eyes flit to my lips before swallowing her saliva and attempting to meet my eyes. "Is it still what you want?"

"No... I will return to land and take over the company. I'll get plastic surgery or lose weight or hire a makeup artist, but you can keep your face."

"Then, return to land child."

"My little sister?"

"Has her own choice to make..." I tell her as I slip under water, and quickly find the unconscious little sister. I pull her to shore, and leaning over her, I brush her hair out of her face with my hand.

I put my hand on her stomach and pull the water from her lungs. She sputters as her body rejects the ocean.

Her eyes open, and I whisper to her, "What is your choice?"

"I choose freedom." She tells me resolutely. I nod, and put my lips to hers, and release one breath. Her body begins to float and change as she joins me in the seas. Her bruises fading, as she swims along side of me, and grabs my hand.

"Come Little Sister, let me show you your new home."