Chapter 11

I didn't like this unpleasant feeling of being hated. It was almost like déjà vu. Something like this had happened to me before but I couldn't quite recall when. Was it when I was 9 years old or maybe it was 10? I remember being hated by a girl that used to be my friend. My only friend. But I couldn't even remember her face, much less her name. It's like a grey haze had settled within my head, veiling parts of my memories from flooding into my consciousness.

Mia's voice cut through my thoughts, "It's done."

Jenny gave me a critical look and nodded in approval. "It might be little rough around the edges but I think it'll work just fine."

Mia ignored her and said, "Try moving around."

I looked down to see parts of the dress gathered around my feet in heaps of red. My bare thighs felt unconfined and a lot lighter than before.

I twirled around looking back at the vanity to see the pale skin of my legs. She cut it short but it wasn't too short that I would be worried about flashing my underwear unintentionally.

It looked like I was wearing a very vintage summer dress.

"It's perfect," I said looking back at her. "Thank you."

"You don't need to thank me, my lady. It is, after all, my job to be of service to you"

Jenny clicked her tongue at her bland response.

"Jenny," Mia turned around all of a sudden and smiled ominously. Looking at her companion, she said, "Why don't you go and fix the length of every dress you find in the dress room to Miss Chloe's preference." She tossed her the dagger she was using to cut my dress short. "And take this with you."

Jenny caught it in her hands, reflexively, then gaped stupidly at Mia in return. " 'Every?' "

"Yes. And check on her dinner on your way out."

Jenny narrowed her eyes at the short haired girl and tightened her tiny fists. She looked like she was about to through a tantrum but she just scoffed and tapped the floor three times with her tail in an impatient beat before saying, "Fine." Then she swam back out the balcony.

Her departure left the two of us standing in silence. Only the sound of Mia bunching up the leftovers of my dress from the floor could be heard. I'm normally quite comfortable in the silence but this quiet was, somewhat, stifling. She didn't seem too bothered by it though.

"It's quite warm underwater, I wonder why that is," I attempted to break the ice. I was actually quite bewildered by the strangeness of this place. The voices echoed in a three-dimensional harmony like the chimes that hung over the window in my bedroom and the water was uncannily warm and comfortable despite the coldness reflected in this place.

"Yes," she said simply and silence befell us once again. She finished collecting the stray straps of fabric and placed them in the plastic bag she had brought the dress in. Then turned around only to sigh when she looked at the curious look in my eyes. "It's magic. Everything in this place is magic including us. Maybe even you."

"Magic... " I repeated after her in wonderment. After all that I had been through, I didn't find the idea quite so unbelievable. But what she said in the end bothered me.

How was I a part of this? Before I could get any answers to the brewing questions in my head she was already gone without having excused herself.

I looked around the room, having exhausted anything that could have remotely entertained me, and found nothing that could keep me occupied until someone arrived with my food.

I let out a frustrated breath until my eyes landed on the door Mia used to leave the room. It was left ajar by a crack and having nothing better to do, I took that as an invitation to explore.

I pulled the door open and stepped through the threshold into a hallway with rows and rows of doors lining the walls. There were no windows here so the whole place was shrouded in darkness. I felt like I should be more scared about exploring unknown territory but I wasn't. I was more curious than scared.

What was this strange place? They said it didn't belong to the mermaids but then how the hell did it even end up underwater? How long had it been here? I was too curious and in my curiosity, I failed to notice that I was winding deeper and deeper into this maze of a house.

I wondered whether I could retrace my steps back to my room and something made me stop abruptly in the middle of the hallway. I noticed now, how empty the halls were. It's like every room was devoid of life, not even the staff could be heard in this part of the house.

How strange.

Maybe now, the curiosity was subdued enough that all I could feel was the jittery feeling of fight or flight kick in. I tried to remain calm and turned around to walk back in the direction I came from, letting my hand stroke the walls in an effort to brace myself.

I knew I wouldn't quite be able to reach back without asking for directions so I knocked a few doors, despite the cautious part of me preventing me from doing so, but when there was no answer I quickly lost hope and waited for someone to come looking for me.

Which wouldn't be too long from now, I hoped. I didn't want to make it worse by getting myself any more lost than I already was so I sat down next to the wall cross-legged and waited.

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And waited.

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Waited some more

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No one came.

Well shit.

I looked around as I sat there, my eyes had gotten accustomed to the dark for some while now and all I saw was nothing. There wasn't a soul in sight and it was deafeningly silent. I feared this kind of silence. It felt like if I shut my eyes and let myself listen, I could hear the whispers.

They sounded like the entire castle was creaking in response to my distraught, strange whispers that muttered incoherently into my ears, trying to tell me things I didn't want to hear. I stood up suddenly, shaking my head to brush away the voices.

This place was starting to haunt me.

I shuddered at the thought of this castle coming alive while I stood here, alone in the dark. I didn't like what this place was doing to me. It felt like I would go crazy if I stayed here any longer.

The water rushed around me and rustled my clothes, swaying my hair ahead of me. I pulled them back behind my ears and followed the direction of the water. It felt like a low resounding hum, the way it moved around me, beckoning me.

I floated from one corner to another as I let myself get pulled along with the current until I ended up standing in front of a giant door in the middle of a three-way intersect.

It was a dark wooden door with its bronze knob shaped like a viper's open mouth. From its bottom jaw hung a key, old and worn out. I had seen it before though I couldn't remember when. The moment I outstretched my hand to grab the key, the viper's mouth snapped at me from out of no where.

I jerked my hand back reflexively and stared at it wide-eyed as it returned to being a knob, the key still dangling by its lower jaw innocently. Like it didn't just try to bite my f^^king hand off a moment ago.

"I must be going crazy..." I mumbled to myself, not sure what to make of what I just saw. But then again, that was an interesting statement coming from someone that was breathing underwater.

I would laugh at the irony of it, if my situation wasn't so ludicrous at the moment.

There was something about this door apart from its kooky doorknob that literally bites you. I couldn't just ignore it.

There was an odd glow coming from the cracks and I wanted to open it. I saw the key that hung by the knob but I couldn't find a keyhole. It was just a massive door with a strange light behind it.

I was about to try snatching the key again when I heard an audible crack that pulled me out of my stupor. As it sounded again from somewhere around the corner, I realised it was eerily similar to the sound of someone's bones snapping like twigs.

I flinched at the odd comparison.

But as I followed the sound to the door behind which it was coming from, I could also discern the sound of someone munching into raw flesh. I didn't know what was behind that door and something told me it wasn't something I should be curious about either.

I should just walk away and never look back.

That's what I should've done, but instead I held the knob in my hand, feeling its abnormal warmth in my palm as I hesitantly turned it and carefully pushed the door open until the rift in between was enough for me to see what was inside.

I squinted at first at the sudden brightness and quickly derived that the room had no roof. Then I tried to focus on where the disturbing sounds were coming from. I couldn't get a clear view but I think I saw a flash of bright blonde hair in a mist of red. He was crouching behind a giant dead lump of meat with fins poking out from its grey skin.

I blinked. Was that a great white shark?

Once the person behind pulled his head back enough for me to see his face, I had to stifle a gag. I covered my mouth with my hand and just stared wide-eyed.

He was a monster.

That mist of red I saw was blood. It was everywhere and in the centre crouched this monster with his dark, dreary red eyes looking ever so content. His face was the stuff of nightmares. No doubt I'd be meeting him in many of mine after tonight.

He was not at all like the normal merpeople I had seen thus far.

There was a sharpness to his looks and despite the chaos, the air of tranquility hung heavy around him. He looked calm, sated, eerily so.

I could see a morsel of flesh sliding down his sharp jaw and he made no attempt to salvage it. He just closed his eyes and licked his bloody lips, fondly. I suppressed another urge to vomit my guts out.

I made a slight shift in an attempt to silently leave this monster to whatever the hell he was doing with the shark.

And just then, his bloodshot eyes snapped to me. He saw me through the crack in the door and bared his frighteningly sharp teeth as a sneer formed on his lips.

I couldn't help it, I screamed.

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