Part 1

She pressed her lips to his. "I love you too."

Then, quicker than lightning, a crack echoed around the imposing stone walls. The silence was resounding. The sudden denouement of his death. No-one was breathing. Time stopped completely. Elise was the first to break the muteness.

"Wes?" She had breathed, her voice hitching. "Wes?"

One by one the adults around us began slipping beneath the water again. The punishment was over. All that was left was a man with a broken neck, and a mermaid with a broken heart.