- 3.
I woke up in the fish tank, immersed in
seawater.
く
Lily lay unconscious beside me.
Jason entered, holding a scalpel.
“Ariel, for Sarah’s dream, I have to do this.”
He looked at me, his steps measured.
“I need to remove your scales.”
“No!”
I shook my head frantically, begging, “Jason,
you love me! You can’t do this to us!”
“No, I only love Sarah.”
My heart shattered.
He approached, pinning me down.
“Ariel, blame your mermaid nature. You’re an
anomaly.”
He plunged the scalpel into my tail.
He carved into my flesh, ripping away my
scales.
Lily screamed, begging him to stop.
But he showed no mercy, systematically
removing scale after scale.
I thrashed in agony, my heart breaking into a
million pieces.
Finally, he finished and pushed me away.
く
The water in the tank turned crimson. I
floated, lifelessly.
Jason didn’t spare me a glance. He turned to
Lily.
“Please, no…”
I struggled to speak.
“Jason, we were a family.”
20
We had been so happy, sharing meals,
spending weekends together.
Jason used to teach Lily and me how to apply
lipstick and eyeshadow.
He wanted us to adapt to human life so we
<
He wanted us to adapt to numan lite so we
could be together forever.
Now, he was brutally removing Lily’s scales.
“No!”
I roared.
He continued, his hands dripping with blood,
clutching the scales.
I clutched my chest, the pain unbearable.
