Don't Die On Me 

 

 

    The lost princess paid the price of bitter silence; the sea reeled in devastation by Sorel’s loss. The mermaid who had been born in these sea waters and sent to the land to be spared from the curse’s tyranny, only to come back and leave her last breath in this place. Sorel fulfilled her destiny and broke the curse, leaving the deathly Shadows a cinder at the bottom of the sea.

    No longer would Sorel’s sapphire gaze seek solace in the endless sea.

    No longer would her mermaid golden scales burn like a fire in the coolness of the seawater.

    A whooshing sound broke the silence of the sea.

    Seawater bubbled in sorrow, accompanying the currents that followed the sound—currents that weren’t obeying the sea’s will this time represented her own agony for Sorel’s death. She always expected Sorel to make it unharmed.

   The young mermaid’s force was immeasurable; she had never seen anything similar for far too long, although she had never had the chance to tap into her powers entirely. The evil Shadows hadn’t foreseen it either. All the light and power Sorel’s young body hid inside, and no one would ever see it unravel. There was so much Sorel had yet to learn…so many things she would never be able to do...

   The sea’s thoughts were chaotic, she was in pain for her sapphire child—whom she welcomed back into her arms and tried her best to protect, if only in vain.

    The whooshing grew louder.

   The currents folded in, and the shape of a hand appeared inside the water, buzzing with pure electricity. It stood still for a moment, hovering over Sorel’s body and then rattled over her chest, reluctant to move away as it denied the truth of Sorel’s death. It hissed like a mad snake, confusing the Sea of its intentions and origin. Before she could do anything to stop it, it thrust into Sorel’s motionless chest with despair.

    “Don’t die on me, little sis.”

   The whisper of those words echoed louder than the heaviest wail, shaking violently the water enveloping them, and the electric hand grabbed Sorel’s heart inside its palm. The hand seemed to hesitate only a mere second, before it crushed the heart in a rhythm—as if it knew what was necessary to bring her back to life. A sudden thump made the hand disappear, and Sorel’s heart swelled inside her chest for a moment and got smaller again.

    A shy heartbeat was followed by a new one, and a stronger one after that; one new beat after another pushed her blood through her veins again, invigorating her petite body.

    The sea smiled with joy—she knew it was her turn to act now. She collected oxygen from her waters and sent a swirl through the little mermaid’s mouth and nose to breathe life inside her—the only way for Sorel to have her best chance.

     Sorel gasped, her lungs hungry for air.

    “Alex,” she murmured in her half-conscious state, unable to move further. Her soul was incapable of ignoring her brother’s call. It felt like his soul was the one helping her get back in her body. Impossible to leave him behind. The regret would make her suffer till the end of time. His pain would break her soul into pieces.

    You’re alive, Sorel. Cardinal Pearl’s voice breathed inside Sorel’s thoughts, and the question in it was impossible to miss.

   I…I’m alive, Sorel muttered with a frail voice inside her head, still trying to understand.

    Sorel had a vague memory of her soul peering at her lifeless body in sadness, trying to accept the fact that in the fight against the Shadows, she had lost her life.

The curse had claimed her—it had taken her life.

     I died. She sighed. I truly died.

    Acknowledging her death in an attempt to come to terms with the truth was the best she could do. The shock she felt was hers to own, such as the pain her body felt inside and out. She breathed heavily and slowly as her memories became more transparent. She had felt the light of the other side calling her. It had whispered her name. She had almost touched it, and the next thing she knew, something crushed her heart. It should have been agonizing, but it wasn’t, and although it was the heart sheltered inside her body’s chest, her soul felt it too. As if that something pulled her soul away from the light with all its might. She could recall the hissing of its energy— she could feel the pain, the hopelessness, and the love that the energy held.

     The energy had shown its claws to the other side: daring and spirited. Not fighting for itself. Fighting only for Sorel and refusing to give up on her. It would never give up on her.

     Don’t die on me, little sis.

     The echo tickled her heart.

     How is this possible? She pondered.

     Her brother’s voice. She would recognize his voice in millions.

   Her voice and words came as a reminder in her thoughts. The last words she spoke before the light claimed her soul. The last person her soul had sought for forgiveness before leaving the living world forever: I am sorry, Alex; I wish I could spare you this torment if only I had the choice.

     Was this a miracle, or the grace of the bond she shared with her brother?

    I don’t know, Starlight replied in her head, his voice broken, still forcing himself to come around. It wasn’t as easy as one would expect. This whole thing made no sense. How were they saved? Did their mortal brother have such power to force the light from the other side to release them? Did he truly have control over death?

The mermaid lay still on the floor, her body not moving an inch. Every single part of her body ached and it felt too heavy to lift, or too tiring to manage a single breathe. Did the Shadows damage her body with their brutal chanting and greed to steal her light? Her mind was exhausted; it couldn’t perform any accountability for body function losses. Nothing felt as if it were working aside from her heart and lungs, which kept her steadily alive.

    More memories of her last moments hammered in her head as a reminder that her brain was working perfectly fine. She grimaced at the thought.

     An awkward tingling crossed her face. The numbness weakened its hold over her body. A soft feeling made its way to her fingertips, and she wiggled them with excitement. Beginning to have some control of her upper body wasn’t a little thing after the horror she went through. Her eyes kept shut and didn’t answer to her command on opening. She wanted to see what was going on around her.

    She could hear silence, and as silence cannot be heard, she mocked herself at the thought. In her numbness, her thoughts continued to run wild: What were the Aryadnians doing during her resurrection? Was her father plotting against her? Or did he already put in the act of some way to finish the job the Shadows had started and apparently failed?

     What about Lyssandros, her father’s right-hand man? He had made it clear how disgusted he was in finding out she was herself and not Seratia—the princess heir of the two kingdoms. In a glimpse of a memory, she could swear she had seen him play with a lock of hair on her lifeless body. A disappointment had stained his eyes. Had she imagined that?

     Sorel could only fear what was to come. They would never spare her life, and she had no energy left in her to fight them back. Had anyone noticed she was alive already?

    “You’re safe now. I have yielded time under my power to shelter you,” Cardinal Pearl spoke loud and clear as if she could hear Sorel’s thoughts. “The Shadows have vanished, and the curse has been lifted.”

     She waited patiently for Sorel to regain some of her body function before startling her. Cardinal Pearl couldn’t resist any longer feeling her internal torment, she wanted to assist Sorel in her way. She felt guilty for not being able to protect the young mermaid earlier—she left Sorel to die at the hands of the evil Shadows, although she had promised not to let her perish like she had allowed herself. She had failed Sorel in the same way she had failed herself and her family long ago.

    Cardinal Pearl was weak against the Shadows. Her powers had never been their match, but Sorel had proved to be beyond them as she was meant to be from the start.

    Sorel’s eyelids finally stretched open as she heard Cardinal Pearl’s words. Darkness covered her sight, but she pushed down her fear. For the briefest of moments, she worried that she had gone blind. Going blind would complicate everything; especially the fact of how much she loved to see. In the panicked moment, she began to make a list of all the things she would miss seeing, but she knew she had to give her body time to heal. In the meantime, she only hoped it would fully recover and that she would regain all of her senses.

    “The Shadows,” she coughed to clear her airways. Her voice came out hoarse and weak. “The Shadows are gone?”

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Coming in 2026