Three Days to Die Ashore

To save my mermaid kin from slaughter, I decided to go ashore and seduce Seraphina Shaw, my childhood sweetheart who'd become a top scientist.

She was still hopelessly in love with me, clinging to me for seven days and nights, unwilling to let me go.

I woke from the haze of pleasure only to have a bucket of concentrated sulfuric acid poured over my head.

Seraphina watched me scream in agony, smiling coldly.

"So, even immortal mermaids can feel pain?"

"But your pain is worthless compared to what you took from me C my parents!"

"This is just the beginning. Tell me where they are, or you'll never leave!"

In these two years, I was forced to watch her marry another man.

She threatened my people's lives if I tried to escape.

Countless times, she cut open my chest to extract the Mermaid Pearl, using its essence to help regulate her new husband's health.

Seraphina clamped an iron cuff around my ankle, ordering me to stay awake all night cleaning up her husband's used condoms.

I had to listen to their sex moaning, dancing barefoot on shards of glass to soothe her husband to sleep, agony tearing through me.

Later, when her husband fell ill, Seraphina started carving strips of flesh from my body to nourish him.

She hated me to the bone, yet every time I hovered near death, it was her who gently fed me medicine.

"You're just taking advantage of my love for you. Be good, Elias. Tell me, where are my parents?"

I endured her twisted love.

Soon, I wouldn't need to keep the secret anymore.

Because a mermaid who stays ashore for three years will die.

And I had exactly three days left.

..

At 3 AM, the wooden door to the cellar was kicked open.

I was grabbed and slapped several times with loud, stinging blows.

Seraphina's assistant, Mr. Davies, dragged me by my leg across the floor, cursing under his breath.

"Mr. Lowell is injured, why do you sleep so soundly!"

The salty sea breeze carried the tang of blood.

A trail of blood led straight into Seraphina's bedroom.

Seeing the bloody smear I left behind, Seraphina frowned.

"Lucian's hurt. Go to heal him."

I looked up, taking in Lucian Lowell's flushed and dewy complexion.

He was wearing soft silk pajamas.

Smack!

Seraphina's hand cracked across my face.

She looked down at me.

"I told you to heal Lucian. Are your eyes even worthy of looking at him?"

I lowered my gaze immediately.

"I'm sorry."

Then I crawled slowly to the bedside.

That's when I learned Lucian had gotten up in the middle of the night to feed the piranha and been bitten on the fingertip.

After all these years, I was used to Lucian's constant problems.

So, with practiced ease, I pulled open my shirt and drove a sharp fingernail into my chest.

Sweating, gritting my teeth against the searing pain, I extracted the Mermaid Pearl to heal Lucian's wound.

In the silence, Seraphina said coldly,

"Playing the victim card won't work, Elias."

In her eyes, this was just me begging for sympathy.

Because mermaid blood could heal too.

But my blood didn't have that power anymore.

Lucian stirred with a light cough, and Seraphina rushed to cradle him.

"Does it still hurt?"

Lucian bit his lip, glancing at my bleeding chest.

"Darling, I don't know why, but ever since I got sick, the smell of blood just makes me sick."

Hearing this, Seraphina kicked me away.

"Get out! Go to guard the door!"

I crawled out inch by inch, listening to her gentle voice behind me.

"Lucian, you haven't been sleeping well lately. Are you sick? Let me check you over."

My numb heart clenched painfully, fresh blood welling from the unhealed wound.

A maid dumped a bucket of foul-smelling water over me.

Her face twisted with disgust.

"Damn monster, I thought you could heal yourself. Why are you still bleeding? Disgusting."

A mop handle slammed into my head, and I flinched in pain.

"Clean this mess up, or I'm telling Miss Shaw!"

I spent the rest of the night bent over, mopping the floor.

Listening to the sounds of intimacy from inside the room, a single tear fell.

Seraphina's look of utter disgust burned in my mind.

Soon.

Very soon, I'd be free.

Even an immortal mermaid can die. There were three more days for me.

As I wiped away the last drop of blood, my wound finally closed.

Life at Cliffside Manor began a new day.

Seraphina emerged from the bedroom, her neck dotted with fresh red marks.

She frowned at the mop bucket, now filled with crimson blood.

"Why so much blood?"

I didn't argue, just bowed.

"I'm sorry. I'll dispose of this dirt immediately."

Nearby, a maid snipped flowers.

Her voice was deliberately loud.

"You wouldn't believe it! That monster actually asked me how to make somebody happy. God, does he think he can seduce Miss Shaw?"

"Hah! Of course he does. Rubbish like him, daring to hope for Miss Shaw's pity? If it weren't for him, her parents would still be here!"

I tried to leave quickly, but Seraphina was faster.

She kicked the bucket aside and dragged me to the lab.

I sat on the electric chair rated for up to 100,000 volts, my head spinning and nausea rising.

Seraphina held the remote, legs crossed, with dark facial expression.

"I almost forgot. It's been a month since your last interrogation."

"Tell me. Where did they take my parents?"

She hadn't even pressed the button yet, but my hands were already clawing at the armrests instinctively.

Until my fingers were raw and bleeding.

"I don't know."

The moment the words left my lips, 100,000 volts ripped through me.

I screamed, convulsing, hot liquid searing down my legs.

Even after the first shock ended, my body kept shaking.

Seraphina stood up with her jaw clenched.

"Again?"

I spat blood.

Every of my organs screamed in pain.

"I won't tell you."

I couldn't.

It was a secret that kept them safe.

This time, Seraphina didn't press the button.

Instead, she had someone bring out several Mermaid Pearls I'd hidden in a crack in the cellar floorboards.

My eyes widened, pupils trembling.

"What are you doing?"

"Guess?"

Seraphina smirked coldly, tossing one pearl onto the floor and grinding it under her heel!

Hearing my bloody scream, she laughed.

"Was that your father's pearl? Or your mother's? I hear the only way to kill a mermaid is to crush the pearl. Otherwise, you just keep coming back."

"So resilient... You still won't talk?"

My fingernails were gone, revealing white bone.

Tears of blood dripped from the corners of my eyes.

"Seraphina Shaw, I hate you."

Her answer was a kiss that felt like she wanted to bite my tongue off.

Seraphina's kiss left me dazed.

Lately, I'd been getting weaker, almost forgetting how deeply we'd once loved.

Mermaids have always been drawn to humans, so they often took human form ashore and fell in love with humans.

I first met Seraphina when I was three.

She took one look at me and asked her mother,

"Mommy, is this my husband?"

Mrs. Shaw chuckled and gave her a light tap on the head.

Later, our families became close friends, spending time together often.

Until I was fifteen.

Persecution and hunting by humans forced us mermaids to flee.

But sometimes, I'd sneak ashore to see Seraphina.

When others asked who I was, I'd start to say I was her brother.

But she was deadly serious.

"He's my boyfriend. My future husband. Elias Vance."

My heart truly skipped a beat then.

Later, the mermaid clan struck a deal with a group of top human scientists.

The liaisons were my parents and Seraphina's parents.

Seraphina's parents vanished.

I was one of the suspects.

She hated me. I knew.

But I couldn't tell her.

Years later, Seraphina became a top scientist herself.

And I had to get close to her, for my people's sake.

So many times, I wanted to just tell her the truth.

But I couldn't.

No matter.

Soon, I wouldn't need to endure it anymore.

Seraphina's fingers traced my skin, igniting old memories.

She suddenly stopped, staring at the blood coating her hands.

That's when I saw it C the old wounds from countless flesh cuttings and bloodletting were reopening.

I laughed, numb.

"I'm dying, Seraphina."