Chapter 12: Lifeless Realization

Rachael woke up with a jolt, her eyes bolted open as she tried to adjust to the dimly lit room. She was lying on a cold, hard floor and could feel the dampness seeping through her skin. The air was filled with the smell of salt and seaweed, making her feel nauseous. It took a few moments for her to realize that she was not in the cave they had kept her captive, but she was in a theater.

A wave of confusion washed over her, as she had no idea how she ended up here. Her last memory was of her being captured by four mermen who skillfully put her to sleep using their haunting melody. She scanned the room and saw that she was surrounded by merfolks - creatures whose existence sounded unreal to her.

Rachael rubbed her eyes, hoping it was all a dream, but when she opened them, the merfolks were still there, staring back at her with unblinking eyes. They were more sinister, with razor-sharp teeth, and their eyes glowed in the dark like a predator waiting to pounce its prey.

Rachael wanted to scream, but the intense gaze from thousands of merfolks who were seated in rows and rows of seats watching her made her feel vulnerable, like a trapped animal.

Fear swelled in her chest, making it impossible for her to breathe as she took a careful look around her. The theater itself was made out of sea corals, its seat carved out in stone. And the arrangement of seats made everything feel claustrophobic. The light above her reflected off the smooth surfaces of the theater with little variation. Rachael looked up at where the only source of light was coming from, still half dreaming.

In her confusion, the sky above her was an endless ocean of deep blue. The water seems to truncate the sun's glare, creating an ever-present warm glow that spreads throughout the underwater kingdom. In that water-like sky, were schools of fish that darted back and forth, their shimmering forms catching the light from above. Strange and wondrous creatures flit through the water sky, their otherworldly shapes and colors a testament to the infinite diversity of the ocean.

Suddenly, one of the merfolks, a merman to be precise, stepped forward, and she could tell by the way he moved, he held so much authority.

"Welcome, land dweller," it said, in a deep rumbling voice that made her bones vibrate. "You have been chosen."

"Chosen for what?" Rachael asked, fear laced in her voice.

"Your soul will be in exchange with that of our dead prince," the merfolk replied, its face devoid of emotion.

Rachael felt her heart skip a beat.

"Your prince is dead and nothing can bring the dead back to live," she said, desperately searching her mind, trying to find possible answers to what he had just said.

"We hold the knowledge and forbidden secrets that are older than this world. You know nothing, human. And besides, your race was the cause of all this. Isn't it right to use the very thing that caused a disaster to end such disaster?" he asked. "We have to do everything possible to maintain the balance between our world."

Rachael could not believe what she was hearing. Her soul would be exchanged with that of their dead prince? She was going to die for another crime she never committed in the hands of these creatures, after she barely escaped the gruesome demise her people had prepared for her for a crime she knew nothing of.

Life was just unfair. It always has been anyways.

She could feel the tears prickling at the corner of her eyes, and she tried to hold them back, but they spilled over.

"Please, please don't do this," she begged, her voice cracking.

"I don't want to die."

The merfolk didn't seem to be moved. They had made up their minds, and nothing could change it. Rachael could sense there was no means of escape and that alone made her feel trapped.

Her eyes were fixated on a white seashell that was located in the middle of the open theater. Rachael stood up out of curiosity and walked slowly over to it. The merfolks who had gathered to watch the sacrificial exchange, watched with great anticipation as she started walking towards the white sea shell, unsure of what she would do. When she finally reached it, her eyes locked on the figure inside.

Time slowed to a crawl as she realized what she was looking at. Her breath caught in her throat, and her heart began to race. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

There, in the white seashell, lay the body of a young man. His eyes were closed, and his face was pale and serene. Rachael felt her legs give away, and she collapsed to the ground in a heap, tears streaming down her face.

The face of the young man ushered in torrents of familiarity in her brain. His facial expression was no other person than the merman she had previously met while the merfolks kept her captive in an underground cave.

It was him. The stone statue merman who she had carelessly released from his eternal prison. It was the merman who had fed her with fruits and other sea foods when she was kept in captivity and starved for days. It was he, who showed an iota of care for her, despite her beliefs that these creatures were merciless and cruel.

This merman had decimated every stereotype she had in mind about the merfolks.

The cruel imagination of what might have killed him shattered her already broken heart. The man who fed her with berries days ago lay lifeless in a shell. Dead.

Was he the prince to whom she was going to sacrifice her soul? She thought. Who in their right senses would trap their prince beneath an underground cage for centuries, frozen like a statue and chained for eternity?

Millions of questions flooded her throbbing heart, making her mind a total mess as she tried to find possible answers to connect the dots. Rachael discovered that each moment she spent under this underwater kingdom led to Discoveries that questioned everything she had been told since childhood.

Her voice broke through the canvas of sadness that surrounded the atmosphere around them. "Who murdered you?"

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