Mermaid Nightmares

“Alana?”

“Yes, Mother?”

Alana barely looked up from the rock she was holding. It had a bit of a weird flicker and it glowed a pale pink through the blueness of the water.

“I’ve been looking all over for you.”

Alana took a deep breath and blurted out the words she longed to say. “This rock. I have a funny feeling about it. It’s not a normal rock.” Her fins quivered with excitement. Maybe her mother would understand.

No such luck.

Next thing she knew, she was being pulled towards the coral cave. Home. the place where she was most often shunned.

In a flash, Alana broke away from her mother and headed for the surface.

In a matter of minutes, she emerged. Now what? Wait a minute. Something was not right. It was dark. And, come to think of it, she could no longer feel the water lapping up against her tail.

She felt herself swirling away from anything familiar. Down, down. She saw the rock, the one that started this mess. She tried to resist, but she was reaching, reaching, reaching. . . .

In the warm coral cave called home, waking up from a very memorable, unpleasant dream.