No... Don't let it get to you... Don't let it control you...

You fool, I already am controlling you. I always knew you were an idiot.

No! You're not real! You're an illusion, I know you are.

You must seriously stop acting like a fish's first time out of water. What are you, 5? Get the heck out there.

Melissa cringed, trying to escape from the evil voice inside her head. She was on the shoreline of the beach and her thoughts were controlling her.

Great, now get over there and tell her. Make sure she knows how good you are. I bet they're underestimating you.

No, Sarah would never do that!

How can you be so sure?

...Fine. Besides, the worst she could do is flip out.

Great...

Melissa walked over to her best friend, Amber.

"Hey, what's up, Bestie?" Amber grinned. Melissa smirked like her life depended on it and told her that she was a mermaid. "Wow! Awesome!" Amber screeched. "Tell everyone you want. I don't care." Melissa shrugged smugly. "Do you actually have a tail?" Amber paused. "Heck yea. This is what makes it all happen." Melissa held up a water bottle and accidentally poured it all over her. "Ow!" She slipped and fell over. Light flashed over her as her legs turned scaly and merged together. She screamed in pain, causing everyone in the school to run out of their classrooms. "What?! Melissa is a fish?" One of the boys shouted causing everyone to laugh. Melissa growled and attempted to get up, but tripped on her tail, causing all of the students to laugh harder, but the teachers began to call 9-1-1. Melissa screamed for them to stop but the teachers called them anyway. A couple minutes later, they picked her up and put her in an ambulance. She banged on the back wall hoping they'd give up, but they never did. "Free me, you mortals!" She cried. they ignored her and her tail finally disappeared, allowing her to be able to move around. She un latched the back door and jumped out onto a curb. Then, she ran as far away from civilization as possible. She ran to the edge of a cliff and jumped off into the ocean. She swam to her castle and her parents were very unhappy. They explained she would have to kill Amber for the protection and privacy of the seas and the kingdom. She cried and fought against this, but she was forced to. With her mermaid singing, she lured a depressed Amber, sitting on the shore to walk over to her. Melissa began to cry and snatched her hand. She dragged Amber, who was screaming and choking, down further and deeper into the sea. Melissa waited until she drowned then swam her back up to the surface. She sobbed as she looked at her best friend's dead, limp body. She later her on a cliff and Melissa jumped off into the never-ending abyss. She was never heard from again.

"And that's how the law was made." A woman said, closing a rusty, damp book. "But mom, that's stupid. It was like a thousand years ago." The mermaid child moaned. "Only a century." She corrected. The girl huffed and rolled over on her seaweed blanket. "Goodnight, honey" The mother swam away. "I wonder what would happen if I don't obey the rule..." The girl wondered, curiously.