At The Shore Between Worlds

Adrian sat on the shore, forlorn and insignificant against the white, gleaming sand that cocooned his body. He clutched fistfuls of the warm sand, then let his arm hang in the air. Slowly, he unfurled his fingers, allowing the grains to slip through the cracks. Again and again. He had become a living hourglass, waiting, refusing to let it stop flowing. As long as it did, he could wait a while longer.

He gazed at the horizon, at each new, darker stroke of pink staining the late afternoon sky; at its yellows and oranges disappearing below the edge of the world, under the sea that shimmered with the sun's waning glow.

He watched the waves breaking on the shore, greedily lapping up the sand, dragging it under. Once a soothing sight, it now had the opposite effect. With every ripple of the waters, he wondered if her face was about to surface from under them, only to be disappointed.

Truth be told, Adrian didn't need any more gold. He had everything money could buy and a wealth most could only dream of. The only reason he still showed up every single week was her.

Decades earlier, teenage Adrian had found the mermaid washed ashore. Her tail was a dull grey, sizzling under the august sun as mackerel would over a grill and charcoals. The bloody cracks in her lips and her red, bloodshot eyes screamed urgency. Adrian heard their silent plea, taking her into his arms. His heart ached as he looked at this majestic, beautiful creature and saw nothing but fear and desperation.

As a sign of gratitude, the mermaid had vowed to make Adrian the wealthiest man alive. She would come to that same place every week at the same time, and bring him the lost, forgotten treasures lying in the depths of the oceans, for she would've died if it were not for him. It was the least she could do to repay him for saving her life.

That day, Adrian's heart had met its owner. The sight of the mermaid plunging into the sea and resurfacing for him alone had bewitched him. Her beauty was angelic, but it was her smile that had sealed his fate. A gentle smile in the shape of a heart. Surely his, he thought.

Nothing else had ever come close to what he had felt that day. His heart had soared so close to the sun, it was a miracle it hadn't been set ablaze.

Adrian still didn't know her name, even after all those years. She mesmerized him to the point that he could never blurt out more than a couple of sentences. The few times when that wasn't the case, he was terrified of crossing a boundary that would cost him dearly.

As the years passed and Adrian grew older, he remained alone. He took no wife, built no family; something within him longed for the mermaid and could never settle for anything less. It was the reason why he had built his home near the sea, why he had covered every surface in motifs from her world.

If she were ever to miss the ocean, she could glance at the walls and remember the seashells; she could head into the gardens and touch the seaweed, green and sludgy as if she had never left her world; she could lie in the salted fountains and feel a semblance of the waves on her skin; she could even head back into the ocean, if the feeling became too much to bear. That is, if one day she agreed to become a part of his world.

Twilight drew menacingly close, painting the sky in dark shades of blue and violet. The sun plucked away pinks and oranges, disrobing the world of its remaining warmth. It stripped away Adrian's last shred of hope, too.

For the first time, the mermaid had broken her promise, shattering his most cherished illusion.. He realized there would come a day when he would see her for the last time. His chest tightened into a hopeless vacuum of despair.

Relief came when, to his amazement, he sighted her tail amid the waves. Its azure blue scales radiated the last of the sun's faint rays, gleaming an otherworldly lavender. Even the nacre pearls around her neck seemed mundane next to it.

The mermaid lingered at the edge between their worlds. She sat on the sand, close enough to the sea that the waves would reach her waist with their ebb and flow. Adrian managed a smile as the despair finally faded from his body. The wait had felt eternal, but it was worth it.

The years had been kind to Adrian; he wondered if she still saw him as the boy he once was. His teenage face had sculpted itself into that of a man with hollowed cheeks, a greying beard and hair, and delicately creased skin around his eyes.

The mermaid, however, hadn't aged a day since their first meeting, her beauty timeless, frozen in time. Adrian couldn't help but stare hungrily. Not out of lust, but because moments earlier, he had feared never seeing her again. He wanted to devour the sight of her.

Her hair, deep cherry red, glistened a crimson bright as blood on a freshly used dagger. Pale shells were woven into the wet locks, softening the violent pretense of the scarlet strands. Soft eyes arose from their midst, a vibrant green Adrian had only seen in the first pressing of olives into oil. Near the pupil, green faded to amber. Her eyes were hypnotic, as if she carried a piece of the earth with her. It was a foolish, self-serving thought; he was aware of it.

Sharp canines hid behind her gentle lips, materializing only when she smiled, shining like two innocent pearls against the pink of her mouth. But Adrian wasn't afraid. He trusted her, even if he barely knew anything about her. Even if in the end that trust killed him, could there ever be a more beautiful death than at her hands?

The necklace around her slender neck shimmered in tones most humans had surely never seen a pearl glimmer, as if each bead had been hand-picked throughout the centuries. Something else gleamed below in an unnatural yellow glint. A handful of what seemed to be loose pieces of gold jewelry, his loot. It was the last thing he desired in that moment, unwelcome enough to bring Adrian back to reality.

"I thought you weren't coming…" Adrian croaked.

In his voice, doubt and pain were still tangible. A silly thing, he realized now. She had made a promise, after all. Adrian should've trusted her.

The corners of her lips lifted into a grin. With an extended arm, she handed Adrian the gold. He took it in his hand, immediately setting it in the sand behind him. He didn't care about it. When he turned back, her smile had fallen, turning into an unreadable expression as she seemed to ponder her following words.

"This is the last time. My debt is paid…" She declared with the muted, heavy tone one would use in a funeral.

What? Adrian wanted to believe he had heard wrong, that he was hallucinating. Anything but to admit the truth, that this was really happening. He should've known it was coming, that sooner or later the mermaid would no longer be a part of his life. But never this soon. Good god, not yet.

His heart had been dropped from the edge of a cliff; soon enough, he felt the pain of the fall. Sudden, suffocating, excruciating. Sharp as a blade, twisting inside a wound. Merciless.

He had longed for her every day. The second before she left, he missed her already. He wanted to beg. But no words felt right. There were no words at all; everything was gone. In his mind, there was nothing but numbness.

"I brought you more wealth than you can ever spend. Just like I promised…" She murmured.

The mermaid stared at the gold he had discarded, then at Adrian and the vacant stare in his eyes. Her words, meant to lure a final reply or even a farewell, were in vain. He didn't react, standing completely mute.

The mermaid turned around in resignation, retreating, slow and hesitant. Giving him one last chance to say goodbye, a chance he didn't take. She prepared to dive, to return to her world and never come back.

Adrian's body came alive. As he saw the love of his life disappearing, he ignored the pulverized pulp he had for a heart. He ran into the waves, pushing against their force, fighting the drag. He went deeper and deeper into the ocean until his feet no longer touched the sand.

"Don't go!"

A shrill, trembling scream that didn't sound like Adrian's own voice. The kind only the deepest despair could have ripped from his throat.

More waves crashed into Adrian, dragging him back to the shore. He fought, growing more hopeless by the second, terrified she hadn't heard him; that the mermaid really was disappearing for good.

When all hope had vanished, she turned. The mermaid glided closer until she was once again within Adrian's reach.

"Don't go." He begged, quiet, desperate, pathetic, heartbroken. His voice was so faint, so defeated, that the water dancing around them swallowed the sound.

"I can't stay." She whispered, in the gentlest tone she could muster, as if that would ease the pain. Adrian was ready to beg once more, but she continued.

"You saved my life once, and for that I'll be eternally grateful to you. But I have no place in your world." She hesitated, the words seeming to wound her as much as they did him, before adding "Or your heart."

Warm tears blurred Adrian's vision; he didn't get to see her furrowed brows, tight lips, or even the sad glint in her eyes.

"But…" was all he could muster before a loud sob wrecked his being. He couldn't even beg properly.

Tears poured out of his eyes, trailing down his face until they fell into the ocean. Some tears he tasted, barely distinguishable from the saltwater. His body trembled, not so much from the frigid waves as from the fierce crying. He had never felt so broken.

"I really am sorry..." Her voice trailed off in a quiet shame, despite doing the right thing.

The mermaid's hand rose to Adrian's face, in one last kind gesture. She wiped the tears from his eyes, a pointless action when the rest of his being was, too, soaked in salted water.

Their gazes refused to part, sensing this was their last chance to drink up the other's features. Adrian saw the pity in her eyes, and it cut another violent gash into his chest. He didn't want her sympathy. His brain tried to hate her, to make the pain better, but still, all he wanted was her heart.

The mermaid shot Adrian one last look, thick with guilt and pity, then spun round. She left, plunging swiftly into the waves he could hardly fight against. He glanced into the horizon, hopeful for one last glimpse of her hair or her tail, but it never came. She had vanished as if she had never been a part of his life.

Just like that, Adrian had lost everything that mattered. The realization broke him for a second time that night, and he knew he had to do something. He was going after her. He had nothing else to live for.

He took a deep breath and dove, going under the waves as she had done just seconds before. Adrian kicked his legs with might, but he wasn't strong enough. The currents dragged him in circles at their will, as if he were nothing but a rag doll, limp and lifeless.

He held his eyes open through the sting of the salt, even through the grains of sand lodging painfully inside his lids. All for the hope of seeing her familiar red hair. He held on to that hope even if the waters had turned murky, almost pitch black at nightfall.

Adrian convinced himself she couldn't be that far, that if he held on just a little longer, if he kicked against the waves once more, they would meet again. As the tides dragged his body down, rolled him around in the sand, and twisted algae into knots he could barely free himself from, he still had hope. He fought bravely, even when his lungs craved for air as much as his heart craved the mermaid, and his head felt the crushing weight of the prolonged apnea.

He battled, but ultimately, he couldn't fight his body's incessant yearning for a breath. Adrian inhaled the freezing water. It burned his nose and throat on the way down. One more second, and it would reach his lungs, unless he resisted it. For the first time that night, Adrian didn't fight. Not because he quit, but because he realized this was the only way he could ever be with her.

He let the water burn its way into his lungs in an endless, agonizing instant. Before he could indulge his body, expel the briny liquid in one last, futile attempt at life, the pain went away. Then, utter silence, as every muscle grew limp, and consciousness evaded his body. At that moment, Adrian's corpse became one with the ocean. He was finally a part of the mermaid's world.