The Mermaid Cinderella: Chapter 1

Up on the dais, Kane’s mother and Father saw him leaving the ball with a beautiful young woman. They exchanged a hopeful look that maybe something would come of this. The king reached over and took his wife’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

***

Cerise glanced at the handsome man escorting her around the garden. He looked very similar to her rescuer from the other day, but she knew it couldn’t he him. No young nobleman would help a servant gather packages from the street. “So,” she began. “Tell me about yourself,”

He smiled at her again and said, “Well I was born and bred in this town, my parents are rather high up on the food chain in respect to nobility…”

After they left the ball room, both relaxed and were able to be themselves. When the bells tolled midnight, neither could believe it. “I’m sorry,” Cerise said. “I have to leave,” She pulled her hand back and started across the garden to a door.

“Wait,” he called after her, “I didn’t get your name!” Cerise however was gone. Kane hung his head, and spotted a glint on the floor. He bent down and retrieved an oyster shell. Studying it, he made his way back inside.

***
Cerise quietly opened the back door to her house. All was still dark, which meant she had managed to make it back before her aunt and sisters. She breathed a sigh of relief and made her way toward her rooms. When she entered, all her friends swarmed around her, wanting to know how it had gone.

“Oh, it was absolutely wonderful. I met the most amazing guy,” Cerise’s eyes gleamed with happiness as she recounted the adventure of her night. “We danced, and ate, and talked…he almost kissed me, but the bells tolled midnight,” she sighed, looking at the friends gathered around her.

Suddenly the main door slammed and Cerise whirled in panic. She was still in her ball finery and if her aunt saw her, everything would be ruined. “Help me,” she gasped to her friends desperately. Within moments Cerise was back to her drab everyday clothes, all the finery safely hidden away. She moved to the door and descended the stairs to meet her aunt and cousins in the foyer.

“How was the ball?” she asked, a little breathlessly.
"It was absolutely wonderful!!" gushed Aphra.
"Oh, yes wonderful!! it really is too bad that you had to miss it," said Kalypso meanly.
"Did either of you manage to dance with the prince?" inquired Cerise, wondering who he had been.
"No, he have far to many other girls to see," said Aphra. Suddenly Aunt Circe appeared behind Aphra and Kalypso.
"That is enough girls, time for bed!!!" she yelled. Meekly all three left her.

***

Kane sat on the edge of his bed fiddling with the shell he had found on the floor following his mystery girls disappearance. It was an oyster shell, of that he was certain, but it was unlike any he had encountered before. It refused to open, no matter what he did. Maybe, he thought, it will only open for the one who dropped it. Kane placed the shell on the table beside his bed, and decided to dwell on it more in the morning.