" you must expect something, coming down here so often, @nereidez. "
darkness, barely lit by the flickering flames of various candlelights adorning the cavernous walls, candles she has collected with time, from wrecked ships that wash out on the shore. within the blackness of the caves, her eyes take an eerie glimmer, an uncanny silver accentuated by the licking of the flames.
vanessa keeps her distance from the child, the mermaid's offspring, who, just like her sister at the time, has ventured down the cliffs to the cavernous hideouts at the bottom, looking for the infamous spectre that, rumor says, has inhabited the caves for over two decades. she wonders, each time a human child dares venture down here, if it's simply morbid curiosity for the unknown and spooky, or if she has been unwittingly calling them in for company.
ursula once told her, once your purpose is done, you will return to being foam and seaweed. but as long as the sea witch lives, hidden within the depths of the abyss, so will vanessa, and as long as vanessa exists, she will remain speaking with the same voice as the mermaid.
" do you not fear being in the dark? " a soft whisper, as she glances toward the flickering candlelights to her right, close to where the girl stands, perhaps out fear, perhaps out of cold, " if so, you are foolish, like your mother. "