Weave - Imagine Nation (Literary Folio) 2020

Page 42

Mermaid KALANIE SALDAJENO

"I wasn't drowning; I just had to sink for a while, hoping the water would wash away the traces you left." She had the coldest pair of eyes framed by thick, voluminous lashes, her skin was unblemished, and her nose was delicate and thin, she had strange ears for they were a bit pointy, and her hair was a mess but still managed to look beautiful. My life changed ever since I found that naked girl—that day, I found a mermaid. At least that's what she calls herself; she insisted that she was a mermaid. No matter how you look at her, she's a normal girl, but… "You look different from what I imagined a mermaid would look like," I told her blankly, thinking that all of this is just a joke. "That's an image from a story," she told me with equal blankness. I sighed, deciding to go along with her prank, "We're out in public, so if you don't mind, let's go to my place," I said, offering her my jacket. It was expensive, but the girl was naked, so I don't really have a choice. I took her to my house, and she was all over the place; she's like a fish out of water—literally. She was touching every single thing that catches her eyes, though she mainly took a liking to my aquarium filled with tropical fish. "Do you live in a spacious house by yourself?" she asked, her eyes not leaving the aquarium. "Yes, that's right," I answered back, weary of the half-naked stranger prancing around my house. "But if this is the only fish of its kind, it must be lonely." Her eyes still not leaving the aquarium. I then realized that she wasn't talking about me; she spoke of the largest fish I kept in one of my aquariums. I didn't know what came into me, but I ended up taking care of the strange girl. I didn't know anything about her, but I'll find out her background not before long. I noticed a few weird things while living with this girl, like how she drinks saltwater and takes cold baths. Whenever I leave her alone, she secretly eats fish out of the aquarium. If this goes on, I will be left with an empty tank. One day I decided to take her out for a stroll, "It must be boring staying inside the house every day. Do you have somewhere you want to go?" I asked. "I want to go to the sea!" she said, flashing me a toothy grin.

27


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Articles inside

Cat Valley

21min
pages 102-125

Solitude

0
page 101

The Lie Spinner's Tale

4min
pages 99-100

Seeking Nightmares

7min
pages 96-98

autumn left

0
page 94

brink

0
page 95

Infiltration

0
pages 83-84

The Master Weaver

0
page 85

Tenebris' Death Wish

8min
pages 90-93

Existence

4min
pages 87-89

Baliskad

5min
pages 81-82

Mermaid's Cry

0
pages 71-72

Weaver of Destiny

2min
pages 78-79

Attempt

0
page 80

Disconnected Strings

0
page 73

Intertwined

0
pages 76-77

Dreamcatcher

0
page 75

A Sad Twist Of Fate

0
page 74

Woven Affliction

0
page 70

Hinabing Bituin

5min
pages 57-60

Sirang Karayom

0
pages 67-69

The Most Beautiful Way to Die

1min
page 62

Gentle Armor

1min
page 65

escape

0
page 66

String of Hope

0
page 64

Sea

0
page 63

These are the hands of fate

0
page 56

11,034 meters

4min
pages 51-53

Last Day at Work

6min
pages 48-50

Disappointments

0
pages 46-47

Pagdaop

0
pages 54-55

Downpour

1min
page 41

The Thief and the Seamstress

1min
pages 39-40

Mermaid

7min
pages 42-45

Who was I before I lost my name?

7min
pages 34-38

Hawla

2min
page 21

Ang Manghahabi

0
pages 22-23

Handog

0
pages 28-29

Patawad

0
page 30

Hoping

0
pages 26-27

A Wind of Tradition

3min
pages 16-20

The Design

0
page 25

Mapanlinlang na Sining

0
pages 31-32
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