At the age of twenty-seven, Dawn Daniels had everything anyone wanted — women, money and power. His father was an infamous mafia don, and it was no surprise that he would inherit the family business after his father died from a heart attack. There was no other family apart from the old don who refused to remarry after Dawn’s mother passed away from childbirth. However, the young don always saw his subordinates as his family. In particular, his father’s advisor had always been a big brother Dawn never had. Ricardo was the last person Dawn expected to betray him. Yet, reality was constantly disappointing him.
“This is the end of line, buddy. It’s been a joy watching you grow up all these years. No hard feelings, Dawn. I’ll send you off without pain to reunite with your parents.”Growling at the traitor under his nose, Dawn couldn’t help but regret overlooking the signs. His father’s death had been suspicious from the beginning, but the young mafia boss had many things to settle on the turf that he did not ask anyone to investigate it. The funeral was arranged by Ricardo, and Dawn was too busy dealing with the hooligans who thought they could take over the Daniels’ business district by causing trouble.He should have known it was an insider job. The timing of the troublemakers running amok on his turf was a distraction to the true plans behind the scene. One by one, his father’s trusted allies were getting cut off and disappearing. Dawn noticed the lack of support from them after he was named the new don, but he thought it was the generation gap and their old stuck-up ways of refusing to acknowledge a fledgling as a proper leader.It was too late now. Ricardo had a gun pointed at him, and they were at an isolated place with no escape routes in the dead of the night. There was nobody around to help Dawn, and the gun he had was useless. Ricardo removed the bullets when he wasn’t looking, a rookie mistake on his part that would now cost his life.“Say your prayers, buddy. I’m sorry this had to happen,” the adviser smiled.Burning with hate and stabbed by the betrayal, Dawn gritted his teeth and glared daggers at the man ten years older than him. Even though Ricardo wasn’t forty yet, he had grey streaks in his brown hair, reflecting the stress over the years. The street light reflected in Ricardo’s hazel eyes gave Dawn an idea. It was worth taking the gamble.“You should be sorry,” Dawn laughed hollowly as he slowly backed away from the car and towards the bridge. “Even if I die, I will come back as a ghost for your head. You’ve disappointed me greatly, brother.”There was not a trace of fear in Dawn’s eyes, and Ricardo frowned. This man resembled his mother more than his father. When Don Daniels died, he was full of hatred and fear. However, Dawn’s mother only looked at him with a deadly promise that haunted the advisor for years, even after her death. Looking into Dawn’s grey eyes that took after his mother, he was once again reminded about the woman he couldn’t have.“It’s a pity you were your father’s son, Dawn. I would have loved you like my own if you weren’t his blood and flesh. Too bad Regina died before she could expose me. I’ll do you a favour on behalf of your mother and give you ten seconds to run. I promise not to shoot before it.”Ten seconds was more than enough. Dawn wouldn’t put it past this snake to go back on his words, so he turned his back to the man he no longer considered his brother and ran towards the bridge. He heard the countdown, but before it reached ten, he heard the gun firing.That bastard!Dawn should have known there was no such thing as fair play with Ricardo. Even when he dealt with other mafia families, his advisor was known for backstabbing. They did not call him a double-headed snake for no reason. He was known for making vows and omertas while crossing his fingers behind his back.A searing pain ripped through Dawn’s abdomen. The bullet went through his flesh cleanly, and it would be minutes before he bled out. However, he refused to give Ricardo the satisfaction of bringing his body back. As long as he remained missing, there would be some of the council who would hinder Ricardo’s claim of the family.“Merde!” the traitorous advisor cussed when he understood what the young don was about to do. He did not miss his shot, but even with a gaping hole in Dawn’s body, the stubborn boy was exactly like his mother. Even in death, Regina would not give him what he wanted. If only she had agreed to marry him instead of his best friend, things would not have progressed to this stage.With the revolver still in his hand, Ricardo gave chase, but Dawn had a head start. With only a few steps away from the side of the bridge, the injured mafia boss struggled to throw himself over the edge. Blood dripped onto the asphalt, but the stubborn young man ignored the pain, his face pale from pain, and sweat plastered his raven hair to his face. The barricade was high, but with a burst of strength, Dawn hauled himself upwards just as he felt someone tugging at his clothes. He had no idea why Ricardo wouldn’t shoot him again to nail him down, but it had to be his lucky night. Even if he died, he aspired to be the biggest pain in Ricardo’s neck. His father often told him he resembled his dead mother, and nobody could change his mind when he was set on something.Kicking the traitor, Dawn pulled himself over the railing and fell headfirst into the dark waters below. From his angle, he could see the look of frustration and disbelief. It was worth it.Flipping Ricardo the finger with a boyish grin on his face despite the pain, the mafia don plunged into the darkness below and hissed at the coldness, throwing his body into shock.The seawater entering his fresh wound stung worse than the wound itself, and Dawn tried to swim, but he was in too much pain to move a muscle. Weak from blood loss, the young mafia boss recalled all the moments of his twenty-seven years of life up to this point.He was too young to die, but death was fair. No amount of money, power or fame he had mattered now. It was regrettable that he did not do more when he had the chance, but at the very least, he made the right decision in the end and died the way he preferred. Dawn would not be a pawn to someone else. He would die as proudly as he lived.His parents would be proud of him, right?It had to be a dream. There was no way mermaids existed, right?Dawn couldn’t see much in the dark watery tomb. However, he questioned his sanity when thin arms wrapped around his torso with a scaly tail pulling him upwards to the surface. Maybe he had already died, and this was the underworld.Although he could not see, Dawn could hear the splashing of waves and feminine grunts as his mysterious angel pulled him up on the rocks. She struggled with his weight for a while before shredding his shirt.If Dawn were still able to move, he would have leered at the action. However, he was too tired to care. Whatever, he was dying anyway. Nothing she did would help. A ruined shirt was the last of his concern, although dying in the arms of a fishy stranger wasn’t what he had in mind when he threw himself off that bridge.Instead of getting violated by his fishy saviour, Dawn heard faint sobbing sounds. Was she really crying for a total stranger?It wasn&r
Before Aqua could answer, the sun dipped below the water, and in a glow of light that blinded Dawn, her legs transformed into a beautiful turquoise tail.Gaping, the mafia boss stared at the large fish tail flicking on the rocks. Aqua took the opportunity to escape with a large splash.Cold water rained over Dawn, and he covered his eyes to prevent salt from getting into them. Spluttering, the shocked man looked to the sea. He couldn’t see anything, as if the mermaid who saved him earlier was only his imagination.He was still alive, and the gunshot wound from earlier had disappeared. There was no doubt about it. That wasn’t a dream. Dawn had been saved by a mythical creature with a turquoise tail.“Dammit!” he cussed silently and looked up. That was the bridge he jumped from.Without a way up or any hint of where his saviour had gone, Dawn weighed his options. His shirt was torn, and Ricardo was probably still trying to find his body. It was too risky to return. Ther
As far as crazy first dates went, this had to be Dawn’s worst first impression. However, he reasoned that more crime wouldn’t hurt his criminal record. Aqua didn’t have to discover that this yacht did not belong to him. He usually committed graver crimes like murder and money laundering, but he wasn’t against dining and dashing when the situation called for it. He was a mafia boss behaving like a ruffian, which was humiliating. However, pride won’t fill his stomach. Food did.Together, they finished Aqua’s stash of snacks, and Dawn told her his plan.“If you know any boats that don’t have people, we can go up there and take some of their food.”Aqua knew what boats Dawn was talking about. She often dodged them from beneath the water, and sometimes, she would smell very delicious things coming from them. Occasionally, if she waited beneath them, the humans from those boats would throw food down into the water. She d
Dawn did not know much about cooking. However, he knew some basics. It wasn’t difficult to follow the instructions behind the frozen food packaging. Besides, those gentlemen did not seem like they were professional chefs. Most men were only good at using the microwave and grilling meat.Aqua rolled around on the sofa and looked at the strange box that talked while Dawn cooked. She could smell all sorts of strange scents as the human busied away. Those new smells made her stomach unhappy, and Aqua lost interest in the talking box.Sniffing the air, the mermaid watched the human she saved, removing strange things from cardboard boxes. When he tossed the cardboard boxes, she gasped in alarm at the waste of edible material.“What are you doing? Why do you throw those away? It can be eaten!”Startled at the outburst, Dawn turned around. Aqua flailed on the couch with a panicked look on her face. He followed her line of sight, and it landed on the fro
Pizza was a strange human food. It was a lot of things at once, and Aqua had no idea what to make of the flavours that burst on her tongue. Most importantly, this thing called cheese stretched when she pulled it. She had never eaten anything like it before. Not only was it fun, but it was also tasty.“Do you like it?”Chewing happily, Aqua nodded. Dawn ate his pizza and watched as the mermaid stretched the cheese until it broke. She was like a child trying to see how long she could stretch the mozzarella before it snapped. He didn’t mind. However, they had to eat and leave quickly.“You can finish the rest of the food,” he told her. “I’m going to shower and find some clothes for you.”Nodding absentmindedly, Aqua continued to eat. She wanted to know if the cheese had a limit. So far, she could only stretch it as far as half her arm. Maybe if she tried hard enough, it would reach the end of her arm, and she could slu
It wasn’t very different from driving a car. When Dawn figured out where the steering and the throttle were, he turned on the engine. The key was still in the ignition where the original owners had left it. However, the boat refused to budge after a certain distance of moving. It took Dawn a while to figure out why.The anchor was harder to locate than the mafia boss thought. These boats were engineered to be advanced and had no manual anchors to throw overboard. Instead, there was a button in the cockpit to retract it.Once that was resolved, Dawn was finally able to move the boat. He didn’t want to run into any of Ricardo’s goons who might be searching in the area, so he ran along the city coast until he reached the end of the pier. These boats couldn’t dock in shallow waters, so he had no choice but to disembark at a different end of the same pier.Stopping the boat was easier than starting it. Dawn slowed the speed and dropped the anchor af
It was close to noon when Dawn decided to exit the highway. It was to a small town he had never heard of before and about a hundred kilometres from the pier he was shot at. It would be a great place to find what he needed and swap to a different car in a more isolated spot. Besides, the Cadillac was starting to run low on fuel.There weren’t many cars in this small town. Most people would be at work, so the mafia boss decided to visit the most way-out hypermart to buy what he needed. For now, he needed to stock up on more food, drinks and some clothes. He didn’t have a lot of money on him even after robbing the fishing yacht. Rich people did not carry with them a lot of cash.The hypermart staff were busy restocking shelves, and housewives were buying their daily necessities, some with young children strapped to their backs. Nobody had time to pay attention to Dawn, so he grabbed a trolley and threw the food he needed into it, along with a carton of water.
It felt weird. Was it raining, or was there a school of fish passing by?Aqua cracked open an eyelid sleepily and noticed that colourful sparkles were dancing before her eyes. She had no idea what they were, but they looked pretty. On instinct, she reached out to touch them, but they slipped past her fingers and went behind her.Bleary-eyed, the mermaid woke up and noticed that something was different. She couldn’t move when she tried to flick her tail. Instead, pain shot through her foot when it hit something solid.“Hng!” Aqua bit her bottom lip and reached for her tail when she noticed something horribly wrong.There was a long fabric covering it, but Aqua could feel it at once. She didn’t have scales beneath the fabric, and even her webbed fingers were un-webbed now.“Huh?”Beside her, Dawn watched the mermaid wake up in confusion. Instead of saying anything, he let the bewildered creature recall last night’