Aurelia Neve 'Elia' Black had a unique perspective on life and it was thanks to one woman, Willa Rosalind Stone nee Evans, her maternal great-grandmother and the woman that had truly raised her. Willa had been married three times and raised three children as well as two grandchildren in her sixty-two years before Elia came along as the first great-grandchild. She had the art of child rearing down to a science and the heart to step-up and offer stability to a child without proper parents willing to provide it.
Katherine Rose 'Kate' Rey was a nineteen-year-old high school dropout with a talent for tattoos and art that kept her off the street and paid for her bad habits. The woman wasn't anywhere ready to be a mother, but she did love her daughter and tried her best no matter how pitiful it was.
James Damon 'Jay' Black was a twenty-two-year-old senior in college with a dual major of business and engineering. He had a bright future and was hard-working. He was more distant, but he too loved in daughter and tried his best to provide her with everything she could ever want or need.
Neither parent was truly ready to be a parent, but they tried their best even if it wasn't what she truly wanted or needed. Jay spent days and sometimes weeks on business trips which provided Elia with a nice sized trust fund and a college fund along with a sizable allowance. Kate worked odd hours and spent odd amounts of time with her daughter, but she paid for any class her child wanted to take and provided her own nicely sized trust fund and sizable allowance.
Elia thought the world of the woman that raised her, the woman that grounded her when things were shaky. Willa pushed Elia to finish high school, to go to college, to have a future. See, Elia battled depression and had a hard time with emotions... both of which Willa blamed on her parents.
Elia had been a great dancer, a beautiful artist, and a passion to go with the talent for gymnastics. All of her dreams of doing any sport crashed when she was just eleven and injured her knee. From there, she became depressed and developed unhealthy coping mechanisms such as binge-eating and self-harm.
She went from an active eleven-year-old with a bright future to a sedentary sixteen-year-old with little chance of graduating high school. Then, Willa died and from beyond the grave, the old woman kicked her ass into gear.
Elia went on to graduate high school with honors, go to college while being a care provider, and become a nurse. She regained her compassion and self-confidence over time as she learned to love her job. She slowly got back into her passions and built a life for herself.
Every once in a while, something would happen in her life and it could all be trace back to Willa Stone, a kind old woman with a ruthless attitude and blunt honesty.
On June 11th of 2025, Elia was floating in a natural pool behind a waterfall with the full moon providing light through the cone-shaped opening directly above. A beautiful golden tail swished back and forth as the moonlight glittered off the matching bralette and the inhuman woman breathed her last.
For nearly seven years, Elia had been a Mermaid. It was a wonderous secret that she loved even when it caused problems in her everyday life and built a distance between her and everyone else.
She died, not because of her secret, not because of anyone else, and not because of anything natural. If one had looked closely, they would see the blood coloring the water and the thin slashes through her neck made by the diamond-like claws on her fingertips.
Elia had tried for seven years, but each day had been a struggle and on the eve of her great-grandmother's death-date she took her own life.