I keep my voice to a whisper. “What are you doing? Why do you have the hook?”

She says nothing. Her head turns to the procession of girls who are now melting into the shadows. I have to shake her to bring her attention back to me.

“Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

Has she suddenly been struck deaf? Has the mermaid taken her tongue?

“Agnet, listen to me. Something has happened. To Gunther.” I am out of breath and tripping on my own words. But she needs to know. “He’s dead. I went to check on him, and I found him cold. He suffers no more.”

Her reaction is a blink, but nothing more. No surprise, no tears. A lock of her hair falls across her gentle face, so I brush it behind her ear. The moon lights her eyes in a way that reveals something otherworldly and terrifying. This is not my Agnet, this is not the girl I have given my heart to. She is changed.

“Do you hear me? He’s gone. You are free.”

What has the mermaid done? What enchantment has stolen Agnet’s wits along with her tongue? She should be overjoyed to learn she is free from the brute she was forced to wed. I rattle her again, desperate to get through to her, to pierce this enchantment.

“Agnet, you are free. We are free. We can be together now. Without shame, without sin.”

Her reaction is that of someone stepping barefoot onto a hot coal. She tears her arm from my grip.

“What have you done?” Her eyes light up, but not in a kind way. “What have you done, Kaspar?”

I bungle a response. This is not going how I want it to. “I did what needed doing. It was merciful, I swear. But now you are free. You are saved.”

“Saved? From whom?” She pushes me away and turns to leave. “Go home, Kaspar. Your sister wants a word.”

I watch as she slips into the shadows. Out on the water, in the rippling moonlight, is the sea creature. Did she observe our exchange? I walk home, wanting nothing more to do with mermaids or ungrateful widows.

I find the door to the rectory open to the night air.

The house is empty, the fire in the hearth has gone cold. Where the hell is everyone? I call out for my sister, my father, my pinheaded brother. No reply comes.

I cross the yard and enter the church, calling their names. The first thing I see are the bones scattered on the floor. Our sacred sea monster has been vandalized. A few pieces still hang on the wall, but the remainder of the skeleton lies in pieces on the flagstones of the chancel. There is a mouse darting among the broken fragments.