I was freezing, the water around me stale and full of debris. It had started out as a wonderful day, my brother and I swimming around the palace as we normally did as children, our parents watching from a balcony. It was wonderful, Alex and I, we were free then, unbound by the stress of royalty. During one of our small "locking of tridents," He sent me tumbling through the water into a podium that held an intricately designed vase, a dreaded monster on, and some say within, it's contents. Of course, as soon as I hit the podium, a loud shriek from my mother and a startled grunt from my father sent me in a whirlwind to catch the vase. A solemn wail escaped my lips, as the vase slipped straight through my fingers, crashing to the ground with a force too great for it to have been empty. Everything went dark, lights in the great hall were blinking into extinction. Suddenly, out of the floor between myself and my family, an enormous clawed hand reared from the depths beneath us, pulling itself out of a pit meant to contain it forever. A creature as horrifying as anything I could have imagined, a beast of legend so old he made Neptune, my father look young. As the dreaded Cthulhu pulled it's disgusting body out of the floor, my mother screamed, sending the beasts attention directly to my family. "Alexis! Quickly! Hide!" My father and brother were trying to hold the beast back, my mother having fainted. I began searching for a place to hide, choosing beneath a small table. As soon as I had settled, I looked to the battle, the men weakening as the Cthulhu takes advantage of the moment, grabbing my father and mother, as Alex makes an attempt at escape. Everything proceeded to go black as I fainted, I have never been sure as to what happened during those hours, or even minutes I was unconscious, but I do know that nothing, should be able to do that much harm to an entire city. Looking through the shattered windows, and over the broken edges of the castle, I see dead Sirens, and other sea life scattered everywhere, half eaten, or almost completely. Broken buildings are all that remain of my once glorious city, and as it seems, I'm the only one left, so I suppose I'm queen, yet know, somewhere, deep in my subconscious, that the city will never be restored. Never, unless another comes, willing to help. For without a king, there is no physical protection. With this thought, I grabbed my mothers discarded crown off of the ground, placed it on my head, and left, my once glorious city, tears streaming down my face. Thoughts of what I would do, where I would go, who I would encounter running through my head. Letting them all pass, I swam on, into my newfound destiny, leaving my city, home, and childhood behind. The lone survivor of the fall of Atlantis. Isn't life, oh so, bittersweet?