YEAH, I DID IT. FINISHED IT.

BLOOP BLEEP BLOOP.

Bubbles foam and crash between the rocky crevices, rhythmically coming and going with the tide. Bits and pieces of fresh splintered wood are spat out of the ocean, sliding between the gaping maws of mossy boulders. Over some couple hundred meters or so, if inspected carefully, one could make out the figure of a sunken flag billowing under the water… Slowly, slowly sinking.

          

  It eventually drapes over the skeletons of a pair of unlucky fish, almost like a blanket, leaving the broken jaws and sightless eyes grinning for the sea to see.

 

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Ariel pulled the comb through her hair, staring at her reflection. She was incredibly beautiful, she thought. No, she knew. There was a reason Sebastian had so often used her as the centerpiece of those silly symphonic plays he’d direct for King Triton (Daddy, she couldn’t help but add). Of course, she never said something like that out loud. It was rude and mean to her sisters, and not to mention incredibly unfitting for a soon-to-be queen. But mostly it would be incredibly mean.

But to be honest, she would stare at her reflection more than anyone would think. Not like she spent hours in front of her seashell encrusted mirror, but there was a reason she especially loved shiny, reflective things.

Shiny things… Ariel felt an overwhelming nostalgia as she remembered her favorite treasure from the human world: a simple fork. It was silly, almost embarrassing when she found out that forks were such trivial objects in their native homeland. Nonetheless, she refused to let that bother her and often ran her fingers over the dull prongs during her bouts of homesickness, which were becoming more and more frequent. Ironic how it was a human object that reminded her most of her adventures in the sea.

Ariel frowned. It wasn’t right to say “human” this, “human” that. She was now a human. Fork. Spoon. Bed. All of these things were part of her world and always would be.

Funny, that thought always used to bring out a spark of excitement. But now it was more like… like…

“Your highness,” a voice interrupted her thoughts. “May I come in?”

“Yes.” Ariel paused, her brush still in her hand. “Yes… Of course,” Ariel repeated, pulling the brush through her hair again. It was one of the palace servants. At first they made her a bit nervous and reminded her of pistols, a type of weapon Eric had once shown her. Hard, incapable of making mistakes, and ready at disposal whenever she wanted. After a while, though, her cheerful disposition won over the most of the palace staff and she became friendly with almost all the stiff, penguin-suited servants. They needed some more fun every now and then. Honestly, why do they all insist on wearing black?

She smiled at the servant through the mirror. “How are you doing, William?”

Her greeting was ignored. “My deepest condolences, your highness.”

“Oh, if it’s about last night then it really should be me that’s apologizing… Ha-ha.” Ariel laughed tightly. She didn’t like the tone in William’s voice. “I mean, I really should have known that dinner plates shouldn’t be used like that�"”

“It’s about Prince Eric.”

The hairbrush jammed in a knot.

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            Lost at sea. The ship. It can’t be found. Eric’s ship.

           

    He probably drowned.

            

    Drowning.

            

    When Ariel first heard about it, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Who could possibly drown?” she giggled. “All you have to do is swim!”

            

But she knew it could happen. Human legs were so graceful, so powerful on land. Human legs could dance and run and jump and all sorts of things. But the sea was for fish. Fish with fins and gills that could breathe in water and swim away from sharks and other predators.

            

Ariel walked along the seashore, occasionally looking back to trace her footsteps with her eyes. She was walking. She really had feet. Human feet.

            

But now that Eric was gone, what was the point?

            

“Oh, boo-hoo... You poor… little thing…” a voice echoed in a quiet, bubbling hiss.

            

“Who is it? Who’s there?” Ariel shouted. With Eric gone, anxiety and fear shadowed her steps.

            

“Forgotten me… already? I’m… hurt…”

            

“Show yourself or I’ll… I’ll…”

            

“Scream… Call for help…? What… can you do… really…?”

            

“I’ll fight you myself!” Ariel yelled. It felt like a silly thing to say as soon as the words left her mouth. The hysterical laughter of the hissing voice didn’t help.

            

“Fight me? Go… ahead and… try, princess...”

            

The gentle waves lapping around Ariel’s feet transformed into a torrent of foam, shifting between her ankles and dragging in sand from dry land. And for a brief second, there was a flash… The shape…

            

“Ursula?”

            

“And here I… thought that… the youth had… decent memories...”

            

Fear jolted through Ariel’s spine. Fear and… hate. She had never hated anyone before. Brushing that thought aside, Ariel stomped on the watery face until it was a mesh of bubbles that was wiped clean by the tide. Even then, she didn’t stop until her legs were brown with wet sand.

            

“Are you… done yet…?” the voice asked in a bored tone that was wrung dry from any remaining amusement. Ariel gave the soppy ground a final kick.

            

Then the realization crept up on her.

            

“What did you do to Eric?”

            

There was a beat of silence.

            

“I don’t… have the foggiest… of clues…” Ursula sang in mock innocence. Ariel didn’t know how she managed to sound so caustic, so familiar, after cheating death and residing as part of the ocean.

            

“Tell me what you did to Eric, and tell me now.”

            

“Such a… pushy, greedy thing… even now…” The waves continued to lap gently around Ariel’s feet, erasing her footprints. She stepped back. “That’s all… it ever is… isn’t it…? Me, me, me… You only… care about… yourself…”

            

Ursula’s words felt like a slap in the face. “That’s not true.”

            

“Oh… but it is… You never cared… about your… father… or your sisters… or… your friends… when you… left… They were so… so… worried…”

            

“I left to be with Eric. I was in love.”

            

“No… You were… in love with… the excitement… of the… human world… You loved that… Eric was… human… That you saved… him… That he was… mysterious… handsome… You left… everyone that loved… you… for… a stranger…” Ursula’s words were like a rocks being thrown on her stomach, pinning her to the bottom of the ocean.

            

“That’s not true! You’re lying! I love my family and I love Eric!”

            

“Then you… would do absolutely… anything… to save him?”  

            

“Yes!”

            

“Ha-ha-ha… Heh… Such a… stupid, stupid child…” The tide grew explosively, and the shallow pool blasted in a torrent that flowed up to Ariel’s waist. “Flotsam, Jetsam… bring our… little princess… back home…”

            

Before Ariel could make a sound, two skeletons burst from the water, rattling as they pulled her under the water.

            

And then the beach was empty.  

Reviews

[Imagination-mage]

HOLY JEBUS!!! THIS WAS SO GOOD!! okay, lets see if I can come up with something equally cool:D