My only regret: Not having more time. As a little minow, I was told that men were the reason we merpeople stayed far below the surface. That they were monsters who sought to kill anything they deemed less than them. And I believed this story, that is— until I met one myself. He was kind, and handsome, and brave. He is my husband.
But it was everyone else who ruined us. Word got out about who I really was. At first, Eric swore they were wrong, threatening to silence anyone who would dare speak accusations against his lovely bride. The pain in his eyes. Nothing like the rage I see in them now.
Mermaids and humans are enemies. I’d done my best to convince him that shouldn’t be the case. But just as it was hard for me to abandon my ways, Eric bears the same struggle. Still, I know he loves me.
But the words of the people got to him. He kept pestering me about it. Inquiring about my origins and such. I avoided him too long. Eventually, he had to know for himself.
Here I sat on the deck of his ship, where we first met, under a pitch-black sky. My arms tied behind my back. He was a gentleman enough to settle this account in private. But he could have at least allowed me to dress in something warmer than my nightgown. The bright flame of his torch lighting one side of my face and shading the other as he crouched to my level, leaning in to my ear. His jaw clenching.
“I am going to ask you one more time. Are. You. A mermaid?”
My throat tightened. I dared to look into his beautiful blue eyes. Eyes like the ocean.
“Eric. My dear prince.”
“Don’t.”
“Does it matter?”
He took on a grim expression I’d never seen before. “That was the wrong answer!”
He gripped my arm at the shoulder and dragged me to the plank. “Since you won’t tell me the truth, we shall see for ourselves.”
He bent me over to stare into the furious sea. Once my home, now my grave. My life flashed before my eyes. My father, my sisters, my friends. I left them all for a life on land. Legs for a tail; that was the deal. I wondered if that witch was enjoying her new life under the sea because soon I wouldn’t be.
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“Are you really going to do this? Sacrifice your wife for a rumor? Is that the man I married?”
“Who did I marry? I’ve shown you every side of me. I have yet to know anything about you.”
Guilt swelled in me. He was right. It was selfish and cruel of me to do this to him. To declare a vow of transparency at an altar, and withhold so much truth from him.
“This may be true. But I have no respect for a man who will kill his own wife.”
His fingers dug into my shoulder. “What if I’m right?”
“What if you’re wrong?”
From the corner of my eye, I could see him blinking back unruly tears. “Oh Ariel,” He pressed a hard kiss of sweet betrayal on my cheek, “I sure hope I’m not.”
Down I am tossed like a bad catch of fish. I slap the water, and my legs do a bad job at kicking. I hadn’t learned how to properly swim like the humans. A wave crashed over me, tossing me around against my will. With the remainder of my abnormal strength, I freed my wrists from the ropes that bound them. I couldn’t hold my breath for long. Slowly I descended.
Just when I thought I was done for, a familiar yellow blob floated before me. Flounder! Accompanied by two dolphins. They each slid under an arm and guided me to a nearby rock that peeked just above the surface of the waters.
I choked and coughed, creeping up onto the rock. My linen clung to me, wet hair fell if my face, and I felt uncomfortably damp and cold. Lifting my head, I could spot Prince Eric on the ship. He was curled up in a ball, bellowing in regret of the wife he’d just killed. The faint notion that after all this I’d be recognized as no more than a human martyr who died on behalf of the merpeople, tickled my brain. But at the sight of such a strong man crying whom I’d come to love, I cried along with him. None of this was his fault. 'Twas more mine than his.
Better this way, I thought. Better I’m dead than a mermaid.