Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/316786.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Major_Character_Death, Rape/Non-Con,
      Underage
  Category:
      F/M
  Fandom:
      Twisted_Princess_(Disney_Fanart), Little_Mermaid_(1989), Pirates_of_the
      Caribbean:_On_Stranger_Tides_(2011)
  Relationship:
      Ariel/Eric
  Character:
      Prince_Eric_(Little_Mermaid), Ariel_(Little_Mermaid), Flounder, Sebastian
      (Little_Mermaid), Triton_(The_Little_Mermaid), Attina_(Little_Mermaid),
      Grimsby, Melody
  Additional Tags:
      Cannibalism, Incest, Angst
  Stats:
      Published: 2012-01-09 Words: 5939
****** Ariel's Revenge ******
by Untherius
Summary
     A grisly ordeal sucks all the happily out of Erik's and Ariel's ever-
     after.
Notes
     This work is based on the drawing of Twisted Ariel
     http://cdn.gunaxin.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/twisted-little-
     mermaid.jpg
It is said that some mermaids are born out of the tears of others. Those
mermaids, it is said, embody the spirit and emotions of the one who cried those
tears.
*****
Eric awoke with a splitting headache. He felt worse than he ever remembered. He
was cold...very cold, nearly numb from the waist down. He was sitting in
water...seawater, from the smell of it...his legs nearly dangling off the edge
of a rock that supported his buttocks. His shoulders hurt like he'd been
holding his arms over his head all day. He raised his eyes, looking up to the
left and right, and immediately saw why. Both his hands were bound tightly in
some strange-looking substance that looked like lard-covered rope. He pulled at
it, but found that while it was itself slippery, it was fastened taut to sturdy
trees that jutted out from the cliff above him and no amount of tugging would
free him from it.
He looked around, trying to take stock of his surroundings. Everything looked
so grey and muted, in a depressing way, like it was infused with fog, though
the air was clear for miles. Greens were grey-green...browns were dusty-
looking...blue was steely...even the water had an inky cast to it. Where was
he? Wherever it was, a feeling of dread hung over him about which he had a very
bad feeling indeed.
He vaguely remembered a storm and some flashes of light. They'd been odd...not
quite like lightning. The more he tried to think about it, the more the whole
thing seemed to slip through his mind. He coughed...which also hurt...tasting
saltwater in his mouth.
A disturbance in the water in front of him caught his attention. A head crowned
with flowing brick-red hair rose smoothly from the glassy surface, followed by
shoulders clothed in pallid grey skin, smooth and broken only by the occasional
pustulant lesion. Piercing yellow-ish eyes gazed into his own.
“Ariel!” exclaimed Eric. “Am I glad to see you!”
She grinned. “Are you now?”
There was something grating in her tone that made him nervous...something like
two rocks grinding together, or a whetstone someone had neglected to oil before
putting a blade to it. She looked and sounded like his wife...more or
less...and his heart went out to her. “Honey, you...you look awful...like
you've been a kraken's chew-toy. What happened to you?”
“I think you should be a little more concerned about what's going to happen to
you,” she said sweetly, her voice now like honey-vinegar, tapping his nose with
a finger. It burned a little.
“What?” He was now nervous and confused. He pulled against his bonds. “Cut me
loose, will you...please? What is this anyway?” he asked, looking up at the
rubbery-looking stuff that held his arms.
“You don't recognize him, do you? Of course you wouldn't...not from the inside,
anyway?”
Eric furrowed his brow.
Ariel giggled in a slightly malevolent way, with undertones of rusted metal on
metal. “It's your Max, of course.”
Eric's jaw dropped. “What?! You're not serious!”
“Oh, don't worry. He didn't suffer...” Her grin widened to show two perfect
rows of very sharp-looking teeth. “...enough.”
“You killed Max?!” Eric shouted, straining at his bonds. He didn't quite
believe what he was hearing. “How could you?”
“Oh, it was quite simple, really.” Her smile faded. “Oh, but you must be
hungry.” She held up what looked like a leg of mutton and raised it to his
mouth. He turned his head. “It's not Max,” she scolded.
Eric peered at her incredulously with one eye. He was indeed quite
hungry...famished, in fact. His stomach growled. Against his better judgment,
he turned and took a bite of the proffered meat. He grimaced. It was still raw
and quite chewy, but the flavor wasn't bad. He didn't remember ever having had
anything quite like it. He ignored the warning in the back of his mind as he
gnawed all the meat off the bone...a bone that, once exposed, looked
suspiciously like a human femur.
“That was delicious, wasn't it?” said Ariel.
Eric had to admit it was quite tasty. He nodded.
“I'm rather partial to long pork myself,” continued Ariel.
Eric sputtered. “L...long pork?”
“Oh, yes,” said Ariel cheerily. “Your first mate takes...well, took...very good
care of himself.”
Eric's stomach started to heave and Ariel put a clammy hand up to his mouth.
“Now, now,” she scolded, “we can't have that. You're going to need it.” After a
few moments, Eric's stomach calmed down and Ariel removed her hand. “That's
better.”
“Who are you and what have you done with my Ariel?!” Eric demanded.
“Aw,” she said with feigned indignation, “is that any way to talk to your
wife?”
“I don't know who you are, but you're not my wife!”
“Are you sure?” she teased. She moved closer to him. He could feel her fishy
lower body against his legs and only then realized he was naked from the waist
down. She reached down and fingered his member. That burned just like it had
when she'd touched his nose. It was uncomfortable, yet he felt himself growing
aroused all the same. “Evidence to the contrary,” she said seductively.
Ariel forced herself between his legs and moved even closer to him. Her breath
smelled like a mud flat at low tide. She kissed him. Her tongue was soft and
mealy, lacking the firm sweet tenderness he'd known from the last seven years.
She tasted like rotting fish and he nearly gagged again.
He felt himself slip inside her and that burned even more than her fingers had.
She felt unexpectedly coarse on the inside. She began to move against him, each
motion rasping, each stroke delivering both pain and pleasure, the one
proportional to the other. The more she moved, the more intense the sensations.
They reached climax together, his body filled with both ecstasy and agony.
Ariel shrieked like a dying seagull.
She pulled away from him, panting heavily. “Oh, Eric,” she said seductively,
“we're going to have so much fun together, you and I...well, mainly me.” She
gave him one more foul kiss and left him, the salt water stinging as his
manhood tried to curl up inside him.
*****
“Oh, good, you're awake,” said Ariel, her voice still bearing that slightly
grating tone. She held another chunk of raw meat up to Eric. “Hungry? You know
you want some.”
Eric steadfastly kept his mouth closed.
“You're making things difficult, you know that?” She forced his mouth open and
crammed the meat into his maw, working his jaws for him. “This would all go
much better for you if you'd just surrender.” After a moment, she grinned. “On
second thought...no, it would merely go less worse.”
She continued to feed him the meat and he continued to eat unwillingly. “Now,
where were we?” she asked when he'd finished. “Oh, yes.” She again placed
herself between his legs and had her way with him. She'd been doing this to him
twice each day for the last week. Each time, the pleasure and pain—the one
always commensurate with the other--had been greater than the time before.
When she'd finished, Ariel gave out a great squeal like an injured porpoise.
“Oh, Eric, you're a genius!” She breathed heavily in his face and Eric
grimaced, partly from Ariel's putrid breath and partly from the pain between
his legs. “Why didn't I find you before?” She pulled back and glanced downward.
“It's a pity, really,” she said ruefully. “I have what I need, so...” She
trailed off and ducked beneath the water.
Eric felt something else between his legs, then a sharp, white-hot, screaming
pain. He passed out.
*****
Eric awoke to a dull throb below his waist. He couldn't be sure how much of
himself was still there and how much Ariel had bitten off. Nor was he sure
which would be worse, a completely severed manhood or having to endure more of
Ariel's...attentions. He looked up to see that mermaid's jaundiced eyes peering
into his, her fetid breath stinging his nostrils. “Release me,” he croaked.
“You said you have what you need.”
“I have what I need, yes...but not what I want.” She grinned like a demonic
Cheshire cat, then pushed back between his legs. Eric felt something else
between his legs and it was immediately clear that she'd left his equipment at
least partly functional. “I see you want some more, too. Now the real fun
begins!”
Eric cringed as he felt his wounds splitting open when he expanded into her and
again there was even more pain than before. She sucked on his face, abrading
his skin with her sharp teeth, her breath distracting him a little from the
pain, working around to his ear. As she reached climax, she screeched in his
ear and then bit off a piece of his lobe. He yelped.
“You're delicious,” she said, licking the blood off her lips. She turned around
to look at a large, vicious-looking fish that had just surfaced. It looked a
little like that fish she called Flounder. It was the same general shape, bore
the same markings and coloration, but it was a little larger and bore powerful
jaws with intimidating teeth protruding from them. Its strange orange eyes bore
into him with a malevolent hunger that made the hairs on Eric's neck stand up
on end. “Flounder,” she said to it, “I'm so glad you could join us.”
She turned back to Eric. The blood from his damaged ear ran down the side of
his head and onto his shoulder. “I promised him a piece of the action...as it
were.” She moved up to him and licked at the blood, her tongue burning his
skin, then pulled back. “Now what comes next will hurt just a little. What
comes after...less so.” If her previous grin was cat-like, the one she made now
would have put a shark to shame.
Eric really didn't like the way she said that. Something about it made his skin
crawl. Her grin bothered him even more. Moments later, he understood why. A
sharp, intense pain shot through his left foot and he screamed once more. The
pain came again. Something was biting his toes. Only then did he notice the
fish Ariel had called Flounder was gone and only then did he realize that to
his horror, he was being eaten alive!
He kicked, his foot impacting something soft. The pain from his severed digits
shot through his foot and up his leg, bringing tears to his eyes. He kicked
again, then felt the same biting pain in his other foot. He lashed out with
that one. The pain moved to the other foot. Now he was kicking with both feet
and screaming, sometimes hitting something, sometimes not.
The fish called Flounder re-surfaced, blood around its mouth and one of its
eyes looked ruptured. Ariel looked at the fish. “Aw,” she said in dismay, then
to Eric, “you injured him.”
“He bit me!” Eric yelled. “Repeatedly!”
Ariel sighed and shrugged. “Then I guess it's just as well you're out of toes.”
Eric's jaw dropped, his shock momentarily overcoming the intense pain in his
feet. “WHAT?!” he bellowed. “It...ate me?!”
“Just a little,” said Ariel, “Don't be so dramatic. But, oh, are we going to
have lots of fun together!” she exclaimed gleefully. Eric's hairs stood even
further on end, if that were possible.
*****
Ariel sighed as Eric regarded her out of his right eye. Even after a week...at
least, he thought it had been a week...his left eye socket still throbbed
terribly. “You pass out too easily, Eric,” said Ariel wistfully. “We'll have to
work on that. Your eye was delicious, though...and I so loved that squeaking
sound you made when I licked on your optic nerve.” She cocked her head. “It's a
good thing you have plenty of body parts left.”
Erik's heart hammered in his chest, his blood pounding in what was left of his
ears. He worked his mouth, trying to form words.
“Are you thirsty? You must be. It's a good thing I brought this for you.” She
raised an octopus out of the water and thrust it into his face. It wrapped its
tentacles around his head. Then he felt something squirt into his mouth,
followed by the most horrific assault on his taste buds that was somehow even
worse than Ariel's kiss. He would have coughed, retched and spewed it from his
mouth if the cephalopod hadn't been so firmly attached to his face. Instead, he
choked down the vile liquid.
When he'd swallowed, the octopus let go, dropped into the water and swam away.
He coughed and gasped for breath.
“See?” said Ariel. “That wasn't so bad.”
“Release me,” Eric whispered.
“Release you? Oh, now why would I ever do that? We're together forever! Isn't
that what marriage means?” Then she had her way with him, the partially-formed
scar tissue tearing, adding to the pain.
*****
Every day, she came to him. Sometimes she fed him something normal like raw
fish, sometimes something less normal like sea anemones. Once she shoved a sea
urchin into his mouth. Twice she brought electric eels. She made him drink more
octopus ink, so much that he was starting to develop a morbidly curious taste
for the vile stuff.
Every day, she took a bite out of his flesh somewhere on his body. Once every
week, she had her way with him, each time the wounds she'd made re-opening in
the process. Always, she made some promise that filled him with dread and
always she fulfilled each one. Always she left him, the salt water stinging his
open wounds.
Eric lost track of time, the days, weeks and months running together. His whole
body was one mass of pain, some of it fresh and raw, some of it having receded
into a dull throbbing. Sometimes storms came, sea water washing over him,
stinging his fresher wounds and reviving the burn and the throb his older ones
made. It filled his lungs over and over, yet he never drowned. Cold rain washed
the salt and blood and scabs from his body until he was beyond shivering.
He didn't know how he was still alive. Ariel...or whatever she was...had torn
off part of his lower lip, bitten out one of his cheeks, and gnawed off both
his patellas. She'd ripped out his gall bladder and made him eat it—he didn't
know how he'd even stayed conscious through the agony, yet he had and to
Ariel's great delight. She'd climaxed over his screams alone. Day after day,
Eric felt his mind and his heart slipping further and further away and there
seemed no way to stop any of it.
Surely he was dead and this was hell. If so, there would be no end to his
misery and therefore no hope at all for anything even remotely resembling
relief. A dark despair crept into his soul, flowing slowly through him as much
the pain that continued to wrack his body.
*****
One day, Ariel appeared with three mer-children in tow. They resembled not only
her, but also himself as well. It was clear she'd conceived them probably
sometime that first week during one of what only the most sadomasochistic
individuals would have called love-making sessions. She introduced them as
William, Elizabeth and Ian. His mind remembered those names. They were the ones
he and his wife had given their still-born son, miscarried daughter and other
miscarried son. Each of those events had been very hard on both him and his
wife. She'd been early in a fourth pregnancy immediately before he'd awoken in
this strange, frightening place. The memories pushed him further down into the
black hole toward which he was inexorably sliding.
“Now, children,” began Ariel, “you know we can't have Daddy kicking you, now
can we?”
“No, Mama,” they said in unison.
Ariel's grin widened in a way that sent a fresh wave of fear through Eric.
“Then you know what to do.”
Eric screamed as he felt all four of their mouths tearing at his legs, as his
muscles tried to pull against his missing knees. After what felt like forever,
he passed out.
*****
Eric awoke to the sight of Ariel and her children...his children...grinning at
him. He severely disliked it. She reached into the still-raw wound whence she'd
torn out his gall bladder. He screamed.
“You'd better stay awake this time, dear,” she said as her hand rooted around
in his gut. “You'll disappoint our children and you don't want that, do you?”
The pain was unbearable and he was surprised he was still conscious. After a
couple of minutes, she pulled something out of his body. He didn't recognize it
through the blur of agony and tears. He did, however, see her tear it into bits
and hand one to each of the children. He watched as they sucked on whatever
organ that was and saw the pleasure on their faces as his blood dribbled from
their mouths.
“May we have some more?” asked William when he'd finished his.
“No, my son,” said Ariel. “Not until Daddy's liver grows back.”
Eric fainted.
*****
Eric awoke to the sting of salt water sloshing into his abdomen. Ariel and
their children were nowhere to be seen, for which he was thankful. His relief
was short-lived and his heart fell as he watched them slowly surface in front
of him.
“I want to hear Daddy scream some more,” said Ian.
Ariel giggled in a way that sounded more like a dull growl. “He does make the
most delightful noises, doesn't he?” she said cheerily.
“Mommy,” said Elizabeth, “you said Daddy only needs one kidney?”
“Yes, my dear,” said Ariel.
Elizabeth grinned that same predatory grin Eric had seen on Ariel every day. It
filled him with dread. The little girl, his own daughter, reached up inside him
and tore out one of his kidneys. The pain, as before, was horrific.
The girl looked up at Eric, her yellow eyes wide. “Would you like some, Daddy?”
she asked.
“That was very nice of you, dear,” said Ariel. “Of course he would.”
Elizabeth tore off a piece and jammed it into Eric's mouth. He chewed
reflexively. The girl looked back up at her mother.
“You see?” said Ariel. “Manners are important.”
“And now I should share with my brothers, yes?”
Ariel nodded and the four mer-people ate the remainder of the kidney as Eric
watched numbly. Then he lost consciousness.
*****
Eric stared at the sea before him, his entire body on fire, his heart and mind
numb. The fins of several sharks cut through the water's surface not far away.
He didn't have the strength to make any noise. He hoped they noticed him
anyway. He longed for them to come and tear him apart, to end the cycle of
agony. He would gladly have heard the roar of a kraken than hear Ariel's voice
ever again. He would rather smell the reeking odor of a thousand rotting
corpses from its maw than Ariel's breath. He'd prefer the cold gaze of its
lidless eyes to those of Ariel and their children. He'd choose its icy grip and
terrible jaws over Ariel's clammy, burning touch.
His hopes were dashed once again when the sharks passed by and that devilfish
and her demon children she'd spawned with seed she'd stolen from his body rose
up in their place. Just the sight of her made his stomach churn...or it would
have if he'd still had the energy for it. She swam over and kissed him eagerly.
Eric didn't have the strength...not physically, not emotionally...to ask how or
why Ariel was keeping him alive. He wasn't sure he really cared any longer and
if this truly were hell, it didn't matter anyway. His mind slipped a little
further.
“Now watch carefully,” said Ariel to the children. “This is the best thing
ever.” Then she had her way with Eric as they children looked on. The pain—and
the hideous nails-across-slate shriek that always accompanied her climax--was
familiar, but no less unpleasant.
“May I try, Mommy?” said Elizabeth.
“Of course, dear,” said Ariel.
Eric weakly hoped he hadn't heard what he thought he'd heard. He was wrong. The
girl went to him and had her way with him just like Ariel had. She screeched
even more than her mother had. What remained of Eric's spirit died right then
and there.
“That was fun!” said Elizabeth. “Do I get to do it again?”
“Not today, dear. Mommy has business with Daddy's heart.”
“May we watch?” said Ian.
Ariel nodded, then turned and reached up into Eric's body cavity. It hurt just
as much as it had before. She thrust her hand through his diaphragm and forced
it up between his lungs. The pain was excruciating. Then she laced her fingers
through his vane-cava, pulmonary blood vessels and aorta to wrap them around
his heart. Just when he thought it couldn't possibly hurt any more, it did. She
squeezed and his body spasmed.
The children's gleeful giggles barely cut through his agony. How was he still
even conscious? Surely Christ Himself hadn't suffered like this? Just when he
thought he could bear no more, just as his heart stopped and he prepared to
embrace death, Ariel squeezed it again and it beat once more. His mind was
starting to hurt now, standing out against its previous numbness.
Ariel pulled her arm out of him and presented it to the children. Together,
they licked Eric's blood and fluids off of it. Sea water lapped against him,
but he barely felt the salty sting. He was suddenly and vaguely aware of a
bright light all around them.
“Wait,” cried Ariel, her voice like a bobcat in heat. “No! I'm not finished
with him!”
He felt a pain inside his head, different from the physical torture he'd
endured over the last several months. It increased rapidly and soon eclipsed
the collective agony filling his body. It felt white inside his skull. It was
true, he didn't know what white was supposed to feel like, but white seemed an
apt enough way to describe it. After what felt like an eternity, but was
probably only moments, the pain in his head faded to be replaced by the extreme
pain wracking his body. Any strength he may have had before had completely left
him. He again lost consciousness.
*****
When Eric awoke, the color in his environment had returned. Green was once
again green...brown once again brown...blue once again blue. He saw the head of
a dolphin break the surface just a few yards out. It chittered at him, but he
just stared at it with his good right eye. It still felt like every nerve in
his body was screaming at him, even ones he knew had been eaten off.
Another figure abruptly surfaced. He immediately recognized the flame-red hair
and large blue eyes. Ariel gasped.
“Eric?” Her eyes widened and she swam over to him. “Eric!” she screamed. He
just stared at her. “Oh, Eric, what happened to you?” she said, tears flowing
from her eyes. She moved over and kissed him on the mouth. She tasted sweet,
just like he remembered. Eric just hung there, unable even to respond.
Ariel tried to free her husband, but he was still bound tightly, his dying
hands a deep purple-blue with the prolonged loss of circulation. She looked
around for something sharp and finally found a broken seashell. Cutting his
bonds, she caught him as he lost consciousness again. Then she dove beneath the
surface, carrying him with her, his ruined body leaving a weak trail of blood
through the water.
*****
Ariel paced back and forth...or what passed for pacing with mer-folk...wringing
her hands nervously. She looked down at Sebastian, who exchanged a worried
glance.
“He's in good hands, your Highness,” said Sebastian. “Eric will be
alright...you'll see.”
“I wish I could believe you,” she said, a strong note of unshakable concern in
her voice. “You didn't see him when I found him. It was like all the light had
gone out of his eyes...eye. I don't know what happened to him...and maybe I
don't want to know...but it must have been terrible...very terrible....” Her
voice trailed off as she began to cry.
After many hours, Triton swam up to his daughter. Ariel looked at him
expectantly, but the stern expression on his face spoke volumes.
“He'll live,” said Triton, “but...” His voice trailed off. He sighed and caught
Ariel in an embrace that he hoped would be comforting. “Ariel,” he said
gravely, “healing wounds is one thing. Even transforming your tail into legs
and back again...that's difficult...but re-growing entire organs and limbs?
That's...well, not impossible, but nearly. And you know well that our tails are
not the only things that set us apart from humans.”
“But...he'll be alright...won't he, Daddy?”
Triton sighed again. “He'll walk, but with a limp. His organ function will
never be what it was. Rebuilding his left eye wasn't possible at all. He's
still unconscious. In truth...I'm astonished he was even alive at all.”
“But you saved his life. Thank-you.”
“No, my daughter, you did. Your kiss saved him from drowning while you brought
him here.”
“But Eric will be alright,” she repeated. “Won't he?”
“I don't know...not without having some idea of how he came to be in such a
state. It must have been horrific and if he doesn't remember...maybe that's for
the best.”
Ariel started to cry again.
“How's the baby doing?” said Triton, trying to take his daughter's mind off her
husband's plight.
“Fine this time,” she replied. “Oh!” she exclaimed, placing a hand on her
swollen abdomen. A smile spread across her face. “The baby kicked! I think this
one will be healthy,” she said optimistically.
“Do you think he...or she...will be born mer-folk or human?”
“Human, I think,” said Ariel.
They were interrupted by Ariel's eldest sister Attina. “Ariel,” she said, “Eric
still isn't awake, but we think it's safe for you to take him home now.” She
looked worried. “Although...none of us...not even our father...knows IF he will
awake and if he does, in what condition his mind will be. Things could be very
rough for both of you.”
“I understand,” said Ariel. “And thank-you...for everything.”
“We're your family,” said Triton. They exchanged hugs and Ariel swam to
retrieve her husband.
*****
Ariel could tell from the moment her husband opened his eyes that he'd never be
the same again. She was right. In public, she took his arm as was customary,
though she could sense he was always tense. He seemed amiable enough, though he
seldom spoke to her, and rarely looked at her.
In private, it was entirely different. In private, he never touched her ever
again. Not in love, nor in anger, nor in indifference. Nor did he ever speak a
single word to her, nor make any sound directed to or at her.
They'd always eaten breakfast together and they still did. In the past, they'd
sit next to each other, laughing, talking...Grimsby had once said they were the
most sickeningly sweet couple he'd ever seen. Now, though, Eric sat across the
table from his wife, never talking to her, nor even looking at her, despite her
repeated attempts to strike up a conversation, make him laugh, even draw a
smile.
At night, it was even worse. They'd always retire to their bed as they always
had. Every time Ariel would try to touch him, Eric would recoil from her. Every
time she would inch closer to her husband, he would retreat the same amount.
Some nights, he left bed completely to curl up whimpering in a corner, leaving
his wife to cry herself to sleep. A couple of times, he slumped against a cold
window and suffered minor frostbite to a shoulder or part of his face, which he
didn't seem to notice, even when a resulting infection threatened to take his
arm.
Ariel tried...always as subtly as she knew how...to get Eric to tell her what
had happened. He never talked about it. Even Grimsby was unsuccessful in
learning what had happened to the Prince, despite repeated attempts.
Their daughter was born...healthy and with legs...a month after Ariel brought
Eric back from his ordeal. Ariel named the child Melody. She was as beautiful
as her mother, with gorgeous brown hair like her father's. Eric refused to hold
his daughter, nor even so much as look at her. It broke Ariel's heart.
“Mama,” said Melody when she was old enough to talk, “doesn't Father love me?”
“Oh, I'm sure he does, my dear” Ariel always responded. In truth, though, Ariel
wasn't sure. Not only would Eric not talk to her about the girl...or anything
else, for that matter...he wouldn't talk to anyone else about her either.
People asked questions, but he acted like he never heard them. Grimsby went so
far as to confront Eric on the subject, but to no avail. It was like he didn't
even acknowledge his own daughter's existence.
At the age of seven, Melody fell ill with tuberculosis and died. Ariel was
beside herself with grief. Eric barely seemed to notice. He attended the
funeral--mainly because Grimsby told him he should—but did not shed a single
tear, nor speak a single word. His behavior did not change, even after that.
*****
A year later, Eric was planning a voyage to Germany. As Princess, Ariel was
hopeful she'd get to come along. She thought maybe some time together away from
home—a vacation of sorts—would be what he needed to start healing. She'd had to
learn of it second-hand, like she'd had to learn about everything these days.
“Will the Princess be joining you, your Highness?” Grimsby asked during lunch
two days before Eric was to depart.
Ariel perked up, eagerly awaiting her husband's response, hoping it would be
“yes.”
Eric didn't look at his wife as he spoke. “No,” he said evenly, “she'll be
staying here.”
Ariel's face fell and she had to force herself not to cry...which she later did
anyway.
*****
One day, Ariel took Eric down to the sea shore. He hadn't been close to the
water since that day his wife had dragged him back from the brink of death.
Flounder was there waiting. Ariel was hoping he could cheer Eric and maybe
break his melancholy.
“You remember Flounder,” she said cheerily. “Everybody likes him!”
Eric knelt down next to the water and put a hand out next to the small fish.
Suddenly, he pushed his fingers into Flounder's gills and hauled him up out of
the water. Before Ariel could react, Eric took a big bite out of the dorsal
side of Flounder's caudal peduncle, ripping the fish's flesh from his back.
Ariel squealed in horror. Eric stood up and dropped the fish in the water. Then
he chewed a few times, spat the remains out onto the beach, and limped slowly
back toward the palace. Ariel dropped to her knees by where Flounder lay
twitching in the water. She lifted one of his operculae and saw that his gills
were torn up. Blood poured from the fresh wound on his back.
“He...” gasped Flounder weakly, “...he...ate me.” Then he died. Ariel wept.
*****
Even when Melody was two, Ariel had been thinking about having more children.
Every time she broached the subject to Eric, he became violently ill. She never
found out why, nor, apparently, did anyone else. Three times, she'd mentioned
it in public with disastrous results.
Once she answered a question at a diplomatic function and Eric had immediately
vomited all over the French ambassador. Ariel had politely excused herself and
quickly retreated to a far corner of the palace. Erik found her not too long
after that. Ariel figured someone—probably Grimsby—had encouraged him to go and
comfort her. He only stood there for a few minutes, staring off into space with
his good eye, before returning to their guests, leaving Ariel in tears.
*****
For Eric's birthday, Ariel took him down to the pier and gave him a puppy of
the same breed Max had been.
“It's a symbol of our love,” she told him.
He took the puppy and looked at it for a minute, then tossed it into the sea.
“Erik!” cried Ariel in alarm. “He doesn't know how to swim yet!” Then she
stripped off her dress and leaped into the water after the dog. She felt her
legs fuse together into a tail, which always hurt.
She swam to shore with the dog and waited for her tail to split back into
legs—which was always nearly as painful as childbirth—and carried the animal
back to Eric.
“Please be gentle with him,” she pleaded. “He's just a puppy.”
Eric looked at the dog—now completely drenched—and the dog wiggled excitedly,
tongue lolling out, yipping enthusiastically. Ariel thought it was really cute.
Then she watched in horror as her husband grabbed its head and deftly snapped
its neck, dropping his little puppy's limp body into the water with less care
than he would have taken discarding a ham bone.
“Eric!” she cried in alarm. “He was supposed to be a symbol of our love!
Is...is that what you think of me?”
Eric looked dispassionately at her for a moment, then slowly nodded his head
and limped back toward the palace. Ariel sank to her knees and sobbed.
*****
On the day of their fifteenth wedding anniversary, a celebration was held in
observance of the occasion. Ariel still held out hope, thin though it now was,
that her husband still loved her, would recover, and that this could be the day
it happened.
A grand banquet was spread. Eric and Ariel sat next to each other at the head
table. As usual, Eric neither touched, nor spoke to, nor looked at Ariel. She
repeatedly stole loving glances at him, hoping to catch his eye, to see some
glimmer of...well, anything...in it. It didn't happen.
When the time came to toast the couple, everyone, including Eric and Ariel,
stood to their feet. Grimsby, who was by now getting along in years, led the
toast.
“To Erik and Ariel,” he said, raising his glass. “A happier couple I have never
seen. May they have many more years together.”
At that moment, Erik's body went rigid. His glass fell from his hand and he
toppled over in front of his wife. Ariel screamed.
Ariel was inconsolable after that. She wore black for several years and it was
said that the light in her own eyes died the same day her husband did.
Grimsby died a few years later. The day after his funeral, Ariel was observed
on the pier as she shed all her clothing and dove into the sea. She was never
seen again by anyone ashore or under the sea. Erik's younger brother assumed
the throne.
*****
It is said that the mermaids of Whitecap Bay sprang from Ariel's tears and that
all her sorrow and anger, fury and anguish and pain were poured out into them.
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