THE LITTLE MERMAN
Chapter 2
The Sea Witch
Justin swam home as fast as he could but even so he was terribly late. When he finally reached home his mother and brothers were in various stages of worry and anger.
"Where did you go?" asked Emmett.
"What did you do?" asked Ted.
The rest of his brothers peppered him with questions until the loudest and angriest voice overwhelmed them all.
"WHERE have you BEEN?! Did I not tell you, you had ONLY one day!?" his mother demanded.
Justin bowed deeply and tried to apologize.
"My mother and Queen I am truly sorry but it could not be helped. I did start home at dawn though." Seeing her expression, he added, "Really, I did try to start home earlier but I was prevented. It was a matter of life and death."
"And what....pray tell...prevented you?"
And so, Justin began to tell of his adventures, just as I've told you now. But when he reached the part where he climbed the ship, they gasped in horror. When he told of his looking over the railing and the prince seeing him, they gasped as if he'd confessed to eating a baby. When he told of rescuing the prince and dragging him through the waters to the beach there was total, horrific silence. And when he told of saving the prince with his sunshine powers and kissing him, Emmett actually swooned, out cold. His fishy body floated upwards but Justin was unconcerned. He'd come to long before he broke the surface; he was just being dramatic. As he looked around though, he was wondering if he might have to change his mind.
"What is wrong with all of you?!" he cried, "I saved someone today. I saved a life and you all look like I killed someone."
"You should have let him die."
"Justin gasped. He had never heard his mother utter anything in such an icy, pitiless tone before.
"I-I don't understand."
"And you should not have let him see you. They're too primitive, my son. They don't understand us. They don't even believe we exist. They are hunters. Fisheaters. If they had seen your tail they would have tracked you down without a second thought, without pity, without remorse...he would have..."
"MOTHER, I LOVE HIM!" Justin shouted.
Now everybody...and I mean everybody...within hearing gasped. His mother clapped a hand over her mouth.
"NO....." she gasped, "God, no! Oh, my son! My son..."
Justin was truly puzzled. "Mother! What is it? What is wrong? I don't understand."
"Oh, Justin! Didn't I warn you to avoid the hooks of men?"
"But I did! I didn't see a single hook! And I obviously was not captured! I'm here."
"But for how long? Oh, it's my own fault! I forgot to warn you...warn you of the mortal's most insidious lure and hook of all!"
"Mother, what ARE you talking about? You are not making any sense. What lure? What hook?"
"Love. Love is the most powerful, insidious, devious hook of the mortal man because it consumes you utterly and can never be removed. But, my son, a love between a mortal and merman or maid can never be. They don't understand us. They don't even believe in us. And besides....we're incompatible," she finished, motioning toward his tail.
"I don't care," Justin said stubbornly, "I'll find a way. I'll make myself....more compatible...somehow."
The hall erupted in laughter. Justin flushed in humiliation and his lip trembled. But he refused to cry in front of these people. Whirling, he swam out of the throne room as fast as he could.
Why couldn't they understand? Hadn't anyone felt this deep ache in the pit of their stomach before? Hadn't anyone felt this deep emptiness, this void in their soul? Just thinking about Brian, about his sadness, his vain manic dancing, and let's face it, his beautiful body made Justin's heart hurt. Thinking about his kiss, Justin felt a pull, a need to travel back to Brian and be near him. In his head, he knew the kiss was instinctual, but his heart didn't care. He wanted to feel the salt on his soft lips again. And again. And again. It was almost like....
"Oh God!" he whispered in horrified realization, "It's true! I'm hooked! I'm hooked with love to Brian!"
And then he realized that he didn't care.
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Over the next week, Justin fell into a deep grieving depression. He painted a beautiful portrait of Brian and stood it in his garden. He adorned it with anemones and seaweeds and flowers. He spent hours gazing at it, devoting his days to the image of the one he craved. But it was not enough. It was never enough. Each day he could feel the hook of desire pull him a little more, felt it pull him a little stronger. He knew he must do something but he didn't know what that was. All he could do was lie there hour after hour day after day. He barely slept. He didn't eat. He knew there would be no point. Nothing could fill the gaping void that had been his soul.
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One day, about two weeks after his rescue, Justin swam out to his garden as usual. He had managed to choke down a few clams for breakfast but he couldn't chew. They slid down, raw and whole and he could feel them heavy in his stomach. But he couldn't starve. He had to live. He had to find the answer. And until then he needed to look on Brian and suffer.
As Justin reached his painting, he was startled to hear laughter.
"HA! HA! HA! Poor little Prince! HA! HA! HA!"
"Who is that? This is a private garden!"
More laughter. It echoed all around him and grew deeper and more drawn out.
"HAAAAAA! HAAAAAA! HAAAAAAAAAA!
"Who is that!? What's going on?"
There was a trembling and suddenly a cone of rock jutted out of the ground and pierced his painting right through the center. The cone rose higher and became an obelisk. The obelisk became a small mountain.
Justin swam after it and grabbed onto the tiptop of the cone that just rose higher and higher and higher. And all the while the laughter went on and on and on.
Justin hung on. "What is going on here!?" he screamed.
At last the mountain broke the surface. Justin hung on for dear life, wrapping his tail around top for dear life. It was hard though; the mountain had become slick as steel and twice as hard.
Not far from Justin's mountain was a rock of and island where a mermaid with long, black seaweed for hair and a long black shiny tail was sunning herself.
"Who are you!?"
"One who has been watching you. One who has seen your pain. You know what you want but you don't know how to get it. I can get it."
"How? Who ARE you?"
"They call me a witch. Perhaps I am. But this sea witch has great powersssss," she intoned but her voice came from everywhere. "But....are you willing to pay the price?"
"I will pay it! What is it?"
"High!"
"I don't care. I'm paying enough as it is."
The sea witch grew larger doubling in size. "Foolish little prince. You are paying nothing. You suffer for nothing. Look there." She pointed. And somehow Justin could see the beach where he had left Brian and his castle. He watched as Brian and another man with dark wavy hair and thick bushy eyebrows strolled on the beach with a bucket and spade. They held hands as they walked and looked into each other's eyes. They both were barefoot, wore loose fitting white pants and white shirts that were open and blowing in the wind. As Justin watched, curled around his mountain, the other man pointed and dug and found a clam.
"They do this all the time. The mortal prince thinks it was he who rescued him. He does not remember or think on you at all. They are getting married."
"NO! What can I do?" Justin turned toward the witch and was startled to see she had doubled in size again. She was as big as Babylon.
"There is only one thing you can do. Become a human yourself. Then there might be a chance...a slight chance....that you could break them up and marry him yourself. But beware. Whether you succeed or fail there will be more than one broken heart between you. And if you do fail, you will die."
"I must try. I feel as if I'm already dead. What must I do?
The sea witch smiled a cruel smile and doubled in size again. She was as large as the largest whale in the ocean. She tossed Justin a vial full of a rosy pink liquid. Justin caught it.
Beach yourself and at dawn, drink this potion. It will change you into a human. But...it will burn out your vocal cords and cost you your voice...forever. As a human, you will no longer have your power of sunshine. It will be painful. It will feel as if you are being cut in half with a double-edged sword. And every step you take on human feet will feel as if you are stepping on knives. You will have 3 weeks. At that time they are getting married. If you fail in your quest and they get married, on the dawn of the day after their wedding day, you will change back into a merman and be transformed into sea foam. You will die. Do you still wish to continue this endeavor? This is your last chance to change your mind. I told you the price was high!"
"I will pay it! I will find a way!" Justin declared. He looked on the Brian and the wavy haired man again. They were kissing now, and Brian was slowly making the man forget about his spade and bucket His stomach twisted with jealousy. "That should be me!" I saved him. I'm the one who loves him!"
The sea witch's laughter reverberated around him, louder than ever. The sea witch was larger than ever, double in length than a whale. She towered over Justin on his little perch. She dipped her huge, black fins in the water and began to stir it into a huge maelstrom.
"Ahhhhhh, the hook of love!" she scorned, "A more devious trap has never been invented for within its clutches you will find only the inescapable bondage of jealousy, heartache and pain. You will love him forever, but he will scorn you. You will fail! You will never escape my doom! HAAAAA! HAAAAA! HAAAAAA! SO MUCH FOR TRUE LOVE!"
And with that she reared her huge tail back and slammed it into Justin's perch, smashing it into smithereens. Justin screamed as he was thrown and fell straight into the center of the maelstrom Down, down, down he fell with his screams and the witch's laughter echoing around the spinning wall of water. The laughter grew fainter and fainter until there were only his screams for help and an all-consuming darkness.
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"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" Justin jerked awake. He had fallen asleep under his masterpiece. He might have chalked the whole thing up into a whale of a nightmare except for two things. There was a large jagged hole through Brian's left eye and Justin was clutching a vial full of pink potion.
TBC