The Little Mermaid Part III: The Abyss
A short story retelling the Hans Christian Andersen dark fairy tale.
The betrayal soaked through The Little Mermaid’s brittle bones. Though it was a heartbreak she no longer had the time to contemplate. Dread replaced sorrow the closer she came to the kingdom’s edge. She hovered before the outlands, where the exiled lurked. There were few who resided in such a place. Her father’s deterring laws, although merciless in her mind, were effective. The few who had been banished throughout their history had committed acts so callously cruel, the thought to do such harm would never trickle through a sane person’s mind, so her sisters would whisper.
She searched her mind for any trivial excuse that would allow her to turn back, to find another way to live on in the heavens. A different, kinder hope, even if it were as small as a grain of sand. Terror ultimately prevailed in the bargaining of her mind. Ceasing to exist was a fear that tumbled through her invariably, stronger than the fear of treading through exiled waters. Stronger than any creature she may encounter.
Her widened eyes traced for a distance that never came. She took a gasping breath and drifted forward timidly, praying not to wake the looming darkness. Colder waters seeped between the strands of her flowing white hair and slender fingers as she surrendered herself to the ocean beneath the deep. No sign of existence. Her only company the persistent memories of The Sea Witch’s fable, infiltrating the valleys of her mind.
Hushed tales regaled her legend to steer fishlings clear of exiled waters. She was once a beautiful mermaid with an ethereal voice to rival a whale’s song. Creatures from every ocean would swim through formidable tides just to witness her effervescent aura. Over time, vanity became her, poisoning her heart as she grew envious of any mermaid who came close to reaching her level of esteem. To prove the superiority of her lure, she would break the surface, tempting impressionable sailors into the sea. She devoured them sadistically, ripping their bodies in pieces like a frenzied shark, leaving chunks of meaty flesh and blood red clouds to rain over people in the kingdom below. Staining them with a mark of her boundless power. And when she turned her attention to her fellow kind, The Sea King had no choice but to intervene, sentencing her to live out her remaining days in exile. The stories haunted her, buried deep in memories she tried to smother. She would stutter, pleading with her sisters to tell her if they were really true. The worry illuminated her innocent face. Exchanging stolen glances, they quickly dismissed her, insisting it was all made up to scare them in line. So their kind would obey the law of the seven seas. The Little Mermaid resented being treated like such a fool.
The faint silhouette of her kingdom had unknowingly faded behind her. She was fully immersed in darkness, her entity intruded by the deep’s forbidding cynicism. What a wicked place to live, she thought. Suffocated by nothingness. Disorientation set in, compressed by the weight of a thousand seas above. Empty. It felt empty. She wondered if that was what ceasing to exist was like. The lack of oxygen dampened her already weakened pulse. The dense waters slowed time. Wading in space felt unrushed. She was lost to the abyss.
In the lull between echoed seconds, a maniacal cackling encircled her, strangling all senses of hope. Her stomach an implosion of dire regret. She wanted to turn back, to go home and accept her fate. To be with the ones she loved when it happened. Is that what normal mermaids wish for? she wondered. To dissolve surrounded by the ones you love, safe at home under dome ceilings, great thrones and pearlescent marble floors. She looked back toward her kingdom, yearning to see the faint blue glow. A radiance she had only ever escaped when exploring the world above. There was nothing. She looked to the surface, and nothing. She looked below; nothing.
The cackling stopped, death coming to collect her. She tried to swallow the nerves but heavy water crept down her throat instead, like a lump of coral. With somber dignity she braced for him to eat her entirely.
She felt a sharp stab pierce the flesh beneath her emaciated ribs. An intricate ribbon of blood danced out the wound. She twisted toward the source, wishing the pain was imaginary, that the lack of oxygen had given way to delusion, that the exiled lands would remain empty. She wondered if she might face a threat so formidable that she could scurry away from this forsaken depth back to her father’s protection.
Razored teeth beneath a piercing grin and glowing eyes in gaping sockets flooded her sight. This creature had been a mermaid long before the fathomless deep had distorted her into something else. Pressure reshaped every bone, elongating a skeletal body. Callous claws had formed where hands used to be. Gills ripped through scaled skin on a stretched out slender neck. The Sea Witch roared, spitting acid rain across The Little Mermaid’s frightened face. She devoured the fear with sinister joy. A pair of electrified eels swarmed around them lighting up the immediate deep, just enough to keep the anguished ambience intact. The Little Mermaid was petrified, certain she would turn to stone and sink all the way down to the bottom of the hadal trenches.
“It’s rude to stare. Didn’t daddy teach you any manners?” her voice like screaming knives. An eel gave The Little Mermaid another sharp sting on the arm hissing at her as it slithered around her withered body. It peered into every crevice exploring the cavities between her bones.
“You look repulsive. Not long left I see.” her violent eyes poured over The Little Mermaid before they fell on her pearl necklace, hung low across a fragmented decolletage. The Sea Witch studied the ridges of the stone. It beckoned her in. Eyes in a trance fixated on it.
The Little Mermaid stayed perfectly still but for the fine trickle of blood still streaming out. There were no words within her willing to meet The Sea Witch.
The trance broke. She shot her gaze back at The Little Mermaid.
“Come on, spill it. Daddy wouldn’t exile you, you’re too precious. What could you possibly want down here? You got a death wish?” she cackled.
Starved of lucid thought, The Little Mermaid announced, “I wish to become human so that I can spend my final moments in the warmth of The Sun Goddess’s love so that she will bless me with a–“ The Sea Witch interrupted her with a menacing crack.
“Is that all, my dear? No need to scare yourself to death!” she screeched, amused by her own deranged humour.
“So you want me to rip The King’s precious little daughter away for all eternity? Why, I do believe this is the most wonderful day of my life. What a gift dear child, what a gift you have brought me!” Her bony claws grasped around The Little Mermaid’s delicate hands. The mixture of horror and joy cascading within her, refusing to mix. She tried to breathe entirely, extracting any oxygen she could.
“But!” screamed the witch, the corners of her mouth grinning wide as if stretched by fish hooks. She looked up on The Little Mermaid’s vacant expression. It delighted her. Savouring the pain, she conjured extra seconds between her words.
"There…is…a…slight…catch…my…dear.” The Little Mermaid gulped, she anticipated such.
“You must reach the shore, and fully dry in The Sun before your stumpy little legs will appear. Only then will your pretty little skin withstand the heat and only then will your precious Sun Goddess bless you with a soul, and” –her haggard claw scanned The Little Mermaid from head to tail– “I don’t know if you’ll have enough time, my dear.” she mocked her with words drenched in disgust.
“Please, please, I will do anything.” The Little Mermaid didn’t waste a second. Gasping for breath, she tried to keep some semblance of composure.
“Alright, my dear,” The Sea Witch pondered sluggishly. “I will grant you this wish. But you must swim fast. Faster than you ever have before. Or you’ll die alone, and won’t that be terribly tragic.” sarcasm oozing out of every lacerated gill.
The Sea Witch spun electricity off an eel and twirled it around her skeletal fingers. She launched through the water, protecting her magic as if they were the ocean stones. The Little Mermaid’s eager anticipation was palpable. The Sea Witch held back a cackle beneath her putrid grin. With a single serrated talon she lightly tapped The Little Mermaid’s forehead. A jolt of electricity spiralled through her, leaving her a little dazed. The Sea Witch leaned in close and whispered huskily, this time with no glee at all,
“Swim Little Mermaid, swim.” The witch’s cackle cracked like threatening thunder.
The Little Mermaid’s eyes fell backwards, a lightning needle stabbing at each vertebrae, clawing its way up to strangle her. She floated in a horrid daze, surrendering to the pain. The jolt hit the back of her neck. She snapped awake and burst away from the desolate waters with all the fury she could summon. Desperate to escape, desperate to reach the shore. Panic transformed into intention as she climbed out of the deep. Since The Little Mermaid met her curse, a taunting hope constantly dangled before her ocean eyes. Always out of reach. This was the first time she truly believed she might be able to capture it.
The Sea Witch gawked in disturbed amusement, hysterical as The Little Mermaid scuttled away. She fed on fear, craved the power, especially from disgusting, foolish little mermaids. And from a royal mermaid, the righteous King's precious daughter nonetheless, was truly her lucky day. She giggled as the bubbles exploded off her tail, extinguished by the stagnant abyss.
An eel wriggled around The Sea Witch before their fluorescent eyes met. She answered his withering stare.
“You underestimate me.” she grinned, “I didn’t grant her anything, she will cease to exist all alone and it will destroy her precious father”. Her cracked laughter ripped through the bottomless waters like a viscous storm.
The Little Mermaid written and illustrated by Kelsey Cameron is a short retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale told in four parts. It features a young and curious mermaid who embarks on an emotional journey to change her fate. A fate she cannot accept. This story is about perspective, grief, and eternal love.