Mermay Madness

The night air was beautiful and serene as the moon as it glowed brightly in the night sky above the maiden as she walked along the pier and looked at the darkened waters below. The moonlight glittering off the waves like stars were trapped under the surface. You never were allowed to just look upon this sight when you were home. You didn't have any idea of the last time you weren't told what to do. From the moment you were born your entire life wasn't even yours. The pretty sparkles however didn't hide the monster underneath beckoning you forward.

"I won't accept you."

"Is that right?"

It had been months since the time you met him. The creature who wanted you but who you rejected because he was a monster. An evil monster who would only devour. And you were already spoken for. It was only the beginning really.

Ever since you were a little girl you've done everything right. As heiress and next in line you were prepared for only one thing and that was to become the perfect young lady. You think they resented you for not being born the strong male heir they wanted to have and instead would have to pick someone else from one of the other noble families to marry you and become their true heir. After all a woman in their eyes could never inherit their estate. Not like a man could. So you had done everything you could do to please them. You studied everything you could do to make yourself come off as a proper well bred lady. Learning to dance in those uncomfortable shoes, laugh at suitors' ridiculous jokes no matter how obnoxious they were, making yourself fond over men that your parents expressed interest in even if you hated their entire being, forcing yourself into those ridiculous dresses and make up because that's what you were expected to look like...

And yet it was NEVER good enough for them. Never good enough for anyone. All of your efforts only seemed to make them more angry of you even though you were doing more than they expected.

In the end they weren't satisfied at all with you, but the fateful meeting happened when you both had spotted each other on that fateful night. A ceremony that took place on the beach, a marriage of one of the noble couples where you were invited and was forced to attend being the princess and had to keep up perfect appearances etc and so on. And then from the waters when you looked you spotted him. The man whom bobbed up and down curiously in the water. It was a public beach so you thought he was just swimming but then you thought about it and wondered who in their right mind would be swimming while a noble event was going on. Was he spying on someone here? He must've felt eyes on him because he turned.

And you felt your stomach as six inhuman eyes locked eyes with your f/c ones. You were so stunned by the monstrous face that you couldn't look away trapped in fear of the thing staring at you only jolted back to the ceremony because your mother jabbed you to pay attention to the ceremony. When you dared to look back out upon the ocean, the thing was gone. In the moment you chalked it up to just being a figment of your imagination or you seeing things from constantly being in stress. Oh how wrong you were. 

Because then the nightmares started happening. 

You'd wake up in the middle of the dark ocean scrambling for freedom and trying to get away from the monster of six eyes and a bright purple and orange tail would grab you by the forearms and say one line as you fought yourself to wake up.

"Give me your hand as my wife."

The same line over and over. Night after night. He asked you for the one thing that you knew if you accepted, you'd never get out. Better the monsters you knew than the monster you didn't. You once asked him why. Why did he want you when there was surely woman far more wealthy and willing and beautiful? His answer was always the same.

"We were lovers in another life. You died then but you're still mine. It just took me time to find you once more. Give me your hand once again as mine. Join me once more as you belong here in my arms, by my side, and continuing to love me."

You rejected him. It didn't matter what you were then, it's a new life and you had a duty to your parents, and you had a fiance now. Besides it was just all nightmares you told yourself. No matter how real his hands felt when they held you or how gently his words were when he spoke to you. It was all a figment of your desires to escape this life.

Perhaps you should've accepted because the destruction that followed you when the monster finally reared itself to show in the moonlight and attacked your wagon transport...it was something out of hell.

But now you sat there watching what remained of the once grand ship you were supposed to be married on sink in the tattered remains of your once grand wedding dress and just stared blankly at him. The monster who had done all the destruction. First ones to go were the ones who transported you away, then your parents, then the man who had paid your parents for you, and then anyone the monster dam well pleased. Over and over one after one until the ship as a whole was swallowed up until nothing else was left but a smoking husk of what once was.

You nodded before the red and amber eyes of hellish stoic fury. The one responsible for it all. "Yes. You've done everything you could do to make me pay for not listening to you so you can just leave me alone."

Instead of taking the obvious way out, he hummed tilting his head. "Hmm. That would make sense....but I have no interest in in leaving what's mine." Those deadly eyes narrowed. "Isn't that right, my dear little wife?"

Wife.

You'd forgotten about that.

As an heiress you were expected to be married. More like married off. It was your duty to be married off to someone else who you probably would never love. All under the guise of being for the 'better of your people and kingdom' and then to be nothing but the perfect little supportive wife to him for the rest of your lives and produce him many heirs. It was a duty you being trapped didn't want but made peace with doing a long time ago and would've done it at one point in time. Especially if it meant avoiding his destruction and wrath.

To force yourself to wear whatever gown your mother picked and force yourself to smile and laugh in mock happiness as your father walked you down the aisle after the bridesmaids and flower girl and ring bearer. Force yourself to repeat rehearsed vows your mother wrote for you in advance and say I do to a stranger you'd never love. And thank everyone for coming to 'the happiest day of your life' and force yourself to scarf down too sweet wedding cake and cry over tacky decorations you'd have no say in picking.

But now none of it mattered really. You ended up promising your hand to the demon before you.

"Please! Just don't hurt anyone else!"

"Then give me your hand." The claws stained by the blood of many and if you weren't careful, you couldn't accidentally cut yourself if you grasped his hand. "As my wife for eternity."

A princess and a monster. An ironic comical fate but what choice did you ever have? You accepted your fate and reached out to the monster. He was suddenly upon you, grabbing your hand while the other looked around your waist pulling you into the night waters and against him as he grinned a smile that was both malevolent and full of want for you.

"After all all this destruction wasn't a part of just wrath. It was my wedding gift to you Let this be my marriage vow and promise to you, my dear.~"