Once upon a time, there was a beautiful Duchess, who lived in an old, crumbling castle with all of her friends.
The castle was cold and dark and haunted, and the Duchess didn't like it at all.
She wanted to leave the castle.
She wanted to go to the ocean.
She wanted to walk across the sand, and disappear into the foam.
Then, she would be a mermaid.
A beautiful mermaid.
Clean and pure.
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful Duchess, who was as cruel and selfish as she was lovely.
And she was very lovely.
Everyone thought so, even the ruler of the castle.
Especially the ruler of the castle.
He would call her to his private quarters every night, just to make sure that she knew.
But it was all wrong.
The ruler of the castle made her feel ugly, and wretched, and confused.
Gently, he would hurt her, and she didn't know why.
Perhaps it was something she had done.
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful Duchess, who's dreams and hopes were full of mermaids, but then the ruler of the castle had joined her at the water's edge.
Now the dream sea was diseased, and all the mermaids had drowned.
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful Duchess, who felt less beautiful every day.
She wandered the castle, alone, looking for something she couldn't find.
The Princess only coughed weakly, and gave her orders.
The Prince stared at her with sightless, black eyes, and said nothing.
The Countess turned away from her, again, and again.
The Baroness wrote her love letters that even the goats wouldn't eat.
And the new girl didn't matter at all.
Only the unmarried mermaid was kind to her.
But the mermaid was getting old, and tired.
It was too late for her - she'd never go back to the ocean, now.
The Duchess, selfish as she was, kept her trapped on land.
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful Duchess, and an emptiness that consumed everything it saw, but could never be filled.
But the ruler of the castle tried.
He filled her with anger and fear.
He filled her with things far worse.
He filled her with terrible sadness.
The ruler of the castle loved her, or so he said.
The ruler of the castle loved her like he loved his castle, and soon she, too, was cold and dark and haunted.
And she didn't like it at all.
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful Duchess, who had a disgusting chore.
The ruler of the castle made her clean his room every day, so it was ready for his filthy behavior every night.
One day, the Duchess found one of the ruler's cigarettes.
He had forgotten to bury it in the ash, and it beckoned her to it from his desk.
Beautiful Duchess, hear my plea:
I don't want to die!
Yet it is my destiny, is not - to be consumed by flame?
I don't want to die, but have no option to live.
Please, Duchess, help me;
Draw from me, my final breath;
Use me to fill the emptiness.
She listened to the cigarette's helpless cries, and felt pity for it.
The ruler of the castle had used it up and left it to suffer.
Now where had she heard that before?
The Duchess had never smoked a cigarette, but she'd seen it done plenty of times.
She liked the way the end glowed red.
She liked the way it felt on her lips, and the way it filled her with poison and smoke.
She liked the way it sizzled and burned.
She liked the way it left little holes in her skin.
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful Duchess, who lifted her skirt, and burned, and burned, and burned.
Someday, she would be a mermaid.
Hurry, Duchess!
Hurry!
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful Duchess, who burned away her human legs, hoping to reveal the scales beneath the soft skin.
She burned, and burned, and burned.
But she was only human, after all.
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful Duchess, carved from shell and bone and shards of glass, who tried to melt her legs into a tail.
But all she did was make it harder to walk.
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful Duchess, who knew she would never be a mermaid, after all.
She left the castle one final time, without saying goodbye.
The unmarried mermaid found her along the water's edge.
The unmarried mermaid saw her ruined legs, and wept.
The unmarried mermaid couldn't bear to see her suffering.
The unmarried mermaid peeled strips from her own tail, crying from pain and sorrow.
The unmarried mermaid bound the Duchess's legs together with pieces of herself, making her a ragged, ugly tail.
The Duchess saw her tail, and compared it to the unmarried mermaid's, and smiled.
Finally, she felt whole.
The Duchess and the unmarried mermaid laid together by the water's edge, watching the water reach out for them.
Together, they drifted away.
Two beautiful mermaids, swallowed up by the sea.