Chapter 6: Secrets

The last thing Melody wanted was to be surrounded and doted on by her mother and a dozen servants. She was soaked with seawater, and the massive drenched dress felt like a hundred pounds. The air was freezing, and every slight breeze sent chills through her body. Not to mention she was pretty sure the heel of one of her stupid fancy shoes had broken off long ago. What was worse of all though, is the terrible guilt she felt in her stomach. Somehow, she just knew what had happened had been her fault.

The servants quickly began fretting over the princess, while her mother snatched up her hands.

"Melody! Oh, I was so worried, are you hurt?!"

"I'm fine mother…"

"No you are not, you're soaked to the bone. Oh, my poor darling… Quickly! Someone fetch the royal physician, Carlotta, run her a warm bath! Oh and you there, go get her ladies in waiting to prepare her room!"

While the queen began to bark orders left and right, Melody was fighting back her tears. Right now she wanted nothing more than the privilege of privacy, but no one was listening to a word she said. A feeling of being suffocated and trapped seized her chest, and her pulse began to race with the familiar rush of an anxiety attack.

"I said I'm fine!" The princess hadn't meant to snap as loud as she did, and everyone around her froze in shock.

The stares of everyone only made her feel worse, she needed to get out fast. In a panic, she pushed her way past her mother and the others.

Ariel's heart broke, and she spun to follow her only child. "Melody! Wait!"

Before the Queen could follow after Carlotta had grabbed her hand. The woman quickly draped her arms across the Queen's shoulders in a familiar hug.

"Give the child some space, it's been a long day for her…"

Ariel knew immediately the wise woman was right, she always was.

As Melody ran to her room, she focused on keeping her tears back. Everyone else in the castle was frankly too frantic and busy with the incredible disaster that had just taken place to notice her rushing by.

When she made it to the foot of the staircase leading to her room she paused, making sure no one had followed after her. While no one seemed to be around, her ears caught the voices of young women down the hall from her. Her first instinct was to freeze. People sensed movement better than stillness… just like predators.

They never noticed Melody by the stairs, and the princess quickly realized that she knew the girls down the hall. It was her ladies in waiting, the very same group she had met that day and had gotten her ready for the ball. Melody cupped her ears to listen in more closely to their conversation.

A blonde girl was speaking, "My mother warned me something might happen… everyone knows she's cursed."

A red-headed girl chimed in as she tried to fix her hair. "That's what I told my mother! But she said that's why they built those unsightly walls around the castle… that they would keep me safe. They sure didn't do much thought did they?"

Another girl sighed deeply "My father was on the ship when she was born, he heard the sea witch's curse himself. If the princess isn't returned, the sea will rage until the kingdom is in shambles. They swore him to secrecy after… he never thought it was real though!"

"The royal family makes me sick, they are willing to destroy the entire kingdom for the princess. How many will die in her place?" One girl shook her head in disgust, and the others shook their heads in agreement.

"I've always believed the Queen isn't who she seems. She is royalty but from what kingdom? Before she got married no one had ever heard of her. My family was close to the royals for years and they swear all the time they have no idea who she is… Then, as soon as she and the king take to power the entire palace cuts itself off from the rest of the world? It's so bizarre…"

Melody had heard more than enough and quickly dashed to her room before she could be caught. The words of the girls kept playing out in her head over and over tried to piece together the web of lies and secrets that surrounded her life.

Why were the castle walls built? Why could she never leave the castle? Why the fear of the ocean? Who is her mother?

These were questions she had asked a hundred times till she learned no one would answer her. If she wanted to know what was going on she needed to eavesdrop, to sneak, to play dumb… and she was sick of it.

As soon as Melody got to her room she locked the doors and let the tears begin to fall. As usual, everything was a mess, everything was her fault, there was nothing she could do, and she would be stuck in this stupid castle for the rest of her life.

After a few minutes of doing nothing but sobbing on the floor, the princess began to pick up the pieces of herself. She began by kicking the broken and ridiculous heels off her blistered feet and across the floor. Then she started the ordeal of getting out of the massive waterlogged ball gown. An elaborate and layered dress was hard enough to get in and out of, but one soaked and weighed down by the water was nearly impossible.

After finally getting out of the dress, her hair and skin were still dripping in ice-cold seawater. Wrapping herself in a warm towel she wiped the stream of salty tears from her face and tried to process everything that had happened. As she slipped into a simple nightgown, she found her eyes drifting to the discreetly locked chest at the bottom of her closet. It was where she hid all of her secret ocean treasures and contraband.

Her collection always made her feel better, every piece beautiful for its unique reason. Shells, sea glass, sand dollars… and each held happier memories. Memories of finding these sea secrets, of Lily teaching her their names and the stories of how they came to be.

The first thing she saw after unlocking the chest was the large golden shell she had found that morning. With how crazy the entire day ended up being, she had forgotten entirely about finding the lustrous shell. For a moment her curiosity took over, granting her a brief respite from her troubles.

Before she could inspect the peculiar find further, her head snapped toward the familiar sound of her bedroom doors unlocking. There were only two people who had keys that could unlock her room and only one who would come in without knocking first. The princess threw the closet doors shut and dropped the golden shell in her nightgown pocket.

"Melody?" By the time her mother had opened the door, Melody was on her bed clutching a pillow. As if she had been on her bed the whole time, and not across the room by her closet.

In a moment Ariel was by her daughter's side, "Oh sweetheart… I'm so sorry. Are you alright?"

Despite Melody's best efforts, tears began streaking down her face again. "Mom… What's wrong with me?"

"My darling, nothing is wrong with you." The Queen reached to wipe the tears from her child's face, but Melody rolled over and cried into her pillow.

"Yeah right. I'm the princess of disaster. I'm cursed, and everyone knows it!"

Ariel's heart seized for a moment. "What do you mean you're cursed?"

Melody caught the fear in her mother's voice, could the gossip she heard be true?

She stood from her bed and spun to face her mom, "Mother… Why did you build the castle walls after I was born?"

The look that flashed across her mother's face said everything, she was hiding something. Melody was starting to get sick of being left in the dark, everybody in on secrets except for her. She turned her back on her mother, a newfound pain spreading in her chest.

"Who told you that?! Who have you been talking to? You are not cursed Melody, I don't know where you heard such... such utter nonsense!" The queen kept speaking, but Melody had already started ignoring her words.

As Ariel rambled on, Melody absentmindedly pulled the golden shell from her pocket. The mere sight of it yet again distracted the princess from everything else going on around her. She momentarily forgot her mother was even there.

As she wiped away the bits of sand stuck a script engraving was revealed on the lustrous gold finish. Looking closer Melody realized something… her name was engraved on this golden clamshell. She couldn't believe it.

"Woah… my… my name is on this."

"Melody… are you listening to me?"

Melody wasn't listening, completely captivated by the golden trinket instead. As she pried open the golden clamshell yet another shock greeted her, and it wasn't a golden pearl.

A lovely lullaby filled the room immediately, and a gorgeous orb of light appeared from the locket. The orb shifted into an underwater scene, complete with merfolk circling a golden underwater castle and waves splashing around them.

"That… that song… Where have I heard it before?"

The scene disappeared as Ariel snatched the locket from Melody's hands.

"Where did you get this?" Melody had never heard her mother sound so deadly serious before.

"Was that Atlantica? It had merpeople and everything… you always said it was nothing but an old sailor tale."

Ariel wasn't having any of it, "You went over the walls didn't you!?"

Melody rolled her eyes and gave her mother a shrug "Actually, I went under them. I hate those stupid walls."

Ariel's voice went from soft and quiet to nearly screaming, "Melody! How could you?! You know you're not allowed in the sea!"

Melody snapped back immediately, "But why?! And why does that locket have my name on it? Why are you keeping all these secrets from me?!"

"Now you listen to me! You deliberately disobeyed me! I NEVER want you going out there again! Do you hear me?! It's dangerous in the sea!"

"Yeah? And how would you even know?! It's not like you've ever even been in it!" Melody had never screamed so loud at anyone, let alone her mother. Ariel was taken aback for a moment, and in that split second Melody managed to snatch the golden locket back.

Melody raced across the room quickly, swinging her closet open as Ariel watched in shock. The princess snatched her thick winter cloak and slung a bag over her shoulder before storming out of her bedroom.

"Melody! Wait! Where are you going?" Her mother's voice echoed behind her as she ran, but Melody refused to listen.

The princess was done listening, and she was done being trapped in this castle a second longer.

Hi everyone, thank you for reading my AU of The Little Mermaid 2, with Melody at 19 and not 12. I originally posted this FanFiction on Deviantart, and it is updated there every 1st and 15th of the month. I will be adding chapters to this story every Monday till it's caught up to the deviant art version.

If you would like to read ahead or check out my Disney fan edits here is my deviantart link:

mermaidmelodyedits

You can also check out my Disney fan edits on Instagram:

mermaid_melody_edits/

I'd super appreciate if you guys could leave me your thoughts in the comments! Critique, comments, discussion, etc. I want to hear it all! Feel free to also message me if you have any questions or want to chat!

Chapter 6 is the fight scene between Ariel and Melody, with little foreshadowing and hints added about what is really going on. The next chapters in my opinion are where everything picks up and gets really exciting, so look forward to it!