Chapter 45: Monstro

"I consider myself a reasonable merman."

Lana glared across her painted toenails at Ariel. "Mer…unlike some of us."

"Oh shut up, Lana." Andrina snapped. Ariel bounced slightly as Andrina leaned across the couch in the Triton's living room. "It's not like being a mermaid helped you get to the finish line either."

Lana shook her head incredulously. Cordelia and Maris folded their arms at the Triton girls. "Oh please, Andrina. Stop defending her. Give the mutant a chance."

Ariel looked up from her shoes. "Bitch."

"What did you say?"

Ariel seized a pillow from Arista's lap. "You heard me, Lana!"

"Shut up!"

Furiously, Ariel threw the pillow. Attina stood. Ariel shook her away. "Make me!"

"LADIES! ENOUGH!"

Ariel ignored her father. She didn't care. She didn't care about the consequences. She was sick if being told what to do and how to feel. Don't be mad that Fantasia depends on you to protect it! Don't be mad that the Wishing Star is broken! Don't be mad that nobody else cares about Fantasia! Don't be mad about the trident! Don't be mad that you can't change into a mermaid! Don't be mad that your sisters and cousins are mean girls! Don't be mad that Wendy Darling hates you because of your family! Don't be mad that Daddy forbids you to see Jim Hawkins ever again! Don't be mad that Jim Hawkins is from the other side of the tracks! Don't be mad that it would never work out!

Beside herself with anger, Ariel grabbed a second pillow and aimed for Lana's head.

"ARIEL! STOP THIS AT ONCE!" Admiral Triton slammed his fist on the coffee table. Energy surged across the den like a tidal wave. "ALL OF YOU! SIT DOWN!"

"This isn't fair!" Ariel cried. She thrashed away from Attina, urging her to sit down. Aggressively, she gestured to her sisters and cousins. "You wanted to talk to them about Tony's Restaurant! They were the ones being stupid! I wasn't there – so I shouldn't be here!"

Admiral Triton's eyes flashed. "Sit down."

"But – "

" – Now."

"Ariel." Alana's eyes were shinning with tears. Hugging her stuffed clown-fish, she glanced timidly at Admiral Triton. "Ariel please. Just sit down here. You're not in trouble."

"Like Hell I'm not."

Wrathfully, she burrowed into the couch next to Alana. The room had gone silent after she swore. Ariel didn't know why she swore, or why she did so forcibly, but she really didn't care.

"Hawkins." Admiral Triton hissed. He scalded Ariel with livid eyes, but she responded with crossed arms.

Pressing his palms together, Admiral Triton forced himself to remain calm.

"Humph!" Sebastian muttered. "Dat boy has already a bad influence, Admiral. Next 'ting you know she'll be wearin' black lipstick and – "

"Thank you Petty Officer, Sebastian." Admiral Triton folded his arms behind his back. "I assure you my imagination needs no prompting. Now…Ladies…do you know why I summoned you tonight?"

"Yeah." Lana crossed her legs over the coffee table. Marina, Cordelia, and Adella followed suit. "Meeting of the mer. Oh wait…jk…" she said swerving her head at Ariel. "…my mistake."

Ariel rose. Attina and Alana ushered her back down.

"Lana! That is enough." Admiral Triton clenched his fingers. "One more comment and you will regret it. That I promise."

"Whatever, Uncle Triton." Lana flicked her hair nonchalantly. "Dearie."

"Humph." said Sebastian.

"You are here…" Admiral Triton continued, glaring Lana into submission. "Because Captain Amelia has verified a rumor. Apparently, several of my daughters and nieces were seen parading through town last night. With all the grace and respectability of heathens."

Lana and Adella exchanged smug glances.

"Furthermore." Triton said moving closer. "It seems alcohol was involved."

Admiral Triton and Sebastian narrowed their eyes. "Ladies?"

"Alana, Ariel, and I were home, Daddy." Attina immediately said. She sat erect on the sofa. "In bed. Sleeping before the War Games. We didn't have anyth – "

"—Yet you allowed your sisters and cousins to break curfew."

Attina pursed her lips. Meekly, she curled back into the sofa. "Sorry, Daddy."

"You are the oldest, Attina. I would have thought you would take more responsibility."

"I'm sorry, Daddy. I…I should have said something."

"It's not her fault!" Ariel exclaimed. She looked at Alana for support. "Attina was helping me – making me feel better! It's not her job to stop everyone from being stupid!"

"Oh puh-lease!" Lana kicked her feet off the coffee table. "Miss Holier-Than-Thou! We didn't do anything wrong! Captain Amelia even said so! My God, she even arrested that drunk for giving us wine – "

"You expect anyone to believe that story?" Ariel fumed. "You just happen to be in a restaurant when some guy randomly buys a dozen bottles of wine? Which – by the way – you decide to drink and keep drinking because he says its juice? And then – "

Ariel threw her hands in the air. "—and then you conveniently realize its wine when the cops show up? ON TOP OF ALL THAT you get Wendy's father arrested? Thrown in jail?"

Lana clutched a hand to her heart. "Oh, I'm sorry Ariel. I didn't realize you were so chummy with the prude that killed Peter all of a sudden."

"Oh shut up! Her name is Wendy and you know she didn't kill Peter!"

"Yeah. Whatever." Lana nodded at Adella. "We're going to take care of her anyway. Make sure she gets what she deserves."

Ariel punched the sofa cushion. She swung around to her father. "Are you listening to this? How could you not punish them?!"

"Because we weren't drinking!" Lana said, coaxing fake tears. "I've never had a drink in my life! How can you blame me for being happy? I - we all - wanted to celebrate being mermaids for our magical powers. If you ask me, that drunk, his daughter, and that scumbag Rat Tail got what they – "

"Liar!" Ariel jumped to her feet. "She's lying! They're all lying! Daddy – Daddy you have to set Wendy's father free!"

"Ariel!" Admiral Triton reached but Ariel twitched away. "Ariel, that is out of my hands. Captain Amelia has a verbal statement and physical evidence that Darling was intoxicated. Get a hold of yourself! The issue at hand is that my daughters and nieces – "

"—The issue at hand is that your daughters an nieces protect the family name!" Ariel cried, stumbling over the blue-green rug. She saw her trident from the corner of her eye. "It's all about the family name, the family lineage! That's why you won't punish them! That's why you won't help Wendy's father! That's why you hate Jim!"

"And I hold to that!" Admiral Triton stepped over Aquata's legs. He walked briskly at Ariel. His shadow fell over her like a storm cloud. "Hawkins is a criminal and you are my daughter!"

"I don't care! I – "

"Ariel!" Triton roared. "Ariel so help me I am going to get through to you! And if chaining Hawkins to the bottom of the sea is the only way – then so be it!"

Ariel shook with rage. Then, releasing a sob, she seized her trident and sprinted out the door.

Blindly she ran, the shouts of her sisters and father lost under the breaking waves. Salty, wet sand kicked up into her hair as she flew over the beach. Sobbing, she snaked along sea, avoiding the waves stretching over the sand.

Suddenly, Ariel stopped. Screaming, she slammed the trident into the sand.

Electricity exploded through the trident. The white hot energy burst through the sand like lightning roots then erupted into petrified glass sculptures.

Over and over, Ariel struck the sand. Exclamations of sand and electricity spiked along the beach like the tendrils of a giant octopus. Then, with a final slash, Ariel drove her trident into the ocean.

"Ariel!"

A ripple of white electricity crackled over the ocean as someone grabbed her shoulders.

"Eric?"

"Ariel!" Dodging the trident, Eric held up his hands. "Ariel it's me! It's Eric!"

The trident gleamed angrily over Eric's dark, handsome face. Horrified, Ariel dropped the trident. She fell to her knees. Sobbing, she squeezed fistfuls of red hair over her ears.

"Ariel. Ariel."

She felt Eric's hands on her shoulders. Tearfully, she looked into his pale eyes.

"Ariel." Eric held her tighter. He gave a little shake. "Ariel. Alana texted me. Talk to me. I'm right here. I'm right here."

Ariel gasped. Tears polished in the trident's glow, she sobbed in Eric's embrace.

Suddenly, the electricity rushing over the ocean exploded.

A hideous, savage roar echoed through the night sky.

Eric and Ariel turned.

"Is…is that…?"Eric whispered, peering across the ocean horizon. "A whale?"

Ariel's eyes grew wide. Unconsciously, she gripped her trident.

"Yes. But it's…a monster."

Ariel and Eric watched as the monstrous whale breeched and fluked, fighting the electric sting.

And as the whale submerged, a lonely figure watched Eric and Ariel from a seaside cliff on Pirate's Point.

Jim Hawkins.