Amphitrite - Wilbur Soot

~twenty-one~

My piano had never been in worse condition. With every note I played, every key I struck, it sounded like it was about to collapse in on itself. I sat for hours on end, playing to drown my sorrows in the melodies I could create. Wilbur would come in every now and then to bring me plates of food, and to take the plate he had brought in earlier. We didn't speak to each other for what could've been decades. Oftentimes I could hear his guitar through the door that separated us, and sometimes it would be accompanied by angry pacing and the sound of someone hitting something.

I didn't understand why I was forced to survive my attack while she was forced to die. I didn't deserve to be here if she didn't either. Nothing made me that much more important. Daphne was the only light I had.

One day I ventured down to the beach without telling anyone where I was going. I dove into the water, swimming to where I knew I would find her body. Thetis' daughters rarely ventured off to this side of the peninsula, and since Daphne wasn't popular among the rest of them, no one would have known she was gone. No one except me.

Nothing could've prepared me for what I saw.

She was laying on the bottom of the ocean, next to an old and decaying area of Thetis' coral reef. Her stomach was completely flayed and open. Her eyes were cold and lifeless, staring out into nothing and everything all at the same time.

The traditional nymph funeral is an extravagant one because usually, they don't die, so when one does, it's a big deal. But in this case, I doubt anyone even realized she was gone. I carried her to the nearest living coral and laid her underneath it. I then spent the next few hours gathering the prettiest shells and rocks and arranging them around her. Once I was satisfied with my work, it was time for the song. The song, while sung by the living nymphs in attendance, is meant to be from the deceased. So, slowly, I mounted a rock that jutted out from the surf and began to sing despite the fresh swell of tears burning in my eyes.

"Fare you well, my dear, I must be gone and leave you for a while." Her song, using me as a vehicle, rose up into the air, over the crashing waves onto the shore. It had been so long since I last sang. There was a group of people on the beach, but they were so far away that I wasn't worried. Even if they were directly in front of me I wouldn't have been able to care.

"If I roam away I'll come back again, though I roam ten thousand miles, my dear." I wasn't worried until one of the men on the beach turned his head towards me and dove into the sea. But not just any man. I knew that man. That man was my fake fiance. That man was the man I had convinced myself that I loved. The man was Wilbur.

"Though I roam ten thousand miles." I tried to ignore him and his antics; I had to give Daphne the send-off she deserved. One uninterrupted by Prince Wilbur of Helia.

"So fair thou art, my bonny lass." To keep myself from watching him wade through the water, I closed my eyes as I sang. But almost immediately I realized why he was so intent on reaching me.

I am a siren, after all.

"So deep in love am I." I couldn't stop the song; it would upset Daphne's spirit. But I also couldn't continue to sing it; I'd drive Wilbur to insanity. It came down to one decision. Did I value Wilbur's life over Daphne's spirit? Who would I choose? If I choose Daphne, her soul gets to leave this plane, but Wilbur dies. If I choose Wilbur, he's spared his life, but Daphne's spirit is forced to remain tethered here. How cruel of the universe to make me choose between the only two people I've ever loved.

"But I never will prove false to the bonny lass I love." He was drawing nearer. Soon he wouldn't be able to swim anymore and he'd drown. And then I'd be forced to hold another funeral. I won't hold another funeral. I won't do it.