Violet skies and golden trees

7. Evangeline

  I was intoxicated again. I was on the ship at sea; everything was so much more vibrant than it had been in the faerie wood. The drugs were more real; the experience was more real. The waves were streaked with crimson and the sky to which it joined was streaked with purple. The pirates were excellent company with their raucous banter and constant drinking.

Maybe I belonged here, with Clairette and Roselyn with their revealing lace bodices and floor sweeping skirts. They were beautiful in a strange way. Their puffy sleeves were rolled up to their elbows and their hair hung messily down their backs. Una was sat on an empty barrel talking to the blue parrot in the cage. She laughed as the parrot squawked indignantly. We were merry. This was so unusual for me.

'The sun is about to set Titania, do you want to watch it go down with me?' Oberon asked.

'Sure,' I said, wrapping my arm around his back. He grinned as he led me to the edge of the deck. We gazed out as the pulsing sun crashed into the ocean. It seemed to hover on the horizon like an aircraft before plunging deep into the tumultuous waters. The water seemed to digest the light, becoming ever lighter in colour. It was now a strange teal colour.

I longed to join the waters myself. The waves looked as if they would embrace me and keep my safe forever. I leaned out over the railing of the ship. His hand tightened on my waist. He started to spin me towards him. 'Titania, Titania, Titania,' he whispered incessantly in my ear. The desire overcame me- I wrenched myself away from him- the waters were thirsty for me.

I had to swim. I climbed up onto the top of the railing. Wind swept through my hair; I laughed as I thought of singers with their hair billowing out behind them as the fans assaulted them on stage; were they beautiful or were they just meant to be? I could hear myself singing some old, strange song like the 'Winter Hymnal'. I was alive. Why had I ever wanted to die? Desire was beautiful. The sea was my home. I lunged forward desperate to join the waters below but it was Una who caught me. She snatched me down from the railing with unbelievable force for such a slight little girl. I pushed away from her angrily. Why was she ruining everything? I was free. I could do what I wanted.

I struggled again to reach the waters; that was when I saw her. Her fish-like tail flicked water into the air; her hair was splayed out along the surface of the water. Was she dead? Suddenly everyone leaped into action. Una pinned me back. Oberon threw a net over the side of the boat. The net swooped around her trapping her. She looked so frightened. 'What are you doing Oberon?'

'She's come to join us.' He pulled the net up towards us. The mermaid stared up at him defiantly but she was trapped, her glossy tail squeezed by the black cords of the net. Oberon lifted the net up over the railing and placed her on the floor of the deck. She struggled to get out of the net; she couldn't stand. Was that a smirk on Oberon's face?

She pulled her silky brown hair down over her shoulder. It was wet and hung in straggly clumps over her bare breasts. Her red lips pursed as she stared up at our violet sky. Her eyes were black like ebony; her neck was thin and bony and her wrists had scars running across them. The scars were ugly and they made me feel sick. I knew how she had got those scars.

Oberon smiled, charming as always, 'hello, again,' he said to her. That shattered her confidence; she looked down at her fishy tail which was painfully dry now. 'Hello,' she said in an unusually deep and constricted voice.

'Who are you?' I asked knowing that the answer would terrify me.

With a hesitant croak she started to speak, 'The sea is a freedom land but with freedom comes danger; by danger I mean death. Perhaps we can only real find liberty beyond this life. I stayed too long on this ship. Now I am drawn to the boat; I can't resist his power, though I want to. This isn't freedom. I am trapped. I get away sometimes, in my own way, but I always return to Oberon. I can't live without him. I can't live without it. My name is Evangeline.'

Suddenly the waves surged up on either side of the ship and crashed onto the deck knocking me onto my knees. The water flowed into my mouth, into my lungs. I couldn't breathe. Was this what it felt like to die? I had the water now, my desire. I needed nothing else. If this was the end, it was okay.

astEngage$d&