Chapter Text
"Oh, a sweet thing, isn’t she?" A woman’s voice fades in and the sound sends pain shooting through my head. "She would make a wonderful addition to my staff. I can smell her beautiful maiden blood from here."
I groan, lifting my head and trying to pull myself from the gravel below me. My hands don’t budge and the telltale rattle of a chain has me fighting to open my eyes.
"Ooh look mother, she’s waking up! How exciting." Another woman’s voice speaks, this one more shrill and childlike.
I finally peel open my eyes and my vision blurs before the scene in front of me comes into focus. The first thing I spot is an antique looking wooden doll in a bridal gown. Her face is stained and her eyes are hollow and empty. She stands over my head, a maniacal laugh coming from her painted lips.
My breathing catches in my throat. This can’t be real. Dolls don’t come to life,can’t stand on their own and certainly can’t talk. I must be hallucinating.
"Aw what’s the matter, lovely thing? Are you frightened?" The first voice I heard, rich and smooth like honey catches my attention. My head snaps forward and I face the tallest woman I had ever seen. Her voice is dangerous and seductive like wine laced with cyanide. She laughs at the expression which must have crossed my face and bares her teeth, fangs on display.
Brain unable to focus I whimper, trying to put as much space as I can between myself and these... things.
The woman laughs again and leans down. Taking my bound hands and pulling me up towards her. "Don’t you worry, little one. It will only hurt for a minute then you won’t remember a thing..."
Her lips ghost over my neck, breath tickling my skin. Too afraid to even scream I heave for breath, kicking my feet helplessly in her grasp.
My life flashes before my eyes. This is it, I’m going to die. I’m going to-
"Hey. Supersized bitch! The mortal isn’t yours yet! If you didn’t notice mother Miranda hasn’t made her decision."
The woman pauses her ministrations and growls, dropping me roughly to the floor where I land with a yelp.
She wheels on a man in a tan coat and glasses who I hadn’t seen before. He squares up to the woman despite being half her height.
"Do be quiet, Heisenberg. Obviously I will be the one to take the girl. What is it to you anyway?"
He grins and turns towards me. "I want her maybe because I know you do. It’s about time you learned that you don’t always get what you want. Besides..." He saunters closer and reaches for my face. He grips my chin roughly between his calloused fingers. "I have a liking for strays. I’ll take her back to my workshop, see exactly what makes her tick. You’d like that, wouldn’t you honey?"
He leers at me, smile sinister and somehow I think he might be worse than the others. He doesn’t want me dead, he wants something to play with.
"N-no please, no." I stammer, shaking and the man glares, dropping my face and storming away.
The doll giggles from the lap of a woman veiled in black and I’m without a doubt that she is the puppeteer. "Oh let me take her mother. She would make a delightful playmate!" It chirps and the woman in the centre turns around, face a mask of displeasure.
"Quiet!" Her voice is not remarkably loud but everyone is silent immediately. "Ungrateful children, you are arrogant and forget from whence you came." She turns on the tall woman. "Alcina, you dare to dismiss my commands in favour of your lust. Your entitlement and narcissism will be your downfall. You will go hungry tonight."
The woman looks outraged, amber eyes burning. "But mother I-"
Miranda turns away and ignores her tall daughter before she has the chance to finish.
The man smirks and barks out an arrogant laugh. "Sure told you." He mutters.
"I don’t want to hear another word from you. You are wilfully disobedient and have neglected to control your Lycans. You behave like a spiteful child and I will not reward that behaviour."
The man appears to growl, his hands clenched into fists. Miranda glares at him.
"Do not challenge me, Heisenberg. I promise no good will come of it."
The doll is now hopping excitedly on the woman’s lap as she watches her siblings be chastised.
"So I may have her, mother?"
"No." The woman’s answer is immediate and she doesn’t even dignify the doll with an explanation.
"So are we to assume you want the mortal freed, mother?" The tall woman asks, venomously polite.
"I didn’t say that." She snaps her fingers. "Moreau, come forth." The shock that registers on their faces has them all falling back.
Sluggishly a deep voice returns. "Yes mother."
We all watch as a hulking shape emerges from the corner of the room and steps into the light. If I had breath left to scream I would have howled like the wind but instead all that comes out is a hoarse little cry. The man had to be at least 40% fish and walked shuffled with a hunchback beneath his ragged sea-coat. He is revolting, no wonder this thing was hidden in the shadows.
"You’re giving the mortal to this freak? You can’t be serious." One of the others speaks but I can’t take my gaze from the beast before me. He seems to smile with an oversized mouth, tongue lolling and dripping saliva.
"Do not question me. Let this be a lesson to the rest of you." She turns back to the thing. "Moreau, the girl is yours. Do with her what you will."
It makes a sound of excitement and takes several steps towards her.
"Thank you mother. Thank you. I will make you proud."
She appears to look at it with destain. "Yes. I call this family meeting to an end. You may disperse."
They all leave one by one until I’m alone with the creature who has taken ahold of my chain in his webbed fingers.
"Come with me." The thing slurs and tries to pull me to my feet which kick out in his direction fuelled only by terror. He seems to sigh. "Please walk. I don’t want to drag you all the way home, it’s a long walk."
The request is shaky but has my mind racing. Surely this thing could devour me whole, tear me to shreds but instead asks me to walk, why?
Clumsily I get to my feet and walk like a baby sparrow learning to fly.
He trudges slowly through the snow, groaning beneath his rasping breath.
As I follow him I attempt to concoct a plan. He’s slow, I could definitely outrun the man and escape if I could just free my hands.
We walk for almost an hour before we reach a dock and board one of the small wooden boats.
"Sit down and hold on tight. I’m a lot faster in the water." He slurs and before I can ask what he means the man dives into the lake. I sit for a second, nothing happens. I’m about to climb straight back out and make a run for it when the water below the boat begins to stir and something massive propels me through the water. I hit the barrel of the boat face first and hold on for my life as the boat skims the water, pulled along by whatever is beneath it.
After a terrifying thirty seconds the boat is pulled to a halt. I look around at the wooden island which seems to be our destination. It’s structure is entirely man made, a fishing house at the centre of the lake. With water in every direction I have nowhere to run.
Something splashes at my side and I watch the creature crawl from the depths of the black water. He pulls himself onto the land and holds out a hand for me in a poor impression of a storybook prince. Shell shocked and too afraid to deny him, I take his slimy paw.
"This is my home..." he mutters. "Sorry it isn’t much."
I blink, feet now safely on solid ground. Why does he seem so interested in my opinion?
He tugs my chain, expecting a response and my knees give out. Finally overwhelmed, I sob bitterly. Watching the thing with a terrified gaze.
"W-what are you going to do to me?" I cry into my lap. He seems perplexed by the question, as though he hadn’t considered it himself.
After a second he gestures to the house. "Inside."
When I make no response he takes a step forward and reaches for me and I flinch, waiting for the inevitable attack. "Please... please don’t hurt me..."
He takes a shaky step back, seemingly alarmed by my tearful outburst.
"I-I - I wouldn’t hurt you, never. You’re such a pretty present from mother. S-she gave you to me. I’d never throw that away."
He seems to quiver at the thought of the woman.
I push myself back up onto my knees, sorrow being replaced with burning rage. "Fuck you and fuck your mother! I’m not a gift! I don’t belong to anyone!"
In a surprising display of strength he hauls my chain, sending me toppling onto the wood and scraping my bare legs.
His ragged breathing has picked up and he glares down at me.
"Shut up! Don’t talk like that! You never say bad things about mother!"
I struggle back upright and he pulls my chain close to his face, his breath is hot so close to my skin and for a second I’m sure he’s going to crush me between his wide jaws. "Pretty lips shouldn’t say such cruel things."
He slurs and touches my lower lip with the tip of one sharp nail.
Repulsed, I pull back.
"D-don’t fucking touch me!" My voice comes out in a scream.
"Sorry." He seems to wilt. "The others don’t like me to get close either.." he gives a small sniff before turning his attention back to me. "Come inside."
He leads me into the house and I’m immediately hit with an intense humidity.
The very air hangs with the smell of damp wood and sea salt.
The door closes behind me and the man hobbles about, mood seemingly improved.
"Look, look! My home has everything you need! I even have a comfy bed for you." He points to a mattress set in a metal bed frame, torn curtains hanging from the post. "Aren’t you happy?"
"No." I snap, "I want to go home!"
He shakes his head, distressed. "No, no. You can’t go. I would be all alone again and Miranda gave you to me... you’re supposed to be my gift."
I scoff, overcome with anger and the heat of the room makes my head swim.
"God, do you even hear yourself? You can’t keep me here."
I run from the room, not thinking of the broad stretch of water and only needing to get away from the thing before me.
I push back out of the door and into the icy wind. I make a run for the boat but as I reach the edge of the dock it is swallowed by the water and sinks so deep I can no longer see it.
"No no no no no..." I whisper, panicking.
"I won’t let you leave. You can’t go anywhere without a boat."
I turn and glare at the humpback man who stands in the doorway.
"I’m a strong swimmer." I lie through a sneer. I have no hope of surviving those black waves but they somehow seem less scary than the man before me.
I take another step towards the edge of the dock.
"Wait, stop!" The man reaches for me and in a moment of madness I throw myself into the icy water.