The Forgotten Memory

The swirling vortex of water pulled Ivy and the Sea Witch into another world entirely. Ivy felt as though she was being squeezed through a pipe, about to burst from the pressure, and then suddenly everything stopped.
            She was quite dizzy, and felt a bit sick. The Sea Witch untangled her from her nets, and Ivy got a chance to look around. They were underwater still, but everything seemed different; the water here was less heavy, and almost like air. They stood in the center of a round cave, an underwater grotto. Perched in all sorts of nooks and crannies were beautiful nude women with long wavy hair and fish tails instead of legs. Their scales glinted in the soft light from above the water, and their fins flowed around them like little veils. Tails of every color winked and twinkled at Ivy from every point in the room. Little treasures were embedded in the rock walls, small shiny things of all shapes and purposes, and Ivy almost found herself drooling at how beautiful they were.
 She felt the familiar, cruel claws of the witch on the back of her neck, and flinched. The witch cackled cruelly at her fear, and tightened her grip on the child. With her free hand, she snapped her talons, summoning forth two lovely mermaids. They kneeled, heads bowed and hands clasped in front, awaiting the witch’s command. She hesitated, straightening up regally and cocking her head to the side to listen to her surroundings, before letting her sharp voice crack over the space like a whip.
“Take this child back to the cells. She needs conditioning.”
The mermaids clicked and whirred their tongues in an almost dolphin-like manner, showing their cooperation, then took Ivy gently by each arm, and led her away from the grotto. They silently led her down a dark and cavernous hallway, ignoring her squirming as her toes barely touched the ground between them. Once she felt safe enough away from the Sea Witch, she nervously dared to ask a few questions.
“W-w-where are we? What is this place? Am I dreaming? You’re mermaids, right?”
The mermaids didn’t answer, but gave each other a look that Ivy knew very well. It was the look that her parents, and most other adults for that matter, gave each other when children asked too many questions. She didn’t care. She wanted to know what was going on.
“Mermaids grant wishes, right? Or is that faeries?”
They finally reached a dark room full of cages made out of coral and sharp, spindly sea urchins. She could see things moving inside of the cages, and squinted to see closer. To her horror, she realized that the cages contained other children, one for each cell. They each laid on their sides, curled up in little balls in the center of their cages, so as not to touch the spikey bars of their prisons. The mermaids whispered at each other in their strange language again, sounding like the pop and fizzle of rice cereal, exchanging more familiar looks. They reached an empty cell, and the door opened of its own accord. They gently nudged Ivy inside, and she looked around in a panic. She gulped back tears and decided to give it one last shot.
“If you do grant wishes… I wish… I wish I was home right now.
 
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Ivy sobbed for a couple of hours, and there was no comfort to be had. Her cage was roomy enough for her to curl up like the other children, and she tried humming herself to sleep, to no avail. She only had to wait a few hours, though, before the Sea Witch appeared in the cell room. There was a small sound of scuffling as the other children cowered away from her, shivering in fear. She drifted to Ivy’s cage, and waved her hand in front of it. The door shuddered open with a groan, and she entered the small space. Ivy back away from her, but felt the stinging needles of her cage walls against her back, and had to stop. The witch grabbed Ivy’s shoulder with one hand, and her chin in the other.
“Now then, we must take care of that pretty voice.” she scraped out the words with her razor sharp tone. Ivy trembled in her grasp, but dared not move away from her. The witch’s hand traveled up her shoulder, towards her new little gills, which began working furiously. A steady stream of little bubbles wheezed in and out of them in terror as the witch’s hand moved from her chin to the back of her head, gripping her hair and pulling backwards, exposing her neck. She brought her free talon to the hollow at the base of Ivy’s throat.
“If you scream, that will make it hurt worse.”
And with that, she plunged her nail into the hollow, causing Ivy to shriek with anguish. Blood poured out of her and into the surrounding water, creating crimson clouds and streamers to grow all around the pair. The witch dug around for a second while Ivy thrashed about her arms and legs, disrupting the blood that surrounded her, getting some of it in her mouth. It had a metallic zing to it, and did not mix well with the salty tears that were streaming out of her eyes and into her mouth. Finally, the witch pulled out a small silver trinket that was glowing and covered in the gore from Ivy’s gullet. She wiped it off, and studied it with her terrifying hands as Ivy sank to her knees, blinking. 
Ivy tried to scream again, from the pain, but found that she couldn’t make a sound. The witch pocketed the silver object and grabbed Ivy’s shoulder again, pulling her up. She had become quite dizzy, with all the blood leaving her, and standing was no easy task. The witch pressed her thumb to the wound at her throat, and it closed immediately, leaving a dull throbbing in the area.
“I have taken your vocal chords, child. You will get them back to practice your singing, when you have earned that right. A voice such as this is a privilege, after all. I will return to see the progress you have made.”
And with that, the Sea Witch left Ivy in a crumpled heap on the floor of her cage, gasping through her gills, wondering when she would wake from this nightmare.
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            Time passed slowly, so slowly that Ivy wasn’t quite sure if she had been in the cell for hours or days, perhaps even a week. She had plenty of time to think about her family, or her friends, or how to escape, but she didn’t. Her mind only ran in circles, waiting for the Sea Witch to return and tell her when she could go home.
She was aware that figures came in and out of the cell room, from time to time, and what strange shapes they had! The mermaids, of course, would glide through and purr at one another in their mysterious tongue. Then there were the monsters: horrible creatures that looked to be part horse, part merman, with fangs and wicked yellow eyes. They would come through and tap on the cages, rattling the spikey bars without fear of the urchin’s sting. The Sea Witch came through a couple of times, visiting other cages, but she ignored Ivy. Several times, other children were removed from their cages, and new ones were put in their place. They all endured the same torturous fate, some screaming and some in total silence. 
Eventually the Sea Witch came to her cage. What had it been? Weeks? Months? A year? Two? She couldn’t recall. The witch opened the cell door and summoned her forth.
“Let me look at you.”
She placed her webbed hands on Ivy’s face, and felt all around with a clammy touch. Ivy did not flinch this time; she was too exhausted to react. She realized, as the witch’s nails raked over her belly, that the fabric from her clothes had worn away in the water, over time. Also, she was taller than she last remembered. Surely the witch hadn’t been so short?
“Yes, I think you are ready. Hold still.”
The witch grabbed Ivy’s hair, as she had done all that time ago, and tugged her head backwards to expose her throat. From her fishing nets, she produced the shiny silver trinket that she had called Ivy’s ‘vocal chords’, and she pressed her nail to the hollow at the base of her throat. There was a split second, before she stabbed her nail in, where Ivy reminded herself not to scream this time. Then, suddenly her claw was there, inside of Ivy’s larynx, and all of that pain returned. Once more, her blood poured from her, making red ribbons in the water, and though she didn’t scream, she had her mouth open enough that she could taste the sanguine zing. The witch placed the silver treasure inside of her throat, and closed the wound quickly, stepping back and out of the little cell. Ivy swayed on the spot for a moment, and the witch spoke again.
“Follow.”
She turned majestically and drifted away and out of the cell chamber. Two mermaids, heads bowed, began to click at her. Though she couldn’t understand their words, she understood the intent: “Move quickly!”
Ivy moved to follow the witch, and found that walking in the water was much more like bouncing and dancing. She found herself leaping like a ballerina to keep up with the witch’s quick pace. They moved down a cavernous hall, into the grotto that she had seen all that time ago, and down a different hall. The room they entered next was one great stone bubble, a near perfect sphere, but for the flat ground. On the far end, there was a grand throne made of precious metals and embedded with rare gems. Many mermaids were in the space, floating around like underwater angels, their tails and hair flowing behind them in colorful banners. At the top of the sphere was a great crystal orb of shimmering, glittering light, and all of the mermaids seemed to be transfixed by it. They all popped and fizzled at one another, ticking their tongues in excitement, and Ivy found herself thinking what a strange thing it was to be in a room that was so loud, even though no one was speaking. The witch made her way to the throne and sat regally upon it. The two mermaids who had been following Ivy swam over to the witch and kneeled on either side of her seat.
“Merrow, teach the child to sing.”
One mermaid came forward to the witch’s feet and tilted her head back. Ivy watched, both horrified and intrigued, as the witch gave the mermaid back her own set of vocal chords, which glowed arctic blue, like her tail. She didn’t even flinch, but stayed calm and stead with her eyes closed as the witch spilled her blood to give her back her voice. Once her wound was closed, she swam over to Ivy and spoke with a voice like wind chimes.
“Now you will sing for Neris.”
She gestured toward the witch, who sat rigid like a statue, and Ivy understood that her name was Neris. The mermaid opened her mouth, and out trilled a magnificent melody. It reverberated in the bubble room, bouncing off of the stone walls and echoing in a splendid way. After a few minutes of singing, she stopped and bowed. Neris nodded approval.
“Acceptable. Now, the child.”
Every head in the room turned to look at Ivy, and she gulped. Merrow gave her an encouraging look. She took a deep breath to steady herself, then let her voice come out in a trembling warble.
“Lavender’s blue, little darling,
Lavender’s Green,
When you are King, little darling,
I shall be Que-”
“No, I already heard that one.” Neris sounded bored. “Sing something different.”
Ivy gulped, then tried again, singing a different lullaby that her little brother had loved once upon a when.
“Over in Killarney, many years ago
My mother sang this song to me 
In tones so sweet and low,
Just a simple little ditty in her good old Irish way
And I'd give the world if she could 
Sing that song to me this day”
She sang for hours, as many songs as she could think of, before her voice began to crack and strain under the pressure of practice. Finally, as if a statue awakening, Neris held up her hand, and let her stop.
“That is enough. Come here.”
Ivy moved forward looking at Merrow, who motioned for her to kneel as she did before. She did so, waiting in fear as Neris pulled back her hair and exposed her neck once more. Once again, her voice was extracted from her gullet. The other mermaids watched in stony silence as she bled a ruby veil in the water.
“Merrow, take her back to the cell.”
Another mermaid, this one with a gleaming lavender tail, came forward and took Ivy’s shoulder, leading her out of the bubble cavern. She heard Neris behind them.
“Merrow, come here, it is time to take out your voice.”
When they arrived at her cell, Ivy found that she was quite tired, and curled up on the floor, to sleep. The Merrow with the lavender tail touched her cheek gently, then softly closed the door.
More time passed, more than Ivy could keep track of. The singing lessons became a regular occurrence, and she began to grow and improve with each one. Each lesson made her more and more tired, the last one rendering her unable to even leave the bubble cavern. She was laid to sleep in her cell, which she had grown almost too large for.
It had been years since she had arrived in Neris’ realm…
Category:Fiction