It was a dark, dry night. There was no one else besides me and Him and the stars. I would tell you his name… But it wouldn’t matter any, so I’ll just say Him. Him was such a gentlemen, a handsome one at that. He would pick me up and we would usually lay a blanket out on a field and count the stars together. Our relationship wasn’t obvious, he feared my father, everyone did. But at those special moments, under the stars, it didn’t matter what anyone else thought. I’m not sure where or how I met Him. Ever since the moment I saw his face, I knew there was something special about Him. It’s true, he was a prince and I’m sure I was meant to be his princess. Even though we came close to being seen by other townspeople, I never thought it’d end up like this. Up until the day we got caught behind an abandoned barn beside the open sea, counting the stars like we always did, I thought I would surely run away with him and we’d marry.
Let’s start there, back to the dark and dry night. Him and I laid out a blanket on the dead grass. I stretched out my legs and for the first time around Him, I put my hair up. I always kept my long, black hair down when I was around him, it made me look older. “The stars look bright tonight.” That’s what he would always say. I would laugh and run my hair through my fingers, but that night, he didn’t say what he usually did. I was in his arms, like always, and then I felt my body being pushed away. “Ursula, do you hear that?”, he asked. I shook my head, but I did… I heard every footstep as it was getting closer and closer. I didn’t even try to move. I was terrified. My father’s silhouette stood before me. I told Him to run, run as fast as he could away from my father, and he did. I never believed my father really had powers until he used them on his own flesh and blood that night. My father took hold of my hair that was still loosely tied above my head and dragged me to the sea. All the way down to the water I was screaming and biting and saying words I had never had the courage to say before. My father was silent, he didn’t have to speak. I felt the water hit my skin before I felt my body being thrusted into a wicked spell. I looked into my father’s eyes as he turned me into the Sea Witch. I never again looked into his eyes after he left.
I looked down and saw the roundness of my body before I felt the smooth skin of a fish-like creature that I had turned into. My arms and legs were gone and in place of them were tentacles. My father turned me into a sea creature, but that was nothing compared to how he turned my inner human into something evil. I hated everything from that night on. I hated Him for leaving me though I told him to run. I hated the way my hair turned from black to nearly white. I hated that I couldn’t run, I couldn’t jump, I couldn’t live… But most of all, I hated my father for making me hate myself. I would rather despise everything in my path than allow another being to take away my inner happiness. I was no longer the human girl with long black hair that would watch the stars. I am the Sea Witch and that’s all I’ll ever be! Ariel, oh stupid little Ariel, she was born into who she is, yet she wants what I will never have again. I gained powers the night my father cursed his spell, but the fool knew better than to give me any powers that I could use on myself until I used them on another soul. Then sweet little Ariel came along and I gave her what I always wanted since the day I lost it… To be a human.  I felt bad for this pretty little mermaid because she was who I once was. She was beautiful. Her bright red hair glistened underneath the water more than any other mermaid I had seen underneath this cursed ocean. She was young and restless, oh how restless she was, but she still insisted on having more than she already had. Ariel only wanted a simple pair of legs that would carry her farther than the ocean allowed her to go. Yet, if I had known she would go after Him, I wouldn’t have given her anything.