I would tell them about monsters. Especially the kelpies. I would tell them that nothing is as it seems and there is no point in hiding. I would make them face the world and the demons within it.
Oh.
Sereia watches the children as they continue to laugh and weave petals and butterflies into each other’s hair. The gesture is innocent. It is dissonant with the kelpie’s words beside her. Yet more than that, the words are fitting not just for the children, but for her too.
Each word strikes her bluntly, forcefully. It strikes hard truths so deep into the slim girl’s body that she feels the bite in her soul and in her bones. There is no point hiding. Kelpies are monsters. Sereia is a monster.
Her eyes close. Anything to guard her from the pain of those words. All of her life has been spent in denial, trying to change who she is. She hides and hides until she meets those who look too close, who lift up her protective shell and press upon the soft of her exposed body. They know her for what she is. This other kelpie does too.
“I would tell them the same.” Sereia breathes, her lips downturned. Sadness, defeat, blooms in her chest. It is harrowing. Oh, she falls apart beneath her self-loathing. The swan-kelpie cuts herself upon the other’s sharp toothed smile. She feels the savage bite, her body aches. Her eyes close and she turns away, barely able to confront what she is.
“But i would tell them to run from us.” Sereia whispers, still watching the children. The scent of them is sweet as sugar upon the air, their skin as welcoming as fresh baked bread. “Do you ever wish to not be what you are?” Tentatively she turns her gaze to the other kelpie. She both dreads and welcomes the answer. Already she knows none of her sisters share her beliefs. Anandi offers her meat at her every meal. Each day she hopes her sister will one day succumb to the reality of what she is.
But Sereia is stubborn. She fights her agonising fight and dies a little more each day. There is no other path. She would not have it any other way.
@Lucinda
an unspoken soliloquy of dreams
~ Ariana
