The Grace of a Thousand Stars (PREQUEL)

Chapter 2- A Living Hell

--Ines POV--

People don't realise the importance of something until it's too late. I was no exception to that fact, and now that I look back on my life, there are so many things I regret, so many things I yearn for, and so many unfulfilled wishes that I only hoped I hadn't pushed away.

I grew up with kindness instilled in my very bones, it was in my nature to love everyone and everything, but I learnt the hard way that kindness wasn't enough to live a happy life. My kindness led me to my demise, and now I'm chained to a land I wanted nothing to do with, surrounded by greedy people who only thought to use me.

But even now, after everything I've suffered through, my kindness hasn't faded; Old habits die hard they say, and I'm a living example of that. With every helping hand I've given to someone, a new rumour is born to my name. People hate me, and that's an unchanging fact.

There was once a time where I didn't know what dreaming was, and that didn't matter because I didn't need to dream for anything; I had everything I wanted, and my freedom was as easy as breathing, but my arrogance told me otherwise. One man, a human that I could so easily have destroyed if I had just a little less kindness in me, was able to ruin me, he taught me what dreaming was, to want something so far out of my grasp; To want to return to a home that I thought would always be mine.

But now all I can do is pray that one day they'll find me and save me from this Hell.

"Ines." He called, his voice sending a scared chill down my spine.

"Yes?" I meekly replied, looking up from my lap to where he was sat at his desk, eyes focused on his computer as he typed away on the keyboard.

"How's that upcoming song coming along?" I turned my gaze back down to my lap where I was sat on the couch, a few feet away from him and his looming presence that never meant good news. It didn't help that I was forced to always remain close to him, yet another reminder of how freedom is nothing but a pipe dream to me now.

"Lyrics are hard to come up with." Speaking is something new to me, I've never once had to speak as much as I am now; my kind were an advanced species that didn't need words to communicate, our voices were mostly used to draw prey in, but once again, I'm no longer the predator that I was born as.

"Well, unless you want to expose the fact that you're not a human to the world, then I suggest you try harder," I sighed, not surprised by his reply.

I'm a mermaid. One of the most advanced species of beings living on this planet, one with the power to completely destroy a human, but a series of unfortunate events led to me being chained to him through a curse.

To curse someone, a certain number of requirements need to be met, and in this case, the requirements were a few of my mermaid scales, a drop of my blood, and a confession of love, one that I stupidly gave to him, but that's a story for another time. 

To put it simply, since he was the holder of my confession, that led to him being the only one capable to curse me. But he was a human, so he couldn't curse me if he wanted to, that's where the witch came in.

In return for a few of my scales, the rarest material for a witch, she agreed to curse me, putting an invisible chain on me, forcing me to stay by his side; No matter how hard or how far I run, he easily finds me, and the pain of our separation can only be healed by him; Words cannot describe the hatred I have for this man, it makes me want to go back in time and murder my ignorant, younger self.

"Hey," I jumped at the sudden closeness of his presence, picking my head up to see him stood beside me, and before I could react, he sat himself down beside me, picking me up in his arms to sit sideways on his lap, going to rest his head on my shoulder as he breathed in my scent.