Maggie Li, Period 6, 5/4/23

 Maggie Li Pd 6 - FanFiction about Grendel 

Another celebration in the mead hall wakes Grendel up. His ears are ringing and he feels as if his head is being stabbed by a million small needles. 

“It just won’t stop. MAKE THEM STOP UGH!!” he roars. 

He starts charging in the direction of the noise and he reaches the edge of the town. But right as he’s about to crash into the hall, he hears a low hum that mutes the noise of the celebration and stops his pain. 

“And I could be part of your- ahhhh!” the voice suddenly stops and is replaced by a sudden scream. Grendel can sense the noises of the celebration coming back to torment him but then he hears, “Help me! Somebody please!” 

Grendel focuses on the soft voice and runs towards the coast as he hears the maiden continue to scream. When he gets there, he sees a body washed up on the shore. A petite girl with red hair, choking on water. Grendel hides behind a tree right by her, just out of sight and watches her as she tries to regain strength from almost drowning. Right as he’s about to step out to approach her, he remembers his grizzly and horrifying appearance and retreats. I don’t want to scare her but who am I kidding? I am a monster and she’s just a girl. I’ll never find love looking like this. These thoughts consume him and he doesn’t notice the girl talking to someone in the ocean until he hears an evil, guttural laugh. He stops pining over his loneliness and focuses on a woman in the water. Her hair is black and her skin is a washed out purple. He doesn’t notice at first but he sees tentacles poking out from underneath the water but it’s dark and he can’t see the source. 

“I’ll do anything, Ursula, please. I just want to go back to the water again. The humans were not as nice as I had thought they would be,” the red-haired girl calls out to the older woman in the water. 

“Ariel, what’s done is done. You know I don’t do anything for free and quite frankly you have nothing I want. I was kind enough to let you keep your voice with the promise that you will give me your firstborn child but you have failed to seduce the prince and I want your voice,” Ursula grins evilly at Ariel and chuckles.

So her name is Ariel, such a sweet name for such a dainty and petite girl but why are they having this conversation and during the height of the night. And her voice? Why does the Ursula lady want it?

Ariel sits on the beach and starts audibly crying. The noise sends Grendel into a frenzy, his entire body compelled to attack the source of the noise that was causing him so much pain. Stop! No! I can’t hurt her! He tries to get himself under control but nothing works and he charges at her. Right before he’s about to rip her to shreds, she turns around and their eyes meet. It felt as if time had stopped when Grendel stared into her round blue eyes and the compulsion faded. He could tell she was scared. She didn’t blink and Grendel couldn’t even hear her breathe. 

“I’m so sorry. I won’t hurt you, I promise. I’ll leave,” Grendel lowers his hands and backs away from her before turning his back towards her. 

“What’s your name…?” a soft voice breaks the silence. 

“Grendel and you?” He turns around slowly to face her.

“Ariel, it’s nice to meet you,” she smiles as she wipes a tear rolling down her face.

Wow, she’s a literal angel. Grendel stares at her in disbelief but snaps out of it and says, “It’s nice to meet you too, Ariel. What are you doing here all alone?”

“I’ve just had the worst day but you know, that's just how life is. I try to see the bright side of it all,” she says this all with a smile but Grendel could tell deep down she was hurting.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Grendel sits down next to her and watches the waves hit the rocks.

“If I’m being honest, I just want to sit here and watch the water. I miss my home,” she stares straight ahead, eyes never leaving the waves.

Grendel doesn’t say another word and watches her. They sit in silence for a few minutes when all of the sudden, Grendel sees a mob approaching them. They’re screaming, “Grendel, the horrible beast will be slain tonight,” and Grendel goes to cover his ears. 

“What’s wrong?” Ariel reaches out to Grendel but he jerks away from her and she pulls back with fear in her eyes. Grendel goes to stop her and uncovers one of his ears but the noise of the mob chanting causes him to see red and then everything goes black. 

Grendel can’t remember what happened but the next morning he woke up to the ocean dyed red by the blood spilling into it from all the bodies of the mob participants and face down in front of him was Ariel’s lifeless body. She had been a casualty of Grendel’s madness and that made him want to die. He could not only not spend a peaceful ten minutes with a girl let alone a lifetime. In the end, a monster’s fate would always be followed by destruction.