Bride of the Sea Monster - Eve Langlais

1

Killian Kraken: Fate is a cruel mistress.

The ominous date crept closer and closer. The pendulum of time was a scythe ready to take my life. I couldn’t escape the malediction on my family. My father hadn’t. Nor his father before him. The curse ran deep and true. Upon my thirty-second birthday, I’d become a monster for life.

Now it should be noted that I’d always been part monster. From birth, the moment anyone dumped my naked ass in a tub, out came the tentacles. Uncle Shax said grabbing hold of my soapy toddler butt proved more complicated than snaring a greased imp. I never did find out why Uncle wanted the imp in the first place.

But back to my tentacled self. Being a sea beast had its benefits, and I greatly enjoyed them during my more than two decades of pure selfish fun. As I began creeping towards thirty and the ominous number, my imminent demise began to stare me in the face.

See, I’d known about the curse from a young age. Kind of hard to avoid when the whole reason your daddy wasn’t around was because he was currently haunting the River Styx.

He popped by every so often to wave a tentacle. I did my best not to roll my eyes when he gave me a slimy hug. Better than crushing me to death like my grandfather had tried to do to him.

I lived with my uncle, who was related on my mom’s side, so, not cursed like me. He raised me after the shit went down. Reared me well, but the one thing he couldn’t do was save me from my fate.

Faced with the prospect of never being a man again, I cherished each moment I had. Like the most ravenous of greed demons, I scarfed down all the junk food I could get my tentacles on. Played video games for days straight. Hung out at bars and made random conversation with strangers because I’d ditched most of my friends. What was the point of having them? Once I became a monster, we couldn’t hang out, and I might pose a danger.

During that debauchery period, I slept with strangers, though never more than once.

And I might have continued gorging on life experiences if my uncle Shax hadn’t slapped me. Literally.

Being drunk at the time, I didn’t feel it much, but I remembered sneering at him. Did my best to push him away because of everyone I knew, he would be most hurt when I became a beast.

“Why are you giving up?” my uncle had yelled.

“Not giving up. Just enjoying life.”

“No, you’re not,” he said flatly. “You’re hiding from it instead of fighting it.”

“Fighting it how?” If my forbearers hadn’t found a solution, what made me think I could?

“Find out what breaks the curse.”

I blinked blearily, alcohol fuzzing my brain. “How? The people who started it are long gone.”

“Which is why I put in a request with the Department of Curses and Vendettas to see an official copy outlining the parameters.”

“You can do that?” The very idea seemed shocking yet brilliant.

“I can and have. Did it the moment I realized your mother was marrying your father. The information didn’t arrive in time for him, but I’ve been greasing some paws in the hopes of getting it soon.”

“How will having the details of the curse help us?” I asked.

“Because it has to have an escape clause. All maledictions do.”

The very idea that I could save myself… It roused me from the wastefulness I’d made of my time. I had a purpose.

Only it didn’t prove as easy as hoped. Eventually, the bribery paid off, and we got some answers. Not very good ones, though, and we were running out of time. Uncle Shax worried about me. With good reason.

As my time grew short, my control over the beast lessened. Currently, I could only go a few days without having to submerge myself in the ocean. Soon, the need would be daily, then hourly until I could no longer leave the salty oceans again.

Just like my ancestors, with one major difference: I’d chosen not to pass it on to a child of my loins before it hit. The curse ended with me.

Within the week as a matter of fact.

I trailed my hand through the saltwater pond in the yard, the liquid soothing and teasing my flesh. The body of water was filled with exotic fish, brightly colored and vicious. Feeding them regularly was a must or they’d cannibalize each other. Then, when nothing was