The Hurricane

Beauty lives in the eye of my hurricane. The silent pause before the storm surrounds its prey and drags it under the ocean's surface. I lurk under the waves in every sailor’s story.

They blame me for their fates. The gods and humans tell their stories of my monstrosity, to protect themselves from the humiliation of truth. Their tiny wooden ships shattering against the force of cresting waves are inevitable. I devour what nature discards; flesh and ships all sink the same.

I was born in the deepest crevice of the sea, looking upwards. I immediately swam up from the sea floor and felt my body pull itself through the depths by instinct. When the cold water became warmer and my hair swirled around me, I knew I could feel. When the red ribbons of my hair slid past my eyes, I realized I could see.

I paused as the water turned from black to blue during that first swim. I floated, my hair embracing me in a cocoon, as I looked down into the darkness below me. Love filled my heart as I felt my existence acknowledged from the depths. The mirror of silence reflected back to me the truth of my soul.

I am the sea nymph Scylla and my hunger drives me.

The ship above, centered in the calm eye, awakens my hunger once more. I open my eyes and stare up from my slumber on the ocean floor. From the depths, I watch the raging storm surround the fated ship. The wooden boat bobs on the surface of the deceptively calm sea above me.

The sailors line the rails, gripping tightly as they watch their fate swallow their horizon. Sheets of rain drive towards them from every direction. The rocking boat's sails flash red and white as lightning streaks across the darkened sky. Thunder rumbles through the waves, shaking all the way to where I rest.

The surface of the ocean begins to seethe against the rain and the wind. The wooden ship rocks wildly as the sailors bind themselves to the mast. The loud snap of rope vibrates through the water as the ship's sail rips from its knots and is sucked into the hungry mouth of the storm. The sheets of rain in the distance thunder across the sea, feeding the enormous wave building momentum as it drives across the horizon.

My hunger burns deep in my belly as I wait, stretching into wakefulness once more. I remember the first time I ascended from the depths, my hunger driving me forward. My legs and feet had lengthened as I began to kick. I remember how my two arms stretched in front of me as I pulled through the water with newly formed graceful hands. Instinct led me to shore before I understood hunger. Laughing out loud at the memory, I lean my head backwards and shake my long red locks, swirling them into the dark depths below.

I watch from the cool darkness of the calm beneath the storm. My brothers and sisters in the ocean’s depths fixate on me as I stalk the meal offered above us, their writhing bodies and snapping teeth build my excitement. My stomach growls as I watch the churning water above.

The swelling waves grow far above the helpless ship, as the sailors pray to the gods for protection. Around them, the slashing rain spirals into a funnel traveling across the surface of the sea. The sailors slide from one side to the other as the waves thrash the ship from side to side. Trunks and crates slide to the edge of the ship and crash through the railing, disappearing into the churning foam below. A sailor clings to the broken railing, his screams for help swallowed by the howling wind as he dangles over the swirling waves.

Sharp hunger pains pierce my stomach as my anticipation grows, like that first time I swam to the surface to eat. The warm water gave way to sand beneath my feet as I walked out of the surf, gathering oysters from instinct. Several nymphs lounged on the beach, watching my emergence. It was from them I learned how to crack open my oysters and feast greedily on their briny flesh.

It was also from them I learned that cruelty is kindness.

The other female nymphs followed a strict hierarchical structure. I lived outside of their constructed world from the moment I emerged as a creature from the sea under their resentful gazes. At that first glance of my red hair and shape, they understood that I would gain Poseidon’s attention.

The swollen wave crests as the white-capped foam smashes down on the hull of the ship, ripping off large chunks that disappear across the dark surface of the sea. The bound sailors scream prayers to their gods for protection from the sea monster below.

I smile wider as my belly growls louder; the possibility of the meal that awakened me is now a certainty. Relaxing, I wait for the right moment to devour my prey.

In those early days, I learned to hunt by avoiding Poseidon’s attention. I learned to stand out of sight until it was safe to move. I spent my days alone, gathering oysters from the shallows of the oceans edge. The labyrinth of the rock caves in the cliffs offered me safety in which to hide.

Above me, cold water fills the ship as the sailors grasp the railings. The sailors who tied themselves to the flooding ship now cut at their ropes with desperate strikes as their cries vibrate through the cold depths. They plead for Poseidon to save them from the sea monster Scylla, who waits with her razor-sharp teeth in the deepness below.

Poseidon ignores their pleas, as he always does. Instead of admitting his own powerlessness against the force of my nature, he lets the ship sink below the surface of the tumultuous sea.

I feel the familiar thrill tingle through my body as I prepare for the chase, biting my lips until I can taste the faint iron of my blood. Stretching each of my tentacles in slow circles, I remain fixated on the meal above me. I glance down into the depths once more as the aching silence roars back to me, then glance at my ravenous siblings. Shuddering with pleasure, I imagine feeding my own insatiable hunger.

As a nymph, I lived off of the oysters I could collect from the edges. I came to understand what the other nymphs knew that first day. I hid in the shadows gathering oysters against the safety of the cliffs. Over time my hunger began to gnaw at my soul. Terrified to draw Poseidon’s attention and worsen my already tortured existence, my relentless hunger overpowered me and sent me to the surf where I learned to hunt in the shallow water for minnows I ate by the mouthful.

The brutal crash of water slammed over the already sinking ship, smashing it to pieces and swallowing the sailors into the freezing darkness. The sailors grasped at anything to pull themselves from the water.

The first time Glaucus saw me I was distracted by my hunger, hunting schools of fish in the surf. He thought his want was my demand. That foolish man-god went straight to the witch Circe with his request for a love potion. Circe responded predictably. I had seen the jealous look in her eyes when Glaucus was near. I knew Circe would not tolerate my existence after the insult of being pursued by Glaucus. I fantasized of the monstrous shape my body would take and of the prey I would hunt.

In excitement, I tilt my face to the surface as the sailors thrash in the crash of wood and bodies. My spine tingles in anticipation. Larger sections of the ship break apart as the sailors lose their hold on the last of safety. Their prayers to the gods are drowned out by the force of the crashing salt water.

My sharp, layered, teeth snap open and shut as I shake my red hair like a river of blood, preparing my body for the chase. As Poseidon’s nymph, I was vulnerable and tied to the shore. As Circe’s sea monster, I chase and devour, protected from gods and humans, and even Circe herself, by their collective fear of their own creation.

I spin in a happy circle, my hair wrapping around me as I remember my poisoned bath. The water had smelled of hatred and the air had smelled of jealousy. My heart was pure with joy when I stepped my foot into that tainted pool; I had remained loyal to myself and the ocean depths from which I was first created.

I welcomed the monstrous fate of my creator. I offered my gratitude to Circe for her curse as I allowed the water to swallow me up to my eyes. My transformation was immediate as my skin ripped and bones cracked.

My eyes lock on the sinking ship’s debris beginning its descent into the darkened depths.

My stomach growls one last time as I explode upwards from my shadows. The water around me warms against my skin and the water shifts to blue as I attack.

I reach them first, each of my powerful arms shoving the sailors into my mouth. Behind me, my fellow brothers and sisters of the deep arrive to join my feast. The storm blows across the horizon, as the water below the surface churns red. I lead the feeding frenzy until the entire ship has been devoured.

Any evidence of the raging storm or the wooden ship vanishes like fog in the increasing brightness as I swim in a wide circle at the surface. My hair trailing behind me in a red circle. The sunshine returns and burns against my pale skin. I float in contentment at my temporary reprieve from my hunger.

No one can have my sorrow if I do not have it to give.

Slowly, I turn my face away from the sun. My nymph’s face is layered with razor sharp teeth from ear to ear. My tentacles and red hair swirl together as my four clawed arms float beside my enormous belly. With a final spin, I plunge beneath the surface.

As the depths consume me and the quiet rhythm of the deep returns, I settle into a contented sleep. The gods are foolish in their arrogance. They could not force me to accept their fate as punishment because they are too narrow minded to understand the joy that comes from being what you are meant to be.

No witch cursed me as her creation. I rose from the deep as a sea nymph and returned as a sea monster by my own design.

Beauty lives in the eye of my hurricane and I am its calm.