Fresh Air

Chapter Four

“There are clothes in the wardrobe and night gown should be in there. Is there anything else you will need?” asked Rosette hoping there wasn’t.

“Well if I am to be married tomorrow I will need a wedding dress,” she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Of course, I believe we already have one. I shall fetch it for you and make any alterations needed,” she said. Vanessa nodded and Rosette left to go hunt down the dress. Someone had bought it for Eric’s bride to be, as kind of a hint for him, but clearly it had not been used yet.

Rosette found it in one of the closets and brushed the dust off of it before carefully bringing it down to the new girl’s room. She knocked and was told to ‘enter’. She walked in and laid the dress on the bed.

“I hope it fits, but if anything it might be slightly too big,” said Rosette glancing at her before looking at the dress.

“Well, let’s find out,” she said simply. Rosette nodded and unzipped it and handed Vanessa the slip. She put that on then Rosette helped her into the dress.

“Nope, it’s a perfect fit,” said Rosette as Vanessa turned around and watched the skirt fan out before falling into place.

“Great. Tomorrow can I expect you to help me get ready?” she asked.

“Of course,” said Rosette.

“Then I will see you tomorrow. Bye,” she said and ushered Rosette out. Rosette sighed before finally getting to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a very long day.

The sun wasn’t even up when Carlotta came in and made her get up. Rosette quickly got ready before heading to the kitchen.

“Hello, father. Everything getting ready for today?” she asked and he turned around and she saw his red eyes and huge bags under them, “er, well it looks like you’ve already started getting ready. Have you been up all night?”

“Yes, ever since I was told the prince was getting married today at sundown,” he said and rubbed his face.

“Well I’ll just grab breakfast and get out of your way. I’m sure the food and cake will be great,” she said taking an apple and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Sa cre bleu! The CAKE! I forgot the cake!” he yelled before taking off and pulling ingredients out. Rosette winced and quickly made her way out of the kitchen. She would help if it wasn’t for her other duties and because when he cooked he kind of gets carried away and doesn’t let anyone else help, and everyone is usually too scared to help.

She quickly ate her apple and tossed the core away before making her way to Vanessa’s room. She was already awake and Rosette immediately helped her into some day clothes.

“Breakfast should be ready soon, would you like to go downstairs to wait?” Rosette asked. Vanessa thought about it.

“Will Eric be downstairs?” she asked looking out the window as the sun was now rising.

“I’m sure he will, breakfast usually isn’t late, but our chef is a bit stressed out about the wedding dinner,” explained Rosette.

“Then, yes, I would love to wait downstairs,” said Vanessa. Rosette nodded and led her downstairs where Eric was staring out the window but turned when he heard footsteps. Rosette couldn’t help but notice he was very stiff and very unemotional.

“Eric!” cried Vanessa before running the rest of the way downstairs and hugging him.

“Good morning,” he said still just as unemotional.

“Thank you, you can go, maybe you can help the chef,” said Vanessa waving Rosette off. She nodded and left to go see what else she could do.

She made her way to the laundry room and saw the women there already hard at work and Carlotta was off to the side with a check list of things that needed to be done for the wedding.

“Oh, Rosette, there you are! Can you take these things and the wedding dress onto the boat and start decorating. Thanks,” she said handing a large bundle to her and shooing her out of the room. Rosette did as she was told and couldn’t wait for this day to be over.

It was finally time for the wedding and Rosette was sitting in the audience watching as the wedding went underway. She was shocked and couldn’t help but laugh a bit when some birds dived and attacked Vanessa. It wasn’t that she didn’t like her, it was just she still really liked Eric. Rosette couldn’t help but think it was planned though because it was right before they were to finished the ‘I do’s. But it wasn’t just birds. All matter of sea creatures began to attack, and it was only Vanessa they were attacking. She was bounced by a seal, got pinched on the nose by a crab.

Rosette watched in slight amusement at what was happening before turning to the side and noticing Ariel was standing there. A seagull had pulled Vanessa’s necklace off and it flew off and landed at Ariel’s feet. It broke and a golden light floated up out of it. It was singing and seemed to go into Ariel’s neck until it was her singing. Rosette watched as Eric shook off whatever he was under and ran towards Ariel.

Great, thought Rosette, It was her all along.

“Ariel?” he asked and made his way over to her.

“Eric,” she said happily.

“You can talk. You’re the one,” he said grabbing her hands and smiling.

“Eric get away from her!” cried Vanessa in a not so pretty voice.

“It was you all the time,” said Eric completely ignoring the woman he was about to marry.

“I wanted to tell you- uh,” Ariel started but then she slowly sank to the floor. It looked like she was in pain. Rosette ran out of the crowd and over to them when she stopped and gasped. Ariel, where her legs once were, had sprouted a fish tail.

“Ha you’re too late!” cried Vanessa who then turned into a half human half octopus monster. She cackled as she grabbed Ariel and sat on the railing of the ship.

“So long lover boy.” She exclaimed before plummeting down to the ocean with Ariel.

“Ariel!” shouted Eric as he ran to the railing and looked down I the water. He then turned and his eyes landed on Rosette.

“Rosette, you have to help me lower a boat,” he said. Rosette nodded and soon a dingy was lowered and he climbed down. Rosette followed after him and he looked confused.

“I helped the last time you went to look for this girl, I’ll help you again,” she said. She knew she didn’t have a chance with Eric, but if she was going to lose to someone she wanted it to be the girl he was madly in love with.

“Thanks,” he said smiling before he rowed out to sea.

“Eric where are you going?” cried Grimsby.

“I already lost her once, Grimsby, I’m not going to lose her again!” yelled Eric before they were too far away from the ship.

Eric rowed them out to the middle of ocean then stopped when he saw a light coming from below in the water.

“Stay here, watch the boat,” he said picking a harpoon up. Rosette nodded, it was easy enough, and Eric dove into the ocean. It was a while before he came back up gasping for breath. Rosette had grabbed onto him to help him back into the boat when he was suddenly pulled down by two eels.

“Eric!” she cried and reached for him but it was too late.

Slowly the water got more and more choppy and they sky got darker and darker. It was getting hard to see anything but not long after she saw Eric surface with Ariel. She was about to call out to them when the ocean started to tremble and out of the water came a very large Vanessa in her half octopus form. Rosette stared up in horror as Eric and Ariel were on her head. They dove off and Rosette grabbed the oars and started trying to get out of the way. A large wave came and soon the dingy was overturned and Rosette fell into the ocean.

She made her way to the surface but the ocean was too fierce for her to stay up for long before another wave came and forced her back down. She was getting tired and knew she wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.

Rosette made it to the surface one last time before a wave sent her down and she didn’t have the energy to make it back up. She slowly sunk down into the dark abyss and soon she slipped into darkness herself.

Rosette came too and noticed that she was indeed alive. She was laying on top of a small island in the middle of the ocean. Well it was more like a rock that was jutting out of the ocean that was very small. There was an anchor next to her and a telescope and what looked like a birds’ nest, but other then that there was nothing. And nothing along the horizon either.

She was very confused. How did she get here when she was drowning? And how was she going to get back? She sat up and tried to see if there were any boats nearby but there was just nothing.

She sat there trying to remember anything she could about how she was rescued. Her memories were very unclear but she did recall someone getting the water out of her lungs. She had to have been on this little island at that time, and whoever it was that helped must have been the one that saved her out of the water. Whoever was crazy enough to do that deserved some kind of prize.

Rosette sighed and leaned down so she was staring in the ocean. She let her fingers trail over the surface as she thought about how to get out of her predicament when she saw a face just below the surface. She jumped up in surprise so she was now sitting on her knees. She glanced down again and sure enough that face was still there.

Who ever it was waved at her and she gave a feeble wave. Soon the face broke the surface of the water and revealed a young man. He had dark hair and green eyes and was shirtless, Rosette couldn’t help but notice he was quite handsome. He was no Eric but still her type. He perched his elbows on the rock and smiled at her.