Of the line Prestigia

If people ever deigned to talk about it, they just called it The Tank. Once a year, the soldiers of Auradon would troop in, scoop all the inhabitants into what was basically just glorified buckets, and then replace the water. The rest of the time, she who lived in The Tank was simply left to rot like common fish.

The Tank was inhabited by one woman- one very, very dangerous woman. Ursula, Queen of the Sea {or would-be, has-been, rather} a woman who constantly craved her next meal, a woman who wasn't dumb enough to ask a voodoo practiser for a spell {after all, she'd once been a voodoo user, and she knew the kind of debt you'd get yourself into} but had had three wishes granted to her by a djinni- Jafar's son, Jay. The inhabitants of the Isle, those who weren't confined to The Tank, called him King Jay, but to her, he was just Jay. She wasn't under his rule, she wasn't under anyone's rule, because of The Tank {secretly, she'd rather be under someone's rule than stuck in this blasted tank}. Ursula was a woman who cooked for others- at Ursula's Fish and Chips {you'll take it how I make it!}- but a woman who always hungered for her next meal, because her diet was slightly out of the ordinary.

Being confined to the tank meant she needed someone else to get it for her- and then that someone came along- Aaron, son of Ariel Ursula. He had red hair and legs that grew scaly when they touched the water of The Tank, but they were still legs, which was more than Ursula had. So when the djinn child, Jay, stumbled into her shop and she caught him stealing {her food! Her food! How dare he!} she offered him silence in exchange for three wishes, which he didn't know he could give her {dumb child}.

One- a potion to change Aaron's look, to make him her son by blood.

Two- a potion to sweeten his voice, to make it sultry and compelling and everything a siren's voice should be.

Three- she could have wished for legs, but she was too proud of her heritage, of what she was, so she wished for something else. For Aaron to need to return to the water every twenty-four hours or risk death. That way, he always came back.

But everything has a price, especially on the Isle of the Lost, and that was true of the wishes she made as well.

One- She cut off his pain receptors. He felt nothing, no matter what happened to him {he felt no emotional pain either, but he never revealed that, not on the Isle. It was a secret strength of his}.

Two- She broke his lungs, and when he wasn't singing, he spoke in harsh, raspy whispers and broke into coughs and choked on thin air.

Three- She made him crave affection so desperately, it was almost like he was good {she stamped that out of him real quick}.

The corner behind Ursula's Fish and Chips shop was frequented by teenage girls who were looking for a boy to spend the night with. Some of them never came home. Their parents didn't exactly care. Sometimes a boy would figure it out, and after more than three or four visits, he too would never come home. Such was the way of the Isle of the Lost. Some people went missing, some kids died, some kids killed. It was what it was.

Sometimes there was music playing out of the rusted speaker. The speaker had been installed on the Isle of the Lost by the Auradonians, and when they remembered, it would play old tunes of days long past. Once Upon a Dream was a popular one, before Maleficent burnt down half the Isle to make it stop. Someday My Prince Will Come and Let It Go were most commonly played. But there was one that rarely made it onto the speaker, yet Uriah still knew it off by heart. The song consisted of vague memories of bright sunlight and a smiling woman with bright hair {she brushed her hair with a fork, for some reason}.

'I want to be where the people are

I want to see

Want to see 'em dancing

Walking around on those

Whadd'ya call 'em? Oh, feet

Flipping your fins you don't get too far

Legs are required for jumping, dancing

Strolling along down a

What's that word again... Street'

His voice was soft and enticing, and the girls all spun around, frantically trying to search out the sound. When they saw him, they were stunned. Hair with snow white roots and pure black tips, skin so light it was a pale blue, black clothing and lips so red he looked as though he may be Snow White's illegitimate son {wrong hero}. As he sang, he drew nearer, and his voice became so soft they had to lean in to hear it. He grabbed the most beautiful woman of them all {she had nothing on the Queens, but she'd do. His mother insisted on her meals only being the finest} and he led her by the hand, slowly, still singing, into Ursula's.

Then all Hell broke loose.

'What are you singing?' A voice screeched from The Tank, 'Are you singing her song?' The boy stopped singing and the girl froze, absolute terror on her face. A startled squeak escaped her lips, but she was ignored. A tentacle slowly reached out of The Tank and wrapped around the boy's throat and he started coughing, 'You don't sing that song. Ever. You understand me, Uriah?'

More coughing, more gasping for breath, more pain.

'Yes, mother.'

The tentacle retracted for a second, before grabbing the neck of the girl.

'None for you.'

This was the fourth work in the Seven Deadly Sins 'verse. The previous work is called 'No Escaping the Crown' and the next work is called 'What They Didn't Do'. You can also find the entire story on my profile under 'The Horsemen's Cycle'.