Sirena

When they pulled up the net, men shouting, salt-stinging water splashing in our eyes, and the sharp zipping of the rope from the pulley, we saw her.

Dewy grey skin, flesh folding through the gaps in the net, long matted hair tangled in the fish piled up around her.

We caught a mermaid.

—————-

To put this in perspective- I was roped into it, I am a broke college student grasping at straws for extra work when my part time job can’t be bothered to call me in. I met a guy at a party who new a guy, and suddenly I was out in the middle of nowhere, on the open sea working what I thought was commercial fishing.

Boarding the boat was probably not the best time for my brain to catch up to the fact that; I was actually doing this- but the smell of the salt soaked wood and the clomping of rubber boots pulled me from whatever blind confidence that had quieted my voice of reason, being broke and desperate did something to a guy.

I did think it was odd how easy I was accepted into the crew, but I just assumed that family businesses and the like were trustworthy, they needed extra hands, I had heard it was hard work, work I was more than willing to do. Flash forward a couple days of running around doing whatever the crew screamed for me to do, I found that movies I had seen that featured the ocean weren’t exaggerating about the unpredictable weather, and jumpy waters- I doubt I’ll ever feel properly dry again in my life.

When we pulled up that net I thought would be just another full of fish gaping with empty eyes, though I saw it and froze. Expecting everyone else to do the same, but instead of shocked horror the men around me cheered and came forward with more rope, thicker and rougher than that I had seen anywhere on deck, the creature screeched a terrible piercing noise I felt in my chest.

The chaos became a blur and as I was pushed to the side by rubber-sleeved bodies, slowly I began to realize that I wasn’t hired on to just help catch fish.

When the night settled I was told to stay up and watch the creature, they handed over a handgun that fit oddly in my hands and was told to aim for the head if anything happened.

“ And goddamnit boy if you even think about putting a hole through a single scale on that fin of hers I’ll kill you myself.”

The captain uttered lowly, face close to mine, with each word I could smell the tobacco he had been chewing for too long in his mouth. The cracks of dryness crawling from his lips up towards his nose gave him a sinister, sickly look as he glared up at me.

“Right, of course sir” clumsily I answered, as intimidated as the captain had planned. I sighed when he turned and finally went below, relaxing a little.

“Her” the older man had said, somehow referring to the creature as a woman had put a rock in my stomach, right beside the original one that seated itself at the beginning of this situation. The sight of “her” trapped, struggling and bleeding murky colors onto the boat didn’t fit the image of anything I would correlate with such a human term. It made me feel almost bad for the thing.

The mermaid was still stuck in the net hours later, the men had placed her in a large wooden basin full of ocean water, just big enough so her tail wouldn’t hang over the side.

“She” were large, bigger than any woman I had seen. Her skin round and sagging, folding over itself in her cramped prison. She hissed and thick bile filtered through the rows of jagged teeth in her mouth. This was a monster, I mulled about that thought while I watched the waves fold over again and again listening to the heavy breathing behind me when it spoke;

“I’ve heard of men.” The mermaids voice was low- feminine, raspy and unused. I stayed facing away from it, just a couple feet from its basin, terrified to turn and look.

“Hear me? I’ve heard of your kind” it continued. “I’ve heard what you do for things you value, things like my scales.”

I coughed and glanced in it’s direction. The mermaid was reaching towards a shell that rested on the dull wood of the deck, almost close enough to reach.

“ My sisters have seen of your greed and never returned, my mother swallows your gold in return. She chews on your kind that come to her.” It’s claws dug into the deck and snapped when it pulled at the iron nails.

Her blood was red.

“Your mother?” I turned finally, watching her heave in pain as she reached for that small white shell.

“The ocean.”

I cleared my throat, “that can’t be right, the ocean isn’t alive.”

The mermaid looked up at me, not caring that I was watching her in her task,

“ The ocean is creation, my mother is all that is left of true darkness in the world of men. Mankind does not like a darkness he cannot manipulate. She created us knowing this.”

Her eyes were grey, they looked as dead as any fish we had caught on that trip, but something told me she was sharper than I. Unsettled, I faced away from her again.

“ If you say so..”

A few minutes passed and I could feel the itch rise in my throat, the one that had been crawling back up every time I tried to dispel it. Maybe turning my back on her was a terrible idea, but I could feel something deep in my soul come unplaced in the pearlesque depths of those eyes.

“ I hear them, my sisters, they are here to crush your boat!” The mermaid raised her voice in excitement and my panic rose taking place of the cough in my throat. Clutching the gun in my hands I prepared to lift it towards something, anything, as I ran to the side of the boat.

I wish I could say I saw ten or even just one of the same kind of creatures as she. But unfortunately I saw nothing but a warped reflection of myself. The quick snapping of rope, and a great heavy splash sounded behind me and I faltered from turning to survey the aftermath of what I knew had happened.

I knew she was gone, her and that shell she had been reaching for. And boy, was I afraid to hear about it in the morning.