The Memoirs Ben Jack

The ocean is a giant mystery. Its over 2.5 miles deep, in some places almost 7 miles, and can crush a human being by the water pressure alone. Oceanographers and Marine Biologists have searched and searched for answers, yet they have none. One secret in particular, they write off as myths, simply because they are never seen. Merpeople, or as fairy tales say, mermaids. They hide in the deep waters, and never surface. If one accidentally surfaces, its written off as a dolphin. I've learned about them on my travels abroad.

Now I've seen a lot in my many travels across the ocean. Some that people would think don't exist, from giant sharks the size of a ship, to a three headed giant water serpent, and more. The ocean holds many secrets, deep and dark secrets. Possibly that should never hold the light of day, and can make even the most experienced sailor quake with fear. Just thinking about that night makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

The night started off calm and quiet, however it didn't stay like that. It quickly went from a gentle breeze to a raging storm. All hands were on deck trying to keep the ship upright. As I pulled the lines in tight, blinking to keep the rain from hurting my eyes too much, I thought about the life under the water. Would they be experiencing the rain and wind current over the water? I wish I could find out. Thunder clapped its mighty hands, shaking my from my own mind.

“Jack, get that line tighter!” Shouted the Captain, the lightning illuminated his menacing green-o gaze. The lines were as tight as I could make them. He just wanted to shout at me. He never liked me much.

“Watch out, Jack!” shouted a crew-mate a few seconds to late. I felt a sharp stabbing pain in the side of my head, and blacked out.

“Baby's coming!”

“Everyone watch out, Coral's coming through!”

Deep under the Atlantic ocean, about two miles deep, there was an overhanging cliff. Under that cliff, there was a cave. No animals lived in the cave, instead a clan of Merpeople. They lived in a clan protected by the water pressure. None of their enemies could survive this water pressure like they could. Guards still posted at the entrance to the city and patrolled the outer edge in case of an odd case. Ever since the Queen's daughter Aquatta died from a shark attack, she's ordered more patrols. That was several years ago.

Coral hadn't had a child since Aquatta had died, so everyone was excited to see the new addition to the royal family. Guards rushed the pregnant queen to the tall white coral building, all the while she was screaming.

“Is she OK?”

“She seems to be in distress.”

“No duh! She's having a baby.”

“Part the crowd!”

At that last shout, the crowd parted to let a short chubby nurse through, carrying the branding tools. Royals had to have the Seal carved into their forearm at birth. It was an old decree from Coral's great grandfather. He had said it was to separate them from the commoners. Only those with royal blood though, not any that were married into the family.

“Coral's having a baby! Its so exciting.”

“I know. I wonder if it will be a boy or girl.”

The large crowd grew quiet as the moments passed. They were waiting for the first cry. The sign that the Royal's would carry on a new generation. Many people had grown worried that Coral was too old to have anymore children. The current swayed as the crowd blinked, waiting patiently. In several moments, a tiny cry could be heard from inside the building. The Royal had been born. The cry got louder as the crowd started cheering. They knew the baby was getting the Seal, meaning that life would be okay in Hali.

Several years had passed. The baby had grown into a trouble-making little menace with a sweet face. He got into everything and got in everyone's way. However, the entire city of Hali loved the boy. He got whatever he wanted from the townspeople; not because of his status, but because of the love the town had for him. The boy was the future of this place. If something happened to the boy, the town would break into a civil war. Coral had announced that Zale was the last child she would have. She decreed that if something were to happen to Zale, then she would appoint a young child to groom and take over her Royal duties and carry on the town. It frightened the townspeople into keeping a closer eye on Zale than they normally would.

“Zale, stop messing about the sand. You'll get it in someone's eye,” the town fishmonger said harshly.

Zale looked up, moving his matted coarse hair out of his eye-view. “Sorry, I was just digging to see if I could make the ocean deeper.”

“Why in Poseidon's great name would you do that?”

Zale turned to see his mother swimming over to him, guards following, with a stern look on her face. “To make a secret place for just us.” Coral smiled.

“This town needs us here, though, child,” she murmured to him sweetly. She motioned for him to follow her back to the palace, nodding at the fishmonger in a fond yet business farewell. “Come on, it's time for your hunting lesson with Triton.”

“Oh, maybe this time I could go to the surface to see if I could catch a human.”

Coral halted forcing the guards that were following to bump into Zale. Her pointed, sharp eyes narrowed to slits. Zale wondered if she could even see him presently. He's rarely seen her this angry. “You will never go above the dark waters alone,” she hissed, baring her sharp teeth.

He nodded furiously. “Now go find Triton...and stay out of trouble for once.” Zale swam away as fast as he could. If only he could somehow get away from the hunter to get a small glimpse of the surface.

The muscular merman was by the spears, sharpening one. His chiseled jaw clenched as he swiped the sharpener across the spear head. “Triton, I'm here.” He grunted. “About time,” he grunted, tossing the spear he was sharpening to Zale. Zale gasped and barely caught it before it cut his arm. That would be bad.

“Let's go.” He grabbed another spear and started swimming out of the cave that shielded their town.

Zale had never been outside the town before. He tried to look at everything at once. The sand seemed different out here. Freshly blown by the current. A skeleton fish swam away quickly as Triton hissed at it, poking it with his spear. It chopped its overly grown teeth at Triton as it swam. They swam up to where the dolphins were near the light water.

Triton trilled as he saw a pod of dolphins. They turned and chattered back to him. Zale took a look around. There were jellyfish swimming near, their clear stingers sparkling as they went on. Zale thought he caught a glimpse of a shiny scale of a fish in his peripheral vision. It was the light water. Way above, a shiny bright circle looking down, waving to Zale.

The surface. Zale's eyes went wide in excitement. He looked at Triton and the dolphins. They were chittering with each other, talking of hunting. Now was his chance. Quickly and quietly, Zale swam towards the surface. Would he be able to breath? He stopped a few shark lengths away from the brightness. Taking a deep breath, holding his spear tightly, he broke the surface. Brightness and cold warmth greeted him. As he held his breath, he waited for his eyes to become adjusted. Right in front of him, a few hundred shark lengths away, was a giant animal on the surface.

Zale tilted his head and ducked under, swimming over to it. Maybe I could catch something big alone and mother would let me up here again. The creature was brown, as Zale swam closer. Holding his breath and breaking the surface again, he looked up. A weird creature was on the other creature. Pale, dry, and oddly scaled in soft scales. Yet the under-scales seemed smooth, like dolphin skin. Maybe they were kin.

It looked at Zale, and then another came beside the first. The second seemed more shocked and excited. The first just looked at Zale the same way he looked at it. Curious. As the second creature moved away in a rush, the first looked after it for a moment. Then the first started getting loud as the second came back with a tool. It looked like a big spear. He started pointing it at Zale. Zale gasped and tried to dodge as the second thing threw the spear.

It didn't miss. It hit Zale in the side of the abdomen, blood spilled out. Zale cried out in pain as they started to bring him up the side of the creature. Blood trailed behind him. As the second creature tossed him to the ground, pain shot through Zale's body. He started gasping for air or from the pain. It was unsure. The things were surrounding him now, making weird noises and shoving each other with their limbs. The one that caught Zale showed his teeth. They weren't pointed like Zale's. He leaned over Zale and pulled out the spear. Blood gushed out. Zale cried out in pain, clasping the wound. He knew he wouldn't last much longer.

Zale's vision went bury as the gasping turned to thrashing. Blood kept pooling around him as the creatures all gawked at him with their eyes wide. He felt a sharp pain on his tail. A form was hunched over his flippers. Then, Zale's vision went black.

“Jack, what are you gawking at over there?” asked Charlie, a scrawny guy.

“I'm not sure,” I said truthfully. As Charlie came over to see what I was seeing, his eyes grew wide and excited. Without saying a word he ran to get the harpoon. “No, Charlie no.”

He cackled madly. “Move.” He lined up his shot with the thing. The creature knew a little too late what Charlie was going to do. It tried to move, yet not all the way. Charlie had gotten him in the stomach. He pulled his catch up in a rush, blood following the poor soul. I stood back, unable to do anything. Charlie dropped the thing in the middle of the deck and took the harpoon out. Blood starting gushing out like a waterfall. It was amazing that this small creature could hold this much blood.

The creatures hair was wet and matted. It almost looked like seaweed. His eyes, I could only assume it was a male, was wide and human like. His nose, snakelike, slits where the nostrils would have been. Blood was still pooling from the harpoons wound in his blue skin. As my eyes traveled down to his tail, the skin gave way to scales. Black. His tail flipped in pain as the harpoon moved with his thrashing for breath. The crew crowded around as it started gasping for air, or water, I suppose. His teeth were sharper than some of our knives we have. I'd hate to have them bite me.

I wished I could do something. At the tail, another crew-mate started cutting the fins off. The thing cried out, showing his sharp teeth. However, his thrashing was getting slower, and his eyes were clouded. Not long now. I took in a breath and waited. I just wanted this to be over. This creature was innocent. Once more the creature thrashed and then passed out. He was gone.

“Look at this cut,” said Charlie, as he looked at an arm. Charlie grabbed the ax. He swung it and cut off the arm. Bones were breaking all around me. Everyone was wanting a piece of this creature as a trophy.

They started to skin the tail, after chopping off his human torso. My eyes were glued to their work. I tried multiple times to look away, but I couldn't. In my many years of sailing, this was the first time I encountered these things. Knowing that people like me are the reason why, I'm guessing, that they don't show up to the surface stabbed me in the heart. I had to feel and make sure one of the many knives that were cutting up that little creature wasn't actually inside my skin.

My eyes fell to the floor, covered in blood. Innocent blood. It pooled around my feet, soaking my boots. I quickly stepped away, looking back. They were still cutting and skinning the poor thing. Bloody footsteps followed me. I gasped and took off the boots, then ran down below. I couldn't stay up there any more. I can't do anymore sails. This is the end.

I sighed as I glanced out the porthole. A second creature was near the surface, yet not breaking it. He was glancing around with frightened eyes. He moved his mouth, obviously calling for his young companion. A splash was made and a half cut up head sank below the surface of the water, down to the older creature. He caught it with one hand and made a loud cry. Dolphins moved around him,shielding him from the ship. Good.

The creature, as well as I could see, bowed his head to the dismembered head. He was mourning the little one. I heard a loud crunch and looked around. Nothing in the room changed. It had to have been my heart breaking. Tears fell as fast as his youngs blood, splashing the ground like dynamite. My breath got faster and heavier as I moved away from the porthole. The creature had seen me crying and nodded once. It knew I didn't want it to die. It knew. It was smart and we killed it. The little one was important to that older creature.

For the rest of the sail, I couldn't get out of my cot. They thought I had an illness that hadn't been identified yet. Once we were back in London, the doctors, upon hearing my tale, laughed at me. “There was no such animal in the sea.” I knew I was right. I saw his face every night when I closed my eyes. Sometimes when I blink even. They took me to the asylum that same day. When I told my neighbors inside why I was there, even they laughed at me. The insane thought I was insane. What a queer sense of irony.

Every night I dreamed of that day. I dreamed of an aftermath that was just. The older creature had come back with more of them and jumped aboard the ship, shapshifting their tails to legs to kill everyone who had a piece of the young. I dreamed that the young was a prince, who was supposed to have changed his towns future, that he was their last hope of peace. I prayed sometimes that something bad would come of everyone on that ship, including me if need be. Then, I would take it back, knowing it was not very righteous of me to pray that. It wasn't even righteous to even feel like that.

Instead, after, I'd pray that the creatures clan was safe and would thrive. They would find a way to keep going on even without him. I would pray each day for a name and when one would come to me, I'd pray for that name. The first name I felt was Coral. She hurt my heart as I prayed for her health. It felt like she was clawing her way out of my heart and chest.

For ten years I was in the Asylum, praying each day. My wife married another, took my son and moved away. I lost everything because of that day. The others went on to sail, never spoke of it again. They slept fine, their hands covered in the blood of the innocent. I never touched the boy and still saw blood on my boots when I walked. When I got out of the Asylum, I didn't know what to do. Times were changing. Some author had written a story about a mermaid and people were loving it. It was a mystery and myth. After thinking long and hard, I had decided I was going to write about that day.

I sighed and sat back in my chair. The pages in front of me stared back. That day still haunted me. As the ink dried, I looked over at the fireplace. No one would believe me anyway. So what's the point? Picking up the papers, I started to reread. When I got to the bad part, I faltered. Was it too harsh? A tear escaped my eye. I quickly dried it before it could make its way to the pages. A second tear fell from my other eye instead. It dropped on the paper, spreading the ink of the word BLOOD.

There was so much blood. My boots had dried blood on them from that creature for the rest of the sail. I had to burn them when I got home. Guilt followed me for years. I did not touch the poor thing and yet I still feel like I held the harpoon; that I tossed it. I killed the creature, that mermaid as people are calling them now. They fear them. However, people don't think that the mermaids fear us. We killed one of their own. He could have been important. He could have been their entire future.

Sometimes at night, when I'm asleep, I hear a loud cry that jolts me awake; and I imagine its the ghost of him, finding the sailors and killing them, exactly how they killed him. It soothes me back to sleep, thinking that he's getting his revenge at last.