The Mermaid

The Mermaid

A call, a Mermaid, and the claws of death.

A voice called out from below.

The man they sought, dressed in a simple white shirt and black trousers, leaned over the edge of the dock, and smiled widely. He reached down towards that voice.

The Mermaid wrapped her wet arms around the shoulders of her lover, a ‘land-man’, she called him. He, in turn, folded his muscles around her, and held her in an embrace.

It was rather difficult, as she was reaching as far out of the water as she could, and he was crouched down in a very uncomfortable position, squashing some rather precious parts of his that he didn’t wish to damage.

He didn’t complain, though. He liked being close with her.

Despite their short three-day relationship, he could already see a future with the girl. She was everything he’d ever been looking for: kind, sincere and absolutely beautiful. The life he wanted began the moment he laid his eyes on her.

“I love you,” he whispered, moving her long hair from her shoulder with his calloused fingers.

She leaned back slightly, and smiled, showing her pearly teeth.

“That’s just what I wanted to hear.”

She tightened her grip around his shoulders, and before he had the chance to react, pulled him towards her, crashing their lips together.

He thought her lips tasted salty, from the sea water. There was something else there too, tangy, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

The pair got lost in the moment of their first kiss, closing their eyes, leaning into each other, tongues twisting together in a battle.

He didn’t realise he was moving until the Mermaid suddenly yanked him forward. He opened his eyes just in time to see the water rushing towards him – or was he moving towards it?

His question was answered when he crashed into the ice cold waves. His clothes were immediately soaked, and the air was pushed from his lungs. His eyes burned as they filled with water.

He stilled for a millisecond, confused, then tried to kick himself through the waves to reach the surface.

The Mermaid smiled, though it was a different smile than before. Her teeth were suddenly sharper, and her face became shadowed and paler.

“We’re going to be together. Forever.” She spoke through the water.

She held him tightly, her fingers becoming claws, digging in to his skin and drawing blood. He barely noticed. He was far more focused on realising that the surface world was getting further away by the second, and he had no way to free himself.

She dragged him down with her, soaring through the water with her tail. They were moving fast; everything around them became flashes of colour. Panic settled in fast.

He tried to hold his breath in his body, but the pressure was overwhelming him the further they went. His mouth opened, and water flooded in.

He thrashed as much as he was capable in her strong grip. It was not much of a fight.

The man was unconscious before the pair reached the seabed. His struggle was no match for the Mermaid. She had not received as little as a scratch from him.

He fell unceremoniously from her arms to the sandy ground. He lay at an odd angle: his arms and legs were bent underneath him in such a way that, were he not in water, they would immediately break from the weight of his body.

The Mermaid sighed happily, staring at the man lying before her. He wasn’t her first catch (and certainly won’t be her last), but there was a certain… quality, that she liked about him.

Usually, the men she found took much longer to convince than she was trustworthy.

But Him, he was different. He saw her, the real Her (or the version she wanted him to see).

She knew he’d be perfect to add to her collection.

The Mermaid lay down beside him, just watching his face, and began to hum a song.

---

“Another one? Already?”

The Mermaid shot up from where she was laying, over her new prize. His eyes were now closed, and his lips were turning blue. He was colder to touch now, the warmth leaking from his body to the water around him.

The voice came from behind her. An older woman, another mermaid, emerged from a cave, shadowed by the forest of kelp growing around them.

The Mermaid turned from her love, and spoke to the woman.

“Drina, I didn’t see you there.” She pointed to the corpse behind her. “I caught him this evening. Don’t you think he’d make a great addition to the treasury?”

Drina sighed in obvious annoyance, and swam over to the youngling.

“Why did you bring another one? It’s not your turn to hunt for another month.” She swished the pale hair from her face, where it had been floating towards, and moved closer to the man. “Who was he?”

The Mermaid smiled brightly and giggled. “I found him at the docks. He works as a sailor, and he told me I was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. Isn’t he perfect?” She was practically giddy, looking down at him as one would watch their lover sleeping peacefully beside them.

He was not sleeping peacefully.

“He’s dead, you realise?” asked Drina, eyebrows furrowed at the girl. She watched her carefully, knowing too well how carried away she got over the boys she discovered.

The Mermaid ignored the question completely.

“He told me he loves me,” she whispered, moving some hair from his forehead, and bending over to kiss it. “Now we’re together forever. Now he won’t leave me.”

Drina pulled her back harshly. Staring at her black eyes with force, she said, “Call the rest. It’s dinner time.”

The Mermaid shrunk back in horror. “No! You can’t!” She started to panic. “He’s my catch, not yours, I found him. I deserve to keep him for myself!” Her claws came out again, and she started towards Drina, intending to force her away.

The woman was older, stronger, wiser. She’d seen this behaviour with the younglings before. This Mermaid in particular was rather troublesome.

Drina let out a shrieking cry, echoing through the ocean like a siren. Movement quickly followed.

Ten, twenty, thirty mermaids appeared in quick succession from the kelp forest. They were hungry, and had been waiting for such a call for some time.

Seeing the man on the floor, they raced towards him, fighting the others around him to reach him first.

The Mermaid tried to get in front, to protect him, but to no avail. Within seconds, he’d been torn limb from limb, blood slowly seeping from his open wounds to the water around them.

The women began to feast. The noise was terrible; flesh being torn from bone; fingers being cracked off and handed out as an extra bite.

The Mermaid cried and screamed at them, but they were too far into their meal to care. They tore him apart with their long, twisted claws. Merfolk were far more dangerous than anyone thought.

All that remained of him was the clothes he was wearing, and the larger bones. They were more difficult to digest, so they were buried under the sand.

Drina, with blood around her mouth, tried to comfort the Mermaid. “You shouldn’t be this upset. This is how we feed. If you didn’t want that to happen, you shouldn’t have broken our schedule.”

Tears leaked from the Mermaid’s amber eyes. She swam to the patch that they’d buried the bones, and took the largest one out. It was sharp at one end, having been broken in half to spread it around.

She was sobbing hysterically, muttering, “Love… I couldn’t… need you…”

She held the sharpened bone to her chest and quickly shoved it in, piercing through her skin. She held it still, halfway into her body.

Drina swam over, eyes of concern, and slowly pulled it back out of her chest.

No blood appeared in the hole it left. Nothing but a large cavity in the centre.

“This is not the way, Little One. There are more fish in the sea.”

The Mermaid turned from the blood-and-flesh covered group, and swam into the cave behind.

Drina followed her with her eyes for a moment, then spoke to the woman beside her. “Are we sure this is helping her? She’s distraught, every time we do this. It isn’t working.”

This mermaid, whose tail was a bright silver, and reflected what little light they had, chuckled. “My dear Drina, she won’t ever become like us, unless we show her how. Her connection with the humans above is far too dangerous. Trust me, if Father knew she loved the men she found, she would be in far more danger. We’re keeping our sister safe. Even if she doesn’t like it.”

Drina nodded, though she didn’t quite agree.

“Yes,” she said, more to herself than anyone else. “We’re doing this to keep Ariel safe.”