The Mermaid

The water splashed and sloshed over the side of the research ship as they huddled around the screen and watched the eerily empty ocean bottom slowly move in front of them. They'd been tediously searching the deepest part of the ocean for months and although they'd seen some amazing creatures and a couple of shipwrecks, they'd yet to find the prize.

A Mermaid.

Dr. Silas Fitz had been looking for a mermaid ever since he'd been saved by one. He’d been the only survivor in a tragic shipwreck that had taken the life of his entire family among others. Everyone told him that it was his survivors guilt or foolish memory or maybe a hallucination caused from the trauma and dehydration... but he knew the truth. He'd put himself through school to study not just oceanography but marine biology as well. He was going to find a mermaid no matter how much time or money it took.

He'd told his investors and the college he worked for that they were searching for a historically important shipwreck that would make them all famous and wealthy... but that would only be a side effect of his true mission.

Because he was obsessed, he had them working night and day in shifts with three ROV's that they switched out on a time schedule. It was night now around three in the morning in the middle of the ocean, he was on his shift with coffee and his assistant Thomas.

A Fangtooth and a Vampire squid swam in front of the ROV and Tom gasped as if they hadn't seen those “alien” creatures before. Silas was much less impressed and growing increasingly annoyed that he'd yet to find his mermaid. He'd already spend years searching the nooks, caves, and crannies of the upper ocean. All that was left were these deep parts for the mermaids to make their homes.

He yawned and was stretching as he leaned back when something caught his eye... a fin. "What was that?" He leaned forward again and yanked the controls from Thomas's hand to pan towards the fluke that he'd glimpsed. His heart raced as the humanoid creature with a dolphin-like tail stopped swimming to stare back at the ROV.

"Wha...What is that?" Tom breathed as they both stared dumbfounded at the creature.

Silas's traumatized child's mind had conjured this kind mermaid with a beautiful face and long flowing locks—more Disney than real life. But what was in front of him was nothing like those memories at all. She had stringy black hair that twisted and knotted around her in the dark ocean. Her skin was gray and looked smooth. Her face was sunken with huge dark eyes, a tiny almost nonexistent nose, and a mouth full of sharp fangs. Her chest was bare but shaped like a human female, her belly was round as if she carried a babe, and her fingers were webbed. Her fluke wasn’t fused as one solid tail... instead her two separate legs kicked independently of each other.

"How?" Tom snapped a few pictures of the creature as Silas gently started to take a net from the ROV in order to capture the creature.

When she saw the net, she only tilted her head before he flung it over her. She thrashed and screeched a loud song that sent chills rushing over both Tom and Silas and woke the remaining men on the boat. The others rushed in time to see two huge mermen swim into view of ROV. The largest one bellowed while they both worked the net off the female. Other than size and their clearly different reproductive organs, the only other difference between the male and the female merpeople were the male's vibrant coloring.

Once they'd freed the female from the scientists net, the largest male gently checked the female over, leaving his webbed hands to rest on her belly for a moment. The other male had come to check out the ROV. He lifted it to his face, so Thomas quickly snapped up close pictures before the creature called over his shoulder. The largest male took the extremely heavy ROV from the smaller one and bellowed again before his mouth quirked up in a ominous smirk and the ROV suddenly went dead.

"Well..." Silas breathed into the silent room.

"Mermaid's exist," another Marine biologist said before the shock wore off and they all realized what they caught on camera. The room erupted in cheers and manic laughter.

The boat listed roughly to one side and the celebration died.

“What’s that?" Silas shouted as the boat was rocked back the opposite way. "Did a storm kick up?"

They all rushed outside to the calm sea and clear night. When the boat rocked again, fear slicked their spines as they all creeped to the edge to gaze over. The mercreatures had surrounded the boat—an army of them—and were taking turns pushing it back and forth. Everyone panicked as the largest one let out a sinister laugh when he'd caught sight of them peeking over the rail.

"Wait. We’re sorry. We meant no harm to your female." Silas tried for calm voice even though his insides were molten with fright.

The leader seemed to contemplate this, and the rocking stopped. He smiled at Silas before running his webbed hand over the side of the boat, he made a clicking sound and suddenly the smashed ROV popped up next to him from under the water. With an ease that was bone chilling, he slammed the ROV against the hull of the boat five times putting a huge hole in the side and water rushed in...

"They’ve sunk us..." Tom's voice was full of terror before everyone else got to work preparing the lifeboats.

Everyone except Silas, who continued to stare numbly over the side at the mermaid with blonde wild locks. Her gray skin had a pinker hue. Her fathomless black eyes stared back at him. She’d been the one who'd saved him.

The research boat sank quickly, and they'd all made it to the life rafts only to be plucked one by one off of them. Screams and haunting laughter filled the night until the only one left was Silas. He begged the blonde not to take him as she circled his raft with blood dripping from her mouth and her eyes boring into his soul.

"You saved me once as a child. I've spent my life searching for you. I meant no harm," he pleaded but cringed when she ran her slimy hand over his arm.

"Child," she repeated in a sloppy voice.

"Yes. Yes. A child." Silas returned her smile with a hopeful one of his own.

A huge merman appeared next to the female, and they clicked at each other in what seemed like a heated argument. The male narrowed his eyes at Silas before he bellowed and dove away.

There was a moment of peace before Silas’s raft flipped. A hand snagged him by the foot.

A single final scream struck the air before all was silent.