Creatures of the Sea

Anise and I were on her parent's yacht on a cruise for summer vacation; it was about two weeks before school would start. We were spending our last two weeks of summer vacation with her family which consisted of her parents and her older brother, Jason. We were in the coast of Sydney, Australia just having a great time laughing and talking until the driver roughly made a turn that knocked me over into the water.

I wasn't a great swimmer so I panicked which made it worst for me to calmly try to float. I was drowning and at that time I thought it would be the last of me. I fell deep into the ocean and everything else began to fade. I was giving on life and myself. I began to close my eyes and prepared for the worst until I saw something that looked like a giant fish tale. At first, I thought I was just seeing things or imagining it since I was drowning and all until it came closer. It was a man with fish tales! His broad chest was showing while his waist down was a scaly, fish tale. He had long dark brown hair that was flowing beautifully in the water. Oh, he was handsomely gorgeous alright but he was half fish and half man; a merman!

As he came closer I began to panicked even more. I opened my mouth to scream and then realized I was still in the water. I couldn't hold my breath anymore and began to faint. I felt my body slowly falling down deeper into the ocean and then I felt a pair of hands lifting me up. I faintly opened my eyes and saw that it was the merman. In my mind, I was scared but I couldn't hold my breath any longer. Before I knew it, I felt soft lips on mine. Could it be the merman? Was he was kissing me? But wait, he was also giving me air.

He pulled away and looked at me. He smiled. He signaled his hands for me to quickly swim up to the surface. With that, he quickly swam off and disappeared into the darkness below the ocean. When I was swimming up to the surface, Jason had already came for me. His arm supported my body and we both swam up.

I was helped onto the yacht and Anise and her mom came straight to hug me. Anise began to shed tears while her mom grabbed a towel and put it over me to dry me up.

"Oh my goodness! Lana, I was so worried about you. I don't know what I would do if Jason wasn't able to reach you in time." Anise said as she wiped the tears streaming down her face.

"Oh, sweetheart. I'm so glad you are okay." Mrs. Clair said, cupping my face in her hands. "I should have you fired for driving recklessly." She pointed towards the driver.

"No! Please, no! I didn't mean to knock Ms. Rose over into the ocean. I-I thought I saw a person in the water. That's why I quickly made that turn but as I looked closer, it was something else," the driver explained. He was worried because he knows they would never believe him. I began to remember the merman who saved me and thought, maybe, the driver saw him, too.

They didn't seem to have bought his story. They probably thought he was crazy. I was going to announce what I had saw too, but they'd probably think I must have hit my head when I fell.

"That's ridiculous. We are out in the middle of the ocean! Does it look like there would be anyone out here swimming around?" Said Mr. Clair.

"Look. We can discuss this when we reach the shorelines. What's important right now is making sure Lana is ok," said Jason. "Are you hurt anywhere or did you hit anything when you fell?"

"No. I'm fine," I said. I was trying to make sense of what just happened, but after swallowing a lot of salt water, I began to have a major headache.

They had suggested to take me to the hospital but I had suggested to just get back to the hotel. I headed straight for the the bathtub when Anise and I reached out room. I filled the tub with soap and water as I went to dry my clothes and grabbed my robe and towel.

I quickly got in and the warm bubble bath warmed up my body. Ah, it sure feels nice. I grabbed a towel on top of the small table that was next to the tub, fold it and laid my head back. I closed my eyes and just drift away into dream land. Not even for 2 minutes and the flashbacks of me drowning came rushing in. Then the images of the creature that looked like half man and half fish appeared. I can recall his the feel of his lips and his arms around me. I opened my eyes. Wait. What am I thinking? He's not even human or let along a merman. Mermaids and mermen don't exist. They're from fantasies and fairytales. They can't be real. But if they're not real then what was the creature I saw? I shrugged it off and got out of the bathtub.

I had just got done putting on clothes when I heard someone knocking on the door. I didn't care about answering it since Anise was also in the room. But it doesn't seem like she was going to answer so I hurried up and went to open the door. Anise was nowhere to be found so I assumed she must have gone out. Jason was at the door when I opened.

"Hey, I just came to check up on you to make sure you're okay," he said.

"Oh. That's nice of you but I'm okay," I replied, feeling a bit awkward. "Would you, um, like to come in?" I didn't want to be rude so I offered.

"I would, but, it's getting late already. I should probably head off to bed." He was already on his way then suddenly turned back. "By the way, is Anise in the room with you?"

"It doesn't seem like she is. I had just got done taking a bath then you came. I have looked for her but she wasn't here."

"If you want, I....could, um, stay here with you until she comes back?" I began to felt even more awkward.

"That's sweet of you to offer but I've been having a headache because of the incident earlier so I was thinking of just heading to be early."

"Oh. Well, alright. Good night then."

I felt so awkward. Don't get me wrong. He's cute alright but he's my best friend's brother. Plus, I don't have any other kind of interest for him but just being friends.

I went to bed early that night, not knowing what time Anise had come in. It was around 2 'o clock when I heard the loud sound of waves crashing. It had given me a fright and woke me up. I looked at Anise and she was dead asleep. I, then, looked at the window and realized that it wasn't close. I got up to close it but the scene of the ocean at night was just too captivating so I decided to enjoy the view for a bit. The bright full moon reflected on the ocean an the stars were twinkling bright with it. All I could hear were the waves crashing onto the shore and the howling of the wind.