A Collection of Very Short Fiction

#4 Mermaid

The smell of fear spreads through the water. I sniff, trying to define where it comes from. Three men and a woman. I smell their fear, their sweet sweet fear, calling to me. I have to hurry if I want to be the first to reach them. I swim towards the smell and it gets stronger and more tempting the closer to the capsized boat I get. Faster and faster I swim. The hunger combined with the temptation nearly drives me insane. There hasn't been proper food for days. And with proper food I mean things that felt fear. The fear of fish is so minimal it doesn't satisfy me. It's just enough for a newborn Mermaid.

Oh god! I think I'm going to die. No life vest can save me from the cold. The boat already sank, nearly pulling us down with it. My team is trying to keep themselves alive, but all the equipment is gone. I never thought researching Mermaids would end like this, dying of cold. I don't believe in Mermaids, but the rest of the team does. I came along to prove them wrong.

I'm nearly at the spot where the boat sank. Three figures are swimming in the water above me. I smile, bearing my wickedly sharp fangs and teeth. I use my fishtail to propel myself upwards slowly and my webbed hands to steer. I circle underneath them. This will be fun. I touch one of the males feet. He screams so loud I can hear it under water. The smell of fear intensifies.

Something touched Mick. It was probably a jelly fish. Mick keeps insisting it's a Mermaid and that were all going to get killed my a horrible monster. "To bad our equipment sunk, I would've loved to film that jellyfish-Mermaid that 'touched' you." I say sarcastically. Anderson shoots me a look. A mixture of fear and anger gleams in his eyes. Then Anderson screams. This time, it scares me as well.

I laugh to myself. I absorb the fear the three people emit. One of them isn't as scared as the others. It's the female. I smell anger on her. And nervousness. I swim around her feet. She's not suspecting anything, since she is keeping her legs relatively still. The others are kicking like they're trying to keep me away. It's not going to help them. The woman's still paddling above me. I grin. Time to scare the living hell out of her.

A cold hand wraps around my ankle, digging its claw-like nails in my skin. This time, I scream. "Something's holding me! Help! A hand is holding me!"  As soon as I say that, the hand lets go of me. I'm still shrieking hysterically. Then, Mick's scream is cut off by a gurgling sound. Mick is being pulled  under. A few seconds later he resurfaces. "I saw it! I saw the Mermaid" he screams. He starts swimming away. Anderson already took off in the other direction.

Oh, now they're swimming away. I grab one of the guys' foot and drag him back to where the woman is swimming. She's now also kicking out with her feet. I turn to the other guy. No use swimming away. Mermaids are extremely fast. Nothing can out-swim a Mermaid. I swim up to the guy, jump out of the water and hug him tight. One final embrace. I drag him under and he doesn't resist. Boring. After a few minutes he goes limp in my arms. I use my teeth to rip out his throat and let go of him. He slowly floats back up to the surface. The remaining humans should prepare for a surprise...

Oh God, Mermaids do exist. The creature attacked Anderson and pulled him down with her. The creature looked human, except she was covered in fish scales. Only her face was normal.
We wait a few minutes. Anderson should've drowned by now. Mick screams again, pointing at something floating in the water. I turn to him. The sight is so horrible I nearly throw up. Anderson is floating in the water with his throat ripped out. Blood  colours the water around him. His empty eyes are wide in fear. Panic washes over me like a wave. Every other emotion is drowned out and all that is left is panic.

Now they're both panicking. I absorb their fear. This time I feel a bit more alive. I haven't fed on humans for a long time. For years I felt weak and hungry. I nearly died. Killing means life to me. They die in fear, I live. It's how I survived for centuries. But boats are getting better and sink less often. I turn to the other male and kill him the same way as I killed the other. He resists. He's panicking. But in the end he's also dead.

Now Mick is gone as well. My whole body starts shivering in fear. I don't want to die. I have a family, I have children. They will miss me. I don't want to die, I don't want to die. I remember my children, my husband. No one will know what happened. Then, I see Mick's body, lifeless like Anderson's. I know now it's my turn to die, but I don't want to.

I want to live again. Like in old times, when sailors still believed we existed. The female is still there. I swim up to her and surface before her. She screams. I swim up to her slowly. I bear my teeth. "I don't want to die" she whispers over and over again. But I want to live I think. I grab her and pull her down.

She pulls me under. I fight. I kick and hit her but she's too strong.

A dance of death. She's trying to fight. She's so much braver and stronger than the others. But she's so scared.

My lungs are burning. I need air. I need to live.

She's running out of air. I turn her around so she's facing me and look at her. She stops struggling. She knows she lost.

I give up. I look into the beast's eyes. Her expression is so kind and loving and yet so cruel. She seems so old.

She looks at me. She knows she's going to die, but she's not scared any more. Time to kill her.

I don't want to die are my last thoughts.

I can live again I think as the woman dies.