Friday Night Bites

Something Fishy

"Tonya, it's fine. We've all done this before. Most of us'll be back to do it next year with new freshmen. It's tradition."

Tonya didn't want to call it hazing as she stood beside six other sorority recruits. She'd endured a seemingly endless litany of stupid tasks and rules for Hell Week, from being locked in a freezing room naked to being forced to walk around campus using only the sidewalks. Cutting so much as a corner would get you punished. And now, finally, she had made it to the end of the road- pier, to be exact. Everything she'd endured all boiled down to a single leap into orange-black waters of a pier in southern Florida. She glanced into the glistening waves beyond the bobbing heads of the three girls and several of their fraternity brothers. The light stretched only a few feet beyond their bobbing heads, until the dark of night consumed it.

"You've got this, Tonya," came the voice of one of the other initiates.

Their overseer for the pledge event, a perky brunette named Nancy, patted Tonya's shoulder. "This is it," she said, leaning in close. "You're so close to Greek life you can reach out and grab it."

'This is dumb,' Tonya wanted to say. 'For a group of smart, aspiring scientists, this is stupid dangerous.' Instead, she fidgeted with the strap on her bikini and nodded to Nancy.

"Don't think I haven't seen you eyeballing Tyler," the sophomore from Indiana continued,thumbing towards the shoreline that seemed so distant from Tonya. Tyler, a soccer player and all around alpha male, was too busy hamming it up with some of the older girls top notice them. The man had a towel wrapped around his slim waist. His hair was already damp from an earlier swim. "He's single you know," Nancy continued in the interim. "I put him on towel duty for a reason. You jump in first, I'm sure he'll remember that." 

"That'd be nice," Tonya agreed.

"More than nice," Nancy purred, slinging her blonde braid over her shoulder. "How often do you get the chance to be with guys that hot? If I wasn't locked in with Drew, I'd be diving in," she added, waggling her eyebrows. "So what do ya say, champ? You ready to take the plunge?"

Tonya rubbed her arms, searching the smooth surface for telltale bump of something sinister and toothy. A cold breeze was blowing in off the ocean. Cold for Florida, anyway.

"Toni," Nancy sighed, grabbing her arm. "You're really gonna let these wimps get the first crack at him?"

"I'm scared of sharks, alright?" Tonya said at last, breaking free of her trance. "You know, the whole Jaws thing, and then the shark week stuff about staying out of the water at night...People fish off this pier." And they were Inn Florida and there sharks not to mention gators and several other dangerous fish and situations and injuries that could happen if she jumped.

When she jumped, Tonya thought, trying to wrestle the panic from her mind.

Nancy looked about ready to shove her off the deep end. "Do you not see Danny, Olivia and the rest all down there? They're fine. You will be, too. You just have to jump. You can swim right out. The faster you do, the quicker they can get their asses out and we can get this beachfire started." 

"So I can jump and swim for shore?"

"Fast as you want." Nancy grinned. "Like Jaws is chasing you."

"Gee, thanks," Toni said dryly. Goosebumps raced down her arms and legs. She shimmied out of her shorts and pulled off her flipflops. The wooden pier still held a touch of warmth from the day's high temperatures. The water, she knew, would not be frigid like the lakes back in her hometown of North Dakota. Back where there weren't any sharks or gators to worry about. "I'm ready," she finally decided, creeping to the edge of the drop.

"There we go, Toni!" Nancy screamed. A cheer rose up from the distant shore and down in the light-kissed water. Tonya stood on the edge of the pier, feeling the rough grain against her toes. She shut her eyes, pinched her nose, and leaped—

A scream rose up from the water.

Tonya twisted as she fell. She saw Danny's head disappear under the water and the freshman hit the water with an ugly splash, sucked down into oilslick depths. She pushed for the surface like a madwoman, bursting into the air to sharp screeches. She pushed the hair from her eyes, glanced up at the pier. The other pledges, and Nancy, were sprinting away.

"Swim, Toni!" came a panicked voice from nearby. Toniya kicked her legs and pumped her arms, gulping down saltwater as she pushed ahead, cutting through the orange waters but never fast enough.

Olivia was trying to climb one of the pier supports. Blood poured down the arms she used to hug the rotting pylon. As Tonya passed her in the surf, a scaled hand shot though the water and latched onto the woman's foot, dragging Olivia off like a sack of flour.

Tonya kicked harder, praying to Gods she didn't believe in, ingesting seawater with every straining breath.

Danny's head bobbed to the surface just before her, but the eyes that turned her way were lifeless.

"Stand up! Stand up!" screamed the voice from shore. Tyler. The man was in at his waist, waving frantically at Tonya. Something splashed loud and heavy behind her, another person, something fearsome- Tonya didn't know and she didn't dare look behind. No, she swam on, on and on until Tyler splashed through the water and dragged her belly across the sand, back to the safety of shore.

"You alright?" he asked, scanning the water.

Tonya didn't have a breath to answer him when the man charged back into the water after another girl. This girl, one she didn't recognize, screamed bloody murder, clutching her waist. Blood flowed between her fingertips, washing away in the surf. Long, black hair covered up her face.

But as Tonya rose trembling to her feet, she caught the odd slant of light from the girl's slick arm, saw in that orange glow a scaled forearm. At once she ran forward, lunging for Tyler's arm. "Stop!" She called.

The girl went quiet.

Tyler froze, turned.

And in that heartbeat the girl lurched forward with lightning-fast reflexes, grabbing his ankle. Tyler fell instantly. The girl's body rose above the crashing waves. From beneath the curtain of black hair, her mouth opened like a snake's, revealing narrow, pointed teeth. Scales filled the flesh of her belly, folding into a thick, muscular tail that coiled and slapped against the wet sand as she struggled to drag him into the water.

Tonya for one split second hesitated. She never had much of a fighting instinct. Her response was always to chicken out, to flee and runaway. And Tyler had a good pair of legs on him, ran for miles playing soccer, he should've been able to kick himself free from that mermaid's grip.

And then something stupid and brave and dangerous flashed through her mind and she ran after them, grabbed Tyler by his arms and entered into a vicious, bloody game of tug-of-war.

The demented mermaid screeched in sallow-eyed fury. In the dark beyond, two more heads bobbed to the surface, their eyes luminescent as they broke the surface and started for shore.

Tyler shouted in pain or fear between the pair of women. Tonya, Tyler, they were losing ground faster than the merfolk could help their kin. The sand slipped out from beneath them with every crashing wave. Water smacked Tyler's face with every surge.

As her strengthen waned into wobbling muscle, Tonya did the only thing she could think to do- release him. Surprised by the sudden action, the mermaid loosened her grip on his tiring limbs. As she fixed her grip, Tonya was right there, rushing up with a foot to the creature's pointed chin.

Scales cut into the pad of her foot. Black hair slapped against her leg and the mermaid latched onto her instead of Tyler. Sharp teeth sank into Tonya's calf. Dragging her by the leg, the mermaid turned on her powerful tail and dragged the hapless pledge into the sea.

End.

Up next is a three part that is a tiny piece of a prequel to Dark Side (it was a horror entry for the TNT contest but I had too many obligations in November to be here to post it, unfortunately).