Depths

14. Face

This chapter has been edited.

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Trigger warning: serious bullying and homophobia

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It's been four months.

Four fucking months that Phantom has been trapped in these shallows.

He had been fortunate enough to be able to hunt without being seen by the humans, and he had been slick enough to not be seen even when they were scuba diving. So far no one had seen him, and the other mermaids close by had no idea that he was there. 

Any human who had come looking for anyone that Phantom had hunted, always assumed that they either drowned or was eaten by a shark and gave up the search quickly. Phantom was very careful about who he took because he knew from past experiences that taking someone's son, daughter, wife, or husband equaled a search party, and he was tired of hiding from those. 

It would be so easy if he could leave the shallows and hide in the deeper part of the ocean, but Hades refused to allow him to leave the beach.

He had been waiting for his opportunity to find the boy and kill him for the past four months, but so far Danny hadn't returned to the beach. Phantom could always tell where the kid was; he could smell his scent for miles, but so far, the kid hadn't shown up to the beach.

The merman was getting restless, he needed to kill the boy, he was so tired of being bound to this beach. Sure he had stayed in the cove for a very long time without getting tired, but this was different. Back then, he was choosing to stay in the cove, but now he was being forced to stay on the beach like a human child being put in time out by a strict parent. 

It was annoying.

Phantom was currently resting behind a rock as he watched the mostly empty beach, a child was building sand castles and the only parent around was resting in her beach chair, their ugly little umbrella keeping their paper thin skin from burning. The spot he sat in was less than a foot deep, and his tail was the only thing in the water. He listened out to make sure no human would sneak up behind him and possibly see him as he stared and watched the beach and waited.

He knew today was the day that he finally got his chance, Phantom could smell Danny in the air, getting closer. 

To a creature that has lived for 3,673 years, four months isn't that long, but he had been given just one year to kill this kid, and these were the longest four months he had ever lived through.

Phantom watched as an unsupervised child around four years old got up from their spot building a sand castle, the mother too busy on her cellphone to notice. The child walked towards a hermit crab that was slowly making its way towards the water, its thin legs dragging its shell along with it. The little boy thought it was beautiful and interesting enough to follow because a moment later, he was stepping into the water after it.

Phantom's eyebrows rose, looking between the ignorant mother and the curious child with amusement. The child was walking toward him, getting closer and closer the more his giggling figure followed after the hermit crab. 

When the hermit crab got close enough, Phantom grabbed it by its shell and brought it up to his mouth. The child met his eyes as he bit into the crab with his sharp teeth and started chewing, the loud crunch being heard by both of them. 

The small boy looked thoughtfully at Phantom, his chubby cheeks rosy and his green eyes big, before he smiled happily at the merman. The child had very elementary thoughts, but he looked at Phantom's tail with such adoration and innocence that Phantom smiled toothlessly at the kid. It was not his intention to scare the kid, so he retracted his claws before he reached a webbed hand up and pet his blond hair gently. Glancing up at the kids still clueless mother as he swallowed the crustacean in his mouth, Phantom smirked. Such a stupid human, here Phantom was; the most dangerous predator in existence, petting the head of the most precious thing in the mother's short life. It was comical, really.