I stand still for a moment gawking. There is no way that the thing I am looking at is real. This is some sort of horrific dream. Maybe I should have paid more attention to fairy tales. For this was no human, he continued to struggle and I could do nothing but stare at the marvel in front of me.
I could only assume the creature in front of me is male because it had no lady parts. To be fair it is missing half of its man's parts too. His hair was short and a light brownish blond, almost the hue of the sand that lined the beaches back ashore. His skin was incredibly pale, almost translucent. The part that makes me sick but also plagued with curiosity is that where his legs should be he has a giant fish tail. Unlike any fish scales, I have ever seen they start at his waist a light pale blue-green and then continue down slowly getting darker until the fin at the bottom which is a deep royal blue. They shimmer in the dim light and I notice the rope of the net slowly getting twisted underneath the scales knocking some loose and cutting in deeper the further he struggles to get out.
His hands are beginning to bleed and I feel myself snap out of my daze when he starts choking and gasping. My eyes snap to his face where he is clutching the side of his neck, I notice the gill slits on the sides right underneath his jawline. They are fluttering rapidly and I can't believe his face looks so human.
Suddenly the man drops limp and a surge of panic fills me. He hangs in mid-air on the side of the boat and I quickly grab the net and haul it into the boat. The smack he makes against the floor of the boat makes me cringe. I grab a bucket and fill it with water and splash it right on his face. His eyes fly open and he stares at me in horror he tries to squirm away digging the ropes in further.
"Hey wait no stop, I won't hurt you," I say softly but I can tell my nerves bleed through, and he doesn't understand anyway and tries to climb over the edge of the boat still tangled. "Hold still," I say unclipping the net from the crane and I grab the knife from underneath the steering console. He thrashes violently when he sees it and I see the gills on his neck begin to quiver again and he passes out.
I quickly dump more water on him and fill the bucket and place it next to his head. I kneel down at his fin and grab the ropes and bring the knife forward. He stares at me frozen solid as I lower the knife toward his tail. He was seriously stuck and I let out a disappointed sigh as I cut the first rope of the net. That's when he begins thrashing again. "Hey! Calm down dude I'm just trying to help!" I try to sound calm this time but I almost cut him from him moving and the anger begins to seep out. I place a firm hand down on the middle of his tail and he holds still. He scoops some of the water out of the bucket and runs it along his gills.
I cut the net further and a wave of sadness fills me realizing I won't be able to afford another nice net like this. I continue cutting until the last rope falls free when I stand to debate how to help him back in the water he is already pulling himself over the side of the boat. Then nothing but a loud splash and the flash of blue under the water and he was gone. I look back to the net and kick the shredded useless thing to the side. That's when I notice something shimmer I bend and pick up the thick blue scale that shimmers green at the right angle. I instantly feel bad for harming that thing.
Was that a mermaid? Or rather a merman? I gaze over the side of the boat where the creature disappeared. I shake my head and sigh deciding I should head back to shore. I dock my boat back in the same spot and jump out. I turn the scale over and over in my hand, it had a surprising weight to it, about the same weight as a sand dollar and it was smoother than sea glass. It was almost too smooth to hold onto and it almost slips from my grip a few times.
I sit down on my bed running the scale over my hand. I squint at it as if trying to see if it will dissolve into thin air and this whole thing was a dream. I rub my eyes and sigh; the scale isn't going anywhere I place it on the bedside table and flop back onto the bed just as the sun begins to rise.
It is going to be a while before I can pay for gas again, and after all the gas I wasted last night I will have to live off what is left in the tank for now. I let out a long breath and close my eyes, I run over the memory of the thing from the water, the way he looked and for some reason, my mind comes back with 'weirdly human and kind of cute'. At that moment, I feel kind of sick.
My mind is running at a hundred miles per hour trying to decipher what that thing was. I open my eyes and crane my neck to look at the scale, it sits harmlessly there on the table almost taunting me. I get up off the bed with a shove and walk over to my bookcase. I have to have something that can tell me what I just saw.
After hours of flipping through the ratty, dusty old books all I can find is one story of mystical sirens, who would sing to sailors and lure them to their watery graves. The merman had seemed more terrified then trying to murder me. I shove the book back onto the shelf. Then I lay back down in bed and try to get some more sleep.
YOU ARE READING
Waters Edge
FanficRewrite Of Beyond the Wake What begins as a simple fishing trip turns into love, lust, and fighting against nature itself. But for him, Pete would do anything.
