Mermaids. The fictional half-woman, half-fish, mysteries of the sea. Some believe they're mere legends; to merely entertain children to feed their imaginations. Others, such as sailors, don't just believe they're real, but instead know it.
Mermaids are, for a fact, real. Do not mistake them for beautiful creatures who take light of anything. Yes, they are beautiful. On the outside, that is. Inside is a vengeful spirit, waiting to lure an unfortunate sailor to his death. See, sailors believed having a woman on board of a ship at sea was bad luck, as they were too distracting to men with their sea duties. It was highly hypocritical, as completely naked women were absolutely welcome on board. The only other alternative would be to throw them overboard. Instead of drowning, however, their legs intertwined and scales erupted all over their lower half, forming a fishtail. Their lungs transformed into gills, thus becoming mermaids. From then on, they had a motive: to take down any man that sails across their path.
...
All of these beliefs of mermaids being vengeful souls of women who were tossed overboard originated around a legend from centuries ago. A young Irishman, Kian, had met a beautiful girl named Mareena. Her bright blonde hair ended just past her chest like ocean waves, while her sea-blue eyes shimmered in the sunlight. They fell in love the instant they cast eyes upon each other for the first time. They snuck out and saw each other in secret, knowing their families wouldn't approve the instant they knew of this; as they came from different statuses. However, Mareena's father found out about them and forbade them from seeing each other. He did everything in his power to keep them apart, despite not knowing the fact that being away from each other made the young lovers' bond stronger yet. When her father had arranged a marriage between her and a far older man, Kian decided that the two would run away to the New World. They bought tickets to a ship and boarded in the dead of night, with only a few changes of clothes. At dawn's first light, the ship containing the two young lovers on board set sail.
Not all stories of young lovers end in happily ever after when the outcome is running away. There was a sailor on board who was quite superstitious. Theodore O'Hickey believed the age-old superstition that having a woman on board was bad luck. Kian scoffed at the belief and spat at him that Mareena was no cause of bad luck, whatsoever. He claimed she was the exact opposite. He still kept his guard around her, as surprisingly enough, she was the only woman on board. Where other men saw her as a sexual object, O'Hickey thought of her as a threat.
...
Midway through the voyage, a great storm terrorized its way through the Atlantic Ocean, catching the ship in it. Everyone grew terrorized for their lives, O'Hickey especially. The storm grew worse by the moment, and he could bear no more. He talked sense into all of the men except for Kian that she was an omen of bad luck, that every soul on the ship was damned to die. Kian would guard and protect Mareena with his life, and that was a problem to the others. They chained him up outside before O'Hickey seized Mareena and brought her closer to the side, despite her screaming and struggling from him. Kian screamed at him as loud as he could, damned him to hell even, but nothing stopped the sailor from throwing her overboard, into the murderous ocean below.
Kian sobbed at the loss of his beloved, and everyone was beginning to feel sorry for him. Everyone except for O'Hickey, of course. However, as soon as she was tossed into the sea, the storm calmed. Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe not. As the ship arrived in the New World, Kian could not live on, for he could not be happy without his Mareena. As lovers often do without their loved ones, he took his own life, not being able to carry on.
As Mareena's body hit the water, she knew she was to drown. It was ice cold, piercing her body like a thousand daggers. However, as she sank towards the bottom, a strange phenomenon began to happen to her. Light began swirling around her. Under her clothes, her legs began intertwining together until they formed a tail. Scales matured all over until her lower half was fish. On the sides of her neck, three slits opened and closed, allowing her to breathe underwater. Her teeth transformed into long and slender fangs, as did her nails. She had transformed into a mermaid. Mareena was shocked, to say the least, but a new motive had come to her. She would kill O'Hickey if he were ever to cross her sight again.
