Embrace of the Deep

I stared wistfully at the azure expense, listening to the waves crashing against the seashore and gradually disappearing. The wind that passed by me felt like a reassuring hold enveloping me.

I dug my feet into the sand, feeling the warm sand grains run down my feet as I moved them aside. The sun was setting and had painted the sky in a fascinating canvas of oranges and purples that seemed to intermingle and balance each other out where one had failed to.

I lifted my shirt up, not caring that my stomach was out for the world to see. As far as I could tell, no one was in my immediate surroundings. I stared distastefully at the mauve entity plaguing my skin. I grimaced as I realized this would soon become one of many other bruises tainting my skin.

I sighed and silently cursed that vile woman. My father had gotten remarried to a mediocre woman that had her hair constantly tied up in a tight bun. She applied just enough makeup to accentuate her eyes but not enough to obscure what she believed was her natural beauty. 

She beat me up relentlessly every single day. She did it in places my father wouldn't notice. A personal favorite of hers was my stomach and she had let me know that once again today. She was wrapped up in this twisted belief that I was a leech that sucked the life out of her marriage life. She could never replace my father's first wife and I was a sick reminder of that.

I stared absentmindedly at the darkening sky when I noticed a circular object in the water. I thought it was trash until I realized it was advancing towards me faster than the steady waves. The circular object slowly turned into what appeared to be a man's head.

I wasn't particularly worried about who he might be but that didn't mean I wasn't interested in seeing what he looked like. I stared intently at him, watching for any sudden movements from this mysterious man. The sound of water splashing startled me and I fell over backwards, releasing my feet from their sand prison. I hastily sat back up, embarrassed at my previous actions. I realized a new shape had appeared in the ocean. 

It looked like a thin piece of fabric cut in a v-shape. I could somehow see the through this thin fabric although it seemed a bit murky. My eyes trailed down to smooth looking scales that had a pleasant mix of dark blue and purple hues. From what I had gathered, any fish found with its tail sticking out that way was unnatural and most likely dead. 

I avoided the pointed stare he was directing at me. I wouldn't bother him with that fish. The ocean was a literal toilet for the animals inhabiting it, he should face the consequences for swimming in it. 

This man stood in the water for a while, simply staring at me. I tried my best to ignore him but I could feel his burning stare on the back of my head. I had an ominous feeling he hadn't blinked for the entirety of this time.

"What do you want?" I snapped, an aggressive edge to my voice. He simply kept on staring at me with his obsidian eyes. I furrowed my eyebrows now annoyed by his neverending silence. I splashed water in his direction to see his reaction. Was he possibly deaf?

Now that my full attention was on him I could make out the prominent muscles in his chest that were occasionally obstruct by the waves crashing on them. His cocoa-colored skin glinted in the setting sun and bore a similar hue to mine. This unknown man opened his mouth and an extraordinary voice came out.

He wasn't exactly speaking, it sounded more like a high pitched song on a frequency my ears could barely make out. There was something... alluring about it. Against my better judgment, my legs slowly made their way towards the singing man. Before I could say anything, a wet hand grabbed my arm and dragged me under.

I was surrounded by the blue fluid I had been observing not long ago and I felt the coldness of the sea enter my limbs. He dragged me down and I realized that what was making him move through the water was not a pair of legs but a tail. A fishtail to be exact. I gasped and realized I could breathe underwater thanks to a bubble wrapped around my head.

This unwanted journey ended on a rock at the sea bottom. What I presumed to be a merman opened its mouth to speak once more. 

"I can grant you any piece of knowledge you want for the price of your flesh." he whispered, his voice slurring. He sounded as if he was preoccupied by something else. Suddenly, his mouth opened atrociously big and it stuck its pointy teeth into my shoulder. I screamed as my red blood tainted the water and he smacked his lips together.

"My bad, I just couldn't hold back." he grinned, the blood from his mouth being swept away by the water. I grimaced at the pain but held back from shouting at him. I doubt he wouldn't eat me even if I refused his offer.

"I want to know who has been causing the pain in my life." he gave me a charming smile before a glass mirror stuck out of the rock. Even if I knew my step mother's slender figure would appear in front of me it was still worth it. At least I could die knowing for certain that the cause of my pain had not been my fault.

The image in the murky mirror started fleshing out and I could make out a figure in it. As I squinted my eyes to identify the person I let out a gasp. The image in the mirror quickly disappeared and I tried turning around until I realized I was caught in a constricting embrace in the merman's arms. 

His mouth opened in a heinous manner, his knife-sharp silver teeth making their appearance. I struggled against his hold and screamed at him to let go.

This couldn't be possible.

As his teeth neared my neck I let out one last blood-curling scream.

It couldn't be me.