They Thought She Was a Mermaid and Drowned Her to Prove It

I wanted to write a story about a girl who people think is a mermaid and they drown her to prove it. It's about otherness and people's wariness of difference, and also about slut-shaming. The extended metaphor of the mermaid is a message that no matter how different you think someone seems, at the end of the day they're still flesh and blood-the same as everyone else. I want it to encapsulate the mentality that people seem to have about foreigners and the fear that some have about people they see as different. It's also a reimagining of the hate crimes.