Of Monsters & Men: Mermaid chronicles

Ethan needed a break. Life had a tendency to kick him while he was down. His girlfriend of six months had recently become a full on bitch for no reason at all. She was taking a trip to Las Vegas without him- a mutual friend’s bachelorette party- and she made the whole experience hell for him. It wasn’t his fault that he would be able to go because of work; plus he had never really liked the groom much. He was nice, but not worth marriage. Instead of going Ethan was stuck at the cube farm all day, analyzing numbers that don’t matter at all to the future of the company. And yet she had screamed at him, thrown things, broken an antique vase from his great grandmother, because he wasn’t worth wasting her time on.

And so there he was, walking on some obscure nature trail in the park behind his apartment complex at eleven o clock at night. Suddenly his thoughts of Melissa faded, replaced by a hauntingly beautiful sound. It rose to a pitch he shouldn’t have been able to hear, and yet the crystalline sound came clearly to him. He sped up, jogging down the trail toward the sound. He knew there was a small stream, with a shallow pond ahead of him. The sound had to be coming from there. When he walked out of the trees and saw the pond, he froze. Sitting in the water was a girl so beautiful he wasn’t sure if she was in fact sitting there. Her upper body was bare, leaving her breasts open to the air and her small, pink nipples hard under the water from the stream. Dark hair fell down to her waist, where something strange happened. Her legs were draped in a thin film that was shaped like a tail, and yet one of her long, graceful legs was bent, showing him her womanhood through a slit in the thin fabric. She was the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes upon, and yet somewhere in his heart something felt wrong, dangerous. His vision turned hazy for a moment, as if he was trying to forget her, but he knew what she was and what he was seeing. Finally after a moment of dizziness his vision returned, and this time it came with more amazement. Around the woman were small woodland creatures, mice and butterflies and squirrels and even a tiny man with a white beard he thought. A gnome. Finally he walked forward and accidentally stepped on a twig, causing the creatures to turn around and collectively gasp.

“A human!” the cry went up from every one of the creatures and Ethan stood watching as they fled. The woman curled up and sniffled, no longer singing. Her eyes were the colors of the rainbow all at once, rippling and changing, always showing all the different colors, and yet now they showed fear as well. Ethan fell to his knees in front of her, believing and yet shocked into disbelief.

“A mermaid… and I think I saw a gnome?” she nodded quietly, crying now. The tears fell into the stream and made a sound like water falling into a crystal glass, resonating through the woods. It was a beautiful sound, though nothing like her singing. “Please don’t cry… I’m not going to hurt you. Can I help you? Please, can I help you at all?”

“No… just leave me to die here, please. You should not have seen this!”

“Please… what is your name? Do you have one? Why are you dying? Do you have enough water here? Let me help you!”

“Why?”

“Because you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life. And because nothing should die if someone can help it.” She stared at him for a long time. Suddenly her eyes grew hard and her lips peeled back, revealing teeth that had grown into fangs that a vampire would be jealous of. She growled and started forward. Ethan watched transfixed as she came to kill him. When she reached the edge of the pool she stopped and tried to stand inly to fall to her hands. Her teeth shrank back into those of a human and the film around her legs melted into her skin as though it had never been there. Ethan stood and walked up to her, adamant to try and help whether she wanted it or not. Melissa had left shortly after him, which meant he could place her in the bathtub and give her enough water, if that was the problem. Even if Melissa was there, he wouldn’t let her pull anything else this evening. The mermaid shrank back from his touch and hissed, but her shivers kept her from doing anything to harm him. He picked her up easily and walked back down the trail. He knew the park well enough to understand that any large body of water was twenty minutes away, when his apartment was five. It was the only choice left to him. He ran down the trail, trying his best not to jostle her, until his apartment complex came into view.

His apartment was a larger size, two bedroom with a master bath and a guest bath. It cost him a fair penny every month but the space was worth it. He shut the door behind him and turned, walking past the living room and kitchen and heading for the master bathroom. By now the girl in his arms had passed out. He started the water on full, both taps, and placed her gently in the tub. It was deep enough that her entire body would be under the water, and still long enough that she would have room to move about. He turned on the showerhead and ran it over her skin, anywhere he could. Slowly the water rose until it covered her legs, which turned slowly into rainbow colored scales, and then her waist and then her breasts. He sat there for the better part of an hour, watching. Her legs seamlessly became a fish tail that curved with the line of the tub, beautiful to the eyes. Finally he shut off the water when it reached the water line and sat on the closed toilet. Finally he fell asleep, still watching her.

When Ethan woke up he found the tub full of water, but empty. A single scale, the color of the rainbow sat at the bottom of the tub. The floor was soaking wet and towel was gone from the rack. He sat there, staring at the scale for a moment. His mind fogged again, as it had the night before, but the memory forced him to accept the truth and finally he stood, looking into the mirror. His reflection looked back at him, a 6 foot even guy with ordinary brown hair, ordinary brown eyes, and an athlete’s body. He sighed and stared at himself, looking for something different. He felt different. Finally he gave up and walked into the apartment; he found the girl from the pond wrapped in a towel, standing in front of the window that overlooked the park.