picture source: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/mermaid-blonde-orange-yellow-1474781/

Before I tell you what I am, I want you to hear me out. Things can be beautiful, even if they are deadly, correct? Think of whales, there are many different types, and the Killer whale is one of them. Just because orcas are blood thirsty, huge creatures doesn’t mean they aren’t still beautiful whales.

Same for mermaids. There are many different types of mermaids, and I just happen to be of the killer type.

I had sea green pale skin, with dark green curly locks, and yellow eyes with thin black slits for pupils. I may have the upper body of a human, but my lower body was all fish tail.

No matter what people thought of what I looked like, sailors still came to me all the same, lured by my beautiful voice. I would sing a melody that would touch the heart of a sailor, leaving them mesmerized and bound to come to my rock, where I would sink their boat and leave them to drown.

All the other mermaids in neighboring parts of the sea would try and brag about how many fishermen and sailors they’d been able to lure to their deaths, their snake-like tongues wiggling with joy.

Having sunk fifteen boats in my lifetime, I had something to brag about. Two of them had been cruise ships, which is no easy feet to sink. But if you trick the right people, the whole thing will come crashing down.

However, one thing stuck out to me with that last boat I had sunk. It had been a small yacht, a white shiny thing with a cabin in the middle surrounded by a wooden deck, and a third floor on top of the cabin. A poor, unsuspecting father had been out grilling with his family, his two troublemakers running around the deck chasing each other. I lured him over to my rock with my voice, and in a few minutes time he had crashed into a rock. As his boat sank, his children screamed, and they looked at me so terrified. The one with pigtails, cried even, as he grabbed his wife and kids close to him as the boat sank farther and farther below sea.

“You evil creature!” He yelled, glaring at me. “Siren’s are the devil's pet! How could you do this to my family!? How could you kill children!? For as long as your heart beats, you will never be happy!”

I felt terrible. He got to me. But I didn’t show it. I just stared as his family sank into the deep blue, helpless to do anything to save themselves.

“Sunk another ship,” I said, once I returned to a mermaid meet up.

“What’s wrong Sirena?”A friend asked me. You are staring a hole through your fruit juice.”

“I don’t want this life anymore! I want to find someone to love, and have little troublemakers of my own. I can’t bear taking innocent lives anymore.”

But my friend only shook her head. “Sorry Sirena, but we weren’t born humans. You have to kill humans. It was what we were brought on this earth to do.”

That was the quote that made me sad all weekend. That next, foggy Monday morning, when everything around me was a cloudy gray, I sang my heart out until I cried. I sang about love, life, death, and anything else that was troubling me at the moment. Then I heard something. Water splashing.

“Wonderful singing there! Do you take classes or somethin’?”

I turned. There in front of me, was the most handsome being I have ever witnessed with my own two eyes.

It was a man with big eyes, a huge smile, and a cute little bow tie right above his chest. I immediately shut up. No way was I going to kill him, he looked so naive and unsuspecting, just happy to be sailing on this foggy day.

“Oh, uh, thanks, um, you.” I laughed, unsure of what to say. He was coming close, his black shadow fading into the light as he came closer. I quickly hopped into the water, splashing him.

“Woah! You came to swim in this fog?”

Oh god. He didn’t know. He had no clue. Was he this naive, or was he just plain stupid?

“Yep, fog is the best time to go for a swim!” I smiled, and went under water to swim. I stayed underwater kind of long, hoping he’d eventually row away. Half-hoping he’d stay.

When I rose myself again, I saw he was still there. He had gotten comfy even, leaning his arms against the rails and resting his head in them, waiting for me to rise again.

“You’re not… disturbed by me?”

“Nope. Your skin is a pretty shade of green, and I think you swim well.”

His compliments made me smile. Eventually, he left to go catch some fish, but then the next day he came back to the same spot, this time with a poem for me. It turned out his name was Prafit, and he liked to catch catfish, an abundant sea creature in our part of the sea. He also wrote poems and stories. He said I was a great inspiration for his stories, and he came back to me regularly for advice and other means. He would occasionally ask me to sing, and I never would. I never EVER wanted him to fall under my love spell. Never.

A relationship was growing between us before I knew it. In the back of my mind I knew that I should tell him that I was a mermaid, the type that humans called a siren. That I had killed over 200 people with that same voice he loved so much, and that he should stay away from me. But something kept me from doing so. Maybe it was… love, something I had been longing for my whole life.

For the first time a man loved me not for my voice, but for my personality. I never wanted to lose Prafit. But then, one day, another siren used her voice, and Prafit began to roe past me, his eyes locked on a mermaid with pink skin and sharp, shiny fangs.

“Prafit, Prafit,” I called, my eyes darting between the siren and him.

He wouldn’t listen. He was too mesmerized.

“Prafit!” I called, but I didn’t get so much as a look.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, I sang, as loud as I could, invoking all of my magical love magic into my melody. Immediately, Prafit’s head turned, and he began to row over, his eyes locked on me.

I snapped my fingers. “Prafit! Wake up!”

He blinked and moved back a bit. Huh?”

The other mermaid rolled her eyes. “Really, Sirena? You’re gonna steal my kill like that?” and with that she propelled herself off her stone and back into the ocean. As her ripples got farther and farther, I turned back to Prafit, whose eyes were wider than usual.

“Steal her kill!? What kill, Sirena?”

And then I broke down. I couldn’t hide my secret any longer. I cried, and while crying I explained to him about how I was a special type of mermaid, one who could lure people to her with their voice, and how I hadn’t killed him because I didn’t want to, because I loved him so.

When I looked up at him, he seemed to be silenced. His mouth was a neutral line. His eyes were staring out into nowhere.

With that, he turned his boat around, and rowed back to shore. As he made it to land, seeing him leave made me cry even more, as I knew he had left for good and no one would ever love me like that again. It was too dangerous.

As the days passed though, I grew kind of happy with myself. I had used my voice to save his life, not take it, and it felt good that I had told him the truth once and for all about me. Nothing hurts like lying to someone you care about.

But then one foggy morning, when I was singing my heart out about love, loss, and moving on, Prafit had returned.

Thinking he wouldn’t want to see me, I quickly started to swim under water but with his fishing net he scooped me up and onto his boat.

I looked up at him. “What gives!?”

“I love you, I need you, and I trust you. You saved my life with your voice a couple of weeks ago, and I know you would never mean any harm to me, so I traveled the country looking for a potion that would make you human… if you want to be,” he told me.

And overjoyed I was. I gladly took the potion, and soon I was human.

I hugged Praftit, and we soon got married, and shared a house up in the mountains.

We had a daughter, who we named Sirafit. I loved her so. She didn’t have an ounce of siren in her… though her voice was very mesmerizing….

END

My name is Shila Williams. I am 16 years-old, and I’ve had a passion for writing and drawing ever since I could spell. I grew up in North Carolina, as well as lived and traveled abroad. I write to inspire kids' minds to imagine and take them on a fun and adventurous journey.

I'm now a published author! Please support my debut book! Check it out here on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Imagination-Shila-Williams-ebook/dp/B09YXKWZJX/ref=sr_1_1?crid=15MR85DQDQCA&keywords=imagination+shila+williams&qid=1651670532&sprefix=imagination+shila%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-1

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