Hunter

by Joanna White

  I stared at them in confusion as I felt something brush against my leg. Suddenly, these shadows popped out of the water, all around the lake. They were… well… women. At first, they looked beautiful. One had red hair like fire, bright green eyes, and pearly skin, another had black hair as dark as night with silver eyes that glinted in the moonlight. Another one had blonde hair, bright blue eyes. It went on and on. I stared in disbelief. One of them jumped out of the water and I noticed these weren’t really women at all.

  They were mermaids.

  I kept my mouth open in shock and pure disbelief. Their beauty faded. Each of them was nothing but skin and bones, dark blue colored with pure white eyes that had no pupils. Long hair that hung in strands replaced their once lush, beautiful curls and they had long, bony fingers with horrible, crusted, overgrown fingernails rather than smooth skin. Even the webbed hands and gills on their necks looked like gaping wounds.

  They all made that horrid screeching sound. I covered my ears as my head pounded.

  One of the mermaids, the one who had been the redhead, stood in front of Jared. He stared at her as if he was staring at a goddess. Several swam all around him, all around Lehlax and Sine too, and many more were coming. I managed to look at Sine’s face and noticed that his eyes were completely lifeless and blank. When I managed to see Lehlax and Jared’s faces, I noticed that that was the case with them, too.

  The mermaid put her—its— ugly hands on Jared’s face, its fingers caressing his neck. They were still screeching as it leaned over and whispered in his ear. It licked the side of his neck slowly, and I nearly gagged.

  Mermaids surrounded all of them, running their hands all over their chests, sliding their hands over their arms and muscles. Everywhere they touched them, their skin started graying, veins popping out, and the skin became lifeless within seconds. One mermaid started kissing Jared furiously on the mouth.

  Instantly, I felt something inside me, a fit of anger I’d never known before, only about Jared, but I shoved it aside. Focus, I mentally told myself.

  I assumed that whatever singing they’d heard from the mermaids had put them in a trance that allowed the mermaids to kill them. All the prisoners before were men as well, which was why any prisoner who came to the lake never came back. It all made sense. I had to do something—I was their only hope—but what could I do?

  I ran ashore as fast as I could and grabbed their weapons; a sword and as many daggers as possible. I briefly wondered why we had decided to leave the weapons on the shore in the first place. Rushing back into the water, I glanced around to get my bearings. Lehlax had been in the shallowest water, so he was closest.

  I sliced the back of a mermaid who had been caressing Lehlax’s back and then stabbed another one who had started swimming straight for me. One grabbed my leg and electricity pulsed through me. I cut one that was in front of me and slightly to the left, then grabbed a dagger with my left hand and stabbed the one who was touching my leg from behind. The screeching grew louder and fiercer.

  As I quickly turned, I sliced the throat of another who leapt out of the water behind me. I ducked as its body fell in the water and went low to cut the stomach of another, while my left hand stabbed another in the eye who was on my right side. Back-kicking the one who was on its way back to Lehlax, I looked around.

  Sine wasn’t too far away so I quickly waded to him and stabbed one in the back who was kissing him. His skin was gray, and his veins were popping out where it had touched him. Parts of his skin were wilted where mermaids’ skin had touched his. One had come up from behind me and grabbed me around the neck, its nails cutting into my throat.

  I gagged and kicked at it, but another one had come up and touched my legs. The instant electricity zapped in my legs, I couldn’t move them. I slid the dagger in my left hand down a little farther and stabbed whatever I could reach behind me. The hold on my throat released enough for me to take my right hand—the one that held the sword—and swing it backward.

  Somehow, the movement managed to decapitate it. I swung back around to slice the throat of the one who was electrocuting my legs. One to my left let out a horrid ear-piercing screech and dove toward me. I threw my dagger toward one who was headed for Lehlax and, though I missed, the dagger still landed in its tail. The one who was swimming forward from the left dove under the water.

  Frantically, I looked for it, but it was too dark to see anything. I felt something grab my ankles and once again nails dug into my skin. Reaching down, I jabbed toward it with the dagger and thought I stabbed it, although I couldn’t see where. As quickly as I could, I waded closer to Sine who had started to fall. I caught him and staggered under his weight at first. One lunged up out of the water directly in front of us. Dropping Sine, I jabbed the dagger into its heart.

  “Sorry,” I muttered to Sine.

  Snatching his shirt collar, I dragged him through the water, which was a lot easier than trying to carry him. The screeching resounded from behind us, so I turned, and decapitated the one who had grabbed Sine’s legs. Another one jumped over us, so I ducked down, barely avoiding being hit. As it flew above us, I sliced open its chest. I only had seconds to drag Sine in front of me, before its body landed in the spot where he had been.

  Lehlax was only feet away from us now. I pushed the limp Sine into one who was about to touch Lehlax on his face. His eyes were sunken in and he looked so weak and frail, I was afraid if one more touched him he would die.

  If he wasn’t dead already.

  I swung the sword above Sine to stab the one I had thrown him against and then swung to my right to hit another one and side-stepped just in time to avoid being grabbed. I saw a mermaid’s body to my right with my dagger in its tail, so I quickly snatched the dagger and threw it at one who was behind Lehlax. It grazed his arm, but I figured the alternative would have been worse.

  Lehlax started to fall. I grabbed his head just before it slammed against a rock in the water. Sheathing my sword, I grabbed both Sine and Lehlax’s collars and ran as fast as my body could carry me in the water.

  We were close to the bank, so it didn’t take me long to reach dry land. As soon as we emerged out of the water, they became too heavy for me to pull. I left them lying on the ground and turned to see mermaids surrounding the only man left in the water—Jared.

  I hoped and prayed I wasn’t too late.

  Diving into the water, I swam as fast as I could. I couldn’t see, but I didn’t need to; Jared was straight ahead in the deepest part of the water. When I breached the surface, he was only a few feet away from me. This part of the lake was deeper, so I constantly had to swim, making it more difficult to fight.

  I grabbed my dagger and threw it at the one who was kissing him. It almost missed, except it managed to graze the mermaid’s arm. It screeched, turned, and glared in my direction, its white eyes glowing wildly, its nails out in front of it like claws. Jared would have collapsed if not for the mermaids surrounding him, grasping him, sliding their hands across his skin; everywhere their flesh touched him, his skin turned gray and lifeless.

  It dove under the water, heading straight for me. I took out another dagger and threw it in its direction. I was almost sure I had hit it in the tail somewhere, but the ripples in the water obviously meant that it was still coming for me. Slipping another dagger out of my boot, I jammed it into another mermaid’s eye, which had been to Jared’s left, and then yanked it out. Without wasting time, I lunged toward the next one, but it twisted to the right, making me nick its neck instead.

  Both fell underwater. Just as I grasped the hilt of my sword, preparing to unsheathe it, another mermaid grasped my feet. The water slowed the momentum behind my attack, but I jabbed downward anyway.

  I was dragged down into the depths below. Something wrenched my arms behind me, as the first mermaid continued dragging me down. Thrashing and squirming, I desperately kicked and tried to break free. Electricity zapped through my veins, making my body jerk and twitch. Pain radiated and dan
ced through me.

  I opened my mouth to scream, stupidly, but that only sent water in my mouth and down my throat. The mermaid turned to look at me and screeched again but continued to swim downward. I elbowed the one behind me, my movements made slow because of the water. It didn’t work the first time, as I had suspected, but I just continued doing it until it was forced to free my hands. Cursing, I realized I dropped the sword, so I slid my hands to my belt to grasp another dagger.

  Quickly slicing the dagger across its throat, I winced as black instantly spurted from its throat and swarmed around me, blinding me for a few seconds. As I kicked and began swimming upward, the mermaid I had elbowed appeared in my face.

  It grabbed my throat, its nails digging into my already sore neck. I grunted and jabbed at its neck with the dagger, but it saw the movement and took one hand off my neck to catch my arm and stop it from stabbing it. Its nails dug deeper into my neck and my arm, embedding inside, cutting the flesh.

  It shrieked and seemed to call out to the others. Without hesitation, I drove my knee up to slam it in the stomach, and then quickly repeated that several times. I dropped the dagger from my right hand and since the water slowed down the falling process, I easily caught it with my left. The instant the hilt touched my left hand, I stabbed it in the right side of its ribs.

  My lungs burned, longing for air and my vision flickered. I swam upward as hard as I could, using what little light the moon provided to help me know which direction to swim. I was getting weaker and more exhausted with every minute that passed by. My muscles screamed in protest and every part of my body ached. Finally, just before I thought I would black out, my head popped out of the water. I felt air course into my body, filling my lungs and giving me a little more strength.

  I glanced over. Jared was only about a yard away. Only about four or five mermaids were touching him, but I had no idea how many more were in the water. He didn’t look like he would last any longer. I had lost the sword, so I took the second to last remaining daggers and sliced one that had started kissing his neck from behind him. I swam closer as another one started toward me. Quickly jamming the dagger into the one in front of me, I yanked it out and sliced the throat of one on my right.

  One tightly clenched Jared’s hips, making his veins so prominent I thought they would explode, so I threw the dagger at it. It let go of Jared and dove out of the way.

  There was no time to see what happened to it as another one tried to swim under the water to get me from the left. I unsheathed my last dagger and pierced its back, right as its hands had grabbed my legs. Swimming out of the way, I clutched my dagger tightly.

  Suddenly, one jumped out of the water and grasped Jared’s neck from behind, with one hand on either side of his face. The skin melted beneath its touch and his veins looked like they were about to burst. Jared’s eyes closed, and his body went limp as it took him under the water.

  “No!” As I screamed the word, I dove after them. I reached for Jared’s leg and stabbed one in the eye who had come up from the right. Pulling on him with all my strength, I grunted, but another mermaid yanked him out of my grip.

  I’m no match for its strength, I thought helplessly.

  Diving under the water, I released my hand on Jared and swam up underneath the mermaid. While it was distracted with draining him, I stabbed it in the only part I could reach—its tail right at the top. It glared down at me and let out a loud shriek. Snarling at it, I embedded the dagger as deep as it could go, and then sliced it down the length of the tail.

  I didn’t bother to look at the horror before me. Grabbing Jared, I swam upward, head emerging from the water. Keeping my eyes on the shore, I swam that way as fast as I could.

  Fortunately, the rest of the mermaids were behind us, leaving the path to the shore clear. Somehow, I was fast enough to help us both onto land before they reached us. I pulled Jared’s limp body onto the shore and then collapsed on the ground myself, panting so hard I could hardly breathe.

  It was only then, as the adrenaline fled my body, that exhaustion consumed my body. Though I realized we were safe, my chest was bleeding again, my lungs were on fire, burning so hard I could barely breathe, and my ankle throbbed. Collapsing onto the ground, I inhaled sharply, trying to let air into my lungs.

  It wasn’t long before I passed out.

  When I woke up the first thing I noticed was that there was sunlight shining in my eyes. I winced slightly—I had gotten used to the darkness— then opened my eyes and looked around me.

  Everyone was in the same place I had left them, right by the shore. I glanced at the water and shuddered, the horror of the previous night coming back. I had been in such a hurry to get them to safety that I hadn’t dragged them far away from the water. Now that we were all safe, they were still too close to the water for my taste. As I sat up, I groaned; every muscle wailed in protest.

  My chest had stopped bleeding sometime while I had been unconscious, but there was dried blood on the bandage. My ankle was sore and throbbing and still bruised, but otherwise okay. More than anything, I was hungry and dying of thirst. I glanced back at the others, knowing I needed to move them before doing anything else.

  Lehlax was lying on his back parallel with the water. He was about a foot or two away from the lake, but he was already dried off. His eyes were closed so it was hard to tell, but it looked as if they were still a bit sunken in. His skin was a grayish color and there were spots of dark blue and black where the mermaids had touched him.

  Sine’s feet were the closest to the lake—about six inches away from the waterline. He was lying on his stomach. His back was covered in splotches that looked as if they were ashy and withered. I grabbed him and dragged him a little farther away from the water, and then did the same with Lehlax. I made sure that they were both still breathing, shuddering at the way they looked. In the light, it was worse than it had looked in the dark.

  I should have sighed in relief that they were both alive, but I couldn’t bring myself to breathe.

  Jared had been in the water longer and had more of the creatures around him. My stomach twisted, but I didn’t understand why I was so concerned about him.

  I glanced over at him and had to bite my lip to keep from gagging. His whole body looked withered. His skin was a dark gray color, just like with Lehlax and Sine, but his veins along his neck and arms were bulging and were outlined in black. He was unmoving and there were long pauses in between his shuddering breaths. Hesitantly, I knelt beside him and felt for a pulse. It was weak and fluttering, but he had one. I could finally breathe again.

  Jared was alive.

  I dragged him a little farther away from the water just to be safe. Grabbing one of the canteens, I lifted his head enough to help him drink the water, and then did the same with Lehlax and Sine, and last myself. After I was sure the three of them were going to be okay, I opened one of the bags and found some salve. Just in case one of them woke up, I walked in the woods a few yards, took off my shirt and bandage, and put the salve on my shoulder. I put a clean bandage on it and wrapped it back up.

  Walking back to the others, fatigue slammed into me and I realized how weak I was. I sat down and checked my ankle, rubbed some salve on it just for good measure. My stomach growled. Grudgingly, I walked in the woods looking for any type of fruit that would be edible.

  Surprisingly, I found more than I expected; enough for us all to have two apiece. By the time I had the fruit gathered and checked on them again, the sun was setting, and it was becoming night again. As my eyes rested on the eerie reflection of the moon on the water, I shuddered.

  They’re mermaids. They don’t go on land, I told myself. I began dragging the three men to the tree-line anyway.

  It was about four hours or so after I had awakened that Lehlax started to stir. I took one of the canteens and made him drink some water. About half an hour later he finally woke.

  He tried sitting up but soon collapsed.

  “Easy.” I helped him sit
up and lean against a tree.

  He looked at Jared and Sine and then at me and down at himself and winced. “What happened, Dalex?”

  “You know how this lake was supposed to be dangerous?” I asked.

  “Yeah…Even though we were all having fun...” His voice trailed off when it dawned on him that something really bad had happened. “What was it that attacked us?”

  “Mermaids,” I answered.

  “Mermaids?”

  “Yeah. They, uh, tried to seduce you. I somehow managed to save all of you.” I felt my face getting slightly hot, so I looked away, hoping I wasn’t blushing.

  “How…?”

  “They put you all in some kind of trance. It didn’t work on me... I guess because I hadn’t been in the water as long as you guys or something. I managed to fight them off long enough to get you all out of the water.” I hoped my lie sounded like the truth.

  “Well, I’m glad it didn’t work on you. And I guess I owe you my life, Dalex.”

  “Nah,” I said, glancing away, involuntarily, to Jared.

  “He looks bad,” Lehlax pointed out.

  “He was the furthest out. I got to him last…and almost didn’t get there in time,” I told him.

  “Let’s hope he’ll be alright.”

  I nodded, unable to speak.

  “And Sine?”

  “His color has come back, mostly. So has yours. Trust me; you looked really bad a couple of hours ago.” I winced at the memory.

  “I can imagine.”

  I handed him a canteen and the pieces of fruit. “There’s enough for two apiece and we’ve got enough water to last us for a while.”

  “I don’t think we should come back here for water. So, we’re going to have to find a way to get rid of the poison.” Lehlax sighed.

  “I know. I’ve been thinking about that while you were unconscious. I have no idea how. Even if we get rid of it up here, the rest of the river will still be contaminated,” I explained.

  “We might have to come up here and just get our water from the start of the river before the contaminated water starts.”