Sacrificed to the Sea: mermaids .. monsters .. men

by Cari Silverwood

  A gift seemed stranger than strange. Men were her prey. They did not give her things, apart from their lives.

  “Perhaps?” She was curious. “Ummm.” She craned forward, as if to get a better view. “What might it be?”

  “Here.” He tossed the bag and it landed near enough to her that she could reach it without leaving the water. Luckily. He could not have come to her, and she would never have wriggled from the sea to get it.

  Cautiously, she undid the cinched neck.

  “It’s safe. It’s a necklace. A special one.”

  “Safe? How would it not be safe?” Raffaela drew it forth, and found it was a string of pearls that glowed luminously under the moon. The clasp was simple, a screw-in thing. She thought she could manage it, but… wariness made her question him. “Special? How?”

  “If ever you are in trouble, if you press on the large black pearl, which is actually not a real pearl. It will signal me. Then I can find you, help you.”

  She frowned at the weird piece of jewelry made from things she could find herself on the ocean floor, inside oysters. “How?”

  “It’s… like the internet. A signal goes out. Like that.”

  Do not look a gift horse in the mouth – a saying from her childhood.

  “Thank you.” She slipped it around her neck, hesitated then found the clasp, made the pieces meet.

  “You just sort of screw them together.” He made a circling motion with his hand. “It won’t fall off once fastened.”

  “I have it. It is done.” The pearls felt odd and heavy sitting there, above her bare breasts, where nothing usually sat.

  A gift though. And one that had consideration to it. He thought he could find her in time if a whale swallowed her? Amusing man.

  “Will you return again? In three days, at dusk?”

  Three more days and the Ravening would be three days closer. She heaved out a sigh. “Yes. I will not stay long. I may not come if it’s too dangerous.”

  If I want to eat you.

  “Sure.”

  At the last second, before she swam away, she had an urge to give something to him. A piece of knowledge would be the best she could gift.

  “Once a year, my body changes back into being human, and I get to walk upon the land again. For one day only. That day comes soon.” She cocked her head at him, half hoping, perhaps, that he would offer something…

  He looked stunned.

  Stupid. She should not have said that.

  She leaped and dived deep, sliding through the coolness of the sea, before he could say anything.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid. He is only studying you, furthering his knowledge, nothing more.

  THREE DAYS LATER

  As soon as she surfaced, she knew. The niggling desires had been building, but seeing him before her made her throat close. She wanted to sing to him, to drag him down the beach to her.

  Dangerous? Yes. She could control herself, but the risk was there.

  “I cannot stay,” she said loudly from further out in the small bay than before, the bottom unreachable by her tail.

  For a second, he looked angry. There was light here. A lantern on a pole was shedding light on his beach.

  “Wait!” He stood, shoving out his hand as if to catch her. “When do you walk on the land?”

  She halted, put her hand to her heart to quieten the beats. “Why?” Then she told him anyway. She was still hoping. “In ten days’ time.”

  “Go do what you have to do, then in ten days meet me at dusk at the beach in front of my house.” He pointed. “A bay like this. Blue roof on a two-story house. A sailboat and a dinghy are moored. A long hedge with white flowers sits between house and sea. Can you find it? Raffaela?”

  Her name on his lips…she swallowed. “I can. I will be there. Why, though?”

  Why. The crucial question and the answer might shame her. Would he walk with her? It was meant to be her last time on this earth. Her last walk.

  “Well. Because I found out a new legend, I thought…” Wolfgang adjusted his glasses. It was sweet, the way he did that. “You see, I’ve been reading, scouring the records, looking for something that would help.” He wiped his mouth with his hand, rubbed at it again then took his hand away, shoved both hands in the pockets of his black pants. His next words came out croaky. “It is said that if a siren makes love to a man on that day, when she walks as a human, that she will never change again.”

  The gleam in his eyes as he said that… unmistakable.

  She drew a deep shivery breath – cold wafting through her, spiking her nipples, and demolishing thought. He wanted her. And what if this tale of his was true?

  “Will you be there?”

  She drew a breath. “I will be there.”

  As she swam away, she realized what he must have known. To do this, to be there that day, she would have to satisfy the Ravening one last time. She must kill a man.

  And what did she really want? If she changed and stayed a human? There was a momentous allure to that.

  To be a woman again. Was it worth killing one more time so as to stop it forever?

  Yes? Surely, it was a yes?

  CHAPTER 3

  A few nights later, she gave in and dragged a man from a boat to his death. She swallowed his blood and his life force, then let go of his corpse to allow him to drift away on the currents. Sharks waited at the edges, cruising by in sharp gray shadows. They knew food was coming.

  To meet with Wolfgang again, she’d had to do this. It was this or eat him instead.

  Yet she grieved, covered her face with her hands and cried into the ocean.

  Fuck this, as humans now said.

  She had done what she must. Soon, if he were correct, this would be over.

  Besides, Wolfgang must know what she was doing. He must know.

  It meant he accepted murder in order to possess her.

  It puzzled her.

  Somehow, that had a perverted justice to it.

  A life for a life, her dirty conscience piped up. Sure it was.

  She hated this.

  The day when she walked on land arrived, and she’d been so concerned and confused, her stomach so full of butterflies, or perhaps full of a school of minnows, that she hadn’t eaten anything since the man.

  As soon as she surfaced, she saw Wolfgang waiting for her on the beach. He stood there unshackled, with no chain, dressed in a neat pair of dark pants and dark gray shirt, with those cute spectacles on his nose.

  He stood there and trusted she had not lied to him.

  Well.

  Raffaela held her hand over her empty, anxious belly as she wriggled to the shallows. With her palms propped on the sand, back arched, and with kinked tail she waited for the change, felt her legs form and shudder into being, her body shifting.

  Then she stood, with water dripping from her, and very aware of her nakedness.

  Usually this lack of clothes was so normal, she barely realized she was missing them until she walked on a road. Then she would find clothes somewhere, somehow, pull them on, and then go to a village to gawk at the people going about their life. They’d be doing their chores… Riding bikes, talking to each other, driving cars, or looking at those glowing rectangles that Wolfgang called a cell phone. She had seen them before but had not understood their importance.

  Tonight, or perhaps tomorrow, since she did not know the timing, she might stay as this. How weird it would be to be permanently human.

  What if he were wrong?

  That thought had been going around and around, for days.

  Wolfgang approached her, walking down the slope through the sand, shoes in one hand and with his other hand stretched toward her. “Welcome to my house, Raffaela.”

  She gave him her hand, unsure if that was what he wanted, and he took it in his warm fingers, brought it to his mouth…

  And he kissed her hand.

  Mouth open, she found herself struck again by a sense of wonder, that plummeted straight int
o doubt a second later.

  “What if this does not—”

  “Shhh.” He shook his head. “No.”

  The transition from suicidal to wanting this… this humanity, was so great she felt sure she would explode or disintegrate on the beach as they walked hand in hand toward his house.

  “That’s my ocean pool.” He gestured at a blue-lit square of glass, double a man’s height. Water lapped at the top, forming a line. Fish swam in there, gliding by. Seaweed swayed against the light at the bottom. “The pool came with the house, but I adapted it to take full salinity sea water. Helps with my studies.”

  “Oh.” Sand crunched underfoot, sticking to her feet. She stopped and lifted a sand-crusted foot. “Ew.”

  The one thing, well, one of the things she did not like about land life – things clung to you.

  Wolfgang chuckled, squeezed her hand. “Come. You can wash that off, and I have a gown you can wear.”

  Beside the pool, a path of square, orange-brown paving stones led to the back door of the house.

  She had her feet washed under a tap just before they reached the door.

  Wolfgang squatted and helped to encourage the sand to wash away by tipping the water over the right places. It felt good to be cared for like this.

  She bit her lower lip, surprised, as she often was on this land day, by the lack of sharp points on her teeth.

  “Thank you.”

  “No trouble. Such pretty feet.” She blushed as he rose. He drew her to the door, opened it. “Come. I ordered takeout. It’s food from a restaurant in town.”

  The scents were amazing, and she lifted her head to sniff. Real people food. Spices. And on plates, she supposed.

  “Mmm. I haven’t eaten for days. I was worried.”

  “Why?”

  “Ummm.” When she turned to him, she caught him looking at her nude body, his focus cruising lower to the join of her legs where the female part of her existed. As before, she’d grown a triangle of light red hair.

  In his hand was a white, slithery gown he’d fetched from a table by the entrance, and also a towel.

  A smile broke onto his lips. “I apologize, but you entrance me, at times.” The smile was that mysterious one she’d seen before.

  A second before, his expression had been different. Unused to deciphering human faces, she wasn’t sure what it meant. It was not simply lust.

  She must relearn this. Body language. If she hadn’t listened to humans as avidly as she had, she would be totally lost.

  “Put that on, then let’s eat.”

  He helped her to dry herself, then to lower the gown over her head. It slipped over her body, falling into place on her breasts and other curves.

  “Beautiful.” Wolfgang urged her forward with his hand at the small of her back, above where her rear swelled. Funny, how that placing of his hand stirred warmth, desire.

  Desire was much of the purpose of this night.

  When they were seated at a table made of rich, brown timber, with chairs of what seemed to be glass, he began doling out food from several boxes of white paper. Plates, yes, those were here, and metal things to spear the food. The smell made her stomach rumble.

  “I thought tonight we could have an intimate meal. The town has loads of cafés and restaurants but those we can try another day.” His smile came and went. “Now, what are you worried about? I can guess.”

  Raffaela blinked. Sitting at a table, on a hard chair, sitting still, without water on her skin, it felt so very wrong. As if someone had frozen her in mud. Stifling.

  His question, though.

  “I am afraid this will not work.”

  He poured something red into a goblet. Wine, she reminded herself. Though she’d never drunk from anything so fine. The goblet was a piece of glass perfection.

  “That making love to me will not cause you to become human, permanently?” He finished pouring into the glass in front of her, placed the bottle on the table.

  Bluntly said. “Yes.” That had reawakened her anxiety.

  “Don’t. What will be will be. Fate will decide this.”

  Truth. She inhaled deeply. “And if this fails?”

  “Then you return to the sea, and we think on this some more. There might be a trick to it?”

  She nodded. Would she go back to the sea? The change always gave her forewarning, and she had intended to stay here, to die. Now? It seemed ridiculous to lose all hope when Wolfgang believed in her.

  “Let’s eat. I’ll bet you’ve not had wine for…” His eyebrow crooked upward. “Centuries.”

  She smirked. “A woman should not reveal her age.”

  “Ahhh.” He raised his own glass that sloshed with a clear wine. “To becoming human.”

  She lifted hers. “To being human.” Her first sip had her grimacing. So tart a taste.

  He laughed at her and picked up a knife and fork, indicated the food. “Can you use these? If not, fingers are okay. It should be cool enough.”

  “I think I can do this.” She frowned at the hard feel of the metal as she turned a fork in her hand, then she poked her food.

  The food was delicious. The wine fogged her mind somewhat, but soon after they finished eating, he led her to a bedroom. The luxuries humans possessed now, and so casually, it was stunning. No dirt, no bugs, everything clean.

  Without further talking, he took the necklace from her neck and placed it aside, then drew her dress upward to her waist and pushed her to the bed. She was aware enough to know his seduction was as workmanlike as that of men who had bought her in the past. They had humped her against walls in alleys, then they went home again, or they had gone back to drinking. Pay her and move on.

  This economy in his seduction surprised her but she felt too sleepy to worry. Protesting would be silly.

  When he was finished, he withdrew from her, left the room, then returned a few minutes later. He switched off the miraculous light on the ceiling and lay with her in the bed.

  That he didn’t quite lie down was odd. The love-making had been so rough she’d hurt at times. She should talk to him.

  But…

  Her eyelids were heavy, her yawns frequent, and the room was gradually blurring.

  This bed was terribly soft. What if I don’t feel the change?

  The worry roused her for a moment, but it was not enough to truly stir her. Sleep came with little warning.

  She woke to something shifting, to her body moving, then drifted back to sleep. Too tired. Too dark and heavy.

  She woke again, and her eyes refused to focus. Had she become a sloth not a human?

  The third time she surfaced, she lazed about in water, lying prone and slipping to and fro. There was a ceiling above. Something rumbled.

  Raffaela shifted and found herself somehow fixed inside a tube that was open above, like a small tunnel. She had been in underwater caverns and tubes. This was not that. This was wrong. Alarmed, she shook her head. Water sloshed under her shoulders and something had been jammed across her mouth.

  Her tail lumbered, moved, swished and smacked the sides.

  Tail… She hadn’t changed. She coughed and felt sludge in her throat, swallowed, blinked away the last of the stuff making her vision blur.

  Where was she?

  She flopped about, curving upward at the waist, finding her hands trapped behind and under her. Wriggling achieved nothing except to make this canvas tunnel sway, and she slapped her tail down, hard, in anger.

  Everything lurched. The rumbled ceased. There came a great, long, echoing slam. Then a light switched on above. As she squinted upward and around her, she heard someone grunt, then a face appeared above.

  Wolfgang. He grinned at her.

  “Awake, are we?”

  Clearly, she was not of human form.

  “Wha—” She managed to say, tongue hitting metal. The rod fastened across her mouth and between her teeth made speech difficult.

  “What am I doing with you? Where are you? All of that?�
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  Wary, anger growing, sure he had betrayed her, she nodded. Water gurgled against her ears.

  “This building is where we do marine research. Small place and at night nobody comes here. So. Just us. Me. You. All my equipment for holding the marine life, studying it, dissecting it… knives, big hooks.” He eyed her, piercingly.

  She blinked. Bad, this was bad. Why was he doing this? “Why?” she whisper-gurgled.

  “You killed my friend, or likely it was you? I doubt there are many mermaids in the area. My lover, my best friend, and you fuckin’ killed him.”

  Reality dawned on her. Now she knew what that smile meant. His teeth showed. It was an evil smile. Predatory. Nasty.

  “In the name of science, I’m going to study you, fillet you, dissect you, and eventually kill you. And guess what, since you are not human, nobody will give a damn.”

  The vehicle shifted when he vanished from view, and she heard a door open then shut, heard his footsteps.

  She’d meant to die. Just not like this. Maybe… she blinked away the sudden tears, maybe this was what she deserved?

  Her heart had sped up and was banging away at her chest and temples. Maybe.

  The rear doors of the vehicle were flung open, one after the other, and she looked past her tail to the light, past Wolfgang to where chains hung from a high ceiling.

  “Oh yes.” He followed her gaze. “Those are just for hoisting specimens out of the van though. Still, it’s a taste of your future. This is a Sunday, and early. About, ohhh, six AM? I have a whole day to play with you.” He hauled on the end, pulled her out and let the canvas tube down onto a concrete floor. The canvas flattened, opened out.

  When he kneeled beside her, she slapped her tail again, splashing him with the residual water.

  Wolfgang wiped his face with one hand then grabbed her chin and dragged it around as he stared down at her. “Bitch. Was that you hating on me? I promise I do hate better than you ever could.”

  She tightened her jaw as he traced around her lips and made a growling sound she’d never made before.

  “You’re just a fucking animal. Just for you, I dug up this gag. Such sharp little teeth you have.” He stroked along in front of them at the gumline. “I’m going to love your screams.”