Black Waters

In the thick of the night, Porter heard a soft sound that caused chills to flutter up and down his arms and back. His breath seemed to hide in his throat, tightening his lungs. His veins iced over like brittle blades of glass in a December storm. A soft angelic hum ignited his curiosity all the while terrifying him. The song seemed familiar and warm. He could have sworn that he had heard that song his entire life. The hum grew louder and soon it's pure light pierced the dark grey all around his damp, rickety house. He had to know where it was coming from.

Porter snatched up his brittle journal and a small piece of lead he used as a pencil before grabbing his coat, and silently sneaking out the door. This was his chance. He was going to discover something for himself and share it with the world!

The rundown, sleepy village had been hushed by an angelic choir of fear. No one was stirring, and despite the eeriness he felt on the back of his neck, his heart felt warm and strong. It was as if he were leaving to visit an old friend. There was only the sound of a song he couldn't place, and the shuffling of his feet against the worn gravel road. Of course, that and the ocean. The gentle push and pull of the forbidden waters somewhere off in the distance, hidden beneath a black veil of night.

Porter followed the song with ease. It led him to a rockier part of the coast and he found himself climbing over the cold, wet stones to one that loomed over the sea. Their jagged points were much like the edges of knives against his thin sandals.

Porter slowly eased himself down on the blades of rock. As he did so, the singing silenced and a devious mist rolled across the strangely still black waters. It hovered over the water, but left a specific circle in front of him untouched. Porter was left alone with his timid breath. For how long, he didn't know. He stared into the black hole that was once the ocean. Something was staring back. Ripples formed in the circle and a dark creature slinked up into its center.

Porter had forgotten what breathing was entirely as he sat there face to face with something he could only describe to be disgustingly beautiful. It was evidently female with its voluptuous form and feminine shape. In fact, it looked quite human in the face. Her eyes were what intrigued him the most. They were larger than normal and oddly round. The eyes that penetrated his were an onyx black, void of any white. Her face was angular and came to a harsh point. She was doll-like in nature with sharp, hollow cheekbones. Her hair clung to her breasts and milky white skin; the long black ends splayed out in the water around her waist.

Her inhuman appearance came, not only from her intriguing features, but also from the hints of what seemed to be shimmering green and black fish scales. Her arms, parts of her face, and the curves of her body were all highlighted by these shimmering, gem like scales.

Something about her shape was disproportionate. Her limbs were overly stretched with little to no flesh on them. Her bare waist had also been strained as if yanked through a taffy puller once, then bent to the side at an awkward angle. The most peculiar shape was her neck. It was overly cocked to the right and hyperextended in an impossible way. As if it had been broken.

At first Porter thought she might be a mermaid. This would have been an incredible discovery as mermaids were almost as rare of a find as a fairy or a sprite in his world. She was rarer than that. She lacked a tail and instead had crooked, long poles for legs that jutted out behind her.

The creature he had been examining, placed its bony fingers on the slick black rocks. With little effort, she moved like a spider up them. Her elongated limbs allowed her to reach then pull herself up until her joints had halved themselves. She stopped an inch away from Porter's face. Her head twisted as she examined him, looking him up and down with her ominous eyes.

Porter teetered back on his hands, unsure of what to do. He was both amazed and petrified. They looked each other up and down for a painfully long time before her angelic, echoey voice caused another chill to run through his body, "You are a brave one. Perhaps foolishly." She leaned back on her heels and straightened her spiney shoulders, "There is something different about this one. Something that desires." Her words slipped out like smoke, wispy and intoxicating.

Porter found it hard to swallow, let alone talk. It was almost as if she slowly took the air out of his lungs instead of her own when she spoke. "Are you what took the people in my village?"

"Out of vengeance." She hissed and leaned in taking a deep breath only to breath out directly into his boyish face. Upon doing so, she moaned with delight, "Your scent makes my mouth water... yes you will do. You will be the one to finally satisfy me. It has been soooo long." She blinked as he pulled away from her. A smile was only just forming as her eyes gleamed with both lust and hunger.

His face paled to an ashy gray as he subconsciously dropped his journal. It tumbled into the inky black water below him, never to return. Hearing his journal fall he couldn't help but wonder if his body would make a similar sound. "Vengeance?" He croaked unable to fully understand what she wanted from him, "What are you? Where did you come from?"

The creatures head cocked even more to the right, making him cringe as a sly smile pulled back her full lips to reveal slightly sharper-looking teeth, "You don't know?" His silence seemed to be a decent enough answer, "I used to be like you." She reached out, grappling his fleshy arm, and giving it a good squeeze. Almost like one would do to an orange to see if it was ripe. "But now I am the dark of the sea. The evil in its waters. A spirit of the waves." She sneered, "Unlike the mermaids, I did not have such a peaceful death. I was wronged." Her owl like eyes burrowed their way into his soul, "And so I take my vengeance. It's the only thing I can do." The word vengeance slipped off her forked tongue like nectar. The creature leaned in closer to Porter. She remained there, breathing heavily into his ear. It didn't sound like a breath as much as it sounded like waves. He could smell the salt. Not only that, but he could taste it. She gracefully slid her hands down his chest before slowly slipping his coat off of his small fourteen-year-old shoulders, "You'll be like me when you wake. You'll be black, and dark, seeking vengeance on anyone foolish enough to come near the water. You'll pull them in like the tide and hide them beneath its depths. You'll be the voice they come to fear, Porter. Your song with echo from your soul, and it will be your greatest weapon."

Porter felt as though his limbs had gone numb to her touch. He was dreaming with his eyes open, and just like in his dreams, his body began to move on its own. This was no dream, it was a nightmare. The spirit lead him by the hand down the jagged rocks, and he followed her all the way out into the thick black waters. On the inside he was screaming for help and trying everything he could to escape his own body. There was nothing he could do once his head slipped under the water. Unable to stop it, water flooded his lungs with every agonizing breath until everything in his vision faded to black.

---

The tide continued to wash up and down the beach without Porter. A journal half-buried beneath the sand was all that they ever found, and all that anyone cared to know. Months later, the village hushed into it's frightened lull like it had every night before Porter had gone missing. The mist rolled in like it had for years and the village was engulfed in it.

Only one thing changed following Porter's disappearance. At night, an old seaman could be seen walking the rickety old peer, mumbling to himself in hollow whispers, "Tonight they seem to be calling again..." His voice was one of loss and regret. His bushy white eyebrows knitted together as he came to stand at the end of the boardwalk. "Stay away from the waters. Stay far away from them. Something evil lives in those waters..." He muttered with a trembling voice as he dared to look down into its godforsaken depths.