The Lure

What you thought was a peaceful creature..

I don’t recall how I came to be here, I don’t recall who I used to be. All that I know is that I am a lure. I was not part of this creature to begin with. I do not eat, I do not move, I do not breathe. I do not know if I am the first or what happened to the last. All I know is the caress of water, the burn of salt, the choking darkness of the deep, and the sound of my voice.

I will be awakened from my slumber, and forced to the surface. Pushed up by my legs and hips until everything above my waist is no longer submerged. I will see the sun, see the sky and I will sing.

The song has no words, no meaning, and is nothing but a lure. A pretty sound to draw the attention of the ship I know is there, the ship that I refuse to acknowledge. I can hear the men shouting over the song, I know they wish to capture me. Capture the “Mermaid”, the dazzling creature with the sweet voice.

The crack, the shuddering breach in the hull, the screams of men as they abandon ship, grabbing onto what they can. They curse me with their wasted breath, as they either paddle closer or away from me. But then it rises, and they forget about me.

When it rises, I am forced high above the waves, as high as a ships mast, and they see me for what I have now become. My hips swallowed by scales that do not end in a tail, but continue down, becoming wider, longer, and spiked, travelling down to connect to the head of a great beast. A creature with large milk white eyes, an enormous body with a larger head. Hazardous teeth that are as thin as needles but much longer than any man. With scales the color of filthy stone walls, and short fins that are a mere membrane supported by bone.

I know well what it appears as, and I know well what it will do. I have heard my fill of the screams, and know much of the faces that sailors make as they try to escape their deaths. I have seen the waters tainted with blood and I just wish to look at the blue of the sky. I wish for death, but I cannot move. This creature has stolen my body from me and it uses me to lure men to their deaths. 

As I sink back into the bloodied sea, I wish to never awaken from my sleep, to be left in the darkness where I do not think nor feel. Those men would have had families, they would have been loved �" but as it seems, everything you love can be washed away, everything except me.

I know that I will soon be pushed back to the surface, and that this beastly creature will once again rise.

 

Reviews

[Will Neill]

Katie, I think this is a very good discription of the mystical beast 'The Cracken' that lays below the waves and enchants the sailors only to destroy them. This is good because it's taken from its perspective.
Original and well written.
Will

[zainul]

Very much creative and imaginative write.