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The smell of salt was strong, and the sound of seagulls squawking was the most annoying noise in the world. It clashed with the sound of the water splashing gently against the boardwalk, the little boat that his father rented sitting innocently to the right of them.

Danny stared down at it, it was a 12 ft brown boat with two oars hooked on either side.

Yet, they were hunting for mermaids?

Even if they were real, how did his dad expect to capture something so wild, in a boat like that? Somehow he doubted that a creature like that would come quietly, even if his father were to catch one.

"Well now," another fisherman said as he walked up, carrying a bucket, "here's your bait," the fat man bent over and set the bucket full of, what even is that, in the boat.

"Remember," the fisherman with red hair said as Jack and Danny got into the boat, Danny couldn't tell if the man's accent was Australian or Russian. "The tide will come in within the next few hours, you don't wanna be out there when that happens." It could be Irish?

Danny looked out to the open sea, so beautiful and calm. Despite his father's bad planning and his over-enthusiastic dream of catching a mermaid today, he was still having fun.

Mermaids didn't exist, so this might as well be a regular fishing trip with his father. He had been wanting one of these since he was old enough to hold a fishing pole, especially when he was watching TV one time, and saw that this was something that fathers and sons did together to bond.

"Also," the fisherman added just as Jack Fenton was picking up the oars to row away, "Be careful where your heading, a lot of mysterious disappearances have been going on in that cove." His unrecognizable accent made his words sound more like a warning then what seemed necessary, and Danny's eyebrows rose.

The fisherman's demeanor changed, though his father didn't seem to notice the awkward air anyways, "Well, you best get off, want y'all to have as much time fishing as you can before that tide." The fisherman waved as they rowed off towards their destination, 200 meters away from shore. Where a cove stood beautiful and tall, its walls glistening from the crystal clear water.

The boat rocked as they chose to stop just outside the entrance, his father's equipment was all packed in a toolbox sitting between them by the bait.

Excited, Danny picked up his fishing pole, "Dad, how exactly do you work this thing?" He had never used one before, and he only just realized he didn't know anything about casting, or how to know when he's caught something.

His father smiled at him, happy to see his son was as excited as he was. "You see that U shaped metal latch by the handle?" Danny nodded, "Well after you firmly attach your bait, you hold that down and swing the pole out. The line will cast on its own, but, when you're satisfied with how far it went, then drop the latch and your good to wait."

Danny examine the pole, and did as his father said as he was giving instructions, it was easier then he thought it would be as he watched his bait disappear with his fishing hook into the water a good ways away. "How do you know when you caught something?" He asked, still watching where his hook disappeared, intrigued as the line sank slowly further and further.

"You'll know, trust me. A small fish might nibble, and you'll feel some tugging. If that happens then usually fisherman yank really hard suddenly and then real her in. I assume it would be the same for merpeople."

Danny rolled his eyes without his father noticing as the other man cast his line and sat down to wait with him.

Mermaids and merman were known in legend to be smarter then dolphins, so, Danny couldn't imagine a mermaid ignorantly biting onto a fishing hook, even if they were real. He would need a better method of capturing one, then a couple of fishing poles and some bait.

It doesn't matter though, Danny thought. His father didn't really plan this out at all, and Danny knew that. This was just a normal, father-son bonding fun time.

No mermaids.

No science.

Nothing weird at all.

Just two guys, fishing together.

Danny smiled and relaxed against his father's back. The annoying squawking of the seagulls suddenly becoming a distant, relaxing sound. The light thumping of the boat as the water rocked it, and pushed the wooden oars against it, was also as relaxing as the much softer smell of salt.

Danny kept his hands conscious of every vibration of his pole, but he closed his eyes, allowing his fishing hat to hood over them.

Some time passed, and neither of them caught anything. His father had passed out where he sat and Danny was getting more and more discouraged.

What if something had already come, eaten his bait, and gone without him noticing? But, what if he reeled it in to check, and the bait was still there, and he missed a fish coming because of his paranoia?

Danny sighed, trusting himself, it had only been about 20 minutes, and he hadn't felt any indication that something came along. He scooted to glance down into the water, only able to see down a few meters.

He caught a shadow of something swimming, but it was too far down to be able to tell what it was. It appeared to be just a black smudge swimming towards his line. Was it a fish? He couldn't tell exactly how far down it was, but if it was as far as he thought, then it was really big.

What if it was a shark?

He knew what the research said about sharks; that most species were naturally peaceful.

But Danny begged to differ.

He could only imagine how hard it was for a shark to actually catch and eat a fish, the damn things had to be starving. He was not about to be the shark's first meal in who knows how long, just because other drivers were very comfortable swimming in the same waters as those spawns of satan.

He hated sharks with a burning passion, and if this thing was as big as he thought, it could only be one of two things. Either a harmless dolphin or a freaking shark.

Probably not accurate, but in Danny's nervousness, he brainwashed himself into believing that it was true.

He breathed in and out to calm himself, it was below them, far below them. It probably didn't even see them; their vision is supposed to be worse than bats.

The longer it took for him to see anything after the shadow disappeared, the better he felt, assuming whatever it was must have swum away by then. And after some time he was able to sigh in relief, listening as his father snored behind him.

But he relaxed too soon because that's when a hard tugging almost ripped the pole out of his hands.

"Woah!" He quickly gripped it hard, pulling it back. He didn't expect to catch anything so strong. He pulled back again, the effort of reeling and yanking took all the strength and energy he possessed.

Danny cursed himself, swearing if this was nothing more then a tiny fish, he would drown himself right then.

He panted as he continued to feel and yank, this fish wasn't getting away from him. He braced his feet on the end of the boat and used it as leverage to pull harder, excited with the struggle. This thing was really putting up a fight, and if Danny was any younger, or weaker, he was sure he would have lost his catch by now.

He considered waking his dad to help him, but he chose not to, this would be his first catch, and he wanted to make his father proud. He knew the fish was big, it had to be.

It took him a minute to notice that whatever this thing was, it had pulled them the 10 meters from where they floated from the entrance of the cave, till they were much deeper into it. The shadow of the walls fell over him as his fishing was nearly at an end. He could tell he almost had whatever it was, and he would be feasting his eyes on the beauty of it in less than a half a minute.

He stood up, instinctually knowing he would need to stand up to hold the things entire weight. The boat rocked from side to side and Danny could see as he looked down that it was only a couple meters from the surface. It looked to be mostly black.

Water splashed as he finally got it out of the water, but his excitement only lasted a second until he saw exactly what he caught.

Bright, glowing, neon green, and definitely human eyes snarled up at him. Webbed and clawed hands slashing to reach him. Danny was stunned and went pale. The thing he caught was half man, half fish, and he noticed that his fishing line was wrapped painfully around the end of his ebony black tail, small amounts of blood dripping down the slippery scales.

His snow white hair dripped off the water as Danny held him up upside down, and his sharp, shark-like teeth hissed at him in the most animalistic way. It's chiseled upper body was mostly bare, slightly tanned, and was bejeweled with emerald green diamond charms around his neck, arms, and waist to match his piercing green eyes.

It was the most beautiful thing he had ever laid eyes on, nothing could compare to this mythical being, and for a couple seconds, he couldn't help but stand there admiring it.

Danny knew what this was.

Knew what he had caught.

Knew what would happen if his father found it.

His father!

Danny glanced back fearfully and sighed in relief when he saw the merman's thrashing and snarling hadn't woken the man.

He turned back to the merman and pulled out his pocket knife. It was only a matter of time until his father woke up from his slumber, and he didn't want the merman to be there when he did.

Danny braced the pole between his arms and torso, aware of just how heavy the creature was. He grunted with the effort of holding him up while he stepped closer. He had to be very careful to avoid the halfa's slashing claws as he reached out with the knife to cut the line.

"Would you chill out?" He hissed quietly back at the hissing creature, aware that it probably didn't even understand what he said, "I'm trying to free you, damn it."

He briefly wondered if he was making a mistake, remembering how vicious these things were in the legend. He hesitated as he held the knife to the line, looking down at the creature who was completely at his mercy.

Those green eyes looked angry, and Danny shivered to think about what may happen once he frees it. But, as he thinks back to all the possible experiments that his father would do if he ever actually gets his hands of one of these...

He just couldn't allow it.

He didn't hesitate after that, not caring how dangerous the creature probably is.

Nothing, no man, fish, animal, or even mythical legend, deserved to go through the kind of torture his father had planned for 30 years.

With a jerk of the wrist, the merman was falling back into the water.

And Danny could only hope that he wouldn't regret it.

His father jerked up, the loud splash waking him. "Ho." He looked around, then smiled and looked at Danny, ever the clueless being, "Hey, Danny, catch anything yet?" His father looked at the crouching boy, innocently whistling behind him, and smiled with his big, warm, blue eyes.

Danny looked anywhere but into his father's eyes, and denied, "Nope! Nothing at all, I haven't caught anything. Been sitting here bored, nope, nothing at all." Danny gave his father the biggest smile he could, almost wishing he could have looked at the beautiful creature just a moment longer.

Almost.

Jack looked at his pole and frowned, "Well no wonder you haven't caught anything, your line is cut. Here," he handed Danny his own fishing pole, "Take mine."

Danny stared down at the fishing line where it disappeared into the water. He didn't want his father to have a chance to catch the merman. "Um, actually Dad." He tried, also noticing that the tide had picked up a bit, "I think we should get back, remember what the redhead said about the tide?-"

"Danny." Jack was staring off at something in the distance, and Danny turned around curiously.

And then wished that he had never agreed to come on this trip.

His face blew up in panic, knowing without a doubt, that they were done for.

Blue hair gently broke through the surface, and a pale, tattooed feminine face smiled evilly towards them.

Another head floated up close to it, another female, with short red hair and an even eviler smirk. This one had no tattoos but had bright red eyes glowing at them.

More came all females with different radiantly colored hair and burning eyes.

They all stared at the two fishermen on the boat, with demonically beautiful faces. There was more than a dozen of them, and Danny damn near shit his pants.

He whimpered in fear.

Especially when they started singing.

He had no doubt that they existed now, none what so ever, which was why he knew without a doubt that this would be his last day alive.

They were on a tiny boat.

200 meters away from shore.

No one would be able to get to them.

No one would even try to save them.

And they were outnumbered by the most viscous predictors in the entire world. Hyena's don't even come close to how vicious these things are.

The odds of them surviving seemed non-existent.

"Do you hear them, son?" His father asked, his pupils dilated. Danny looked at him with wide eyes, "It's so beautiful." Obviously, his father had already succumbed to their siren ability.

Danny could hear it, the singing, it was the most beautiful noise he had ever heard in his life, they all chorused together like false Angles. But, if his father was already being hypnotized, why wasn't he? Not that he wasn't grateful, but why wasn't he affected?

His father stood up, mumbling random words of "so pretty," and "I'm in love," the merpeople were getting uncomfortably close, and it wasn't until his father started leaning over the boat did Danny spring into action.

With all the strength he had, he yanked his father's clothes, and the older man fell back into the boat to lie on his back, dazed. Danny then opened up his father's toolbox and pulled out the first weapon he saw.

He wasn't sure what it would do, but he was about to find out. It was a big gun that looked self-explanatory, he had fired them before when his parents forced him to do target practice, sure that one day he would be hunting mermaids just like them.

The others were still singing a darker, more eerie dangerous tone as they attacked. As if they hadn't given up on trying to hypnotize Danny, or as if they were playing the soundtrack to his and his father's death.

A mermaid snarled and leaped out of the water towards him, sharp fangs ready to tear into his throat and long talons reaching out to sink into him.

With a Yelp of fear, he aimed and fired at the mermaid without hesitation, and a disgusting ball of green slime looking stuff shot out at the mermaid. It seemed to hurt her a lot, but she didn't seem to die as she flew past him back into the water, forest green tail being the last he saw of it. He almost felt bad for hurting them as they continued to leap out at him, but he wasn't stupid, he knew that they would definitely kill him if he didn't get them first. So he didn't hesitate, not once. Thinking about his mom, his sister, his best friends, even fucking Vlad for some reason, and how he needed to see them again.

The mermaids seemed to calm down after a bit, and Danny panted, taking advantage of the opportunity, not knowing how long he will have before they would start to attack again. He grabbed the rope in his father's toolbox and made a loop, throwing it at the little island that was conveniently close enough for him.

The loop caught on a rock, and he pulled the boat towards the safe looking island, crying with joy when he pulled them close enough to cross over to.

Danny heaved his massively overweight father up, probably only able to do so thanks to adrenaline. With only minimal help from his dazed and confused Dad, he prepared to jump from the boat to the island.

Just as he jumped, his foot caught on the boat when the mermaids attempted to pull it out towards sea again.

His father fell forward, hitting his head on a rock, and Danny fell on his stomach, half in the water and half out.

He panicked immediately grabbing onto a sturdy rock in front of him to try and pull himself out, but in the half a second it took him to realize his lower half was in grave danger, he felt a webbed, taloned hand wrap painfully around his ankle.

He screamed in both fear and pain as the talons ripped through his flesh and started pulling, the mermaid was trying to pull him back into the water completely, but thanks to his grip on the rock, he didn't budge.

The sound of ripping jeans made it to his ears, triggering him to look back at the bright red eyes that bore into him like a demonic lion. Her skin had gone from a beautiful pink flush and healthy tan to a sickly grey color, making her look even eviler as her sharp teeth and forked snake tongue reached for him.

He frantically grabbed the gun that lay next to his head and fired at the mermaid who gripped him.

The impact forced the mermaid with red hair to let go, and he scrambled to get completely out of the water before any of the others could grab him. Panting and out of breath from fear and adrenaline, he pulled his unconscious father further up onto the island and sat down when they were directly in the center.

Danny whipped his head around every which way, making sure that they were safe. Even as athletic as the creatures seems to be, he didn't think they were able to get to them where they sat on the island.

He watched as they all stared at him, surrounding him with only half their heads visible. Danny could only see the top of their heads, and their glowing eyes as they stared right at him as if plotting to take his soul slowly and then take turns feasting off his cold dead body.

Knowing all the legends, that was probably what they wanted to do.

He could tell that for the moment they were safe from impending doom, but the same couldn't be said for the future. He remembered what the fisherman said before they left, that the tide will pick up a couple hours after they left. They had been gone for about 1 hour now. Which meant it was only a matter of time now before this little island currently saving their lives, became submerged.

Danny fell back when all the heads disappeared from sight, sobbing. He threw an arm over his eyes and allowed himself to cry for a brief minute. For fear of what just happened, for fear of what's to come, for fear of never seeing his family or friends again, for fear of the mermaids and what they plan on doing to him, for fear of the unknown, and for fear of his unconscious father.

His unconscious father.

Danny got up, tears dripping down his nose, getting on his knees and leaning over his father, trying to shake him awake.

"Dad." Any other time he would have hated himself for sounding so broken and pathetic, but he couldn't be bothered by it right now, "Dad, wake up!" He yelled, hoping his father would respond. He pulled out his cell phone from his back pocket, cursing when it wouldn't turn on after taking so much water damage.

He searched his father for some sort of walkie, or satellite phone, or at least a damn water resistant cell phone, anything that he could use to call for help. But just like everything else in his father's life, the older man didn't plan ahead.

"Shit!" He exclaimed, his voice breaking halfway through. He wiped away the excess tears as he stopped crying, unable to anymore as panic overcame fear.

He tried to calm himself down, this was no time to panic.

... Who was he kidding this is the perfect time to panic.

"Okay Danny, what would your mom do?" His mother had always been the stronger, and smarter, one of his parents. He looked around. He had one gun, a rope, and whatever the hell was left of his wits.

He looked at the boat that was slowly floating farther and farther away, and knew, he needed to get that boat back. Not only was it their only chance of getting back to shore, but it had the rest of his father's hunting equipment in it.

Danny had never been more grateful that his parents built those weapons.

He only wished they weren't on a boat floating away in mermaid infested water.

He looked down at his father, and then back at the boat, then to the gun in his hands.

He knew what he had to do.