There is an eerie green glow in this cavern.
I swim toward the center and when I come close, I see it is coming from a giant glowing orb sitting upon a stone altar that is twelve fins wide. It looks like a pearl but it is bigger than any pearl I could ever imagine. Whatever it is, it must hold great magic.
I swim closer and try to lift it but it won’t budge. Maybe it belongs here. This is the bottom of the temple after all. This is probably where the Priestesses of the Moon do their High Magic.
I wish I could join the priesthood.
I hate being too young for everything.
They say that the Sea Witch was the greatest priestess of them all and that when she swam to the surface and saw the full moon in the naked light it drove her mad with visions and a power she could not control.
And yet we still use Moon Magic and she still lives among us.
I bet she knew something that my sisters are too ignorant or too cowardly to even understand. The Sea Witch has lived a long time and has seen it all. I need some answers. I am too old to keep believing in my nana’s fairy tales.
***
I see a glimmer of light shining through a narrow tunnel just beyond the glowing pearl. I wonder if it is a new way out of the temple. I follow it all the way through. At first it is very narrow but then it widens until it opens up to the ocean. It leads to chalky rock formations I have never seen before. The fish seem a bit different here. I see many pure white fish with giant black eyes and long sharp teeth. They’re like huge, albino piranhas. There are gigantic white mushrooms growing from the ocean floor with soft spongy caps with giant oyster beds piled at their feet. These oysters are three times the size of any oysters I have seen anywhere. I am fascinated and a little repulsed by their giant squishiness. I come up to one that has the biggest pearl I have seen.
I take the net that I had used for the jellyfish and try to pry open the shell. These oysters are as strong as they are massive. All my pushing is futile. I have to trick this oyster into giving up the goods.
I grab the largest pearl in my bag and I drop it into the oyster right beside the other pearl. Then I try to pry it open. Just a tiny bit. One pearl bumps the other pearl and knocks it sideways. I stick my arms in all the way. I am terrified that it will cut off my arms before I can grab the pearl. But I make it just in time, as the oyster shuts with a snap. I pop the new pearl into my bag. Whew! That was close! I giggle as I swim off, and I stick my tongue out at the oysters. Not like they can see me but whatever. It’s still funny how dumb they are even when they are disgustingly huge.
There are white sea anemones and starfish. They slither and sway about, so strange and wonderful.
The water pressure does not feel as strong as it did before. My ears are popping and my gills are bubbling. I see more light. It hurts my eyes at first but they adjust very quickly. I whip my tail faster and glide up as fast as I can go. The light gets brighter and brighter. I see the surface layers shimmering above me and finally I break through the icy waters.
The air hits me and I gasp. When I look up I see not one but three moons. They are all in various stages of the lunar cycle that I’ve seen painted upon the murals in the Mermaid Temple.
I am breathing through my nose and not my gills. The transition is surprisingly effortless. I swim to the shore and lay my hands on the fine gray sand. All I see for miles is this gray sand. I look up. There is a deep and endless blackness filled to the brim with stars of all different sizes. Some of the stars are half the size of the moons but most of them are just tiny glittering dots that twinkle like they are laughing and winking at me. They remind me of the eyes of baby fish.
I stare up at the three moons and I begin to sing a strange song that I have never heard before. It just pours out of me and I cannot hold it back. I sing for what feels like hours. I pull myself out of the water and onto the sand and lay there looking up at the sky. It is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I feel so alive right now, like I have nothing holding me down. I feel like I could fly right up to those moons if I wanted.
Chapter 3: Sea Witch
“You like the shore, don’t you child. I like to come look at it as well.”
“Who’s there?”
The strange voice sends chills down my spine and I am startled out of my reverie.
“You know who I am,” calls out the creature that is swimming toward me.
“The Sea Witch,” I reply.
Parts of her seem to be made entirely out of shadow, like her hair, and other parts seem to be glowing with their own light from within.
She emerges gradually from the water. Her top half is a torso just like mine. As she comes closer, I see that she has eight long black octopus tentacles that seem to drift for miles like a bunch of slithering snakes swimming after her.
I hold back a shriek but I know my face shows my fear. She laughs harshly, shattering the spell of silence.
Her face is youthful, plump, and beautiful. What my nana said was right. She only looks a few years older than me even though I know she is much older. Her eyes glitter like the sea. Her long dark hair falls down her shoulders and chest in cascading waves. Her bare breasts glow in the moonlight. Her lips are wet and black.
“Wanna swim back home, little mermaid?”
“Na . . . na . . . n . . . no,” I stutter, slightly backing away.
She looks deep into my eyes.
“What is your heart’s desire, my child?”
A part of me wants to run but a part of me remembers that if anyone is powerful enough to give me what I want, it’s her.
“I want to walk on land,” I say.
“Oh, I see.” She reaches for my hand. Her nails are longer than mine. They are thick, black claws that clink against each other as she wraps her long, cold, clammy fingers around my wrist.
“It’s all I want. It is all I have ever wanted. I don’t want to end up like my sisters.”
“You want a Land Walker, don’t you child? A boy Land Walker? I can smell it on you.” She sniffs my neck and licks her lips.
“Maybe,” I reply with a shudder.
“It’s always about the boys. You mermaids can never get enough. There used to be many Land Walkers in the days long ago when the mer-people and sea creatures did not fear man. Mermaids would lie on the rocks and sing songs. They would lure weary travelers with their haunting voices. They would pull them under, have their way with them, and leave them on the shore once they’d had their fun. They would be completely disoriented, and would complain of lost time and lost memory. The mermaids had a way of wiping their memories but sometimes they remembered some things. They would have nightmares and tell crazy stories. No one would believe them.”
She turns her gaze to the horizon with a sigh. Her eyes glaze over and her black lips curve into a soft smile.
“Those were the good old days. I was young, once. I had so much fun with those Land Walkers . . . we all did.”
“The mermaids told me that you used to be a priestess and that you went mad on moonlight,” I blurt out before I realize what I’ve done.
She lets go of my wrist and looks at me sadly.
“Those mermaids sure talk, don’t they?”
I shrug and chew nervously at my lip.
“Let me tell you, those mermaids are jealous, because I was the best one!”
She turns around and swims off a few feet. She doesn’t say anything for a few moments.
I swim over and lightly lay my hand on her shoulder. “I am sorry. I need you. I need this. I don’t know what came between you and the mermaid priestesses, but I can see that you are good.”
She turns around.
“I must tell you the truth. Man is very dangerous. There was a time when it was our game. Sea sirens had men in the palm of their hands. One day, things changed. The day they discovered that mermaids had certain . . . qualities, it was all over.”
“Qualities? I don’t understand.”
“Eating the flesh of a mermai
d can make a Land Walker feel pure ecstasy and grant them immortality. The flesh has to be eaten raw and the mermaid has to be alive.”
I clap my hand over my mouth. I picture the Land Walkers eating the mermaids as they scream and thrash around. I think about the paintings in the temple of the strange creatures cutting up mermaids.
“Indeed. Horrible. Now, you see why you have been told all your life to stay away from the surface . . . and yet, here you are.”
I don’t know what to say. Maybe I have been stupid to think this is my destiny. I look at the soft and endless sand dunes and up at the moons that shine icily upon them. I try to see this landscape as something desolate and ugly but I cannot. It looks like paradise to me. It is pure and free and it fills my heart with joy.
“You still want it. I can see it in your eyes, child. Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
I nod my head and play nervously with a piece of seaweed that floats by me.
She eyes the bag that is slung over my shoulder.
“What have you got there?”
I remember the bag of pearls and rest my hand upon it.
“Pearls.”
“Ahhh . . . pearls!”
“I have a really special pearl in here! I found it inside one of the really giant oysters near the Mermaid Temple!”
“Let me see,” the Sea Witch says, eyeing my bag.
I pull out the pearl.
“How did you get this?” she asks, trying to grab it. I pull it back and hold it close to my chest.
“I tricked the oyster by replacing this one with another one that I had in my bag,” I reply, feeling pretty clever.
“Look at you, little miss trickster. Maybe I underestimated you.”
“Whatever you need. I can do it.”
“Aren’t we the eager one? Well, what I need you to do will be very similar to your little pearl trick.”
“Oh?”
“If you can bring me a sample of a Land Walker’s life essence, I will be able to give you your legs. A Land Walker is not much smarter than one of those giant oysters.”
“But aren’t the Land Walkers deadly?”
“You’re a smart girl. I’m sure you can protect yourself.”
“Ok. So where would I find a Land Walker? This surface seems desolate.”
“And so it is! No one knows what killed the Land Walkers . . . but you are in luck, my little one. It so happens that a space man has crashed onto our planet in his white ship, just like in the good old days. He is stranded and he has no way of getting home. I have seen him wandering the surface for weeks now. He will be an easy target. He is quite desperate.”
“What exactly do you need me to do?” I ask, beginning to feel uneasy again.
“You will need to swallow his seed.”
“How do I do that?”
“I don’t think you will have to do much, my child. Just do what comes naturally. Now, give me that big pearl.”
I reluctantly hand it over to her. She grabs it and inspects it. She rubs it and mutters some words that I don’t understand.
It begins to glow green and become translucent.
“Are you ready, my child?” she says, holding out the glowing pearl in the palm of her hand.
I nod.
“Open your mouth and stick out your tongue. You must swallow it.”
I open my mouth and she lays the pearl upon my tongue and pushes it down into my throat with her long fingers. I want to cough but I can’t. I gag and gasp. I cannot swallow it and I cannot breathe. My head feels like a big red hot balloon.
I am suffocating.
I finally manage to swallow the damned thing.
“Oh . . . by the way. Once you swallow it, you will be mute.”
I try to talk but no sound comes out of my mouth. I grab my throat and attempt a scream.
“No use, no use, child.” She laughs and throws her head back.
“Don’t worry. You will get it back when I get that pearl back.”
I stare at her in disbelief.
She tricked me!
She turns and swims off into the sea, and I turn toward the shore to face my destiny. I crawl on the sand and get myself as far inland as I can before I collapse from exhaustion. The waves are lapping at my tail when I finally stop crawling.
Chapter 4: Close Encounters
When I open my eyes, I see a man in a white suit with a large odd bubble upon his head stumbling toward me. He takes off the bubble mask, walks up to me and stares.
I stare back. He does not have gills and his eyes are not like mine. They are wild and bright blue. He seems hungry and dazed. He has a lot of hair on his face and burnt orange wavy hair hanging shaggy over his forehead.
His eyes pierce right through me. He cannot stop staring at me, looking at my body up and down in a way that I’ve never encountered. This is the first time in my life that I feel naked and self-conscious about my breasts, which he seems to stare at more than even my tail. I instinctively cover them.
I try to cover myself with sand but it just crumbles off.
“Jesus,” he says. looking down at me. I see drool coming down his lips, and it hangs from his dirty beard. “I haven’t seen anything or anyone, but you . . . are you real?”
I nod “yes” as I try to pile more wet sand on my breasts.
Now he is staring more at my tail than at my breasts. He falls to his knees and wraps his arms around me, sniffs at my tail, and begins chewing on it!
I flip my tail and try to squirm out of his grasp but his arms are too strong. He chews and chews. Pain shoots through my body in electric waves. He tears off big, jagged chunks of my flesh and licks his lips. He stops to look up at me as he swallows loudly. He wipes his sleeve across his dripping mouth.
I finally manage to squirm free and I crawl back toward the shore as fast as I can. I don’t take my eyes off him. My head swims with panic and confusion. I am dizzy and I am losing blood. I feel like I am going to faint. My fingers tingle with the pain that shoots up my spine from the tip of my tail.
My wound is throbbing and raw but after a few seconds of bleeding, it begins to clot and my tail begins to grow back. I flop my tail around a bit and find I can still move it perfectly fine.
“Holy shit, what the fuck are you?” he asks. The Sea Witch was right. He does not seem that much smarter than one of those giant oysters.
He looks down at my half-eaten tail that is in the middle of regenerating and then back up at my frightened face and my breasts. I cover my breasts with my hands and glare at him.
He doesn’t see me like the mermaids see each other. He sees me like I see the oysters. But now there is desire as well as hunger burning in his eyes.
He crawls toward me as if he is ready to pounce. I crawl backward as fast as I can. He grabs a handful of my hair and pulls me up.
He opens up a hole in his white suit and out pops what looks like a giant sea snake, but it is attached to him and it doesn’t move like a sea snake. He pries my mouth open with one hand and then slides his snake past my lips and into my throat. I gag and cough but he keeps pushing my head toward it, with handfuls of my hair clasped tightly in his grimy fists.
My first instinct is to bite and I bite down hard. He pulls out and slaps me hard across the face.
“Bitch!” he yells.
I start to cry and I try to crawl away but he grabs me again and holds my face between his enormous hands. He pries my mouth open again. I bite one of his fingers and he slaps me even harder across the face. I touch my cheek and stare at him in total shock. I have never had anyone treat me like this. No one has ever laid a hand on me. I don’t want him to hit me again, so, with tears still streaming I open my mouth and let him stick it in. He thrusts and thrusts and I start to choke. He won’t let go and I finally stop fighting it so I do not choke to death. Mucus is streaming from my nose and tears are blurring my vision and I feel like I am suffocating. I have no unobstructed hole left to breathe through while I am above the water.
My gills are useless on land.
His hips are pumping and his hands are grabbing my hair and pushing and pulling my head up and down faster and harder, splashing my head in and out of the water.
I start to suck like I suck up the oysters until the sea snake hardens and spits into my mouth. I swallow. It tastes like the sour lemon sea anemones that I used to love as a young mermaid. Something warm shoots out of me when I swallow.
He moans with pleasure.
He pushes me away and sits there looking dazed.
I look down into the water and I notice that I laid a large batch of eggs. They form a black pile that rises to the surface. He notices the pile and looks at me, startled once again. To my horror, he scoops up a handful with both his hands and starts eating the eggs.
I scream and try to block him with my body, but I am too weak and he just shoves me aside.
Everything goes black.
Chapter 5: Babies
“Fuck! Get them off me! It hurts. Owwww! They’re eating me . . . oh fuck. Stop them! Please!” the furry sea snake man screams.
I lift up my face. I wipe the sand from my eyes and I see my newborn babies. They are tiny mermaids with faces like mine, the size of sea horses with sharp teeth that are covered in blood. They are chewing on his ankles, calves, and buttocks. He screams again and slaps a few of them away as he jumps from foot to foot but there are far too many of them and they just chew and crawl their way up his legs like carnivorous crabs.
They swarm around his sea snake and the baggy sacs that bulge from the tangle of orange hair between his legs. He screams again and falls to the ground, swiping at them, but they dig in fast and are eating their way through the hairy, baggy sacs.
He screams and cries and spasms in the sand, releasing his bowels and contorting his face into a nightmarish howl.
The little ones go to his face and neck and eat. They attack his chest cavity next, chewing hungrily through his entrails.
They attack his head, first consuming the soft tissue of his eyeballs, and then burrowing inside his skull. They splash around happily and in the collecting pool of his brain blood and lap it up thirstily.
Cartoons in the Suicide Forest Page 9
