It was a calm evening. The sky was orange and pink, covered in splashes of cloud, as we walked out to the beach in our swimsuits. The sun was closing in on the horizon. The ocean was still. No wind, no big waves. Everyone but Ramon and me had their knives. We were determined to get through this last part to claim our certificates. While we walked, our teacher told us:

  “Today you’ll meet a real mermaid. Don’t worry, I’ll be right here on the shore, observing. In case anything goes wrong, I’ll save you. Remember our lessons, especially our last ones. Try to hurt that beast as much as you can, and then get out. If you kill it, you all pass automatically.”

  “No, no killing!” the guys riled up. “I want to hurt it too!”

  “Chill out, boys,” Ramon said. “It won’t give up easily, remember.”

  There was nothing I could say that would make them change their minds. I didn’t want the creature to get hurt. Even if it had murdered people before, I was against it. I was scared for the mermaid I had yet to meet. I saw these guys turn into violent and ruthless men, gripping their knives in their fists like they were born with them. I stood back, hoping they would forget about me. They were so eager to get into the water, so ready to hurt someone. The rage and thrill in their eyes made me fear for my own life. I now hoped never to get into the water. I hoped they would skip my turn and I wouldn’t even have to see that creature. However, it would only happen if they killed it. I wasn’t ready for that either.

  Suddenly, we heard a familiar screech. It was coming from the horizon. We all stared as the peaceful ocean got ripples on its surface. Something was approaching us fast. I remembered that evening. That time an unknown thing pulled me underwater. It was a similar scream, a similar line on the water. And then we all saw it.

  Like a dolphin, it jumped out and above the surface. A creature with a lengthy body, skinny figure, and slim arms. A long, fairytale-style tail. It shimmered in the air under sunlight. Its scales reflecting light like silver. We couldn’t distinguish its face or claws, but we saw something we would never forget.

  The guys yelled in excitement, gripping their knives even tighter. All except Elias. The youngest of us crumpled. I could see his limbs soften. His fingers released the weapon, letting it drop into the sand. I watched his eyes water as he kept staring at the setting sun. I sneaked next to him.

  “Are you alright?” I asked.

  “What are we even doing here?” Elias whispered back. “To kill it… why? It’s so majestic, so… otherworldly.”

  I put my hand on his shoulder, joining him in the moment of realisation. Others jumped and cheered, arguing over who would go first. Elias and I stood there silently. Then I felt a disappointed gaze on me. I turned to see Ramon. He stared at us, squinting, as if considering how he should dispose of us. I stared back. I felt scared and powerless. My eyes were empty. I think he caught that in my gaze, because the next thing I knew, he turned to one of the others and commanded:

  “Diego, you’re first!”

  The guy gripped his knife, saluted our teacher, and ran into the ocean. We saw him swimming closer and closer to the mermaid that circled the water before us. We observed his confident strokes as he moved farther and farther away from us. Suddenly, his head disappeared. We could only see disturbance on the surface. Some kind of struggle was happening. Then Diego rose above the surface, taking a quick breath. He went back down just as quickly. We could hear the screeching of the mermaid as it made its sonic way out of the water, only slightly muffled by it. After a couple of minutes, Diego finally crawled to the shore. His body was covered in bruises and claw marks. He held his knife in his teeth while struggling to swim to safety. When he dropped at our feet in the shallow water, Ramon asked:

  “So? Did you get it?”

  “I tried… but no,” Diego replied, struggling to breathe. “It threw me against the rocks and hit me with its tail and claws, just like you said it would.”

  Now the others weren’t as sure of themselves. They kept looking at the monster in the depths, and at their friend. Horror started to set in.

  “Now is not the time to hesitate!” our teacher announced. “We must get that thing before it hurts someone else. Antonio, come on, you’re next!”

  The man shivered on hearing his name. Yet he went in. With every step deeper, he tried to look more confident to impress our leader. Changing from walk to swim, he made his way towards the beast. Then he disappeared. One moment he was swimming, and the next he was gone. We could see the water. And only that. Then the ocean spat out Antonio, like he was a disgusting piece of food. Something threw him above the surface, sending him to the shore like a pebble skipping off the water. He landed slightly away from us, crawling to our feet. Defeated and without his weapon, he struggled past us to the sand. He was beaten up, probably from meeting the rocks with his face like our friend before.

  It was Carlos’s turn. Ramon sent him in, and the guy ran there with the ferocity of a barbarian. With his knife, he jumped into the ocean, heading for the creature. The mermaid welcomed him by dragging him to the bottom. More struggle. More waves. More unnecessary violence. Carlos came up to the surface several times, gasping for brief moments of air. After a couple of minutes, we could see him swimming towards us. His brow was cut open, covering his right eye with blood. His body was covered in cuts, bruises, and bite marks. He managed to hold on to his knife but was exhausted after the encounter. He dropped in the shallow water, unable to utter a word.

  I saw Fabio shaking. His hands were trembling violently, and his knees were giving way beneath him. Elias looked the same. His eyes were teary. I knew both of them didn’t want to go through with it as much as I did.

  “Isaac, your turn!” a cunning voice proclaimed.

  My eyes widened. I had forgotten I wasn’t here as an observer. I had to face that creature if I wanted that stupid piece of paper. I didn’t argue. I didn’t say a word. Calmly, I walked into the ocean. Slowly, I felt water wrapping its waves around my body. I inhaled the fresh ocean breeze. I took a moment to feel the rays of the sunset on my face. Suddenly, I didn’t feel any fear anymore. All the damage that monster did to the others - how they shivered in exhaustion and pain - faded. I felt at peace. The gentle caress of the true mother of all humanity embraced me with the sweet lullaby of quiet waves. As I walked deeper and deeper, everything else disappeared and went away like a distant thought. My feet pushed my body off the sandy ground and into the swim. With slow strokes, I swam towards the sun. I forgot about the mermaid completely. Then I felt something like a current under me, hugging my body and pushing it. I gazed slightly down. Underwater, right under me, was that creature. He swam at my pace, staying right beneath me. It seemed he observed me as I tried to make out his shape. It wasn’t pulling me underwater. It wasn’t even attempting to get me. I swam a little more, then took a deep breath in and dived towards it. I couldn’t keep my eyes open because of the salty water, so I swam blind. I didn’t know where the mermaid went. I simply swam down. Down and down to the bottom. Nothing touched me, nothing approached. I was left alone. Yet I could feel some kind of presence, as if someone observed my actions. Suddenly, my hand touched the sand. I couldn’t believe it at first. I reached the bottom, where others were pulled against their will, by myself. I turned, standing on the sand with my legs. I wanted so badly to open my eyes, but I couldn’t. Then I felt the water around me get disturbed. Something swam around me slowly, pulling the flow after itself. Then I felt fingers touching my shoulder gently. I stood still. They slid over my shoulder, landing a palm after. Then I felt the tips of long claws on my arm. It was the mermaid. But he wasn’t trying to hurt me – rather, examine, explore, investigate. I thought it was time to move up, as I could feel my lungs slightly burn. I looked up, ready to start my ascent. However, the creature carefully placed its arms around my chest, taking me into a tender embrace, and started pulling me upwards. As it carried me up to the surface, I recognised its swimming pattern. It was gradual and deliberate, letting me relax into its tempo. I started following it. Mirroring his moves like I was taught. I felt the pressure of the water alleviate as I slid through in tandem with the mermaid. We reached the surface gently. It reminded me of my first encounter again. It was the same care I felt now. Back then, I was concerned because I didn’t know what was going on. However, now, I thought I understood. As I caught my breath, the creature waited patiently. I looked down at it. I saw its big eyes staring at me. I felt no fear, no worry. Nothing but serenity. I took another breath and went back to him. The same arms wrapped around my chest, and I could feel myself being carried away. The mermaid swam slowly. It held me fondly. I felt so light and at ease like never before. Then my face rose above the water. I took a slow exhale and breath in, holding it, ready to go back under. The ocean waves swallowed and accepted me with grace. I moved my body along with the mermaid. It was like we became one delicate mechanism.

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  Suddenly, my enjoyment turned into something more. The creature’s palms slid across my chest, tenderly touching my nipples. As one of his hands pressed on one nipple, the other kept wandering around my chest and stomach. I finally understood it all. It was a mating ritual, or something like that. I don’t know if it was the moves of his tail, his gentle hands, or the feeling of safety he radiated that hinted at the right conclusion, but I could never have imagined how that experience would end.

  As one of his hands glided closer and closer to my waist, I moved my hands slightly behind him and found his hips. As my fingertips touched his skin, I heard a quiet screech. It wasn’t as piercing as before. It was softer, almost like a slight moan. I touched his silky back with my hands, absolutely forgetting that I was underwater and needed to breathe. However, he brought me to the surface himself, as if knowing something I completely missed. I took another breath. Back under the safety of the ocean, I kept exploring his body with my fingers, while one of his hands reached to my partially aroused privates through the cloth of my swimsuit. He grabbed it carefully, rubbing it, pleasing me. When I was training to hold my breath, I never thought I would be holding in moans. Then I felt his tender lips on my cheek and chin. He was kissing me, touching me so gently, so attentively. I wanted to kiss him as well. I rotated in his arms, coming face to face with him. I wanted to see him, but I couldn’t. With one hand, I found his cheek and then lips. With the other, I kept exploring his chest. His nipples were especially sensitive. As I touched him and he touched me, we kissed. I loved the ocean, and now the ocean was loving me back. We swam faster now, hastily, as if we were about to reach some goal.

  I understood where we were headed only when I attempted to take a breath, forgetting we were underwater. Yet as I inhaled and air filled my lungs, I finally noticed sand under my hands and knees. I looked up. We were in a cradle of cliffs that embraced a small beach, shielding it from everything else. It was a closed-off part of the beach where people rarely hang around. Then I looked down. Big blue eyes with white stripes on their irises were staring at me. They were almost hypnotising. His short dark brown hair, still wet and covered in sand, looked a little out of place in comparison to his pale, greyish skin. Gills on his neck were opening and closing as he breathed fast. I don’t know what made me continue kissing him. The mouth filled with fangs didn’t discourage me. His lips, soft despite drying quickly in the summer air, tasted slightly salty. I felt his hand reaching to my swimsuit, untying the strings carefully, reaching in as the second hand pulled them down. I leaned a bit back to see what was going on. In the mermaid’s tail, I saw an opening. I had never seen it in Ramon’s images before. Inside, it seemed pink. The mermaid guided my movements. He took my aroused organ and put it to the edge of the opening, as if inviting me to continue. Slowly, I went in. It was warm and wet inside. Like the vagina of a woman during sex. I moved gently. I wanted to show him the same care he showed me. I saw the mermaid react to my actions. He exhaled abruptly as I went in. And as I moved in and out, he moaned. The same quiet shriek, sounding as a sign of pleasure. It felt so wrong and so right at the same time. It was a male, and it was a mermaid. I never asked him his name. I didn’t know him at all. I was pushed into the water under the impression I might die, and now I was actively having sex with a male mermaid. But I couldn’t care less. Though my mind was in disarray, my actions were precise and deliberate. I kissed him, touched him, fucked him. Delicately, slowly, fondly. Then he reached to my hips, pushing them, providing me with a new, faster tempo. It felt so good. His moans, the way he arched his back. I couldn’t hold it any longer. Suddenly, I felt his opening tighten. The mermaid exhaled another moan, louder. He squeezed my arms tightly. I kept moving. I was so close as well. Only seconds later, I felt a wave of released pressure. I came inside that mermaid, and I was so glad I did.

  I hung over him, holding myself up on my arms. I was still inside him. We both breathed heavily, staring at each other with hazy eyes. I pulled out. The opening closed after me, hiding itself as if it was never there. I sat on his tail, staring at him. Finally, I noticed that the scales of said tail had spikes. Yet it wasn’t sharp at all. It was as if they softened at the mermaid’s command, allowing me to participate in the action safely. When I caught my breath and reason came back to my brain, I stood up. As I was pulling my swimsuit up and tying the strings, the mermaid sat up. He looked at me and said:

  “Thank you.”

  With those words, he jumped back into the water and disappeared into the ocean. I stood there, shocked. He spoke to me. In my language. I understood him. I stared into the water, mesmerised. So many things didn’t make sense.

  Suddenly, I felt two hands grabbing me by my shoulders and shaking me back to reality. I blinked, getting a sense of direction. Ramon was shaking me and yelling something.

  “Did you come inside it?” he screamed again, questioning.

  His eyes were wild. He was fuming with rage.

  “What?” I asked, still barely comprehending.

  “If you came inside him, he’ll make more monsters like him, idiot! He’ll make babies, do you understand?!”

  My teacher kept shaking me, yelling, and slapping my face while I stared at the horizon, still thinking of that mermaid. He had such beautiful eyes. The way he touched me so thoughtfully. The sex… I felt confused and satisfied. I thought I would forever wonder what it was.

  Finally, a firm punch to my jaw broke all the illusions. Ramon kept yelling at me for ruining the day. In his words, I didn’t just rob the others of a kill but also ruined his day by getting to the mermaid first. Then it clicked.

  “You wanted to fuck him yourself,” I said, realising.

  Ramon shut his mouth. His eyes told me everything I needed to know.

  “You wanted us to wear him out and then use him, didn’t you?” I continued, “You wouldn’t give him what he wanted so that he would come back. You piece of disgusting—”

  My rant was interrupted by a fist to my face. I felt all the rage transferred through it, channelled right into one blow. Then Ramon turned around and started walking away. Like a puppy, I followed him to the main beach where everyone waited. I thought he would tell them what happen. Make them laugh at me. Instead…

  “Well, the rest of you are unlucky. Isaac scared that monster away. Fabio, Elias, you pass automatically.”

  The guys cheered tiredly. The two left unharmed exhaled with relief. We left the beach together that evening. No one drowned. I wondered why the mermaid chose me. Once again, I was spared the suffering of a gruesome death or injury, instead gifted the time I would never forget. I was so bewildered by it. Why was it me?