One Shots!

Sirens, not Mermaids.

The young maiden's feet felt frozen inside the barrel she was hiding in. The ship she snuck onto was swaying with the waves, making her uneasy and ready to vomit. Her dress was torn in places, and her apron was grimy because of another day at the low paying bakery she worked in.

Never again. Her dream was accomplished. She finally sailed the sea. Even if it is while hiding in a smelly barrel, she still did it. With this realization, she breathed out a long sigh. But stopped short when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Heavy. Searching for stowaways. Her heart stopped beating for a second. She daren't move. The heavy footsteps reached her barrel. The lid was ripped off. The maiden looked up to a bulky man who smelled like rancid cheese. He had a cigar in his mouth.

He sneered down at the girl, grabbed her by her hair, and pulled her out of the barrel roughly.

"A woman!? On my ship!?" He cried. "No place for bad luck here." 

The terrified girl was grabbed by the wrist and pulled to the main deck. She knew what would happen. She heard of young girls sneaking on board to stay with their fathers or husbands. They get thrown off. And are never found again.

But she didn't want to stay with her father. She didn't have a husband. She wanted to sail the sea. She wanted to smell the sea. Was that too much to ask? Was having a dream such a horrible thing to do?

The crew of the ship watched the girl with fascination. Another one, they thought. She shouldn't have snuck on in the first place. She should have known her place.

The bulky man grabbed the girl by the waist and lifted her high into the air. She didn't resist. She knew she couldn't. A small, malnourished, sixteen-year-old girl was no match for a fully grown man who eats nightmares for breakfast.

As she was hurled into the water, the only thought that came to her mind was, damn it.

When she fell into the water, the salty taste invaded her mouth. It went through her throat. It feltrough and scratchy. Her eyes were burning from the salty water pushing against them. She could feel her hands... Growing? With her eyes and mouth now tightly closed, she felt around the gaps between the fingers of her right hand. Webbed hands. Like a frog.

She felt something catch her. Arms. Human arms... Almost. She felt her body going against the water. She felt herself going to the surface. But she wasn't doing anything. Who was saving her? Someone on the ship? How could they have webbed hands too? Why do they have webbed hands? Why didn't she just drown?

As her head came above the water, she could see the blurry image of a woman's head over her. She wiped her eyes with her fingers and looked up. A woman, yes. But her skin was scaly. And green. Her eyes were upturned. She had white hair. Beautiful.

The girl reached a rock and quickly got out of the cold water and onto the gigantic rock. The girl saw that the woman was still in the water, staring at the girl sadly. She said under her breath, "Another one."

The girl was confused. Another what? Where did this woman come from? Why did she even bother to save her? What is she?

The girl looked at her own hands. Greenish purple. Scaled. Webbed. air was still the same, she noted, as she felt it. It was still its usual brown. If not a little longer.

The woman went back into the water. She had a green scaly body like her face, completely naked. The girl blushed in shame.

She didn't notice the woman beckoning to her to come in the water. The girl tried to get up and saw that two webbed feet came out the end of her dress. Her shoes were gone, probably ripped apart from the growing feet, just like her hands.

She jumped into the water and was shocked to see that she could breathe. Along with the other siren, the girl was swimming along the water very fast with the woman. The water wasn't as cold as it was when she fell inside at first.

She opened her mouth to speak, but instead of her usual voice, a sound came out that sounded like she had a very sore throat. The woman stopped her and said, "We are sirens. The scum that those sailors throw off their ships." Her voice sounded unusual but still beautiful.

"The women that are this way to take revenge. When we go into the waters, the sea goddess takes pity on us and turns us into creatures of the sea. Our voices are this way to charm sailors and lure them to their deaths. We live forever. You're still going through the transformation that will finish in a few moments. Whenever there are sailors nearby, we have our revenge. The ship that threw you off, another one of us lured the same man who hurled you off and he threw himself off the board along with two other men."

The girl was surprised and yet a little sad. So many girls were thrown off and turned into murderous monsters and she would be one too. But she felt as if fate had wanted her to avenge her humanity. Kill those sailors. Make them pay.

She could feel her own should turn dark. She opened her mouth and said in a voice that she couldn't recognize as her own, "There are more men on that ship. This will be fun."