The hunters and Rowan waited in silence for almost an hour until there was any sign if the supernatural creatures. The cold seeped into Rowan's bones and if his mother didn't elbow him every five minutes, he would have drifted in and out of sleep.
"There!" Wez hissed, wrenching the light to the left. The bright beam landed on the spot, just in time to see a ripple and a splash of something that dipped out of sight.
Mandy scuttled to the side and pointed the spear in the direction of the light. Her eyes never blinked. She was as still as an animal who stalked their prey.
Rowan didn't move. The violence part was the part he was dreading the most. The Thalassic Mortals had been killing people, but his mother's methods to kill the first one she saw was grossly flawed. They had no way of knowing if the creature they killed had harmed humans. Rowan was glad he wasn't handed a spear but watching made him feel just as guilty.
Mandy was always seething with revenge on every hunt. She despised the Thalassic Mortals ever since her 29th birthday.
Bo was at the back of the boat next to the engine, also armed with a long spear, ready to pull the trigger.
They waited in silence. Nobody moved. Rowan was very aware of the lack of noise, so he focused on calming his breathing and scanning his surroundings. Then suddenly, they heard it. The sound was like a muffled shotgun, almost as if one had been fired underwater. Rowan was educated enough to know that it was the creatures moving unnaturally fast.
When it grew louder, Mandy swiftly moved to her right and pulled her trigger. The spear shot into the water just as a Thalassic Mortal surfaced to dive at the boat.
That was the first time Rowan saw a Thalassic Mortal in the flesh. He had only seen the creature for a few seconds before it sank back into the water. Rowan only ever saw them in drawings, and he was surprised by how much they looked like humans.
His mother had drawn them to look like monsters with dark devil-like eyes, distorted faces, claws, fangs, and anger. The Thalassic Mortal Mandy had impaled had beautiful dark skin, long black hair, and a human face of a woman in her late twenties. Though the Mortal did have sharp teeth, they were not protruding out of her mouth like in his mother's drawings.
Wez reached for a switch, and the light brightened and shone all around the boat for at least five metres.
Rowan's heart wanted to burst. His eyes darted to each face staring back at them from the water. The boat was surrounded.
Rowan could only see from their mid nose and upwards. Each Thalassic Mortal had brightly coloured eyes that reflected the light like a cat. He could see the scales from their tails shimmering beneath the water.
"No sudden movements," Mandy whispered. She had already replaced her spear, though it was clear she hadn't expected more than a few of the sea mortals to show. Almost ten surrounded the boat. Mandy and her team were not the only ones out hunting tonight.
Rowan's hand slowly moved towards the bag full of more spears. He didn't want to use them, but he had to protect himself.
"Wez, call for backup, and push the button," Mandy whispered, not daring to blink. Her heart crashed against her ribs. Her main priority was her son. She would fight until the end if it meant that Rowan could live another day.
Not even the wind made a single sound as the boat gently rocked back and forth. Rowan kept reaching for the spear until his hand felt the end of the raw wood. As slowly as he could, without taking his eyes of the heads in the water, he pulled the spear from the bag.
Rowan didn't realise he was holding his breath until the bag started tipping and the spears fell to the hard boat floor, making a noise that wouldn't usually sound so loud. Bo spun around because the sound startled him, and a Thalassic being jumped for him before Rowan even had time to release his breath.
The boat rocked dangerously when one of the creatures dragged Bo from the boat and under the waves alarmingly fast. Rowan shoved his back to the boat's side, mainly because his mother forced herself in front of him.
All Rowan could hear over and over was Bo's scream before the water silenced him. He didn't resurface, and the panic set in. Rowan could die just as quickly.
Mandy had been trained for an ambush, and the boat was designed to keep her and her team alive. She made eye contact with Wez, knowing Bo was long gone. With a single nod to the head, Wez pressed a button, and over thirty spears cut through the water from underneath, impaling the creatures who surrounded them. While they cried in agony, Mandy threw herself across the floor and turned the engine back on.
The boat roared into action, but the injury free Thalassic Mortals acted fast. The boat had barely moved a foot before a webbed hand latched onto Mandy's arm and nails dug into her wrist. Mandy cried in pain and lifted her boot.
Rowan looked away when she kicked the Thalassic being in the head. A freakish noise escaped the creature who looked just like a human man, and he let go of Mandy and fell into the water.
"That duffel bag!" Mandy screeched, and Wez kicked it to her. Rowan watched in shock as his mother's veins started turning black. She had been poisoned and only had thirty seconds until it paralysed her. Mandy always carried the cure to the sea creatures poison in liquid form so that she could inject it into her bloodstream.
Rowan knew what would happen to his mother, so he quickly caught her and moved her to the wet floor before she fell out of the boat. The poison would paralyse her anyway, but the liquid she had injected into her wrist would stop it from killing her, and she would be able to move again in a few hours.
"ROWAN!" Wez yelled while the eighteen-year-old rested his mother's head on a bag. Rowan looked up as Wez threw his mother's spear device at him. Rowan caught it before it could hit him in the face, and he turned to where Wez was pointing.
Two Thalassic Mortals chased the boat. They could swim faster than the engine and Rowan didn't doubt that they were taunting them.
"Shoot!" Wez yelled, swerving the boat, hoping to catch one of the creatures in the propeller underneath. "Rowan, shoot! Now!"
Rowan lifted the device and aimed it the way he had been trained. He pointed it at the creature in the water. He could only see one now and hoped the other one had given up. Rowan didn't want to shoot, but if he didn't, the creature would most likely kill him, and they had a better chance of survival if he could just pull the trigger.
"Now!" Wez screamed, so Rowan did. The spear shot from the device and sliced through the water, straight into the creature's tail. It screeched in such a high-pitched noise that Rowan dropped the weapon to cover his ears. That's when the other creature made their appearance.
Rowan could barely take a breath until hands latched onto his thighs and dug their nails in through Rowan's wellington boot. He flinched and punched the Thalassic Mortal in the face. The creature almost fell and dragged Rowan with him, but the creature latched onto the side of the boat instead of his leg.
Rowan acted fast and picked up his mother's spear device and quickly slotted another spear into place. He lifted it and aimed for the supernatural creature staring back at him. The Thalassic Mortal looked his age. Everything about him was human until his waist, and his skin blended perfectly into beautiful scales that changed colour when the light hit them. His tail curled around the boat, and Rowan was half mesmerised and half terrified.
The spear pointed at the creature's head, and Wez screamed at him to pull the trigger. Rowan's mother lay paralysed on the floor, but if she could move, she would have killed the Thalassic Mortal in an instant. Rowan wasn't his mother.
"Go!" Rowan shouted with as much power as he could. "Leave us alone, or I will shoot this thing!" He had to yell over the noise of the engine, but the Thalassic Mortal heard him because he smiled, showing his sharp teeth. "I mean it!" Rowan yelled.
Either the Thalassic Mortal didn't believe him, or he didn't care because he lunged for Rowan, and Rowan was forced to pull the trigger.
The creature moved a few inches to the left in time to let the spear skin his arm and not impale his head. Rowan almost stepped on his mother while fumbling around with another spear. The Thalassic Mortal was given enough time to grab the human again.
This time, the creature's nails dug into Rowan's skin, poisoning him. Rowan cried out and tried to kick him as his mother had done, but it was too late. The Sea Mortal wrapped an arm around Rowan's boot and uncoiled his tail from the side of the boat, pulling Rowan into the water.
"Rowan!" Wez yelled and spun the light around, frantically searching the water. He couldn't hear anything other than the engine and saw nothing but ripples from the boat. It happened so fast. The eighteen-year-old was gone, just like Bo. "I'm sorry Mandy. I'm sorry," he breathed, and instead of turning the boat around again, he moved back towards the cliffs and to the shore. "I'm so sorry."
All Mandy could do was scream for her son who had been dragged away under the waves.