Merman

I felt him staring at me across the damp sand and starred sky and I raised my head to see him, drifting, alone and carelessly, in the slick black of the dark ocean water. His face and chest gleamed above the still, undisturbed surface, his pale skin glittering almost iridescently beneath the glowing moon. His black hair shimmered with undertones of the midnight sky as it draped like silk around his chiseled frame and disappeared behind him into the water. His eyes, the deep drowning blue of the nighttime sea, shone through the dark night sky, searching for and finding me, holding me in the intimate gaze shared between lovers. The wind roared with the dull hush of ocean waves; I inhaled the scent of salty rain and a flower whose name I did not know as we embraced inside my mind. My dark lover raised his long, webbed fingers to his lips and gently pressed into his fingertips a sweet kiss. Wordlessly he set it free to float, gliding on the evening breeze to greet me where I sat on the alone on the waiting shore.
Even as a child I had been comforted by this dark stranger. His shining eyes had haunted me from the waters, his pale skin and gleaming hair reflecting the moonlight as he sang melancholy lullabies to which I drifted to sleep. When I swam, his deep voice echoed through the depths, calling lovingly to me as I searched for him. Sometimes I would feel him behind me and I would turn anxiously, only to find nothing in the place he would have been, the underwater still tinkling with the sounds of his laughter. As I grew I began to adore him, and now, as a woman, I found myself hopelessly in love with my mysterious friend.

I closed my eyes when the kiss, like the soft breeze of the rippling sea, brushed faintly across my parted lips. When I opened them he was closer, laying on his stomach in the shallow tide, his glistening body bathed in a film of seawater and moonlight. I had never seen him this closely, and was amazed at the unearthly beauty lying before me. The waves washed silently over him, then drew back to reveal his entire form, leaving his flowing hair swirling in the receding water. The fair flesh that rippled down his muscled back did not part to become a pair of legs, but faded and became a thick tail of wet scales that sparkled like a blanket of shining blue diamonds. My heart quickened when I saw him fully, but I was unafraid and as calm as the gentle tide lapping at the sleepy shore. The merman began to sing to me the melody of the ocean, deep and thick, and I felt myself drawn to its beauty.

“Come,” his voice resonated inside my mind as his song filled the night sky. He opened his outstretched palm to reveal a string of radiant pearls, almost blindingly luminous in the glow of the stars. He flipped his tail playfully and slipped backwards, leaving only his naked upper body bared above the smooth waters. “Come to me,” he echoed, his sparkling sapphire eyes never leaving my own amber ones, dull and empty compared to his even as they wept at his splendor.

I stood on the powdery beach, my long auburn hair dancing in the wind as I untied the belt of my robe and let it fall to a puddle on the ground at my feet. I faced him, unashamed of my own nakedness and he smiled at me from across the water. I walked slowly towards the edge of the sands, saying good-bye with every step, knowing with a strange peace that I would never stand on the earth again.

The ocean was warm as my feet slipped beneath the tide. I kept my eyes locked on my beautiful lover as I waded deeper, the warm waters wrapping me in their arms of wet welcome. Gradually my legs left the ground, and I paddled them to stay afloat as I swam further to meet the man in the water. I looked back the way I had come, but the beach was gone, replaced by smooth dark water as far as my eyes could see. The stars reflected off the rippling surface, leaving millions of tiny white pinpoints glittering like jewels afloat on the sea.

Finally, I reached him and the air stilled as we studied each other. The drowning blue eyes I had seen for so many nights I now saw had no pupils, but were entire orbs of sapphire blue. His nose was shaped like mine, yet as I watched he did not breathe the salted air. His wide lips were stained a red so dark they were almost purple and his teeth matched the pearly whiteness of oyster’s pearls. His long black hair was streaked with shining highlights of blue, and though I knew it to be wet, it was soft and almost dry to the touch. The flesh of his body was the iridescent paleness of sea shells, so white it reflected the colors of everything around him; the scales of his tail slick under my wandering hands. He was quiet as I explored him, his own hands running along the length of my body, tenderly studying my legs and the secret places of my womanhood. His silken fingers slipped inside me and I gasped, pulling him close to me.

The merman’s eyes widened and he brushed his lips across my forehead, his free hand gently petting my face as underwater he continued to stroke me, softly and slowly. He laughed when he brought me, my body wrapped around his as I shuddered against him in my pleasure. “Mine?” he asked, gazing questioningly into my unfocused eyes.

“Yes,” I answered him, breathing heavily, “yours.”

From beneath the water he lifted the string of pearls he had held in offering to me before. “Look,” he said, holding the strand before my eyes. The pearls blazed in the darkness like a rope of tiny suns, my eyes were blinded by their light, but I did not look away as my vision turned black. Suddenly, a burst of amber light relit the world before me, the pearl’s lighting filling my eyes. My merman smiled as he tied the necklace to my neck. “Now you can see,” he explained, and I knew my eyes glowed with the same magical light as his. The pearl necklace tingled where it lay against my throat, and I lifted my arms as I watched my flesh take on the shimmering iridescence of his. The new skin spilled down my body, my dull pallid flesh washing away as it echoed the radiance of the merman’s. I cried out when it reached my hips and began to run downward, my legs burning and twisting painfully in the water. “Do not be afraid,” the merman whispered, wrapping me in his arms; I felt his peace and was calmed, the pain in my body becoming numbed and warm. Through the glowing underwater light I saw my skin begin to melt and reknit itself into dozens of tiny diamonds, the glittering shine of my transformation pouring over them, streaking them red and leaving me with a mermaid’s tale that sparkled like a skirt of rubies beneath me.

The merman shrieked with excitement as the remaining pieces of my human form vanished and I was left as he, a stunning creature of the sea. He twirled me in his arms, laughing and splashing the water, and I laughed with him, our joyous mirth ringing in the night sky like bells in the wind. Amid the laughter our lips met, and my lover kissed me passionately, the scent of the sea sliding down my throat like a sweet warm drink. He kissed me until I was breathless, but even as I tried to pull away he held me tighter, trapping me in his embrace and kissing me deeper. I began to choke and my vision dimmed as I felt my human life leaving me, rising upwards through my body towards his sucking lips. Abruptly, he let go, and a small glowing orb fell from my gasping lips and landed in his palm, its light strange and blinking. The merman smiled at me once more and pointed to the sky; he threw the last bit of my humanity with all his might and it flew higher, taking its place amongst the host of stars that twinkled in the nighttime sky.

“Now we will live together beneath the sea,” he said, “Come.”

I nodded at my merman and then, hand in hand, we lowered down into the crystal water, swimming effortlessly into the deep where my new home waited below.