Sandy, a local marine biologist from a fishing town decided to visit the beach to test the water and since she hadn't gone in a while. She quickly packed what she would need and set off. As she walked alone the road to the beach she met up with one of her friends.

"Where are you off to? Doing another fish experiment?" The girl asked.

"In a way," Sandy replied. "I want to get a sample from the beach to see how much bacteria is in the water. After I do that, I want to go swimming."

"The beach? Hmm. Just make sure you don't go out too far, ok?"

"Why?"

"Dangers." Her friend said. "Being swept out to sea, sharks, mermaids." Sandy rolled her eyes in exasperation, her friend had always believed such nonsensical things.

"I can understand the other things, but mermaids? Seriously? It's a scientific fact that that they don't exist. It's fantasy. But I'll humor you and I won't go out too far." She turned away from her friend and continued her walk to the beach.

"Mermaids are real!" Her supernatural obsessed friend called after her. "And if you don't believe me, just you wait!"

Sandy arrived at the beach quickly and carefully set up her equipment. Soon, she had a couple of samples of the sea water and had it packed away safely in her equipment case. She then changed into her one piece bathing suit in the bathroom. When she was done, she walked back out to the beach and stepped into the water, which was cold, because it was fairly early in the morning. Since it was so early, she didn't expect to see anyone else at the beach, but this was not the case.

The person was a little ways to her right. She couldn't tell if the person was male or female, since the sun threw them into shadow. Sandy ignored them and swam a bit farther. However, she didn't notice that they were swimming closer to her- they had seen her too.

The young woman was chilling in the water (both figuratively and literally) when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Startled, she spun in the water and brought her fist up, ready to defend herself.

"Whoa! Careful! I'm just trying to say hi!" Sandy lowered her fist when she realized it was the person she had seen earlier. The 'person' in question was male, with light blonde hair, blue eyes, and a dark blue water suit. Sandy assumed he had it on because of the temperature of the water.

"Sorry. You startled me." She said sheepishly.

"I noticed that. Hi, I'm Rob."

"Sandy." They stood in the water awkwardly.

"Are you a good swimmer?" Rob asked.

"Pretty good. You?"

"One of the best." He said smugly, rubbing the knuckles on one of his hands on his chest.

"Yeah, right." She scoffed.

"It's true!"

"Prove it. Race?"

"You're on!"

They raced for a while with alternating wins and a few ties. Eventually they both got tired and just played and talked and splashed around. What they didn't notice was that as they were playing, they had drifted farther and farther out to sea. Finally, the two stopped splashing and avoiding each other to catch their breath. Unfortunately, Sandy took that moment to look at her waterproof watch and realized what time it was.

"Oh no!" she gasped.

"What's wrong?!"

"We've been out here for nearly two hours!"

"So? It's not like I have anything to do."

"Yeah, but I do! I have to leave!" Sandy moved to get out of the water.

"W-wait!" Rob cried. Sandy paused and turned back to him.

"What?"

"Will you come back tomorrow? Same time?" Sandy felt a small smile creep onto her face.

"I'll try. I might be a bit late, though."

"That's ok. I'm sometimes fashionably late to things too." With that, Sandy began swimming back to shore when a voice drew her back.

"Hey, Sandy?"

"Yeah?"

"Before you go, do you want to see something?" He asked, looking down into the water.

"Sure. What do you want to show me?" she asked as she swam back over to him.

"It's a fish. Maybe you can identify it? It's... Interesting."

"Absolutely!"

"'Kay, it swam a bit deeper. Follow me."

Rob then went under the water and Sandy followed him after taking a large gulp of air. When she went under, she expected Rob to be next to her, but she didn't see him. 'Where was he?' She thought as she looked around.

Wait. The fish he saw. Was it a shark? Or even a mermaid? Did whatever it was take him? She shook her head at her own silliness. Mermaids weren't real. After that conclusion, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She spun around quickly, hoping it was Rob. Relief flooded her when she found that it was indeed Rob. Unfortunately, her relief was short lived as she noticed something was off about him. He wasn't smiling. She cocked her head in a 'what's wrong?' kind of way. In reply, he pointed down.

Sandy felt her concern melt into fear as she saw what he was pointing to. Where his legs were supposed to be was a tail- a fish tail with shimmery gold scales on it. She whipped her eyes up towards his face and noticed that he was finally smiling. What unnerved her even more was the fact that his teeth were no longer normal. In their place were demonic looking fangs that were shining wickedly in the dark water.