Chapter 2: The Sea Witch
Samson swims out from under the dock and over to the beach where he pulls himself up onto the sand with his sharp nails. He knows the beach is one of the most dangerous places for any meres to be because they put themselves at risk of being seen or caught by humans. So he quickly works to dig a hole in the sand with his claws and buries the small offering bag into the hole. He covers it up with sand then draws seven ancient symbols into the sand around the hole in a circle to summon the sea witch.
He softly begins to sing in his Mercian language, and the words he sings call out for help. A crossroad demon named Diamond that specializes in making deals with mere folk hears his call. Only through sea shanties and crooked pirates of old have meres come to know Diamond as the sea witch from listening to humans tell tales about her. They've passed the stories about her around for centuries while travelling the seven seas. Meres believe the sea witch is a human not a demon and that is exactly what Diamond wants them to believe.
Samson finishes singing the summoning song and he looks around for a sign of her coming. Nothing happens for several moments so Samson sadly turns his tail to head back to the dock, but then the wind picks up again blowing tons of sand into the air in the shape of a funnel with a black cloud forming in the middle of a huge sand tornado.
Angelica fears for Samson's life when she sees this massive sand cloud form, but she wisely stays quiet under the dock until the sea witch finally appears as the sand dissipates. Angelica stares at the beautiful creature in human form that emerges out of the funnel cloud. She hasn't seen very many humans up close, especially female ones since usually mermaids seduce only the males at sea to give as sacrifices to Triton.
She has always been told by her older sisters that human females are incredibly hideous looking monsters that hate mermaids for their beauty and ability to steal human males away from them. Angelica is happily surprised that the sea witch is such a pretty human, but what she doesn't realize is that what stands before them on the beach is not human at all. Diamond's dark bluish black dress clings tightly to her damp curvy body and she smiles at Samson seductively as her eyes flash red. Her eyes splinter into the shapes of three dimensional diamonds that mesmerize the poor nervous merman as he watches her move closer.
Diamond: "How can I be of service tonight my pet?"
Diamond runs her long painted red nails through Samson's seaweed hair.
Samson: "I...I. uh my…"
Diamond: "Come on speak up I'm a very busy woman and I haven't got all night?"
Samson: "My um…name is…. My name is Samson. We've come a long way to seek out your help."
Diamond: "We?"
Samson nods at her nervously then turns his head towards the dock. Diamond follows Samson's eyes and spots Angelica in the water underneath it staring shyly back at them.
Diamond: "Ah I see it's a two for one special you want from me then."
Diamond cruelly smiles at them then motions at Angelica to join them on the beach. Angelica slowly moves closer wandering what the sea witch smells like up close.
On land the meres look nothing like humans at all. Their entire bodies are covered with scales and seaweed. Their gills are huge and their tails are very long. They have sharp teeth like vampires and their hair is made of dark green seaweed and wrapped up in seashells fastened together from the ocean floor.
All meres male and female have a front fish pouch on their torso like a kangaroo in which they can carry their mere babies or keep small weapons, and use to gather food or shells along the sea floor. Their pouches are made of two layers of skin and the inner thinner layer protects and covers up their sex organs from view. These organs are similar in size and shape to humans so meres are able to mate with humans, but only in special circumstances is mating with humans allowed. Triton forbids meres to mate with humans unless he gives them specific orders to do so.
Samson's torso is a quite large muscular one and his upper body is a hunter green while his tail is a dark brown typical of most merman soldiers. Their eyes can change many colors and change to reflect their emotions like a mood ring. Right now Samson is very nervous so his eyes turn yellowish in color.
Meres have excellent night vision and can see underwater even better than above it, especially mermen soldiers. Mermen can swim faster than almost everything under the sea except for Krakens and Nesses. Samson is a very fast swimmer and he use to be a lieutenant in Triton's navy until he fell in love with Angelica and went AWOL.
Angelica and her sister Serena ran away the night before Angelica was supposed to marry Mellanipos,a prince of Triton and head General of his navy. Angelica can't stand Mellanipos' cruelty and debauchery so she was determined never to marry him. Her youngest sister, Serena begged to come along too in fear that if Angelica left with Samson then she'd be forced to marry Mellanipos in her absence.
Angelica never wanted anything bad to happen to her little sister so she agreed to let Serena come and now an even worst fate has destroyed her. Diamond can tell Angelica is still very upset over her sister's death because her eyes have turned a deep blue and sparkle like sapphires under the moon.
Angelica holds back her tears as she moves closer to them and Diamond rubs Angelica's face with her hand.
Diamond: "You are stunning. I know who you are. You're one of Triton's girls aren't you?"
Angelica quietly nods and bows her head.
Diamond sighs then lets Angelica's face go.
Diamond: "Okay, so here's how this works my pets I will give you both a hundred years as humans and in exchange I need you to sing for me."
Angel: "What, but why only a hundred? As meres we can live up to three hundred."
Diamond rolls her eyes at the mermaid's whining.
Diamond: "Humans don't live that long so that's the deal sugar."
Angelica frowns at this news, but Samson speaks up.
Samson: "Wait, but there's more just listen."
Diamond: "He's right! There is more; I can erase all your bad memories as meres so you'll be totally safe and happy as humans. You just have to give me your soul when you die and sing for me whenever I ask. I will only ever ask you to sing for me once. Now, surely that's a fair deal for a happy free life."
Diamond smiles at them as she paces along the beach squishing the sand between her vessels bare feet.
Angelica: "You want our souls, but then what will happen to us when we die? I don't want to go to hell."
Diamond: "Honey, life is hell you haven't seen the worst of it yet trust me on this without your freedom you'd be just as miserable alive under the sea then as if you were dead so you have nothing to lose. But, because you are the daughter of the sea and have such an amazing voice I'm willing to make you a once in a lifetime special offer darling."
Diamond moves in close to whisper at them knowing that what she is about to say will get them to want to seal the deal.
Diamond: "I will find away to punish your father for what he did to your sister. I know how much you loved her."
Angelica perks up when she hears this news. She desperately wants revenge for her sister.
Angelica: "Really! Can you do that?"
Diamond: "Of course I can, but it may take several years. So in the mean time enjoy your new life on land and make sure to watch out for hunters."
Samson and Angelica both exchange confused glances.
Samson: "What's a hunter?
Diamond: "A fool! A festering pimple, no really plagues upon the land, hunters try to hunt down and kill special creatures like you just for the fun of it. They are cruel, nasty and stupid coach roaches so you shouldn't reveal to any humans what you once were. Most hunters don't believe meres even exist so you should be safe, but if they do figure out what you are it's best to kill them quickly and get out of town before more show up."
Samson nods at Diamond dutifully; he has helped kill many human pirates and fishermen as a soldier of the sea, so the idea of killing hunters doesn't bother him at all. Angelica however doesn't want to hurt anyone except for her father and she has never harmed any living creatures before so the thought of killing them disturbs her very much.
Diamond walks over and kneels right in front of Samson ready to make the deal.
Diamond: "So will you agree to my offer? This is your last chance."
Samson takes one last look at Angelica who still appears unsure so he makes the final decision.
He looks back at the demon.
Samson: "Yes, we accept!"
Diamond smiles at the handsome merman then grabs Samson's face in her hands and kisses him deeply.
Angelica doesn't like this so she looks away, but she keeps quiet until Diamond lets him go.
Samson still in a daze from the kiss immediately begins to change. His skin starts to crawl and ripples, then Samson's fins disappear and his tail begins to badly itch. He tries to scratch at it, but his sharp nails are already gone. His seaweed green hair turns brown and his green skin begins to look pale white.
The sand once again sweeps up into a cloud this time forming all around Samson. He closes his eyes, but Angelica gets sand in her eyes which she quickly tries to wipe away so she can see again. But, when she looks up Samson is gone from the beach.
Angelica: "Samson? Samson!"
Diamond: "You're turn sweetheart. It won't hurt much, but you may feel disoriented for awhile when you wake up."
Angelica: "But how will I find Samson?"
Diamond: "You two our soul mates that'll be easy just look for a tall muscular man with brown hair and pale skin when you get into town. He should be waiting for you at the Krusty Crab Diner in the second booth that is where I sent him so come on time to go."
Angelica doesn't like being left alone so she puckers her lips quickly and Diamond softly kisses them. Angelica closes her eyes tightly very scared to go through the transformation into a human, but when she opens them again Diamond is gone too and the sand cloud comes for her. She closes her eyes once more and falls into a deep sleep as her body changes.
The angel, Castiel appears on the beach an hour later with Serena. He resurrects the little mermaid and turns her into a human. He finds Angelica still asleep naked in her brand new human form. Castiel knows they will wake up soon so he touches their foreheads gently and sends these sisters twenty years into the future too protect them from harm.
One of his superiors named Kutiel, the angel of the sea has asked him to do this. Castiel does not know why these mermaids are so important to God or their angelic mission to prevent the apocalypse. Castiel simply obeys his orders and leaves the beach once more to return to his garrison without a word.
Diamond is furious when she realizes that Angelica has been stolen away from her somehow, but she assumes its Triton's doing not the work of angels. She has her own bitter past with Triton that stretches back for decades and Diamond has vowed revenge on the god. But, he is extremely powerful so she knows it will take a lot of power to defeat him. Diamond cannot kill him at sea, but she hopes to one day get Triton to come on land where he will be vulnerable enough to destroy. Turning his meres into humans is a great way to anger him and she's been doing it for years.
She decides that since Angelica is gone that she will change vessels and meet Samson at the Krusty Crab Diner herself pretending to be the new Angelica. These two make love in the diner's kitchen as humans for the first time and Samson becomes forever bonded to her without realizing what he has done. The two of them spend the next twenty years together and Samson does everything she wants him to.
Diamond continues to return to the beach of White Pelican Bay at the same time each year without Samson just to see if Triton has finally decided to come out of hiding. Every year more meres come there to make deals with her. She turns them into humans and they scatter across the world to do her biding and to live new lives on land. They all know to steer clear of large bodies of water; especially salt water for it can reveal what they once were in its reflection.
Also, Triton can see them in water like a mirror. The meres all fear one day he will find away too come after them if he knows what they look like in their new human form. Diamond on the other hand is counting on it.
When Triton doesn't come she returns to her Samson again year after year. But, the more meres she steals away from Triton the angrier the god of the sea becomes and the more humans he kills at sea. Most are eaten by his sea monsters that range from sharks to krakens, nesses even seagulls can become deadly when infused with Triton's supernatural power.
Some of these humans are taken to a special island where Triton's creatures can torture them until they are no longer humans, but become monsters ready to kill for him. The first fisherman ever to be taken to the island was named Jack Winchester and so the island became known as Winchester Isle. Jim dies on the island and is taken to heaven by Angelica's mother. She watches over the daughters of the sea waiting for the right opportunity to return for them.