Disclaimer: Don't own DP.

Wow, I was not expecting so much support regarding this story. I really, really appreciate that. Special thanks to Invader Johnny, The Fruit and the Loopy, ShadowDragon357, Reid Phantom, too enigmatic 2 b urs, marko37713, AgentMandark, amiraphantom, Rainosa, DeathBright, Tacolady22, WerewolfCrime, Kiomori, Guest, MahoganyShadow, elnine27, El0ndon, TrustyFoxy, and Lucky-the-cat for reviewing chapter one!

Please note that this story is rated T for violence and gore/disturbing images. The chapter below may contain triggers for some people.

Beyond the Depths

Chapter 2: The Creatures and Their Hunger

Thurston released his daughter and wife to grab an iron chair beside a table. His fingers shook as they wrapped hard around the armrests. "Stay behind me," he told his family, desperate fear echoing in his eyes. The merfolk had surrounded them on all sides— their open maws clamping on arms and legs. They swung their bone weapons down hard, crashing several victims to the ground.

Sam stood in shell-shock, eyes wide at the flashes of red, the spray of blood. The sounds of death cries and triumphant snarls rattled the air. It was massacre. She could hear clothes ripping, bones snapping. The beads and glitter of dresses ran red in the dark.

Nausea made her light-headed.

Her mother began to cry, her beautiful face streaking with mascara as she turned to Sam and threw her arms around her daughter. "Don't look, baby," she sobbed. "We're going to be just fine. Don't look."

The merfolk's clicking noises grew louder. The human crowd had dispersed to every area of the deck, cornered by predators. The clicks sounded like laughter, the chomps of their jaws against bone like death tolls. Fewer people were left to buffer the Mansons from the wrath of the merfolk.

Sam's fingers wrapped hard on her mother's arm. "We're dead," she breathed, purple eyes wide with knowledge. "Mom—!"

Her mind kept blitzing back to the images of merfolk strung up by their hands on the beaches, their bodies burnt and deformed. No, these beings couldn't be just killing machines. They were supposed to be innocent and beautiful. This whole scene was wrong. Everything was wrong!

Thurston brandished the chair before them as they began to back away towards to the door into the ship. "We need to get inside," he repeated, voice shaking. "Pamela, you and Sam—get inside now!"

Pamela was hysterical. "How?" she cried. "We're surrounded!"

Everything happened too quick—everyone was a blur of chaos. Sam realized that the status quo was not in her favor, and she and her family would die if she did nothing. "Dad, tell me what to do!" she begged, voice breaking. "I—what can we—how can we stop this?!"

Her father breathed, voice wavering, "We can't."

"Can we talk them down?" Sam demanded in fear.

Her mother looked terrified even by the idea. "Of course not! They're not even human!"

But Sam was not convinced. After a split second of indecision, she moved away from her parents, purple eyes blurred with tears. "Please!" she screamed to the wild mass. "Please, stop! We can talk this out!"

"Sam, no!" her father cried, but it was too late. Sam's screams had attracted attention.

One of the merfolk—a sleek female with blue, fiery hair—looked up from a motionless victim and then lunged forward. Sam froze. In a split second, Thurston stepped before Sam and crashed the wrought-iron chair against the mermaid's head, and the creature collapsed onto the deck, dazed. Her clawed hands and sharp jaws quivered strangely, as if in convulsion.

Sam stopped breathing, eyes wide. "Dad?"

"Get back!" he said. His trim arms were not designed for such brutality. He looked worn and afraid. He raised the chair to slam it one final time on the mermaid to ensure it would stay down. Bright, green blood was splattered on the chair legs in spots—the chair legs had scratched deep into the creature's back. Sam backed away, knees weak, heart pounding. "Oh my god," she cried. She looked at her father in awe and love and terror. "Dad."

"Get out of here!" he begged her. "You hear me? Get—"

Something slammed into him from the side, and it cut him off. It was a male creature. Its hair was green fire, and its skin looked almost metallic. It snarled hard and deliberately wrenched Thurston away from the blue-haired mermaid and down to the deck floor.

Pamela screamed, and Sam gasped as she watched her father struggle against the creature. Its fangs sunk deep into the man's arm as it dug a sawfish bone into the man's side. Thurston cried out. It was a strangled noise, gurgled. Something red welled from his lips.

Sam's mind tore in agony. "Dad!"

Pamela quickly raced forward and grabbed Sam, her shaking fingers pulling her close. "Sammikins," her mother cried as she raised a hastily-grabbed steak knife from a table and pushed it into Sam's shaking palm. "You're strong. You can make it."

Her breath hitched. "I don't know—w-what to do," she sobbed. Her fingers barely curled around the steak knife's wooden handle. "Mom—"

The mother squeezed her daughter one more time before she pushed her towards one of the doors back into the ship. "Run," she begged. "Baby, run!"

Sam tightened her hand around her mother's arm, almost mindless. "No!"

Pamela shoved her away again in a desperate attempt to save her. "Go!" she cried. "Inside the ship—hide!"

In the failure of her mind, Sam's legs began to obey of their own volition, and she turned around to run, only to miss the sight of a dark shadow latching onto her mother's bare leg and dragging her to the floor. Her father's body was now limp beneath the green male creature, something red and shining leeching out fast onto the deck.

Her mother's voice strangled in a scream of agony—then cut off.

Tears welled in Sam's eyes as she began to hyperventilate, gasping. The door. The door inside. She stumbled in the darkness, the screams of passengers ringing in her ears. She tripped over mauled bodies, the feasting merfolk too occupied to race after her. Her legs nearly tangled in her skirt. She felt the sting of danger with every step. She was entirely unprotected but for the slim steak knife clenched in her fist.

She was almost there. Almost there—almost—

As she reached for the glass door to the bar area, she did not see a black and white shadow trail after her. She grabbed onto the handle of the door and was about to swing it open when she caught a close reflection of something glowing behind her.

Sam turned around, and her heart stopped.

A young male creature was raised up on his tail to strike, his face twisted in hunger and mindless violence, black claws extended to attack.

In desperation, she swiped the steak knife at him and caught his shoulder. He hissed and pulled back, pain crossing his humanoid face. Bright green blood welled against his pale skin. Sam took the advantage to grab onto the door and slip inside into a staff kitchen and bar area.

Just as the door shut behind her, the creature lunged and thumped against the glass with an angry snarl.

Sam stopped, swallowing hard. For a second, she did not move, thinking the merboy did not have the intelligence to open a door. But then the doorknob turned, and she flipped around, grabbing at chairs, plates, anything to block the hall as she began to run again. The items crashed and cracked on the floor.

The merboy shoved his way through the open door, hissing in fury. His green eyes were glowing behind the wet straggles of his white hair, his neck gills and fins flared. A trill of hisses and clicks snapped from his jaws, and he lurched forward, his strong and lithe arms dragging his body through the wreckage of broken plates and chairs.

He was tracking Sam now. A dark smile twitched on his face, for he knew that Sam was alone and on the run. It was just a matter of time before she ran out of energy.

And then he would feast.

Not far ahead, Sam was openly crying as she held onto the steak knife tighter, pushing herself harder. "Help!" she screamed. As she pushed through the double doors from the kitchen into the main hall of the ship, she realized everything was abandoned. There were no staff members to be found. She could feel the creature closing in, and there was no longer movable objects —no plates or chairs—to use against him. "Somebody! Please!"

With a sob, she darted her wild eyes. It was the main floor of the deck, where there were music lounges and libraries. If she continued to run in a straight line, the merboy would inevitably catch up to her. She had to think of strategy. She had to figure out ways to slow him down and escape.

But the deeper she went into the ship, the more she had only the emergency lights to flicker up the path. They did little to raise her spirits. Even the rich oak panels that lined the cruise ship's halls meant nothing now, even though she had bemoaned them to her parents as a travesty against forests. She ran past them with little thought, her core directive overriding everything but survive survive survive—

Clicks and deep-throated snarls drew closer. The merboy's slick body and scales slid easily on the floor tiles, and he was pushing himself harder, closing the gap between them.

Without thinking, Sam grabbed onto a passing door. She yanked on the handle and nearly swung the door off the hinges. She quickly ran in and shut it behind her, and she heard the merboy slide on the tiles, sinking his claws in to slow down and reverse his path.

There was a lock on the inside of the door—it was meant to be a private room—and she turned it with shaking hands. Then she backed away to search for a solid hiding place. But it was just a private ballroom, lit only by a few emergency lights. A wide, empty space with an empty stage. "Shit," she breathed, eyes dilating again. She'd been hoping for a room with sharp metal in it. At least chairs. Anything. But even the lights were bolted down here.

Something banged into the wooden door from the outside. Sam flinched, heart pounding. The creature hadn't given up. She could hear its muffled growls. Bang.

Bang! The door began to splinter on its hinges. Bang!

Her heart stopped. There was no other weapon—no place to hide in the ballroom. So she did the only thing she could do. With shaking steps, she moved to the side of the door. She grabbed on tight to the steak knife. And she raised it up, waiting, trying to breathe.

Deep down, she began praying to anything and everything that she would survive. She felt sick and cornered. For the first time in her life, she was thinking of deliberately stabbing a living being to protect herself. But maybe she wouldn't have to kill him. Maybe she could just injure him enough so she could get away.

Bang! The door suddenly caved inwards in pieces, and from the wind of splinters emerged the slick, glowing body of the merboy in a fury.

She lunged. Out of the corner of his eye, the creature saw her. He twisted his body, narrowly avoiding her blade. With a quick move, he slapped the knife out of her hand, his trim muscles and wet skin like steel. She cried out at the sudden pain that radiated from her wrist, which crunched under his force. The knife clattered to the floor.

For one blip in time, she and the merboy were nearly face to face, both breathing hard.

The slits on his neck flared in and out. And she realized in that moment that there was no humanity within the creature's humanoid eyes. Only wild, manic need.

The muffled rage of the massacre from the deck still echoed in the background.

The sounds inspired the creature to lunge again. Without any other weapons, Sam grabbed onto the merboy's neck gills and pulled hard sideways, grimacing and crying against the pain radiating from her hand. A cry of his own tore from his throat as Sam's fingers dug into his sensitive flesh. He twisted his long and powerful tail around to slam into the back of her legs.

She teetered, but a hiss strangled from the creature's lips as Sam's fingers only dug deeper into his gills to remain balanced. In a last, desperate move, his black claws locked upon her forearms and swiped down hard.

Pain erupted along her skin and she gasped, letting him go. The creature collapsed hard to the ground, eyes wide in great pain, his gills flared and bruised green.

While the merboy was distracted, Sam looked down at her injured arms. Strong, red lines stood against her flesh, some of them seeping open with blood. This wasn't good. They burned with something greater than just cuts, and she winced.

Poison, she realized. Its claws had poison, much like the fins of several fish in the sea. And now that poison was in her blood.

In awe and horror, she froze, not sure if it were better to remain still and keep the poison from spreading, or try to finish off the creature and worry about the poison later.

The gasping merboy looked up at her, dazed from her attack. For a second, Sam thought that perhaps they had finally worn each other out. She had nearly choked him, and he had poisoned her. But then his body coiled, and he lunged at her leg, his sharp, razor teeth sinking deep into the soft tendons of her ankle.

She cried out, eyes widening as she faltered. He jerked her leg before she could regain her balance, and she crashed hard to the floor. In that second, the world blurred and slowed down. Her head smacked the floor; the wind flew from her lungs, and Sam grew limp, body shuddering.

The creature unlocked its jaws from her ankle and gave off some triumphant click, its cold breath icing the hot blood that was now running down her skin. It climbed on top of her to hold her down, although Sam was too exhausted, too shell-shocked and pained to fight back.

She gasped at its breath-stealing weight and how its claws dug into her arms. She could feel the heavy weight of its tail, slick like fish scales, against her own bare legs. Somewhere along the lines, the seams of her long dress had split.

"P-please," she begged, voice shaky. Tears began to blur her eyesight as she began to sob for herself, for her parents. "Please stop."

The merboy's white hair had raised up in wild locks, drying from his physical exertion in the open air. His skin and scales looked nearly dry. His strange colorings made him look almost angelic, but a damnably human smirk curled his bloody lips into something demonic. A full set of sharp, razor teeth smiled back down at her.

The intelligence in his electric green eyes, now that he had achieved his blood lust's goal, was sharp and calculating. The manic need in him was dark with options. Perhaps he was wondering how to best kill her off.

She latched onto that intelligence.

"You're not just a killer," Sam breathed desperately, voice shaky between sobs. "You don't have to be. It doesn't have to be like this."

His head tilted a bit. He looked surprised that she seemed to be trying to actively communicate with him. In his uncertainty, he bared his fangs at her and hissed again. She squeezed her eyes shut, fear exploding in her. His chest was pressed against hers. She imagined he could probably hear her heart beat, which felt as if it would explode.

At least her parents had gone quickly. She sobbed openly, begging him with her eyes for mercy. "This isn't how it's supposed to be," she cried. "Can you hear me? Do you understand me?"

He hesitated, pulling away from her neck, retracting his fangs. His green eyes narrowed at her, his black claws tightening on her wrists. He hissed again, his neck gills flaring. But his eyes were suddenly less filled with bloodlust and more with awareness. For the first time, it appeared as though the creature registered that it could actually understand her.

"I kn-know you're h-hungry," Sam whispered shakily. "Maybe I can h-help some other way?"

A wild moment passed, and the merboy stared at the human he had claimed as his food. He wondered in great curiosity why it was talking back. Food did not talk back. His tribe had explained that humans were not capable of real pain, or of real intelligence. And yet his food appeared capable of both.

As he hesitated, the last bead of salt water slipped from his skin. The ocean had dried out from his body, leaving him parched and dry, his scales and fins tightening up. He grimaced a bit at the discomfort of it, his gills flaring again.

And then something strange happened that not even the merboy had expected. A white, glowing light—like rings of stars—stormed down his entire body.

Everything changed.

His white hair bled black. His green eyes melted into blue. Fins, gills, and claws retracted into his skin, and his tale split into fleshy, pale legs. His strange transformation made him feel disoriented and imbalanced, and he was unable to control his weak body.

With a muffled cry, he collapsed on top of the human girl, trembling and wide-eyed.

A/N: Several mermaid legends express the concept of merfolk being able to revert to a human form by either taking off their tail skin or simply drying out. I have appropriated that concept here as a nod to Danny Fenton's canon status as a half-human. I also used inspiration from the movie Jaws to write this chapter, haha.

As an aside, the blue-haired mermaid and metallic merman were respectively a cameo of Ember and Skulker, who are sort of one of my favorite ghost couples to ship in normal canon. :)

Please leave me a review with your thoughts, comments, ideas, and requests! Thanks!