TOXIC LOVE
The net twitched as his eyes were slowly getting shut, the night was finally getting to him. He moved tiredly and started pulling his net. That's when a sudden jerk made his half sleepy eyes, flung wide open. The jerk rocked his boat, forcing him to use all his generational experience to not let the boat topple into the water. The pressure was surely coming from the net. Something bigger than his normal sea side fishes was caught and he had no intentions of leaving it behind. He mustered all his strength and pulled, only to feel a bewildering force from down under too and with one fell swoop, the net bursted open while coming out of the waters, sprinkling fishes all over the glistening sky. The net was obliterated by the force. All his hard work came crashing down, as the fishes rain over his boat which were thrown out of the water due to the tug of war. He pulled his net over, as he knew he have to start retreating from the waters as the thing, which surely was hurt by the incident right now, might turn and attack him again. He turned the boat and sailed over to the shore. At least the fishes which rained over his boat were there to make this fishing trip, not a complete failure. He inspected the fishes and soon was left frowning. All the fishes were chomped and damaged. The odd thing about that was, the bite marks were smaller, and not as big as he expected from something so big whoch made his net shatter like that. The teeth marks were sharp like a pirhana bite, but pirhanas were never found in this part of the sea. A cloud of mystery creeped into his brain. Something was there, which he never expected, but now, he wanted to find the answer to this puzzle.
For weeks he sailed into the sea at midnight, in a search for an answer, but the only thing he could find was disappointment. Constant disappointment always is followed by questioning of our choices. He was on the brink of leaving his wild goose chase when suddenly one night, he finally found the enigma. It was when he returned from another fruitless search at night. As he pulled his boat out of the waters, he heard a humming. A soothing, mellow humming, filling the air with sweet scent of calmness. His body moved on its own. Chasing the sound, he walked into an isolated part of the seashore. Along the sealine was a big rock. Above the rock, he saw a magical scene. Under the moonlight, a glimmering outline of long black hair was seen, hair soo long and dense, it covered the body from the back and flowed over the rock like a waterfall. Checking his footsteps so he didn't made noise, he moved forward and forward. Something in his mind told him that it is safe to approach. The stars alligned above him and the thing perfectly as he reached to an angle from where he could see what is the enigma finally. The eyes widened with each step he took as the image in front of him was just like a page from a fairy tale. The cascade of hair was originating from an unbelievably gorgeous face, with big blue eyes and chiseled face. The face had a body with curves, so effortless and elegant, like the sea itself carved her with soft touch of it's waves. And below that mesmerizing body, was a shimmering coat of scales originating just below her navel stretching towards a fin which rested beautifully on the rock. The scales were blueish green which shone golden wherever the moonlight graced her body. Mesmerized by her voice and her beauty, he kept coming closer and closer untill she noticed him. At the very first sight of him, she stopped humming and jumped into the sea, her tail splashing water onto his face, blinding him for a second. Like magic, the gorgeous enigma of his was now gone but he was not done yet. Everynight from that night, he wandered around the sea shore, chasing the soulful humming of that magical creature. Sometimes on that very place, sometimes on some other place, he listened to her voice, standing patiently away from her gaze. Little did he knew that the thing he followed already knew about his presence. Soon the creature too was comfortable around his gaze. And one night, after finishing her humming, she turned towards Joe, gave her a heartfelt smile and jumped elegantly into the water. That smile was all he needed, that smile was all he craved for, that smile is what made him confident to approach her next night.
The next night was special. Joe followed the daily routine of his and reached the spot where she was humming a vibe. The humming felt warm tonight, as he approached her. Her name was Helen. She was a mermaid. A magical creature from the sea, only believed to be true in pages of mythology. They talked for hours sitting at the very rock they encountered each other for the first time. She wasn't humming but the aura was melting into a sweet symphony around them. The sea was the conductor of this orchestra of love. The waves, and the stars above them, made the moment sparkling with magic. From that night onwards, Joe only was interested in the nights. The time he was with her was the only thing that gave him meaning. Slowly and gradually love blossomed between them. It was in the pages of a fairy tale he was living in, but who knew this fairy tale was just the first act of a horror story.
The magical love story of Helen and Joe was beautiful. Upon talking, Joe discovered that it was Helen who was caught by him, with the fishes when she was having a meal. It all felt like fate. Like they were meant to meet each other. For days after that, they met in nights. After that, Helen started accompanying her love in his fishing trips in the mornings. She instructed him where to catch fishes and made the fishes below follow her to his nets. The high end gadgets of other fishermens were no match for a magical creature. Joe was living his best life and so did Helen. But when things go peacefully for a long time, be prepared for a storm. And storm is what both of them got. The other fishermens were confused and jealous of Joe eventually. They couldn't understand that how a meager fishing net was outmatching their modern techniques. One day, one of them followed Joe and witnessed the paranormal entity which was outskilling their technology. His brain melted at the sight of Helen leaning over Joe's humble boat and kissing. As his brain regained consciousness, vices creeped into his thoughts. The discovery of a mermaid will break the world's perception of what was possible. And the person who brings one to the naked eyes of the society will become famous in the hostory of mankind. Following his thoughts he reached for his harpoon, aimed at her and shoot! His eyes were clouded by amazement and his hands were shaking with excitement. Due to this he missed but his shot grabbed both, Joe and Helen's attention. Joe screamed, "Run Helen!" As with wide arms he stood like a shield to protect his love. Trembling Helen, dived into the water and started descending when she heard a scream. No doubt it was Joe's. She turned towards the boat above and saw red diffusing into the clear blue. She propelled herself towards the boat with everything she had only to notice that the other fisherman shot another harpoon shot which pierced Joe's shoulder. The sight of his loved one being hurt broke something inside her. The gorgeous blue eyes suddenly turned red. The pupil became slit like. The gorgeous face slowly turnes into a horrendous sight. " No Helen. Calm down." Joe tried to calm her , stop this metamorphosis of her. But it was too late. She turns towards the other fisherman who was too stunned now to move. Looking straight into his eyes Helen shrieks in anger. Her teeths also transformed into something like a pirhanas, sharp as knives. She calmly placed Joe onto his boat and dives into the water, breaking the trance the other fisherman was in watching her transform. He knew he was in trouble and turned to reload his harpoon. His hands were shaking uncontrollably and as he turns, he finds her right in front of him. Her eyes delivered the message. No words were needed. He knew it was his end. She grabs him by the neck and inserts his sharp teeths into his soft neck, ripping his head apart. As blood made the water around the boat red, Helen turns back to her gorgeous self and looks at Joe. Joe watched everything with horror in his eyes. Though what she did was because of him, this horrendous side of her was never seen by him before. But in his logical mind he was happy that the only one who saw him and her was gone and she don't have to change into this form again. He was soo wrong.
The human blood was like a revelation for Helen. No matter how much she ignored, the scent, the taste was like a drug to her. She never told Joe about this, but she was fighting in her mind with her own vices. Slowly the temptation was too much to handle and from that day the incidents started. Helen helped Joe in the morning and then went missing in the evening, only to be found humming at night by Joe at her usual spot. Soon the news of fishermens going missing started revolving around the shore. People were terrified, scared of a predator which suddenly emerged in a rather calm sea line. Joe also got the news. Everyday someone was going missing in the seas. Joe had an answer to all of this, but he chose to be blinded by love and kept his mouth shut. Every night, when Helen returned, the humming became eerier and eerier. Her golden shine of scales were stained with slight red which Joe noticed but always chose to ignore. He was scared his fairy tale might end because of this. He chose to believe another answer to these tragedies, he chose to neglect the obvious,he chose to be silent for the sake of his love. But that was what made it worse.
The news of disappearances grew and grew and most people stopped sailing into the sea. One evening Joe was sitting calmly on the beach when he heard a shrill cry coming from the shore. He ran towards it to find a lady holding a severed hand in her hand. Her small baby girl was also with her wailing. As he approached her, she told him that her husband was a fisherman just like him and sailed for fishes. His boat was found stranded in the middle of the sea, bloodied and with only this hand left which had a ring. No doubt it was his. Listening to their cries, Joe's clouded mind finally got cleared. If he had confronted Helen earlier about this earlier, if he had told people about her earlier, if he took a stand about this earlier, maybe this small girl, who is crying helplessly, would have been smiling, holding the very hand which is now a dreadful core memory to her. That night, when Helen came, Joe confronted her. With a stern he asks about what she was doing in the evenings and about the disappearances. She smirked. The aura around her was not at all warm now. Joe felt a chilly sensation creeping around his spine. " Well all those people saw me. You don't want me by your side? I had to kill them, otherwise they would have hunted me. You don't want that right?" She said looking away from his eyes. Joe understood it was beyond repair. He found a sharp edge of the rock and grazed his hand over it, making it bleed. As soon as the smell reached Helen, her eyes switched to red, the horrific memory of this side of her was manifesting in front of Joe. Even the smell of human's blood made her go crazy. He showed it's his blood and urged Helen to calm down. The smell was too much for her, her normal teeths were gone now. Only thing his mind focused on was blood and even when Joe was calling to her angelic self, her beast side conquered her consciousness and she plants her sharp teeths into his neck. Tears start gushing down Joe's eyes as he grabs her with both his arms as she chomps into his neck. Even then all the pain he felt was not from his neck but from his heart. That's when Joe screams his last words, " NOW " . A harpoon came out of nowhere and pierced through both Joe and Helen. A shooting pain makes Helen realize what just happened as people start emerging from behind the bushes. She shrieks in pain as her eyes slowly turns back to blue. She looks down to find a harpoon going straight through Joe and her body. She looks at Joe and realizes what she had done to him. The pain of what she did was way much more than the pain of dying. She screamed in pain as Joe's blood squirted continuosly over her face. With all the life left in him , Joe lifts his hand and one last time caress her beautiful face. On a night, just like when they met. On the place, just where they met, their fairy tale comes to an end.
Love is pure, love is magical, love is the best feeling we are embedded with. But what if the love of one is affecting other people's life? What if love is the seed which breeds destruction. Is love an excuse to do bad things? Is love always right? It was love which made Joe blind. Blind to the wrong doings of Helen. Blind to the sorrows of others. Blind to the threat Helen became to even himself. Love is meant to be a pure emotion, but this emotion often compels you to do things which you never imagine you could do. Love which originates harm to others or self harm is toxic. Love should never be an excuse to do bad, or to hide wrong. Consulting your brain rather than your heart is the only thing that make you take the right decision. Don't hold on to toxic love untill it eats you or the other person alive. Life is precious. So is love. So never trade one for the other.
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