James has been fishing in the Louisiana bayou since he was a boy, now at 23, he returned to it. Why? To avoid work and a lecture from his father, but also for an urban legend that had been circling through the old-timers. A legend of a girl, with a fish tail instead of legs, that swims just beneath the surface of the water with the alligators, snakes, and fish. One of the older men even claimed she left scratch marks along the side of his boat and sent a gator after him when he attempted to get her with his knife.

James never believed stories like this. So why is he out investigating them? The pure, raw detail. The old timers, though scared of this girl… creature… thing, all have come to one agreement. She was a looker, she was absolutely gorgeous, the most beautiful creature he could lay eyes on. Which ever way he heard it, he wanted to see her. He wanted to see this breathtaking girl with a fish tail that could talk to the animals in the water. She was fake, she had to be. Just an imagination brought up of recent divorce or widowing and too much booze.

He gently steered the boat with the oars through the trees of the bayou/swamp. The sun was still up but in the shaded trees and moss a green-ish yellow glow shines across everything. James kept an eye out, but he’d been out here for hours and he hadn’t seen anything. No head popping out from the water, no gentle rocking of the boat and certainly no human sized shadow under the water. He was irritated slightly. He’d waisted a trip on account of the old-timers stories.

It wasn’t until he was preparing to stead out of the grove of trees that he saw something. At first he thought it was his imagination, or a rock, whichever one was less scary. But as many times as he blinked and rubbed his eyes it was still there. Or rather she was still there.

Over by the trees, just barely out of the shadows, he saw the top half a girl’s head. Only her eyes, forehead and the top of her hair was showing. But she was there, and she was watching him. She didn’t blink, she just stared.

He moved slowly, not wanting to startle her, but he wanted to be ready. He gently reached into the bottom of the boat and grabbed his shotgun. He never took his eyes off of her, so she wouldn’t be able to catch him off guard.

“What do you want?” He asked the creature, loud and firmly.