The Cliff

Just keep reading, I'm sure you won't regret it.

He followed her, beauty intoxicating him, drunk on her lavender scent. She giggled and glanced over her shoulder with innocent blue eyes, rosy lips parting into a smile. Laughing, she spun in circles and her floral-print skirt fanning out around her.  

She dashed ahead of him and expertly stripped of layers of her clothes as she went. He crashed after her, stumbling over rocks and sticks, trying desperately to keep up. She always stayed just out of his reach, a terrible tease that made his heart ache with wanting.

They reached a cliff overlooking a crystal-blue lake so clear you could see the bottom. The sun glinted off small, silvery fish, encrusting the lake in diamonds.

 She was down to her lacy pink underwear, and she picked playfully at the straps of her bra. Her tawny locks cascaded down her honey-colored shoulders like a river of molten gold. She twirled a strand of glittering blonde hair around her finger and bit her lip. He took a step towards her and she danced away, giving him a seductive smile.

She stopped, just at the edge, and beckoned him forward with a perfectly manicured nail. Just before he touched her she turned and performed a perfect swan dive into the cool blue water. Head popping to the surface, she giggled again and waved him down. He dove, not near as gracefully as she, after her.

When he came up, she playfully splashed him with water. Before he could react she dipped under the surface. She reappeared just behind him, her laugh giving her position away. He whirled around to face her and she looped her delicate hands around his neck.

She stared into his hazel eyes and disappeared into the water again, taking him with her. She quickly surfaced but held him under. He thrashed violently, but she was impossibly strong. Her claw-like hands squeezed his throat. Her perfectly-sculpted face transformed into that of a monster; black eyes like pits and a savage snarl full of teeth like slivers of metal.

When he finally stopped moving she pulled him up and ripped his neck open with her fangs. Blood stained the water, spreading out like spilled ink across a blank page. She dragged his dead body to the shore and stored it behind a boulder with the others. Her monster features disappeared and she slipped on her clothes. With a smirk, she made her way back up the path to meet another gawking boy eager to follow her to the cliff. 

Reviews

[Wolfwind]

Cool! Gotta love those sirens of the watery depths. There should be signs on the trail, "Don't pay attention to the beautiful women on the trails! They will lead to your demise!"

I loved how you set this story up and kept the uncertainty until the end. Very nicely writen and the visual of the boys death was in that safely moderate zone, which I think is the best way, so that it stays in the realm of all ages.

Great Ink!
Aaron

[Erin DeLis]

Thanks for taking the time to read my work and comment on it, I love all the criticism good and bad. I actually came up with this at three in the morning watching a Macy's commercial, and it wasn't until the next day that my friend told me I'd written about a siren. I didn't even know what they were before. :P

[Ryanicus]

Holy crap, that was amazing. I loved it, seriously. It felt like 50 shades of grey in Hawaii or something at the beginning, and then transformed into some kind of mermaid slasher. ;P It was great. I think it'd be a great prologue to a mystery.. I suggest "Mermaid Hunters: Reloaded". xD

Nonetheless, great work. Awesome twist at the end, just after all the teenage boys were getting excited :3

[Erin DeLis]

Haha, thanks. All the guys at me school had the same reaction. Most of them mad that the hot chick turned out to be a monster.

[Marie]

A water monster. Kind of like a mermid gone bad. Cool.