Dead Rising from the Sea

Each year, they would emerge from the ocean at the start of spring and awkwardly wobble toward the village. At first, people were scared of their scaly skin and overly colorful irises. In fact, the record of the first encounter with them is related to when a fisherman saw bright creatures, shining in the morning sunlight, walking out the water and toward the village and ran screaming for his life. The shiny nature of their initial appearance led some people to think of them as the dead rising from the sea. And so, each year at spring time they would gather by the sea and look for their lost ones; a truly fruitless venture.

The church, after tedious and frivolously long correspondence with the Holy See, announced that the creatures were heavenly creatures, indeed, rising from the sea to warn people of their sins and be a reminder of their catechism. This was also due to their shiny appearance as they emerged from the water.

The scientists, however, had a different idea. These creatures looked so much like humans that some of them proposed that they were a branch of humanoids, perhaps mutated through some irregular occurrence. Even though there were no signs of any spatial activities, some proposed that they were extraterrestrial creatures who tended to waked up every spring.

Nevertheless, these creatures emerged from the water each spring and wobbled their way through the village all naked. There was nothing ugly about it and no one really had any objection to that. They just claimed that it was not polite. Hence, there was a taskforce of sentinels appointed by the church to provide clothes for them. However, for food they were at the mercy of generous souls to spare them any leftovers they might have. Apparently whether they ate anything or died of hunger wasn't the church's concern; just that they died decently clothed.

People threw anything they deemed uneatable around these creatures and it wasn't until some of them died of hunger that they realized these creatures only eat fish. Thus, they received only fish junk after that. They would live on that for a few months and then, as the winter began, they would wobble back to the sea and die. Some of them died on the way back on the shore or even on the alleys leading to the shore. And people wouldn't touch them at the thought of catching a disease so the taskforce would be activated again to dump the corpses into the sea.

Years after that when an elderly woman who spent most of her time alone with her tiles finally gave in and let one of them inside her house people realized that these creatures weren't dangerous. Actually, they didn't even like human flesh. The reason for the persistence of this misunderstanding might have been the fact that they didn't speak at all and even when they did manage to create some sort of noise, it sounded more like a wail of some sort, which at times descended to a whimper.

It didn't take long for this idea to catch on. Some of the lonelier folks applied collars around their necks and regarded them as pets. They would walk around with one of these creatures wobbling beside them while they greeted their acquaintances. After a while, they had become a trivial conversation piece. Soon, stores opened up and shiny pets with all the different sorts of appliances were sold. There were leashes of different colors and clothes with various designs. Even the police hired some of them as a tactic to stay up-to-date. And, churches welcomed some of them to work in their graveyards.

At nights, the owners would loosen them up and put a fish in their special little tray at a corner. They were useless other than being a pet. They weren't really good at doing anything in the police either; they couldn't recognize suspects or drive cars, and it would be too dangerous for them to wield a gun. They weren't good at doing anything in the church either. All they did was to sloppily plant the shovel in the ground and receive a measly fish at nights then go to sleep. Most of them slept on the ground at the graveyard.

All this misery aside, luck was about to turn for these creatures. A few springs later and after the old woman had chosen her new pet, she fell ill and her pet ran outside seeking for help. A police officer noticed him and called for help and ultimately the old woman was saved. Celebrations were held in honor of that creature and the mayor named him as the honorary villager. The golden key to the village was presented to him and he looked nice enough in the mayor's campaign ad for the next election. When the celebration ended, that creature wandered about the village with no place to go as he had become too dignified to be owned by any person so as a gift he slept on his rocky bed and under a twinkling roof.

After this, human rights activists ran demonstrations in support of these creatures demanding that they were all equals and deserved legal equality. They protested that these creatures are just like any other human being so there is no reason for them to be treated as inferior. They persisted so much that finally the mayor caved against these fanatic types and the "Shiny Pet" shops were closed. In the afternoon, the newly hired creatures would gather the trash from the demonstration earlier that day.

One day, newspapers even published an article announcing that young girls found these shiny and colorful creatures attractive. It helped that they didn't really talk and the only viable option was a one-way channel. Also, they didn't have a will of their own, they were bound to the decisions made for them. In a way, it was like a game in which they could customize their own future husbands, and they would have if only their lifespan wasn't so short. That very weakness was a point of interest for some as they didn't have to tolerate the same creature for the rest of their lives and, in more morbid cases, they dealt with this departure relatively well. As they say; grief never ends, but it sure does stop to matter.

Jewelers, so happy about acquiring new customers, designed and displayed all sorts of rings and jewelries and with them being employed, these creatures could buy themselves all kinds of embellishments. In addition to all the unwanted jobs, they were also being employed in hotels and restaurants as servants. It seemed as though they were on the verge of acquiring a new social status; only a little beneath normal people.

The church was vexed about the whole relationship ordeal and the head of the Holy See himself made speeches against such horrifying misdeeds. It was unquestionably wrong and uncatholic to have matrimonial bonds with these creatures. As it turns out, these creatures were good enough as pets or social workers, but not good enough as partners. However, between the Holy See and the human rights activists, the mayor decided that relationships were not banned but it was not possible to marry these creatures.

However, things didn't quite turn out as the church deemed. years passed and kids of such qualities as half human-half "unhuman" appeared in the streets. People were horrified and the church was furious but, what could be done? They were kids and they lived like any other, except the fact that they were outcasts in school and also later in life. With the genes they shared with their human mothers, their disabilities were rectified and they could talk as well as run. Also, the kids seemed to do better in the longevity department.
In fact, after a while they were so infused with the society that they could vote now. There were even talks of them being able to be elected as mayor but it was all hush-hush and mayors had to be "normal" or else the church wouldn't have it.

With all of this going on, there were still groups of them emerging from the water each year and the taskforce was still active, only that now they were budgeted to provide them with food. The food was poor both in quality and in quantity, if it reached them.

The church seemed a bit calmer now and the people appeared to have accepted these creatures, but each year in the springtime a murmur seemed to spread throughout the village. Each spring drew a large question mark upon their existence. There was always an upper class who despised these creatures and some others, scattered throughout the village, supported them. Right at the bottom of the cone where everything else was supposed to stand on, there was a void. That was where they belonged to. It wasn't a place per se. It wasn't a specific environment allocated to them, but it wasn't as though it didn't exist either; it was just a black-shallowed void.

There was a derailed way about how everything worked and it was somehow alright until one spring when the whispers began to flow in the undertone of the village again, some people from the top of the cone advertised that they were going to fund an expedition into the sea by some scientists from a faraway city to discover the origin of these creatures. It was constantly advertised that these people were only trying to help these creatures and that it was only out of goodwill.

Finally, the result of the expedition was disclosed and it was only then that people realized that these creatures were the offspring of a group of mermaids living in the sea. As it turns out, the offspring were born in the spring and the male ones, whose anatomy was a bit different than the female ones and looked more like humanoids, emerged from the water to proceed with this level of their lives and that's when they met with humans.

Immediately after this discovery the Holy See announced that the Vatican absolutely backed the expedition. In fact, they never meant to oppose these creatures as humans. They knew from the start that they were merely a group fish and nothing more. Therefore, it wouldn't harm anybody to eat them, indeed, that is their intended use.

Instantly, the taskforce was activated again but this time it was to seize every merman from all around the village. Mermen were snatched from restaurants, hotels and the town hall. People were to immediately surrender any mermen they knew. And the mayor, what with the election being so close and the church's opinion being so important, stopped short of nothing in helping along the matter.
With their bright skins, a vast population of mermen stood on the shore with no words to protest with, only glistening. Sentinels secluded them from the rest of the shore and the beach was closed off that day. The only thing people knew about it was that the next morning there was no merman on that shore; only an establishment of some sort.

With the money from the people from the top of the cone and the church's backing a vast and profitable business of catching, slaying, and serving these creatures was established. It didn't take long until a chain of slaughterhouses was run near the sea where they caught them and, after slaying them, sent the meat to restaurants and threw the blood and the undesirable parts back to the sea.

There were all sorts of products made of merman meat available in the market. The "merman special" was the most popular dish in restaurants. As for the half human-half mermaid kids, they were too expensive and were considered as novelty dish only available to those from the top of the cone. It didn't matter that they could talk and they cried intensely, it only added to their price.

People seemed to be getting along with this and even girls were unlikely to have any problem with the fact that what is now on their dish could have been their partner not long ago. There were no activists this time, maybe they knew that now there will be no one to clean up the mess afterwards. Or maybe it wasn't worth it, after all, there are many other new trends now to protest about.

And so, years passed from the day the first merman set foot on that shore. In the spring, they still emerged from the water and there were people who warmly helped them up and threw towels around them and watched them so that nothing would happen to them. There was a good meal ready for them and even cars were placed on the shore to drive those who were too weak to walk. Kids had a field trip each spring to watch them as they emerged and waved for them with their innocent smiles. Sentinels guarded them carefully so as not to damage the meat, as they only emerged once a year, and kindly guided them to the nearest-most advanced slaughterhouse on the shore.