Mermaids always set out bait on the jagged rocks.

Glittering gemstones, piles of coins, even a few chests brimming with bottles of antique wine for good measure.

The caption has an idea.

“We need a distraction. Someone to sneak around back on a hidden tugboat while we pretend to get stuck.”

Being young and foolish, I offered to be the sneaking boat, and soon silently rowed in a cloth-covered contraption around the rock formations.

The signal was a flare shot suddenly into the sky some time later. I tied off my boat in a tiny alcove, and struggled across the wet ground.

I had just put my hand on a ruby when a voice shouted loudly across the confusion.

“There’s an intruder!” My captain hollered.

The dozens of mermaids had been gathered in one spot, looking at the flare and watching for any falling men. Now, they turned and saw me.

I felt myself break out in cold sweat. It wasn’t ever the plan to let me leave alive, was it?

A swarm of mermaids soon encircled me, grey mouths screaming. My ears bled and my vision blurred.

“The hull! Let me go and I’ll tell you about the weak spot on the hull!” I pleaded desperately, deafened.

I was on my knees, hands clamped over my sticky ears, tears running down my face.

I remembered all the times they had lowered me down by ropes to fix the rotten planks.

“Towards the front of the ship… is a rotten board that needs fixing…” I murmur.

A mermaid taller than the others must’ve said something and the others stopped screaming all together. At least, the grey mouths closed suddenly.

The tall leader worked her mouth again.

Was she telling me to continue?

“If you let me go on my small boat, unharmed, I will tell you about the hull.” I manage to sound confident despite my trembling.

The leader nods.

So I tell them about the nails used in the repairs, and how they can be pried out.

I can see the main ship getting closer. Do they think I’m dead? Was the plan to have them eat me so that they could steal from the treasure whilst mermaids feasted?

I managed, I think, to explain the best place to make a hole, and the leader moves her mouth again.

The mermaids suddenly slither away, into the brackish waters. The leader watches as I manage to crawl back to the alcove where my boat is.

A few coins fall into the little boat as my blood-soaked hands scramble at the oars.

I don’t know what happens next, I can’t hear if the main ship is suddenly attacked, or if the crew succeeded with their plan.

I don’t look back to see, instead focusing on the distant horizon and vowing never to leave land again.