Down along the riverbank
feet deep in the sand
thread carefully and not too loud
for danger is at hand
You hope to glimpse a water nymph
with slim legs and fair hair
but who you will meet is something worse
she is lurking in her lair
the restless soul of someone lost
who died a death so bleak
in the Elysian's river she may have drowned
or in spirit, so to speak
with sallow skin and withered hands
eyes as dull as stone
she'll pull you down into the depths
into this wicked water crone
"Help" a voice whispered into her ear.
Ilaria trembled. There was no one here before except for her. She, then followed the voice and it led her at the Elysian's river.
"Don't ever go at the river." she heard her father's voice at the back of her mind.
The river was connected to what they call "Poseidon's Realm."
The River was forbidden to even step a foot for the people are afraid of the Legend that lies there. Many so-called "accidents" happened in that river that no one knows on how these people died in such a brutal way. Some of them looked like they fought a lion and died, while some of them never came back.
The river was famous for one tale. It happened last eclipse and Ilaria even talked to the old sailor before he met his deadly fate. He was a good one and have a daughter. He always and always refuses to talk about his daughter's mother. He just said "She's one the pretty damned souls." She met him when she accidentally wandered off Elysian's.
The old sailor once said to her, " Beware of the mermaids, their hair of silver and those eyes carven from the deep blue coldness of the seas. They are but illustrious raptors, pretty and beastly. Damned souls from the underworld, predators of the sea." Then she remembered on how that sailor's daughter was rumoured to be a mermaid's daughter. The townspeople tied the poor girl and threw her on the bottom of the sea. The father fought them but he ended up in a cell being tied up too so he can't help his daughter. They heard him cry not to throw his own daughter but they already did.
"Do not-" the old sailor crawled, his feet tied up pleading to the townspeople.
"It is not her! I BEG OF ALL OF YOU!" he was heard shouting but those pleads fell to deaf ears.
"Shut up old man! Why are you afraid huh?" The townspeople mocked him. They kicked his cell, and rattled his chains not knowing he is giving them a fair warning of what is about going to happen.
They said that if she did not come back after a while, she had proven herself not to be one of the damned mermaids. It had been a while and they are now pretty sure she is not one the mermaids who lures their men to the sea. They decided to pull the rope back up in land but when they pulled it up-
"She was gone?"
"Where is she?"
"What happened?"
"She's the-"
A shriek was heard. The ocean trembled. Waves angrily strike the land. The townspeople froze, unable to speak. Suddenly, they heard a maniacal laugh from a cell. The same cell to where they had put the old sailor.
They had seen him-
Effortlessly angrily ripping the chains that tied his feet then he broke his cell's door and looked at them. They saw his eyes. The deepest, coldest blue eyes they had ever seen.
"What did I told all of you?" He asked them innocently as if he knew this was going to happen.
Suddenly, it rained. It paired with the roaring of the ocean. The townspeople saw. Ilaria saw. The rain would not touch the old man's feet. It just circled around him. In a perfect circle.