Water Nymphs
“Hey, Yuen Ming! Welcome to my yacht!” Lim Boon led Yuen Ming around, and introduced his new colleague to his friends.
Yuen Ming had met Lim Boon when he recently joined the same company Lim Boon worked at. The two hit off immediately, with a common interest, fishing. Within the space of a month, Lim Boon had invited Yuen Ming to join him and his friends in their deep sea fishing expeditions.
“I have never fished in the open sea before. How is it like?” Yuen Ming asked Lim Boon.
“Definitely more exciting than your typical jetty fishing!” Lim Boon replied, not knowing that this statement was to draw his friend into a hellish nightmare.
It was fun-filled evening for Yuen Ming. He fitted in with Lim Boon’s friends easily, who were a bunch of jovial and helpful people. They were very helpful, providing Yuen Ming, the new-comer, with tips and advice about deep sea fishing.
Lim Boon had taken the yacht, a twenty foot beauty, far out into the sea. All around the yacht, the sea meets the sky in the horizon. No land could be spotted. As night fell over the calm sea, the waters mirrored the moon above. Away from the sky, like diamond against black velvet. What better way to relax than getting out of the city.
In the backdrop of such majestic beauty, their yacht was the only one there. Yuen Ming looked around, the sea was black and calm but the wind was chilly. They were alone out there. Somehow, Yuen Ming feld nervous, but he brushed it off as ‘first time jitters’.
‘I watched Titanic too many times.’ He thought to himself.
As the night passed by, many of Lim Boon’s friends hit their beds. Most were there for a trip out to sea. Not all were die-hard fishing fanatics like Lim Boon, Yuen Ming and two others. In the end, only four of them were left on deck.
“Does anyone want a beer?” Yuen Ming came on deck, with four cans of chilled beer. He had gone down earlier to ease himself.
No one answered him. Everyone seemed strangely quiet. It was no wonder. A beautiful singing could be heard in the distance, too crystal clear to come from any radio or CD player. Besides, he did not recall seeing anyone with it.
“Who’s singing?” He listened with growing wonder. He could not recognise the song, nor the words in it, but he understood it. The song conveyed the beauty of sliding between the waves on a hot day and basking in the glow of the moon on a breezy night. His heart filled with an unexplained happiness, as he listened to the enchanting song.
“Huh? Singing? I did not hear anyone singing.” One of the other guys suddenly said, brusquely.
“But aren’t you guys listening to it?”
“No, I was just meditating.”
“How can you not hear it? It’s so…” He fought for a word to describe it. “Beautiful.”
“Lim Boon, you’d better ask your friend to stop talking nonsense! Anyway, I’m bushed. Goodnight everyone.” The other guy got up and went in.
“Yuen Ming, you must be tired. Let’s go to bed!” Lim Boon’s eyes told Yuen Ming that he, too, had heard it.
“I’m not tired. Anyway, this…”
“You are very tired. I can hear it from your voice.” Lim Boon insisted. His eyes were wild with fear now.
“Yeah! Anyway, this is it for fishing today. Let’s all hit the sack.” The other guy had got up from his seat. Together, they pushed Yuen Ming in, not caring about the rods on the deck.
“Listen, we know best, okay,” Lim Boon was stern.
Yuen Ming, not wanting to offend his host, decided to go along with the flow. Pretending to be tired, he let Lim Boon and his friend lead him inside. Deep within his heart though, he was burning with curiousity about the singer of that melody, so enchanting that it melted his heart.
He could hear the song faintly from the outside, as he waited for Lim Boon and his friend to sleep. The others were already sound asleep, as the cabin was noisy with snores, coming from a few corners.
When he heard deep regular breathing from Lim Boon and his friend, he got up from his bed slowly. Trying not to step on sleeping bodies on the floor, he followed the singing out of the cabin onto the deck.
The screams woke everyone. Lim Boon shot up in bed. He glanced at the cabin clock. It was seven in the morning.
The scream came again, from the outside.
He glanced at the spot where Yuen Ming were supposed to be sleeping.
“Stupid idiot! Why didn’t he listen?” He cursed silently as he rushed to the deck. Yuen Ming was nowhere in sight.
Lim Boon heard the scream again, this time somewhere to his right.
“Look! Lim Boon, your friend is out there in the waters!” Someone yelled, pointing to a struggling figure some distance from the yacht. It was Yuen Ming in the waters.
“Everyone stay in the boat! No one jumps in!” Lim Boon commanded as he grabbed a harpoon. Before he dived into the waters, he slung a strange metal object around his neck, for protection.
The water was cold in the morning. Lim Boon froze momentarily as he hit the water. When he resurfaced, he made sure that the amulet was still around his neck.
“Hang on, Yuen Ming!” Lim Boon yelled and started to swim towards his friend with powerful strokes.
Despite the deceptive calmness of the water surface, Lim Boon was nearly dragged under several times by strong under currents. In the end, he had to keep his body close to the surface as he swam in his friend’s direction.
At one point, Lim Boon saw a long snake-like scaly body with spikes slithering by beneath him, missing him by inches. He had heard tales of a sea monster from fishermen, but had never encountered any before.
As soon as the scaly body swept past, a huge wave came crashing down on him, pushing him deeper into the waters. Lim Boon tried to swim back towards the surface, but the undercurrents pulled him deeper into the depths. He soon ran out of air, and his kicking grew more frantic and desperate. Lim Boon knew then that death was lurking, awaiting him.
Fortunately, an old fisherman’s advice came to mind. ‘Don’t fight the current. It will only drain you of you energy. Follow the flow, and break out when the opportunity presents.’
Forcing himself to be calm, and knowing that the amulet will protect him, Lim Boon let himself be drawn by the current. Swirling downwards, he let the current draw him into the unseen depths, before finally turning around to head for the surface.
Lim Boon waited. The water around him was dark, the visibility not extending beyond a few metres. Occasionally, he could make out glimpses of a scaly body moving under water, reminiscent of the paper dragon performers swung around in street performances of dragon dance. Except that the scales were black, and dull looking.
As the unseen currents brought him upwards nearer the surface, Lim Boon threw the last of his energy into kicking. The currents pulled at him as he tried to tear away from the flow, but eventually, he made it, breaking through the water surface to inhale the long needed air.
He looked around him. Yuen Ming was still struggling in the waters near to him. The currents had in fact brought him nearer to his friend, Lim Boon realised dimly as he paddled frantically towards his friend. Yuen Ming had almost given up the struggle, Lim Boon could only see his hand, but not his face.
Lim Boon managed to reach Yuen Ming in time. As he grabbed Yuen Ming's hand, Lim Boon thought he heard a blood-curdling scream. He glanced around, but saw no one. Quickly, he manoeuvred Yuen Ming into the life-saving position, and started to head back towards the yacht.
When he finally got Yuen Ming back to the yacht, he was almost close to exhaustion. It took at least four men to haul Yuen Ming up to the boat. When they finally got him out of the water, what they saw gave them a shock of their life.
Yuen Ming's clothes hung torn and tattered about his bloody body. It was if something had ripped his clothes apart while he was in the water. What were more shocking were the bloody scratches all over his body, especially those down his back. There, on each side of the spine, were six long and deep red trenches, as if someone with six fingers had scratched him with sharp fingernails.
It must have been the sea nymphs.