"Wake up, boy!"

Tyler's eyes shot open as he felt the cold and salty ocean water being thrown on him. The boy jumped up coughing and gasping, rubbing his eyes to see better. His father stood near his bed with a smoking pipe between his teeth and an empty bucket in his hands. He had his rubber boots on already with all the proper fishing attire. Tyler shook his head and tried to unclog his ear.

"Can't you just wake me up like a normal person would?" Tyler murmured picking pieces of seaweed out of his hair

"You shouldn't have slept in!" The man chuckled

"What time is it?" Tyler glanced at the clock and started screeching "It's five in the morning! Five in the morning!"

"Get dressed, boy. " Chris said calmly scratched his beard. He was used to Tyler's little tantrums by now.

"Dad, how many times do I have to say that I hate fishing?" Tyler sighed and ran his finger's through his wet hair

"Don't be silly. " The man scoffed "Come on, hurry up. "

The man exited Tyler's room. The boy let out an annoyed groan and removed his salt water soaked clothes. He hated summer because that meant he had to go stay at his dad who was obsessed with the ocean and didn't want to hear anything about Tyler's phobias. He had a fear of the water, he didn't even look at it while they passed some kind of body of water. Tyler had thalassophobia, fear of the ocean. His fear started at a young age when he almost drowned during one of his fishing trips with dad. He never liked fishing, he thought it was boring and pointless because he never caught anything. Now, not only he hated fishing, now he was afraid to go fishing because his dad's fishing boat was a rusty old bucket that his grandad gave it to him. It was named "Bait Me" which Tyler found quite funny.

Tyler took a quick shower to remove the salt from his skin. There was nothing that he hated more than ocean water. It was all green, salty and weird, with all kinds of specks and particles in it. Tyler never learned how to swim properly. He hated the public pools, the other option was to learn how to swim in the ocean. Tyler decided that if he has a life jacket he'll be fine.

The boy skipped breakfast because he knew that when he's on the boat he's going to throw everything up immediately. Chris was waiting for Tyler with his fishing rod in his hand. Tyler grabbed his fishing equipment and walked to the boat. He obeyed his father but it didn't mean that he couldn't roll his eyes a million times. Tyler felt fine as long as they were near the docks but as soon as they got into open water's Tyler felt his stomach twist. He leaned over the edge but had nothing to throw up. He stood there gasping and tightly gripping onto the ropes of the old "Bait Me" while his father laughed.

Tyler saw his sad pathetic reflection in the water that made him want to throw up even more. Why couldn't he be normal like other kids?That's what Tyler thought to himself at night. He wanted to be able to step one foot into the water without crapping his pants three times in a row. He would get insane panic attacks just by looking at pictures of giant waves in the ocean.

"Come on, grab your stuff." Chris said putting a piece of crab onto the hook. Tyler scrunched up his nose, the crab even f it was frozen smelled like socks that were worn to run a marathon three times.

Tyler picked up a small bait fish with his shaking fingers but couldn't put it on the hook. He opened a box of artificial bait, live bait was too gross to the boy. His father started lecturing Tyler how to properly hold the fishing rod and that Tyler's throw sucked. Tyler just rolled his eyes while his father rambled about his family business and how Tyler should respect it.

"You're not gonna catch fish without any fishing nets." Tyler mumbled under his nose

"So what are you waiting for, boy?" Chris gently smacked the back of Tyler's head

Tyler let out a pained sigh and went to put down the nets. He almost choked himself to death throwing those things into the water. No matter how many times his father told him how to do it properly he still didn't get it. Tyler looked into the water where unsuspecting fish slowly began to swim into their doom. Chris grabbed the wheel and turned the old bucket boat to swim further into the ocean. Tyler's stomach churned. Chris had packed food but Tyler didn't even dare to touch it because the boy knew the second he swallows it its gonna come right back up.

Tyler sat staring at the horizon, he hadn't caught anything yet, Chris blamed his artificial bait he's been using. Tyler rested his chin on his hand and let out a sigh. If someone gave Tyler a dollar every time he sighed today Tyler would be able to buy a new boat for his dad. The water was gentle as the old "Bait Me" rocked lightly on the waves, the sunset was like orange paint on a blue canvas. The water was clean and soft. Gentle, calming even. Tyler thought otherwise. The swaying of the surface of the water made Tyler anxious. He had nothing to do but to stare into the water and guess how deep is it. He's been staring at the water for too long now, he started seeing things that were practically impossible. Tyler leaned overboard and ran his fingertips over the water, something he would never normally do but suddenly the water became so inviting, so soft. Tyler looked deep into the water, the boy squinted his eyes.

"Dad, can you hear that?" Tyler asked without lifting his head up

"Hear what?" Chris chucked

"The...The singing..." Tyler said quietly reaching for the water

Chris furrowed his brows. He slowly got up and walked towards Tyler who was reaching for the water without a care that he might fall in. Chris placed his hand on Tyler's shoulders and pulled him away into the middle of the ship. Tyler shook his head, as soon as his gaze shifted away from the water he started feeling anxious again. Tyler wiped his wet hands on his shirt and looked at his dad wide-eyed.

"Careful, buddy. You might fall in." Chris said in a dry tone and looked into the horizon where he could see whales waving their tails out of the water "We should head home."

Tyler nodded and sat down. Chris turned his ship around and the old tin can started slowly swimming back. Tyler looked into the horizon, he felt weird, Tyler couldn't remember the weird melody he just heard a few moments ago. That was pretty. odd.

The boy suddenly flew forwards and fell face first on the ship floor as the vessel stopped abruptly like it got caught on something. Tyler got up slowly and rubbed his forehead. The boy heard his father cursing under his breath.

"Damn, it ripped my damn net!"

"What happened?" Tyler asked and looked where his father was pointing to see a big hole in the net

Chris pulled the net out of the water and sighed looking at it.

"What ripped it?"

"I don't know." Chris murmured "It might've been...A... A dolphin. This net is made for small fish."

Tyler just nodded and sat back down. He didn's sit for too long because he saw his fishing rod wiggling in its place. he ran up to it and pulled it out of the holder. He was yanked forward, the boy almost fell overboard when an extremely strong force pulled his forward.

"Dad!" Tyler shouted "I think I caught something!"

"Hold that son of a bitch!" Chris yelled running towards the boy "Tyler, hold it!"

"I am!" Tyler shrieked clutching his fists as hard as he could

Chris' fishing rod suddenly bent so quickly that the thing snapped in half. The man's mouth hung open as he watched his very expensive and very durable fishing rod disappear into the ocean blue. Tyler spun the reel as hard as he could, he felt the fishing rod slip out of his grasp slowly.

"Dad, help!" Tyler screeched feeling himself slowly fall into the water

They both were grabbing onto the fishing rod and pulling it as hard as they could but the force that was pulling it down into the ocean was as strong as them. After battling it for five minutes the both males collected all of their strength to yank the fishing rod as hard as they could. The force gave up and Tyler with his father fell backwards screeching victory screams.

Tyler quickly stood up and grabbed the thing he pulled out of the water. He looked at it closely and dropped it on the floor screaming.

"What the fuck is that?!" Tyler flapped his bloody arms in the air repeatedly splashing the liquid everywhere "What the actual fuck is that?!"

"Language, Tyler." Chris furrowed his brows "Gimme that."

"I'm not touching it." Tyler felt his stomach cramp up, luckily it was empty

Chris bet down to take a better look at the bloody chunk they pulled out of the water. Tyler looked at it from afar. It was almost the size of a palm, bits of pink fleshy meat dangled off something that looked like skin but it was covered in blue-green scales that glistened in the light like some kind of gems. Blood was dripping off some parts. The chunk was pierced by the hook. The "fish" was pulling so hard that the metal hook was almost straightened out. Tyler looked at the water to see that it was stained crimson too. Tyler bent overboard and somehow managed to throw up even though he didn't have anything in his stomach.

"What kind of fish is that?" Tyler asked wiping his mouth and then he remembered that his hands were still bloody so he threw up again

"I don't know."Chris scratched his beard "Never seen one this colour before. "

The man put the bloody chunk in the bucket of water.

"Are we taking that home?"

The man nodded.

"Great." Tyler said sarcastically "Let's just take the alien fish home so it can come back to life and eat our faces. "

"Will you stop nagging if I let you to steer the boat?" Chris chuckled softly

Tyler got behind the boat wheel in half a second. He forgot that he wanted to puke.

Tyler had a smug face all the way back home because his father finally let him steer the tin can he called a boat. It was old and rusty but it still was a boat and that was kinda cool.

The boy fell asleep in two seconds after he took an hour long shower, he had to scrub off all the ocean filth off his skin. The fishing trip with his dad was fun for the first time ever.

I just want to point out that mermaids are NOT sirens. Sirens are birds with human face. Sirens, in original Greek mythology, were NEVER half fish half human.