I believe it was around the beginning of May when the first day of training commenced. With excitement, I went to the location, unsure of what I would learn. The first lesson took place in a rented classroom. It had an old chalkboard, chairs with desks, and a clock on the wall. Before the teacher arrived, I got familiar with my classmates. Antonio and Diego were the only ones older than me. They were around 25 years old. The other three guys and I - Fabio, Carlos, and Hugo - were in our 20s. Two more, Elias and Felix, were 19 and 18. Just eight of us. All young men, ready to learn about a mythical creature some doubted even existed. We got to talking. All of us were here for a similar reason: to get ahead of others and get a better job on the open water. I envied Felix the most because he got into the university I wanted to go to and would start his studies there in the autumn. He wanted to become a marine engineer. Oh, how I clenched my teeth when he told me about it with enthusiasm and wonder in his eyes. Others weren’t as fond of his story as I was. It seemed Felix was the only one here who didn’t require the training to do better in life. From just a short conversation, I could tell he was a smart guy. Elias was here to get a certificate and become a diver. Fabio, Carlos, and Hugo all wanted to pursue ship work in various ways. Antonio wanted to be an aquatic veterinarian but had to drop out of university due to poor grades. Now he, like me and Diego, planned for a profession in fishing or sailing. The guys overall were friendly. We were all similarly confused and excited for the course. Then the teacher walked in. He was a muscular, handsome-looking man in his 30s. He had short black hair, styled carefully to one side, and brown eyes, sizing us all up one by one. He wore a suit jacket over a plain white T-shirt, cargo shorts, and sneakers. The man walked over to the teacher’s desk, put a suitcase on it, and stood still as we took our places. His serious gaze made all of us cower and shiver. He didn’t need an introduction. We all knew or had heard about him. His name was Ramon – our town’s famous expert on ocean monsters. He observed us silently for another moment, then looked right at me, pointed, and said:

  “You, there. What’s your name?”

  “Isaac, sir,” I replied confidently.

  “What brings you here, Isaac?”

  I told him. He pointed at Antonio next. Then Felix. And so on. We introduced ourselves, told him what he wanted to know. Now it was his turn. Ramon told us about his first encounter with a mermaid: how he was swimming in the evening, something grabbed him, and started to drown him. He was scared and didn’t know what to do. Then he saw a pattern in the creature’s movement and started mimicking it. Instead of drowning him, the monster brought him to the surface, allowing him to breathe, then dragged him underwater again. They did this dance for a while. As Ramon said, it made his head spin. The pressure of deep water on his lungs made his body burn. He had had enough of being toyed with. He grabbed the creature by the head and beat it up right there underwater. Not even the sharp claws and teeth of the beast could help it escape.

  “It was lucky I was running out of air, otherwise I would’ve killed it. I released it and swam to the shore. The monster was scared of me, I could tell. And by the end of this course, you’ll also know how to defeat those creatures!” he announced proudly.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  We all clapped. The way he told this story captivated us. We listened and ate up his every word. The first lesson was all about what to expect during the course: lectures and theory, followed by practice and a final exam, after which we would receive our certificates. The exam was planned for mid-June, when the monster attacks are most common. Ramon assured us that if anything went wrong, he’d be there to help. We believed him.

  After the lesson, we all went home, thrilled and eager to continue tomorrow. In the evening, right before sleep, I kept thinking of his story. It reminded me of my own encounter with the monster. The way it dragged me down, only to then bring me back to the surface. Maybe I was spared because I didn’t fight? I let it pull me to the bottom without resistance. I was paralysed with fear, allowing it to do with me as it pleased. It could have been what saved me. However, Ramon’s story wasn’t that much different, and he still had to fight for his life. I felt confused. I went to bed thinking I’d figure it out when I learned more about the mermaids.

  The next lesson taught us about the creatures. There was so much information. A local artist helped Ramon create several images of the monster. They had males and females. Both had sick-looking greyish skin, slim figures, and long, skinny arms with sharp, long claws at the ends of their fingers. Their eyes, bigger than humans’, had long lashes and different coloration. Their faces resembled humans’ but were skinny and morphed. Their mouths were filled with one row of very sharp fangs, capable of ripping human flesh apart. Their torsos were similar to people’s, both genders accordingly. Their tails were longer than the rest of their body, with different shapes depending on their genetics. Some had tails that resembled ones from fairytales, others more like eels. Their tails determined their swimming patterns, which we would learn in our practical lessons. Ramon also showed us audio of their ‘killing screams’, as he called them. A screeching sound so high-pitched it made us squirm. I recognised it. It was a little different from what I heard but close enough for me to be sure. The mermaids could make a variety of sounds, all in this shrieking way that were barely distinguishable from each other to our untrained ears. Ramon claimed it was the monsters’ only language. With it, they communicated like whales. We couldn’t decipher it, though he and others had tried. Each mermaid had their own voice, yet their swimming patterns were very similar to each other. Males were the ones who attacked the most, while the females were the most successful hunters. Our exam would be surviving a male, since an encounter with a female would be too dangerous even for Ramon himself.

  In the next half a month, we learned all we could about their way of living: how they killed for fun, how they played with their prey, and how deadly they were. The variety of ways these creatures could murder people was shocking. From teeth and claws to drowning and decompression sickness, hitting against the rocks or corals, ripping people to shreds by pulling their limbs in different directions, sensory overload, and so much more. It seemed these monsters were truly sadistic in their ways. Females were known to also consume the flesh of people they killed, taking great pleasure in it. All the monstrosities Ramon told us, showed us on video, audio, or painted images - we gobbled it up like the finest feast. Felix couldn’t keep up. The horrors of this knowledge freaked him out, and he dropped out before we even got to the practical lessons. We were sad to see him go but glad he could make it without putting himself through it all. As the youngest guy left our humble group, we continued.