She had been alone for so long. So long, in fact, that she had forgotten her own name, if she ever had one. She lay there, deep in her little watery world, watching the seasons come and go; watching Time itself pass her by without a care.
It was in this manner that she grew cold and lonely, not bothering to sing, not bothering to observe the animals that came to quench their thirst from her crystal-clear waters. She was fed by the Earth and by the rains. What care had she for living flesh-creatures?
It was a fine spring day, with a few clouds scudding by, her waters warmed by the Sun’s loving rays, when she heard a New Sound. One that she hadn’t heard in what must have been centuries. What was it called again? Thistle? Missil? Bissel? Oh! It was a whistle that she heard. A shrill, high-pitched whistle that warbled and sang so beautifully, so very unlike the birds with their screeching and squawks.
She lay there, listening to the whistler, letting the sound permeate her and fill her being. It filled her emptiness so much that she dared to peek above the surface of her pond. From her two sea-green eyes she spied a creature that she hadn’t seen since… well, she couldn’t remember. It was very long, indeed.
The creature walked upright on two limbs. Two others stuck out from its main body at roughly right angles. There was a covering on its lower limbs that was the bright, clear blue of sapphires. On its upper body the covering was the deep red of the setting sun, upon its head sat hair the color of fine gold.
It was running in circles, making odd noises from its mouth until it happened to see her head and eyes peeking out from above the water.
“Oh! Hello there! I’m Michael!” it said.
She quickly dropped beneath the water in fright. This creature, this “Michael”, ran to the edge of her pond and looked into the water, trying to find her.
“Hey. Where’d you go?” it peered into the surface of her pond with its striking gray eyes. “Don’t go away. Please? I just wanna be your friend,” it said, a sad look contorting its face.
She sat there in her watery abode, contemplating what it had just said. A friend? That was a novel thing. She hadn’t had a friend in so many eons.
It sat back on its feet, looking rather dejected and defeated. Slowly, oh, so very slowly, she raised her head above the water a fair distance away from it so as to not startle it away.
Water began to leak from its face. It was salty in the air, and she slowly moved closer to it.
“Why do you leak?” came a voice that sounded soft, echoing with the burble of a mountain stream. She was so unused to her voice that she stared in disbelief.
It sniffed once and quickly turned its head towards her. “There you are! Hi! What’s your name?” it asked with more energy than seemed necessary.
She stopped then. Looked at the creature, then back to the water, and back to the thing beside her pond.
“I… I don’t know. I can’t remember my name. What would you call me?” she tilted her head to the side and stared at it.
“Hmm…” -it drew its brows down in concentration- “I think I’ll call you Natalie! How does that sound?” its mouth drew up in a smile.
“Na…tah…lee,” she said, trying out the new name. She liked it. “I am Natalie. You are Michael.” She nodded once, as if sealing it in her mind.
“Want to play airplanes with me?” the creature asked.
“What is that?” she said.
“Like this!” It stuck its upper appendages out again, making that strange sound again, and ran around haphazardly.
She had never seen anything like this before, so she imitated him, making the same odd sound, and running in circles.
After a few minutes of this, she began to feel something within. An old sensation. What was it? It made her insides quiver with anticipation, and a smile came over her face as she finally remembered.
This was Joy! And the creature was a Human! A young one, and male. A boy! And he wanted to be her friend!
She played airplanes with Michael until he was out of breath, and he finally sat down, panting.
“I’ve never played airplanes, Michael! That was fun! What do you want to do next?” she asked, skipping over to him.
He looked up at her and grinned, “Tag!” he said as he ran off, giggling madly. “You’re it!”
“Hey! No fair, I wasn’t ready!” Natalie said, running after him, her green hair streaming in the wind.
The two chased each other and played games for what seemed like hours, until they both heard a loud, angry voice calling Michael’s name.
Michael stopped dead in his tracks, causing Natalie to crash into him with such force it knocked him down.
His voice dropped to a whisper as he said, “Oh, no.” He quickly rose up, and told her, “I have to go, Natalie. My dad sounds angry with me. If I don't, the Bad Man will come after me. I’ll be back tomorrow to play some more, okay? Bye, Natalie!” And he ran off in the direction of the voice yelling, “Coming, Dad!”
Natalie slowly padded away into her pond. She felt Sadness wash over her at the loss of her new friend, and looked anxiously over her shoulder for Michael. Once she reached the edge of her pond, she melted back into it to wait.
A friend! She had a friend again! After all these years of being alone, she finally had a friend. Not since the last family traveled through had she had a friend. Her excitement caused the water to ripple and froth as if it were a stormy sea.
“Look! She’s right over here, Dad! Hey Natalie! Natalie, come out. Dad doesn’t believe me that you live in the pond.” Michael ran over to the edge of the pond, looking for Natalie. “Natalie? Are you in there?” His forlorn voice echoed over the fields.
Natalie stayed deep within the water. The wrongness she felt near Michael was too great to bear. She dared not even poke her eyes above the water’s surface.
“Boy, I told you to stop that lyin’,” an angry voice drifted across to Natalie, followed by the sound of flesh on flesh, and a thump as Michael hit the ground and began to cry. “Let’s get goin’. You got chores to do, and you sure as Hell ain’t gettin’ them done fuck-farting around out here next to no pond. Get up. Now!”
As his father raved at him, Natalie felt sorry for Michael, and vowed then and there to be there for him every time he came; to do whatever she could to help him. He was her friend.
Michael picked himself up from the ground, mumbling, “Yes, Sir. Sorry for lying to you, Dad. It won’t happen again.” He sniffled and wiped the tears and snot from his face, feeling his lip grow puffier by the minute.
“Damn right you won’t, boy” -he swatted the back of Michael’s head- “now get goin’.” He stomped off back to the farmhouse, expecting Michael to follow him.
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“Bye, Natalie. I’ll try to come over every day,” Michael whispered as he left.
It was all she could do to keep from rushing out to follow him.
Natalie slept uneasily that night, if what she did could even be called ‘sleep’. Her mind, ancient as it was, couldn’t stop replaying the incident with Michael’s father and the wrongness she felt in the man. She hadn’t felt that since the last time a family traveled through her area.
To be fair, it wasn’t from the family, but from some people following them. She had met with, and then lost four people in the span of two days. After that, nobody else visited her beyond the occasional deer, and so she lay dormant for the next several centuries.
Michael went home behind his father, and vowed to stay on his good side, especially when he’d been drinking, which was most nights, anymore. He did his chores and went inside, washing up before dinner.
“Michael? Sweetheart, what happened to your lip?” his mother asked, a worried frown plastered across her face.
“I got hit with a branch in the fields. I thought I’d pulled it back far enough out of the way before I went around it, but I guess I was wrong,” he lied.
“Well, you need to be more careful, sweetie. Now, eat up. You’ve had a busy day today, and you need to stay healthy and strong, just like your father,” she said as she smiled sweetly at her husband, who grinned and nodded.
“Yes, ma’am,” Michael replied as he hurriedly cleaned his plate.
After a moment, Michael looked up, asking his mother, “I’ve finished my dinner. May I go to bed now?”
“I don’t see why not, honey. Unless you have an objection, dear?”
“Oh no. No objections here. Michael has done his chores and has earned a good night’s rest.”
“Thank you, Mom; Dad,” he said as he left the table, rinsed his plate, and left it in the sink. “Goodnight,” he said as he went to bed.
The next day came early for Michael. He had chores to do around the farm before he was allowed to go off and play while his father napped. He finished them around ten in the morning, and rushed off to find Natalie in her pond.
“Natalie? Are you here? Want to play again?”
Natalie crept up behind Michael and tickled his ribs, causing him to screech and bolt as she giggled behind her hand.
“Got you good, Michael!”
“Natalie! That was mean. I thought you were him, and you scared the wits out of me. Don’t do that, please,” he pleaded.
Natalie dropped her head, staring at the ground as she dug little circles in the dirt with her toe. “Sorry, Michael. I won’t ever scare you again. Please don’t go,” she said, holding out a hand.
Michael took her cool hand in his, saying, “Of course I won’t go. Not until Dad makes me, anyway. You’re my friend!” He hugged her, and they went running off to play in the fields.
Life continued this way for several years, until eventually Michael stopped coming by her pond. Natalie sat and waited for him every day without fail, until she was forced to consider that maybe her friend had abandoned her.
It was an early Autumn afternoon when she heard the stumbling footfalls come over the hill that separated her pond from the nearby farm; now a dilapidated wreck, since Michael and his family had moved out several years ago. She had just gotten used to solitude again, and was irritated that something had decided to interfere with it.
She lifted her eyes out of the water, waiting to see just what was coming over the hill. Slowly, a head appeared above the hill, the bearer a mass of bruises, cuts, broken limbs and swollen parts.
“...lee….”
She strained to hear the whispers coming from the person at the hill.
“Na…lee…” the wheezing was so loud she could barely make out the words.
Slowly, she cautiously raised her head above the water’s surface, peering intently at the prone, wheezing form at the top of the hill.
“Na…Natalie…” came the whispered begging, and Natalie pressed her hands to her face.
It couldn’t be. It simply couldn’t be.
“Michael? Is that you?” she asked.
In reply, a shaky hand crept over the hill, and pulled him over it, gingerly. He wheezed, then coughed violently, spattering the hillside in blood.
“Michael!” she shrieked, and ran to him. She peeked over the hill and saw that he was alone, so she effortlessly picked him up, and carried him to the water’s edge.
She cradled his head in her lap as he lay there, struggling to breathe.
“Natalie…” he wheezed, raising a shaky, bloodstained hand to cup her cheek. “You grew up too, it seems. So beautiful.” -he coughed lightly- “I was always so happy here with you. A fitting place for” -he coughed violently, spattering them both with blood- “me to die. Nobody ever believed me about you. I even researched you. You’re a nixie, aren’t you?” his labored breathing was getting shallower, and Natalie just nodded, too stunned to speak. He laughed softly, causing him to cough again, and groan in pain. “Never thought I’d fall in love with a water spirit. Hell, I never thought I’d fall in love at all, but I did. All those years ago, Natalie. I didn’t know it for what it was, but I do now.” He smiled, causing his lips to crack and bleed. “I love you, Natalie.”
Natalie sat there, holding her friend’s head in her lap, gently stroking his hair, her mouth open and trembling. “You foolish, foolish mortal man,” she said, lips quivering, “I can’t love the way you do. It’s just not possible.”
“Kiss me goodbye, Natalie. Then lay me in your pond, that I might sleep with you forever,” he wheezed.
Natalie leaned down and kissed his bloody lips as gently as she could, wanting nothing more than to honor her friend’s final request.
“Why do you…..leak?” Michael whispered, as the last breath left his lungs.
“Michael?” She gently shook him, getting no response. “Michael, I don’t leak. I ca-” she stopped mid word as two drops of water fell into his unseeing eyes. She raised a trembling hand to her face, and found it wet with something she had never experienced.
Tears. She was leaking. Leaking for Michael.
“Michael? Michael? Please answer me, Michael,” she begged as she began rocking him in her arms. “Michael, come back. Michael, I love you too. Please come back to me.” She sat there, rocking her dead love, and wailed as only she could.
It was through her pain that she felt a new thing blossom inside her. It was red-hot and wild. Fury. That was it. Fury. She was angry, and she would have Justice.
She gently laid him down beside her pond and stood as the Autumnal winds began to whip around her, a thunderstorm bursting to life behind her.
She knelt by Michael’s side, and absorbed the smells of whatever it was that had happened to him. She nodded once, recognizing the wrongness of one of them.
Luckily, she didn’t have to go far to find them. An hour later, another new sound came over the fields as the storm began to rage. A roaring that was obnoxiously loud, and getting closer. Natalie stood still, facing the obvious threat.
A light shone over the hill as the roaring thing crested and rolled down.
“Look! There he is. Think he’s dead?” a voice asked.
“He damn well ought to be,” came another, older voice.
“Let’s just get his carcass and dump it in the woods. Let the bears have it,” said a decidedly younger, more feminine voice.
“YOU WILL NOT TOUCH MY LOVE,” Natalie boomed. The thing stopped roaring, and the light died.
“What the fuck? Who the hell are you? Get away from that carcass. He’s going off to be bear food,” one of them said.
The three people got off the metal thing, and started walking towards Michael’s body as lightning lit up the fields, briefly revealing Natalie’s form standing on the water’s surface.
The wrongness swelled, encompassing all three people. “You’ll get away from that carcass, girl, or you’ll get the same,” its owner warned.
“YOU WILL NOT TOUCH MY LOVE,” Natalie repeated, walking towards them. Her eyes began to glow a deathly gray color as her fingers elongated, jagged nails extending from the ends. Her mouth opened to reveal a fanged maw that hungered for flesh.
“Fuck this,” the female said, and pulled her pistol, aiming at Natalie’s head. “Stop moving, or I’ll put one right through you.” As Natalie continued her transformation and her advance, the woman squeezed the trigger, sending a bullet straight through Natalie’s head.
Natalie’s head whipped back and she stood there, momentarily stunned. The mortal attempted to kill her? Kill a nixie? Natalie began to laugh, a deep, menacing, booming sound, and snapped her head forward.
She covered the distance in a blink.
The woman was too stunned to react as Natalie shoved a finger through the woman’s eye, piercing her brain. She wiggled her finger around inside, and the woman dropped dead.
The wrongness retracted into the one man, and he bolted. Quick as a thought, Natalie reached out and grabbed his ankle, twisting it backwards, and she heard the delicious shrieks of pain and fear finally erupt from his throat.
“Not so fast, wrong one,” Natalie rasped. “You, I’m saving for last.”
The other male had been inching away at a slow pace, but ran as if chased by wild dogs when he heard the older man’s leg snap like a matchstick.
Natalie let him get some distance between them, and cackled as she began to chase him in long, loping strides. The man shrieked and pumped his legs as hard as he could until one gave out, and snapped under the pressure. He tumbled to the ground, rolling and shrieking like a wounded boar.
Natalie’s face split in a rictus grin as she rounded on him as he tried to crawl away, begging for mercy.
“Please don’t kill me! Please, dear GOD, don't hurt me!”
“Begging? Did Michael beg, too? Did you show mercy?” She growled and grabbed his head, forcing him to face her. “Did you show my love any mercy when you beat him to death?” She began squeezing his skull, hearing pops and cracks as the man shrieked.
“No! It was all him! He’s the one who made us do it. He’s the one who did it all! It was HIM!” He shrieked wordlessly as Natalies fingers began digging into his skull, the bone splintering around her fingers like chaff before a scythe until, with a wet pop, they touched inside his head. The man went limp, and she dropped him, her fingers coming out with a squelching noise.
That left one, and she stalked over to the soon-to-be corpse.
He had begun crawling toward the roaring metal thing, but couldn’t get himself onto it. He struggled to turn the key as the first drops of the howling storm began to spatter onto him. He slipped and fell, gashing his face on the footrest just as Natalie reached down and wrapped her hands around his midsection. She lifted him up, the wrongness within him pulsing with newfound fear.
“And now you will pay for killing my beloved, wrong one.” She reached down, and began breaking his bones, one by one, starting at his toes.
His screams of pain were drowned out by the fury of the storm.
Hours later, the carnage finally over, Natalie’s vengeance had been found. She flowed over to where Michael’s body lay. He looked so peaceful laying there, beside her pond. Natalie went to him, gently lifted him and walked into the water, slowly sinking below the surface.
“Come, my love. We will sleep together until eternity passes us by.” She lovingly caressed his sun-gold hair once more, and kissed him as they disappeared beneath the surface, never to be seen again.