Devilfish: 750 Word Story

Hard white sunlight beat down outside a Steinhatchee riverside bar. We sat shaded by fall-colored leaves sipping glasses of red wine; a bunch of grapes and plates of freshly cooked seafood with fries lay before us. Salty ocean breezes brought the smell of fish and diesel to us. Several boats passed to and fro with lowered nets. Fishing had always been good here.

Next to me, her straw hat on the table, sat my companion, Leilani, the part-time model. I had only met her earlier outside a beer and bait store but we were getting on well. I relaxed as she took a luscious purple grape from the bunch and slipped it into my mouth. I smiled at her and felt all the cares of the last several months' workload ebb away.

I'd come down from frozen Ohio, burned out from my law practice; seeking Florida sunshine and sportfishing and I never expected to meet up with such a beautiful woman in a sleepy fishing town. She was tall and rangy with beautiful indigo eyes that reminded me of the ocean depths; hair dyed cerulean blue and blood red lips that smiled to reveal perfect white teeth. The only thing I didn't like was her tattoos. Over her stomach was an octopus with her belly button for its fanged mouth. On her thigh was something that puzzled the eye which she explained was due to it depicting non-Euclidian geometry, whatever that meant. But what I liked least was a row of tattoos portraying sucker-like extrusions running along beneath her arms.

Why such a beautiful woman would choose to have such hideous tattoos beat me. What was wrong with the usual roses or dolphins etc.? But it was her body to do with as she wanted and she was intelligent company telling me she had swum out to great depths and knew so much about underwater wrecks. She said she got lots of work from sci-fi conventions and there was one upcoming in Tallahassee.

Despite her tattoos, I felt myself growing aroused and I shifted in my seat. She wore a crop top and it was evident from her perky nipples that she wasn't wearing a bra. And her skin-tight cutoff shorts left room for nothing larger than a wispy thong. She leaned forwards letting me glimpse her small but perfectly formed breasts. She looked down at my stiffening crotch while I took another sip of wine and smiled. I felt my cares leave my shoulders. I was going to enjoy my vacation. She broke into my thoughts.

"My home's nearby. Would you like to come and see my portfolio?" she asked.

There was only one answer to that and I gave it.

"Yes," I said with enthusiasm; standing up and leaving enough for the tab with a hefty tip on our table. She picked up the remaining grapes. I took her surprisingly cool, long-fingered hand and, full of expectation, we walked along the lagoon, past some fishing boats drawn up onto a mudbank near a cluster of shacks and drying nets to where she said she lived in a secluded seaside cabin...

***

All was quiet now along the deserted lagoon path. The only movement came from gulls circling high above and the elongated shadow of a woman walking past an abandoned shotgun shack. More gulls screamed harshly as they scavenged some remains washed up on the tideline.

The woman's shadow stretched out impossibly long until she came to an overgrown terrace below the ruins of an abandoned cannery. Sated, now she could relax but part of her was sorry it was over as she had enjoyed it at the time. But the man, like all men, could only experience her love the once. However, he had lasted longer than most. She now wore only the briefest of swimwear as that seemed to be what men liked but as she altered form she found that sunlight was increasingly harsh against her skin. As she walked beneath the desolated ruins, dark shadows covered her, hiding her almost naked body while giving some relief from the glare. She carried a bunch of luscious, purple grapes and she squeezed them into her mouth, like she had squeezed the man, until sweet juices burst from the fruit and mixed with blood soaking her mottled gray face and two remaining tentacles.

At the next moon she knew she would have to resume human form and go hunting in the bars and clubs for more sustenance...