San Diego, California

Caleb and David Lutz were sitting at a table in a coffee shop, looking through the newspaper at the obituaries. This was what both brothers did habitually when they finished a gig and are looking for a new one. They aren’t your average detective; in fact they weren’t legally detectives at all, instead they were monster hunters, hunters of the supernatural.

Both brothers possessed their own talents. David who was the older of the brothers, was also the ladies man, he obtained the skills of using women to get the information they needed when he was in high school; it all came in handy at least once at every case they had. He was also extremely good at creating fake ID’s which were always necessary in the times of emergencies during cases. A person couldn’t just tell the police, suspects, or even witnesses that they hunted creatures that people only created in their heads. They would be sent to mental clinics and asylums; and what good would that do for everyone in the states if the two best hunters were locked up?

Caleb Lutz on the other hand, was defiantly more attractive then David, but had a few rough spots when it came talking to women. He was twenty- two years old and two years younger than David He was five eight where David was five nine, but Caleb has long dark shaggy hair, the type that a person would associate with a skater guy, where David had short lighter hair and was more defiant in his muscles. Saw was defiantly smarter than his brother, having a bachelor’s degree in pre-law was very helpful with understanding and avoiding any legal problems. Caleb was way more dependable then is brother; also, while David is out partying a person can almost guarantee that Caleb is back in the hotel room researching something. Besides all of his other amazing talents his most famous is being able to win a person’s heart, not only making someone fall in love with him, but finding a true friend.

The Lutz brothers learned almost everything they knew about monster hunting from their parents. Their parents on the other hand learned everything either as they went along, or from people they have met on the way. It has been over the years, but they were determined as a family to help protect others, and prevent anything from happening like it did to their family. They don’t another family to go through everything they went through.

About twenty years ago, when David was four and Caleb was two, they had an older sister named Jessica. Jessica was only ten years old when she was killed in front of the whole family. A demon had possessed her body and took control of everything inside of her. No one in the family knew that a demon had taken over her body killing her soul. It was about two days later after a series of unfortunate events did Britney and Jay realized something was wrong and it was all linked to their daughter.

Fires were started, car crashes were caused, even a few suicides, as authorities said, happened, all due to Jessica Lutz. They were able to call a priest and have it confirmed that a demon took over Jess, but it was too late to save her from the monster that inhabited her. Finally toward the end of this whole ordeal, the priest was able to perform an exorcism, but before he did, they had to tie Jessica up to a wooden stake, and as soon as the exorcism was done she bursted into flames and burnt the house down. The whole Lutz family watched the entire event, and affected every family member.

Since that night, Britney and Jay Lutz vowed that it would never happen again, to anyone. They decided to take up hunting and help protect others. Since as long as the brothers remember they have been taught almost everything they can learn about the supernatural. Hunting had become of their lives, and their second nature.

Bored out their minds right now, David was drinking his coffee and eyeing the waitress behind the counter, who was wearing a short, tight, white waitress dress. Everytime she looked over, David would raise he eyebrows and smile. Finally after five minutes of trying to flirt with the waitress from the booth, David got up and walked over to the counter. While Caleb just rolled his eyes and went back to examining the obituaries, making notes next to any that looked just a tad unusual.

Caleb was getting bored and tired, until something caught his eye. An obituary on a nineteen year old girl named Karen Woods who drowned in the lake. Caleb was fully alert right now, and was pretty certain he found their next gig. Of course David right now was trying to get to second base with the waitress.

Taking the initiative of the situation Caleb got up and walked over to his brother who was gawking over the parts of waitress body that aren’t suppose to be revealed, especially in public. Caleb throws down the newspaper in front of his brother causing David to flinch showing his weakness.


“We have work to do David,” Caleb said in a stern voice.

“I can see you are a little busy, but call me later,” the waitress flirted as she wrote her number down on a napkin.

As she walked away David’s eyes followed her, until Caleb hit him over the head with the newspaper.

“Come on man, can’t I have a little fun?” David teased, but Caleb’s expression didn’t change.

“I think I found something worth checking out,” Caleb stated showing David the newspaper article that read Drowning of Teenager ruled an Accident, “It says here that the Monday drowning of a nineteen year old girl in Lynx Lake has been ruled an accident by the Maricopa County medical examiner’s office.

“Karen Woods, 19, drowned Monday sometime between three and four o’clock. She went for an afternoon swim before leaving for work, and never returned home.

“According to authorities, Woods got caught in a strong current and was dragged to the bottom of the lake. Her body still hasn’t been found.” Caleb summed up the article.

“So that doesn’t sound that unusual to me, I personally think it is a waste of time, and instead of talking about something that is just a drowning, I could be making another move on Rosalinda over there,” David winked at the waitress from across the coffee shop.

“What a move to get her in bed with you? Man you are so sick, you know that!” Caleb sounded frustrated and he was tried up listening to his brother try to take advantage of every woman that was in a foot radius of him.

“Will you just listen to me for a minute? I remember mom and dad saying something about this lake when we were younger. I looked it up in their notes, that the sameincident happened last year, the year before that and the year before that, dating all the way back to 2001,” Caleb showed David the paper that their parents had written stating the year, the month of June and a name of teenage girl, who all “drowned” at Lynx Lake.

“It has been the same scenario everytime, a teenage girl mostly around the age of eighteen to twenty, disappears after taking a swim in the lake. None of the bodies have ever been recovered, and the lake is only thirty feet deep, and not very wide, meaning that if there was a body down there the police would have found it, but they didn’t,” Caleb finished up explaining to his brother.

As David was looking at the notes from his parents and then at the newspaper, the wheels in his head started moving, “Take a look at this,” he pointed to a smaller article on the bottom of the newspaper that was about a brief, unexpected weather storm.

“It says here that on Monday, around the time that Karen went missing in the lake there was a brief and much unexpected thunder storm. The state wasn’t expecting any storms and there weren’t even any clouds in the sky until the moment this girl “drowned.” If you read this in mom and dad’s notes, each time one of these girls disappeared the samething happened,” David concluded.

A smiled grew on Caleb’s face, “You still thinking this isn’t one of our cases?”

The question caught David off guard, and he didn’t want to admit to Caleb that he might have been wrong, “Yeah, but just to be safe, maybe we should check it out.

The smile grew even bigger when David said that, usually it was the other way around, Caleb didn’t want to kill anything, while David was always a kill now and ask questions later kind of guy. David knew that Caleb wanted to do this so he went a long with it, gave the poor guy a chance.

As soon as they paid the bill they were off. Driving their black truck toward the Arizona heat, the last thing that this town was saw of the Lutz boys for right now was their New York license plate which read, AHA-464, the easiest license plate for anyone to remember.

Lynx Lake, Arizona

Amanda was standing there on the dock just staring out at the lake, thinking about how she wished she wasn’t what she was, the creature that possessed her body that took over half of her life that she couldn’t share with the rest of the world.

She felt that this curse that controlled her could be the only antidote to this plague that was taking over the town. She knew that somewhere in the back of her mind that there was a great possibility that in fact she couldn’t help but instead be mistaken for the creature that was to blame for the mysterious deaths of the past.

Amanda wasn’t from Arizona, but originally from Alaska, but in the past few years she ran away to California, but ended up moving back home to Alaska, when her step-brother got married.

She was friends with Karen’s cousin and met Karen one summer three years ago while Karen was in California for spring break. Since then they have kept close contact, and this year Amanda was suppose to come visit Karen for two weeks in Arizona. That didn’t happen of course, due to unexplainable reasons.

Explainable wasn’t anything surprising to Amanda, she of course knew and lived the meaning of the word. Being an explainable creature herself, she wanted to help and solve this case, and most importantly kill whatever killed her friend.

Amanda was afraid though, not of the creature that killed Karen, but afraid of the truth. She didn’t want to be blamed for something that she didn’t do, but for what she was; a mermaid. A mythical creature that lives under the sea, half human, half fish that doesn’t need the air above to breathe while she was below.

Whatever was in that lake had to have some sort of thing in common with Amanda and that was what was terrifying her the most. She knew she must just face the facts, but this time she was dealing with something that was out of her league. This wasn’t going to be her normal case of werewolves, mermaids or even vampires. She knew she was dealing with something else, something that helped hunt when she was little with a family that helped save her life.

For right now, the only smart and safe thing for her to do was to call a friend, the friend that saved her life when she was ten and hunted these creatures for a living; Jay Lutz. She knew he would know what to do, how to kill this creature and prevent it from harming anything else.

She finally took a step away from the dock, and coming back to reality, she reached for her phone and dialed the number she avoided calls from for so long. She disappointed the Lutz family, she didn’t want to be apart that king of life, being a mermaid was hard enough on her, but throwing in more creatures, especially evil ones, she just didn’t want to deal with at the time.

The phone started to ring, until she reached his voicemail, “You have reached Jay Lutz, I am busy at the time, please either leave a message or call back later,” a male voice said over the phone then followed by a beep, “Hey, Mr. Lutz, I know it has been a while since we have talked,” she stuttered but took a breath and continued, “and I know that I didn’t exactly leave on the right foot, but I think I might have,” she stopped again as she brought her hand to her face, and took a deep breath as she rubbed eyes, “I think I might have….might have stumbled across something that you might want to come take a look at. I’m in Arizona, by Lynx Lake. I think something strange or….”she stopped once again for the third time, she was having the hardest time saying what was on her mind, but she knew she had to, “or, or…supernatural. Please I can’t do this on my own. Mr. Lutz please, please just help me.” She finished saying a split second before the beep indicating the of the recording of the message.

She just stood there, turning back toward the lake, she felt as if she was lost, and no one for her to turn to. Jay didn’t answer his phone when she called and since she didn’t talk to any of the Lutz family, she was even madder to prove that she was right, she knew that he was ignoring her. If that was the way he wanted to play this game, she was going to prove him wrong and solve this case by herself.

“Hi, miss we are with the wild life rangers,” a male voice said behind her, causing Amanda to jump a little.

She turned around to face two males not quite taller than she was, and the youngest was only a few years older than her. She looked at them for a second with a weird look on her face; they looked confused as she just kept staring at them. They looked so familiar to her, she could almost sworn she had met them before.

It was Caleb and David; they have crossed paths with Amanda, now, but only creating a lie. The only problem was that all three of them, were going to tell lies, and not let each other, find out who the other is. Even though that would do wonders and help solve this case and protect others a lot more easier, but if that were the case then there wouldn’t be a story to tell.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” She quickly came back to reality, and looked away, as she caught her breathe.

“No, we are sorry for startling you,” Caleb stated in a calm voice that almost melt Amanda’s heart right there, but she couldn’t, she was here now strictly on business. “We are with the Wild Life services; we are the park rangers that they sent to check everything out.”

They flashed their fake badges, and Amanda could tell at once that first off they were fake, and second off she could tell they were lying.

“Sure….now why did they send you guys again? Everybody already gave all the information to them on Monday, and they already checked the lake.” Amanda stated with her arms crossed.

“Well you see young lady, the department wants to double check, make sure they got all their facts straight,” David stated more assertive then Caleb was.

“He means,” Caleb gave a glare to David, and David just mouthed the word what, “since it has been a few days, the department thought maybe everyone wasn’t in such a state of shock anymore, and just maybe for some reason remembered more of what happened. The more we know the easier it is for us to do our jobs and protect others. Is there anything you can tell us about what happened Monday?” Caleb continued to say to Amanda as if he actually really cared about the matter.

“Well first off, I’m the wrong person to be asking all these questions to. I wasn’t here on Monday when it happened. I flew in from out of town, Karen was supposed to pick me up, but instead her brother Jeremy picked me up and told me that Karen had drowned in the lake.” Amanda told the brothers, but not with a good attitude.

“Alright we see, may we ask what your name is and how you know Karen?” Caleb asked again with the Calebe sympathetic voice.

“Only if you tell me your guys REAL names first.” Amanda snapped back, with her arms crossed.

Caleb and David knew that Amanda was seeing right through them, but they weren’t going to let her find out anything about themselves, not if they could avoid it.

“I’m Nick Havachester and this is my partner Travis Scrubs,” Caleb explained.

“Alright Nick, are those the Calebe names on your badges?” Amanda asked, indicating her question to Caleb.

“Why yes ma’am they are, and now we gave our part of the deal, how about your information next?” David stated in a sarcastic way, pissing Amanda off now.

“Name is Amanda, I’m from Alaska, I knew Karen’s cousin while I lived in California a few years ago. Karen use to come visit her cousin and that is how I meet her. We became friends, and have talked and hung out since. This summer I decided to come visit her, but as you can tell that’s not possible anymore because of what happened.”

“We are truly sorry about what happened to your friend, but if there is anything you can tell us especially about any history of the family or the area, that you might know, that would greatly appreciated,” Caleb said in his compassionate tone.

“First off, I’m not going to tell you anything, mostly because I’m not from here, and secondly aren’t you guys supposed to be park rangers, and as I recall, park rangers usually know more about the areas in which they work then the people.” Amanda said in a defensive tone.

“Well you see the department hired us from San Diego, they wanted an extra pair of eyes looking over the situation,” David jumped into the argument with Amanda.


“Sure Travis, if that was the case, then again, you can go ask your park ranger friends here, what the history is, and while you do that, you can tell them to back off the case.” Amanda smirked and walked away.

“Wait, Amanda!” Caleb shouted as he ran after her just a little bit.

“What?!” Amanda snapped as she turned around.

“We know you are upset about your friend, and it is perfectly normal to feel that way, but you need to let the professionals do their job,” Caleb explained, keeping his cool about the whole situation.

“I have one question for you,” David said in a serious tone, and Amanda just raised her eyebrows and gave him a look as if she was saying, go right ahead if you want to get into some serious trouble, “why do you want us to back off this case? Is it because you don’t us finding out the real truth? The truth that maybe you killed Karen and you are just hiding the fact that you did?” David asked, and Caleb hit him in the gut.

“You really think I killed her?!?! Really? Well just get this fact straight, I haven’t killed anybody innocent in my life! My step-brother happens to be a private investigator in Alaska, so I know how to handle cases like this, and you may call yourselves professionals, but I can tell you aren’t. So just back off like I said,” Amanda started shouting at them.

“You said you haven’t killed anybody innocent before, so that means you have killed someone,” David shouted back.

“Yes I did, and if you really want to know, he was going to kill my friend. He was torturing her, by tying her up to a wooden pole and was about to set it on fire, what was I suppose to do? Watch her die? No, so I did what I had to do.” Amanda started off yelling but got really quiet as she remembered the night her friend Katrina was going to be killed by a vampire, but instead Amanda risked her life to save Katrina’s.

“We are truly sorry,” Caleb apologized.

“Well I’m not,” David stated, but Caleb slapped him again in the gut, “Okay maybe a little.”

“Thank you, I guess. Now if you don’t mind I am going to make sure the Wood family is alright, they have been through a lot in the past few days.” Amanda stated and walked away.

The brothers, just stood there on the dock as they watched Amanda walk toward the Wood’s cabin. They were unsure of everything that had just happened, and defiantly not sure how to react to the whole problem.

“I think she is up to something,” David stated as soon as Amanda entered the cabin.

“No, I don’t think she had anything to do with the killing, but I defiantly believe she knows a lot more then we think,” Caleb sighed.

“Great, now we have to find this murderer, and babysit a teenager,” David rolled his eyes.

Caleb and David were sitting in the motel room, looking over the notebook that their parents gave them before they left on their big hunt. The brothers were not sure where their parents were, or even what exactly they were hunting. This was common protocol with them; they never gave out to much information on their location. The only difference about his mission, that made it different from the rest was that neither one of their parents were answering their phones.

“Still no answer,” Caleb said frustrated as he put down the phone and got up to get a beer.

“Caleb I have a feeling something is wrong,” David stated not looking up from his work.

“Dude you’re telling me? It has been a week since we last talked to them, and three weeks since we last saw them. Don’t you think they would have left us a clue or something, by now?” Caleb sounded worried. He didn’t like working on his own. Even though he did have his brother by his side, he liked working as a family.

“I don’t know man, but let’s just concentrate on this case right now.” David finally looked up and sighed.

Caleb nodded and walked back over and sat next to David taking a sip of his beer.

“Something is up with that blonde chick. I think she knows something that she doesn’t want anyone else to know,” David stated writing something down on a piece of paper.

“So we need to figure out what is her deal, and find out if she is any way linked to the drowning of that girl,” Caleb added.

“So one of us is going to have to talk to her and the other, talk to the some of the locals and get as much information as we can,” David stated not looking so thrilled about the whole situation.

“Great, how about I go talk to Amanda, since you were the one to put her in her defensive mode last time, so I might be able to get more information out of her. You can start out with talking with Karen’s family; maybe they saw something, or something like that,” Caleb stood up and went over to grab the keys from the desk.

“Whoa, I did not put her in her defensive mode, that was all her. Oh and a useful tip, if you can’t get any information out of her, just sleep with her, that always does the trick, and anyway defensive chicks are always my favorite.”

“What the hell man, do you always think that sex is the answer to everything?” Caleb shouted at David.

“No man, but it does help in a lot of situations, if you get what I mean,” David laughed as he grabbed keys from Caleb and headed to the truck.

Caleb just sighed and shook his head, David always had one thing on his mind, women. It didn’t matter if they were in the middle of a fight, investigation or what, but he was always thinking about women.
*************************

As David pulled into the drive in front of the Wood’s house, he put it in park, and just sat there for a minute.

“Are you going to get out?” Caleb asked in a sarcastic voice.

“Yeah I was just thinking, should I use the park ranger badge again, or something else, maybe say I’m a reporter this time.”

“Why are you asking about this now?”

“Well what if Amanda warned them about us, if just confess that we aren’t park rangers, and just say that we are really reporters and just wanted the inside scoop etc. , they might believe us better.”

“Whatever, I don’t care, it’s up to you.”

“Great, some help you are,” David mumbled as he got out of the car and walked up to the Wood’s door, and knocked on it.

Caleb on the other hand, decided to walk around back and look and see if he could spot Amanda somewhere. He didn’t want to talk to her right away, but instead spy on her, to see if he could obtain more information on her that way.

He walked around the back of the house, ducking in front of the windows so nobody could see him. We he reached the back yard, he looked around and Amanda was no where insight.


She had to be either inside the house, or somewhere by the lake, Caleb was thinking to himself. As long as David was keeping the family occupied with questions, Caleb had a good chance of looking through the windows which was exactly what he did.

As David knocked on the door, a man in his middle fifties answered. “Hi there sir, my name is Travis Scrubs, and I work with the Glendale Star, and we were doing an article on Lynx Lake, I also recently found out that your daughter died Monday in the lake, would you mind answering a few questions about what happened?” Caleb asked in his most convincing business like man voice he could.

The man just stared at David, and David just tried to fake a smile, “Sure, come on in” the man said so David followed him in and sat down at the kitchen table.

“Is there anyone else home besides you?” David asked once the man sat down.

“No, my wife and son went into town. Karen’s friend Amanda is staying with us, but I’m not sure where she is right at this moment.”

“Alright, can you tell me anything about your daughter’s friend?” David asked trying to get information about her.

“I thought you were doing an article on the lake, why would you need information about Amanda?” He asked confused.

“Well I saw her earlier today and she looks like a real out door’s person, so I was wondering if she was and if she knew anything about the lake.” David lied trying to cover up his tracks.

“That makes a little bit of sense, but Amanda’s not from here and I don’t know too much about her, only that she loves the water, she taught Karen some really great swimming techniques while she was in California visiting her cousin. She is also helping us figure out more about what happened to Karen, since the police stopped trying. Her brother is a private investigator in Alaska so she has some tricks up her sleeve.” Mr. Woods finished saying everything he knew about Amanda, which was pretty much everything that she told Caleb and David earlier that day on the dock.

“So your daughter Karen died on Monday, can you tell me what happened in the way you remember it?”

“Well none of us saw what happened. Karen usually went out for a swim before going to work, only this time she didn’t return,” Mr. Woods explained.

“Did you notice anything weird before she disappeared? Was she acting strange or not like herself?” David asked trying to come to a conclusion on what they were dealing with.

“No, nothing, she was herself. Though she did mention that she had a nightmare that night before she disappeared about the lake, so she was a little hesitant about going swimming, but it was only a nightmare and nothing to worry about.”

“Did she say want happened in her nightmare?”

“Not really just that she was at the lake swimming when something grabbed her. She really didn’t go into detail, why?

“That was just because of my own curiosity,” David laughed a little, but the man didn’t even smile, so David coughed a little to stop laughing continued, “anyway moving on has there ever been a drowning in the lake before?”

“Well every year…” Mr. Woods started to say but was interrupted by Amanda walking in the room, who was very stunned to see David sitting there talking to Mr. Wood.

“What is he doing here?” Amanda asked in a tone that sounded like she was ready to rip someone’s head off, most likely David’s.

“This fellow here is a reporter for a newspaper. Which paper was it again sir?” MR. Wood’s asked David.

David was staring at Amanda as if he was actually scared of her, “Oh sorry it was the Glendale Star, yeah I’m writing an article on the history of the lake and thought I would throw in there something about the recent drowning.” David lied and faked a smile.

“Sure you are, because that is what all park rangers do…isn’t Mr. Scrubs?” Amanda asked in a sarcastic, pissed sort of tone.

“Oh he didn’t tell me he was a park ranger,” Mr. Woods looked surprised but happy.

“Yeah, well…” David started off saying as if he was proud but embarrassed about that little lie he created.

“I bet there is a lot that this little feller didn’t tell you?” Amanda mocked David, with a disdain grin growing across her face.


“Well my partner is probably wondering where I am, so I better get going now. It was nice seeing you again miss, and thanks for all the information Mr. Wood, it was mighty helpful.”

“How about I walk you out?” Amanda tried to seem sincere in front of Mr. Wood who obliviously didn’t see right through David.

“Why that would be very sweet Amanda, and thank you Travis, have a good day, and good luck on your article,” Mr. Woods smiled as David headed toward the front door with Amanda right behind him.

David opened the door and turned around, “It was nice seeing…”

Amanda’s fake smile was gone and instead she looked as if she was ready to murder someone, so David took another step so he was outside, and was about to say something else, but Amanda cut him off, “Get out of the house, and STAY off my case!” She said in a stern voice and slammed the door on David and walked away.

David stood outside stunned, he couldn’t believe that Amanda just slammed the door in his face, let alone she was still convinced that it was her case. David was hoping that Caleb had found out something about her.

Back in the motel room, David was sitting on the edge of the bed, while Caleb was shuffling through more papers.

“Did you find anything on blonde back there?” David asked laughing a little.

“No actually I looked everywhere and she was nowhere around. I couldn’t find her anywhere and no one knew anything about her, just said she was a friend of Karen’s apparently, and Karen’s brother picked her up at the airport Monday night.”

“Well, she showed up at the house while I was talking to the dad, which was the reason I had to cut it short, she got pissed off at me, man does she have an attitude problem, it’s hot!” David chuckled a little, and got a goofy grin on his face.

Caleb knew exactly was he was thinking, “Man you’re gross, she is nineteen and you are twenty-four, that is just sick!” Caleb shuttered a little bit at the thought of David with her.

“Whatever man, at least I get somewhere with the ladies,” David laughed again.

Caleb just rolled his eyes, “Since I couldn’t dig up any dirt on Amanda, I was able to find out some information on the history of the lake. Apparently every year around this Calebe time it’s usually a girl that goes missing around the age of nineteen, just like mom and dad’s notes say. I also found out that just like mom and dad’s notes, and Karen’s case, the weather started acting weird,” Caleb stated, but David didn’t look like he cared.

“Okay you just proved that what mom and dad found out was true, nothing else new,” David rolled his eyes and laid back on the bed.

“Wait let me finish, the lake also has some history to it which might be the reason why this is happening. In 2000 there was a couple that lived in the house about a quarter of a mile away from the Wood’s home, right on the shore of the lake. The couple’s name was Erika Launder and Damon Bentley, and they were young, not married. It was said that Erika was eighteen and her nineteenth birthday was June fifth…” Caleb started explaining.

“The Calebe day that Karen died,” David interrupted.

“Yes, and the Calebe age, but get this, Erika and Damon ran away together, and didn’t tell anyone, not even their parents where they were going. Both of their parent’s didn’t agree with their children’s lover. So on the night of Erika’s nineteenth birthday her older brothers, found them and took her back home with them, but before they left, Damon put up a good fight, but not good enough. Her brothers decided to drown Damon, since they didn’t like him and punish their sister. They drowned him in that lake,” Caleb finish explaining what happened in the past.

“So we are dealing one pissed off spirit I guess,” David nodded his head as he started thinking of a way to kill it.

“A spirit who wants revenge,” Caleb added.

“But why once a year, and women around the age of nineteen, why not go after the family members of Erika’s family?”

“Maybe the spirit of Damon is looking for Erika, but it was said that as soon as she was dragged home, she went to her room and hung herself,” Caleb suggested.

“So if it is a spirit we are dealing with, the only way to get rid of it is to find the bones, salt and burn them….” David got up and started throwing any tools that he would use to salt and burn the bones.

“Yes, but how is that possible if the body was drowned and left in the lake, plus they police or wild life service’s would have seen some sort of body in the lake. Anyway what do you think the spirit does with all the girls that it takes?” Caleb queried.
**************

Back by the lake Amanda was swimming around under the water in her true form, her mermaid form. The water was too murky for anyone to be able to see her from above so she wasn’t worried.

There were barely any fish in the water and only a few water plants otherwise it was just water, water, and more water. Amanda continued to swim trying to come up with reasons why something would be taking people and only once a year. Her main concern was what exactly it was.

She had some theories but there was no proof to tell if any were correct. She was missing dome details and she knew it. If only she could see what was down there, what was doing these horrible things to innocent people; she then could figure out a solution quicker.

Amanda did her research on the lake, she knew the history. Her biggest theory and the one she favored most right now, was that it was a spirit. She knew how to “kill” or get rid of spirits, but there was nothing down there, no signs of a body, or bones, no signs of any person dying at all or even disappearing for that matter.

Amanda stopped swimming for a second, she was getting bored and more frustrated over the whole matter. If she didn’t find out what was doing this soon she was going to explode. She decided to take a break for a little while and just lay on the lake floor staring up at the surface of the water, about thirty feet above her.

Just laying there, watching anything that moved by, or above her. The water was murky but since she was a mermaid she had really good eyesight, underwater and in the dark. She would be able to spot anything that swam by.

After about ten minutes of just laying there, she spotted a person shredding water above her off to the right a little. The person looked like they were fine, and probably had noting thing to do with the case she was working on so she just closed her eyes and rested some.

Mean while, above surface, the guy who was swimming noticed something out of the corner of his eye. When he turned his head, nothing was there. He decided to keep swimming, and not pay any attention to what he might have seen.

There was something out there, and Amanda was just resting on the bottom of the lake. The guy was swimming freestyle across, toward the dock by the Wood’s house. There was another flash of white swimming below the man but above Amanda, who still had her eyes closed.

She could tell something was moving; she opened her eyes and saw nothing, only the guy swimming still, she figured it was him, so she closed her eyes once more.

The man knew something was in the water with him, now and he was getting scared. Every few seconds he would stop and turn around vigorously trying to see what was following him. His legs were kicking so fast that it was causing his heart rate to increase, which was making it harder for him to breathe, causing him to become the perfect target for the creature that was after him.

He started swimming faster and faster toward the dock, and to him the dock just keep getting farther and farther away instead of closer. He was almost there; his arm was reaching out for the wood of the platform to grab a hold of, when something grabbed him first.

He shouted, but was too late; the creature had pulled him under. Amanda heard the noise, and opened her eyes just in time to see the man being dragged toward the middle of the lake by a creature that almost looked like her kind.

The man was struggle and running out of breath, and she knew she had to do something quick. She swam as fast as she could, when she reached the creature, she heard a loud screech, almost a high pitch siren noise. As annoying as it was she had to help the man.

She took her tail and wacked the creature in the face causing it to let go of the man. Not caring about killing the creature right now, she had to help save the man. Amanda grabbed hold of the guy, and started swimming toward the surface at top speed, right before she reached the top; she snapped transforming back into her human self, so no one saw her secret.

When they reached the surface the man was gasping for air. “Don’t worry, help is on the way,” She stated to him trying to reassure him that everything was alright.

There was a woman standing on the shore who caught sight of them. Amanda started waving her free arm, while her other arm was supporting the man enough so he wouldn’t drown.

“We need help! Call 911!” Amanda started to scream, as she noticed the women dialing numbers and holding the phone to her ear.

“Alright we are going to try to swim to the shore, just try and work with me as best as you can,” Amanda stated, but her only response was the guy coughing and trying to catch his breath.

She didn’t have time for anything else at this time, so she started kicking her legs and pulling the guy with her as they made little progress toward the shore. As she continued to struggle to help the man, she heard sirens in the distance, and before she knew the fire fighters and paramedics were helping them out.
*****************

David and Caleb were sitting in their room, when they heard a siren drive by. They both looked at each other oddly.

“That was heading in the direction of the lake,” Caleb stated with changing his expression.

“Well come on then, let’s go see what all the chaos is about, and preferable let’s get there before Blondie does,” David joked as he reached for the keys and they both headed to the car.
***************

The man was now sitting in the back of an ambulance with a blanket draped over him, while a police officer questioned him.

The Calebe was happening to Amanda, “What exactly happened out there?” The male officer asked her as soon as the paramedic was done examining her.

“Well sir, I was near the water, when I heard a scream. I looked over by the dock and saw a guy struggling and slowly sinking. I jumped in and started swimming toward him, in time to help him to the surface, and toward the shore,” Amanda briefly told the cop, but only fibbing just a tad, so her secret would be safe.

“Now Mr. Launder over there says, there was a creature dragging him under did you see such a thing?”

Amanda paused for a minute remember there was something, knowing what it was now, she just couldn’t tell the officer that a mythical creature was trying to kill, they would laugh at her. “There was something, I’m not quite entirely sure it was dragging him under or what happened, but when I reached him, I saw some sort of fish, creature whatever. I wasn’t paying attention to it, since I was more worried about the guy.”

“Well great work, and thank you for your help,” The officer smiled and walked over to his partners by the police car.

Amanda was still sitting on the end of the ambulance car, when Mr. Launder came over to her.

“Thank you so much, is there any way of repaying you?” he asked in a desperate but very thankful tone.

“No, you don’t have to do anything, but my name is Amanda by the way,” She extended her hand to make a formal introduction.

“Michael Launder, thanks again,” He smiled as he shook her hand. He was about twenty-three, and to Amanda’s concern’s he was not attractive at all.

“Launder? You wouldn’t by any chance be related to Erika Launder would you? She died in 2000,” Amanda asked curious if this attempt of a drowning was related to the history of the Erik and her boyfriend in the year 2000.

“Yeah, she was my aunt. I never knew her, but apparently she killed herself,” Michael nodded while looking down.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I was just curious,” Amanda stated, while catching a glimpse of David and Caleb driving up in their black truck. “What are they doing here?” She growled.

Michael just turned around and looked clueless toward the parking lot, “Who?” He asked.


“No one, I will see you around, I guess,” She stated as she got up and headed toward the cop to see if she was allowed to leave. She didn’t want to be around Caleb and David right now.

“Yeah, thanks again,” Michael shouted toward Amanda who was already talking to the police, who were granting her permission to leave.

David and Caleb got out of their truck and started heading toward the scene of the crime. They passed each other, and David and Amanda just rolled their eyes at each other.

Amanda was sitting on the edge of the dock with her feet hanging off the side, barely touching the water. She was thinking about witnessed out there in the lake, she knew what she was dealing with, and she knew how to kill it, but the only problem was, she wasn’t sure how many she was going to have to face.

She knew what she had to do, but she wasn’t sure if she was ready to do it. Did she have the courage to face the unknown? In the past Amanda had killed a vampire, sacrificed her life for her friend, and in the end she won. This time could be completely different, this time she wasn’t sure if she was going to win.

There was one thing she didn’t want to face right now, which was the fact she was going to need help. Amanda was able to put information together, and came to the conclusion that the guys she meet the other day, the ones that lied to her about being park rangers, and then reporters, were people she needed help from, people she needed to trust. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to, but she needed to at least try.

David and Caleb were walking up the dock toward were Amanda was sitting; they needed to talk to her, since she was the one who jumped in the water and saved the Michael earlier that day. They wanted to know what she saw, even though they didn’t want to talk to her.

“You know it’s probably not the best idea sitting so close to the water,” David advised Amanda as they approached.

“It’s safer for me then it would be for you two,” Amanda stated as she come back to his remark, without turning around to face them.

“I wouldn’t be so sure, something’s is in that water that is trying to drown people. We deal with this sort of stuff on a daily basis, so we would probably be safer,” David remarked laughing a little bit, thinking that he won.

“Really?” Amanda asked sarcastically and finally turning around, “Really? I mean because every reporter slash park rangers that I know, totally deal with murderous creatures in lakes all the time.”

David’s smiled faded as Amanda stood up and was glaring at him. Caleb started laughing at the fact that David was getting dissed by a girl.

“You need to keep your mouth shut to,” Amanda scolded Caleb and he shut up right away. “But I do have to say for hunters, you guys are horrible liars. I could see right through you from the moment you first talked to me. You should try just telling the truth, not the whole truth but enough, and then people wouldn’t get so mad at you right away, like I did.”

“What do you mean we are hunters?” Caleb asked as if he had no clue what she was talking about.

“You know what I’m talking about, hunters, you hunt the supernatural, and don’t deny it, because that will only piss me off more, and I need your help, since I slowly came to realize I can’t kill all of these things by myself, especially since I don’t know how many we are dealing with,” Amanda stated backing down on her defense a little bit.

“So you know we are dealing with spirits also, and how did you know we were hunters?” David asked curiously.

“First off they aren’t spirits; secondly, hunters are the worst liars ever.”

“Well we have to lie in order to keep up our secrets, anyway how do we know we can trust you? I have never heard about you, and we would have, since news gets around about who is who in the hunting world,” David continued to question Amanda.

“First off I’m not a hunter, not entirely anyway. I help others, and deal with more werewolves and vampire than anything else, mostly the pure breed ones. Secondly you are going to have to trust me if you want to stop all the mayhem here. Thirdly you don’t have to lie entirely; you just don’t have to tell every detail, that’s all I do. I have not lied to you guys yet.”

“Come on you lied to us, I mean you had to lie about at least something,” David didn’t sound convinced.

“I haven’t lied to you guys; everything I told you was the truth. I killed a vampire, because he was going to burn my friend alive and drink her blood, my brother is a private investigator, sort of for the government. He makes sure any crimes that are done by something supernatural are dealt with by the right government officials in Alaska, people who know how to stop those kinds of creatures. And now I need your help to stop what is going on here,” Amanda explained.

“Now we established that I wasn’t lying can I know your real names, so I don’t feel so awkward by calling you Travis and whatever the other name was that you lied about?” Amanda asked crossing her arms.

“Well I’m David and this is my little brother Caleb,” David smiled and almost winked but he caught himself before he did.


“Wait you said earlier they aren’t spirits?” Caleb asked and Amanda nodded her head, “If they aren’t spirits then what are they?”

“I thought they were spirits at first since I did my history on the lake, and read about the Launder and Bentley case in 2000. It wasn’t until I really saw what they were when I saved Michael earlier today. They are Nixes.”

“Nixes?” David asked then both Caleb and David started laughing. “What the hell is a Nixe?”

“Laugh all you want, but that is what they are. According German myths they are green haired maidens, called nixies or nixes. They also have white tails, only when they become really hungry. It was said that they haunt bodies of fresh water. Nixes had the power to transform themselves into old crones. In the past, on market days they would often wander the market and attempt to lure people to dangerous waters and drown them. It was necessary for a Nixe to kill at least one person a year in order to survive.”

“So they basically are a mermaid then,” David concluded.

“Not entirely, they are what people would call, a mutt of a mermaid, not a pure breed,” Amanda quickly said, trying to defend the other half of her life.

“What?” Caleb laughed.

“The pure breeds of mermaids are harmless, and can actually help humans, they can save their lives, and they are also born into that life. While Nixes’ on the other hand, are really people who have died some sort of death that was caused by being drowned in a body of fresh water. They transform into that creature, but have the ability to transform into humans just like regular mermaids, but the difference is that Nixe live with the humans until they get hungry, which is once a year and they lure people into the water and drown them so they can eat.”

“That would make sense; every year around June fifth a person has drowned since the year 2000 and disappeared,” David stated.

“So you think that maybe Damon when he died became a Nixe and is doing all the drowning?” Caleb asked slowly catching on.

“Exactly, but since the year 2000 it has only been teenage girls around the age of nineteen. So Damon is probably looking for revenge. And Michael who almost drowned earlier, was Erika’s nephew,” Amanda added.

“This makes all perfect sense, especially the part why nobody every found any bones or bodies in the lake if they can transform into humans,” David smiled understanding the whole thing.

“So how exactly do we kill it?” Caleb asked bringing both Amanda and David back to reality.

“Mermaid venom,” Amanda stated.

“What? Are you insane?” David asked.

“Maybe, but it works. Mermaid venom is pretty much poisonous to every supernatural creature out there. That is why mermaids are looked upon in a good why. The people might not know exactly why mermaids are good, but they are there to help save humans, but curing them and killing the evil in the world,” Amanda explained about the subject she knew so much about.

“Alright then, how exactly do we obtain something like that?” Caleb asked still not one hundred percent convinced about the whole matter.

“Follow me,” Amanda stated as she started heading in toward the Wood’s house.

She went up to the room where she was staying and Caleb and David followed. Once they were in the room Amanda went over to the table by the bed to find something.

David and Caleb stood there looking around the room. David caught a glimpse Amanda’s suitcase, which happened to be open with her lingerie sticking out. David tapped Caleb without taking his eyes off of her underwear and bras, while a huge smile grew across his face. Caleb looked over and saw what he was drooling over and gave him a look as his he was stupid, which he was, and slapped him in the gut.

“Here it is,” Amanda held up a necklace with about twenty different charms on it, “I knew this hunter when I was younger, he saved my life, and I spent many hours over his house. He made me this necklace, so I would be safe no matter what cam my way. Each charm is different, made of something different to ward off or kill a creature. This charm right here,” She pointed to a seashell charm, which was the size of a sliver dollar, which had sharp edges, “this one was made with mermaid venom, you cut a Nixe with this they will die.”

She handed Caleb that charm, and reached into her back and grabbed a bottle of nail polish and two knives. “Another great use for mermaid venom is that it gives nail polish an extra sparkle,” She laughed as she poured the purple nail polish over the blades of the knives, and handed one to David.

David made a face at the purple knife, and Caleb couldn’t help himself but laugh a little.


“Can I see that necklace with all the charms on it really quick?” Caleb asked while he stared at the necklace, especially at one certain charm.

“Um, yeah sure,” Amanda said a little surprised, but she handed him the necklace.

Caleb took it and was looking at one charm that was a silver heart. On one side, the heart had engraved Mandi and on the other side, it was engraved Calebmy W.

“Come on if we want to stop all this mayhem we should get going now,” Amanda stated as she headed out the door, while Caleb put her necklace on her bed and both brothers followed her out of the house.

“What exactly is the plan on killing the Nixe?” Caleb asked trying to take a little control of the situation.

“First off, I have a feeling there are two, but I could be completely wrong. But remember one thing, only cut a creature with either a white or murky green tail with green hair. There might be other mermaids in there. I believe there is one mermaid living in this town, so she might be taking a swim. The main difference is Nixes’ are ugly and mermaids are not.”

“Got it, but the plan…” Caleb started to ask again.

“Calebmy, we are going swimming,” David laughed, catching on to Amanda’s idea.

“That’s right, I hope you aren’t afraid of the water,” Amanda joked, but still didn’t smile, “How about I start from the North side, and you guys can start from the south, we can meet in the middle.”

“Sounds great, but are you sure you are going to be alright by yourself? All three of us can go together instead,” Caleb asked Amanda. He was trying to be nice, and actually cared about her right now.

“Trust me, I will be fine, probably safer then you guys. I have a feeling that the Nixes are going to target me, so it’s better if you start from a different area, and then if you find them, they won’t be so violent,” Amanda stated trying to reassure Caleb that everything was going to be alright. “Oh, here are two waterproof flashlights, and I hope you brought scuba gear for yourselves. I can hold my breath for a long times, so I will be fine.”

“Um we have some sort of breathing tank for us,” David added smiling at Amanda still.

“Great, I have some communication devices for you guys, it hooks, on your mouth piece and the button is attached to the outside of the mouth piece, and if you click it you can talk then unclick it will turn the mic off. It will make it easier to communicate underwater,” Amanda explained handing each of the brothers a device.

They took the device that was being handed to them, and examined it with unsure looks on their faces.

“It’s a two way radio basically, just smaller; the government uses them all the time. I hope you either brought a swim suit or you are comfortable swimming in what you are wearing,” Amanda stated as she looked at the brothers who were wearing jeans and t shirts.

“No we have some swim trunks, unless you want us to swim in this? We could even just go in our birthday suits if you really desired?” David joked, looking at Amanda in a way that started to make her feel uncomfortable, and Caleb was starting to feel that way to.

“I would actually prefer you have some type of clothing on, what kind, it’s up to you, as long as it I don’t have to see anything that would make you wish we never meet,” Amanda said in a serious tone as if she was going to beat him up. “Now if you don’t mind I’m going to go get changed.

“We will be here waiting sweetheart,” David winked at her, and she rolled her eyes, and walked the opposite direction.

As soon as she was far enough away, and not looking, Caleb hit David in the stomach.“Will you cut that crap out!”

“Come on Calebmy you have to live a little, and by living you have to get somewhere with the ladies. As I can tell, I think she is starting to like you more,” David laughed.

“That’s probably because I’m not making sexual jokes and trying to sleep with her!” Caleb rolled his eyes and headed the truck to change into their swim suits.

Once all three were done, and in their swimming attire, which for Amanda happen to be a two piece swim team suit. There was no way she was going to wear a bikini in front of them, especially David, not so much Caleb. She could only imagine what he would try to do and say if she walked out in a string bikini. “Damn, look at her body,” David whispered to Caleb as he pretended to be making the curves of her body with his hands. “Sicko,” Caleb growled. “B****,” David responded. “Are you guys ready or, are you going to chicken out on me David?” She asked not making a joke out of it, but Caleb started laughing. “Now, why would you think something like that?” David asked her, not to happy with her attitude but still was smiling. “Well you seem like the guy that’s all talk and no say. So I’m giving you an out right now, before we start,” “I can handle, myself, can you?” David smiled at her, seeing if he could catch her chickening out. “Yes, I am,” she responded not showing a sign of weakness, because there wasn’t any. “Alright lets go, and Amanda be careful,” Caleb sounded sincere, and Amanda knew it. “I will be fine, it’s you guys who should be careful, I have handled worse creatures then this before. Just remember stab them with the knife and then they should start to die. It takes about a minute before the venom starts to sink in, then they should scream and die. Then our work here will be done,” Amanda declared. “Great see you in the middle,” David winked and started walking toward the south side of the lake. Caleb hesitated for a second, he felt really uneasy about letting Amanda go by herself. He just couldn’t let his conscience tell him no. “Amanda wait!” He shouted and she stopped walking toward the dock and turned around. Caleb jogged toward her; David stopped walking to and turned around to see what his little brother was up too. A smile grew across his face. “That’s my boy, making a move,” David smiled and kept walking toward the south shore. “Amanda, I know I keep saying this but it’s true, I don’t feel comfortable having you go out there by yourself.” “Caleb I will be fine, trust me,” Amanda stated with a little bit of a smile. “I understand that you care about me, but I’m telling you, I stand a way better chance than both you and David.” “Maybe, but we have been hunting creatures like this since we were kids, we know how to handle them.” “How many cases have you dealt with mythical water creatures?” Amanda asked crossing her arms, waiting for Caleb to answer. Caleb looked down at the ground and his tone changed, “Just once that was when we were kids and our dad told us what to do.” “See, I have been around the supernatural water creatures, my entire life, so I know what I am doing when it comes to them. If it was something else, a demon, or even a water spirit, I would be listening to both you and David more, because I understand that is out of my comfort zone, but this isn’t. Caleb you need to trust me on this.” “I’m trying, but a part of me is just not letting it go.” “Listen to me Caleb, there is a good chance we might not find anything out there in that lake, which would mean we are going to have to have a stake out and wait for it enter the water, then all three of us, together can kill it. For right now though we need to split up. If you come with me there is a better chance you might not make it. “I already faced one of the Nixes’ and I don’t think it’s too happy with me. If you come with me, I am going to have to worry more about protecting your ass then killing this bastard okay?” Amanda tried to explain to Caleb. “I understand, just be careful.” Caleb smiled and started jogging toward the south shore, where David was waiting. Once Amanda reached the end of the dock, she turned on her radio. “Mic check, can you hear me?” She talked into her mouth piece that was water proof. “David is on, and can hear you fine,” David stated into the mic and gave Amanda thumbs up from across the lake. “Caleb’s here, and works for me too.” Caleb said, and gave thumbs up also. “Great, let’s get this show on the road,” Amanda declared and dived into the water. Once she was far enough under she snapped her fingers and transformed. She was now her original self. As much as she hated being what she was, this was probably the only reason she enjoyed being it. She was saving the lives of others, helping to make the world a better place. It was because of her some family around her would be sleeping safely in their beds tonight, hopefully, instead of grieving over the lost of a family member whose mystery disappearance was never explained. Caleb and David jumped in the water and gave each other thumbs up before starting to search for the Nixe. Caleb had a hard time concentrating, every thought keep going back to Amanda. He knew she said she would be fine, but there was still a part of him that kept fight for him to go and protect her. Show her what he really can do, but that wasn’t the case. He was with his brother instead helping her from across the lake. There was something about her that he just couldn’t put his finger on. Caleb knew he had met her before in his life. That charm that was on the necklace, the one that was engraved, the one that had Love Calebmy W. He knew that he gave that to her, he knew that was the charm that he had specially made. The only problem was that he couldn’t remember when and why. He couldn’t remember any time in his life when he knew Amanda. This was haunting him, and causing him to get distracted easy. David noticed that wasn’t paying attention, instead it looked like his head was in the clouds. “Caleb get your head out of the clouds and pay attention!” David said sternly in the mic. “I am, I am,” Caleb mumbled into his mic, proving he was down to earth. “Caleb if you’re worried about me, I am fine. Let’s just get this job done, and everything should be back to normal for this town and we can move on with our lives,” Amanda stated from where she was on the other side of the lake. All three of them continued to swim in silence. Looking behind every rock, around every plant, and nothing was to be found. Amanda was getting frustrated, she wanted this creature dead, and it was nowhere in sight. Maybe she was wrong, maybe the Nixe was avoiding her, scared that of her. Amanda was just about to give up when she saw something laying on the floor. It didn’t look like a rock, so she swam down to examine it. She picked it up and sure enough it was a human skull. She put the skull back down and she heard a piercing scream. “Is everyone alright? And did you hear that?” She stated quickly into her mic. “Yes we are fine,” David stated sounding confused. “Me too, and I didn’t hear anything. What did it sound like?” Caleb asked a little worried. “It sounded like a piercing scream. I found a human skull over where I am, and as soon as I put it down I heard it. I could just be my imagination, but I’m not sure.” Amanda stated sounding out of breath. “Okay, we haven’t found anything over here and we searched everywhere,” David stated. “I don’t think it’s here right now. I’m close to the shore, and I think something was standing on the dock messing with my head,” Amanda didn’t sound too happy. “So if it’s not here, what are we going to do then?” David asked sighing into the mouth piece and mic. “Well, how about first we get to shore, and figure out another plan. We might have to have a stake out tonight and wait for it to return,” Amanda suggested for right now. “Sounds like a plan see you on the shore,” Caleb stated, and smiled a little to himself. “Alright, just meet on the dock by the North shore, where we started from, see you soon,” Amanda added, and started swimming toward the dock where she dived in. It was only a matter of second before she reached it. Before she got out, she snapped and became her human self once again, and climbed out and sat on the dock waiting. David and Caleb swam toward the south shore, and got their towels where they left them and dried off. Once they were dry they started walking toward where Amanda was. “So that was not a success, what now?” David asked as he was close enough. “I think we should wait here tonight and wait, that is best plan I can come up with,” Amanda suggested. “Can’t we just go find it in town and kill it?” David asked as if he was ready to hunt something. “Because it can look like anything, we just can ‘t go kill every person and animal that looks like it could possibly be the Nixe,” Amanda stated starting to get into an argument with David. “You must be cold, take my towel,” Caleb sated handing her his towel. “I’m fine really,” Amanda shook her head, not excepting the towel. “We should start now, obviously. Then when it starts getting late, we can start taking shifts. The woods have a boat we can sit in and wait. Once we see the b****, we can attack, hopefully stopping the mayhem once and for all here.” “Great, now I have to babysit a little girl, who has no idea what she is doing here. How about you just let the professionals handle this case,” David growled at Amanda. “You think that I’m not capable of doing this do you?!?!” Amanda shouted. “No I don’t think you are. This is what we do for a living, we may not get paid for it but we are good at it!” David shouted back at her. Caleb just stood there stunned for a second before he tried to step in and stop everything. “Will you cut it out David, just let it go, its fine,” Caleb scolded David, while he stepped in front of Amanda facing David blocking his path. “Move, you’re not part of this!” David shouted. “You may hunt the unexplainable for a living, but I have lived around water creatures since I was born, this type of work comes natural to me!” Amanda shouted. “Maybe but we know what we are doing! I am sick and tired of babysitting you! I shouldn’t have to worry about a kid running around while I try and save lives!” “A KID! Babysitting me! Is that what you really think! I can save your ass faster than you can think, and I can have you killed faster than you can say, my bad!” “Sure, you are all talk and no game!” “Well you don’t think before you talk or act, or what that is kind of hard to do when you don’t have anything up here,” Amanda shouted and teased at the same time, while she pointed to her head, indicating she was talking about David’s brain. “That is it! I have had it with you!” David shouted and tried to throw a punch at Amanda, but missed. “David STOP!” Caleb shouted but the only result was that Caleb got punched in the face by David, on accident of course. “Calebmy! I’m sorry you’re okay right?” David asked worriedly. “Yeah, I will be once you stop this ridiculous fight.” Caleb stated while rubbing his cheek where David had hit him. “Not right now, I need to finish this,” David growled. “Bring it on!” Amanda shouted back at David. “Alright you asked for it!” David advised her and tried to grab her but Amanda was too quick. Amanda ducked came up behind David and flipped him so he landed face down on the ground. She had him pinned and it only took her a second. “I think I might have forgotten to mention, I fight vampires too, but they are a lot easier to kill!” She growled as she slapped his face. “Well good for you!” He mumbled under his breath. Amanda stood up and brushed herself off, then walked toward Caleb but as she was walking David got up and ran toward her reaching his arm out to grab a hold of her, and bring her down like she had to him. But Amanda was one step ahead of him; she didn’t have to turn around and look to know what he was going to do. As soon as he reached his hand out she grabbed it, twisted his hand to the point where he squeaked trying to not show his weakness, and while Amanda was still holding his twisted hand she jammed her elbow into David’s stomach, causing him to drop to the floor again. “I told you, you don’t want to mess with me,” Amanda turned around and said in a serious tone.

Sitting in the boat were Caleb and Amanda just lying there looking up at the stars silently. Neither of them spoke a word about what happened earlier that day. It was about ten o’clock at night and there was still no sign of Nixe. The boat was tied to the dock, where David was standing staring at the lake waiting for the Nixe to return. He was still mad at Amanda, but his temper cooled way down. It was his turn first to watch and he was not enjoying it all. “See anything yet Dean?” Caleb asked not sitting up or taking his eyes off the stars. “Nothing, I sure hope this dam thing comes soon,” Dean growled. “Just remember you are looking for anything pretty much that walks into the water and doesn’t come out, but your mostly looking for either an old crone, or white horse,” Amanda stated. “I know I know you don’t have to tell me,” Dean mumbled under his breath. He wanted this case to be done with so he didn’t have to deal with Amanda anymore. Caleb on the other hand didn’t mind working with Amanda, but instead enjoyed her company. “Why a white horse? I thought according to German myths they could transform themselves into people to lure them into the water,” Caleb asked wanting to know more about this creature that he didn’t know anything about. “Well in Scandinavian folklore they are called Bäckahästen or bækhesten which is translated as the brook horse. Many people would claim they saw a majestic white horse that would appear near rivers, particularly during foggy weather. They would say that anyone who climbed onto its back would not be able to get off again. The horse would then jump into the river, drowning the rider. The brook horse could also be harnessed and made to plough, either because it was trying to trick a person or because the person had tricked the horse into it,” Amanda explained. “That’s interesting, but would that apply to this case, since it was a person who drowned, and his human spirit still haunts with him instead of a horse?” Caleb asked curious. “Yes and no, since he transformed into a Nixe he can fall under any myth or folklore. Plus it being the twenty-first century, those folklores can evolve, and sometimes combine; creating creatures that can have traits of every myth about them.,” Amanda explained. “So right now then, everything is fair game,” Caleb laughed. “That’s right; there was a story my mom use to tell my sister and I when we were little about the Nixe. It was Scandinavian folklore since apparently my great, great, great, grandparents were from Scandinavia and they adopted my great, great grandparents, which is the reason I’m not Scandinavian,”Amanda laughed, and Caleb smiled. “Tell it, I want hear it, plus it will make time go by faster anyways,” Caleb smiled. “Do I have an opinion with this?” Dean grumbled. “NO!” both Amanda and Caleb said at the same time. “Great,” Dean mumbled under his breath, but listened to the story anyway. “A long time ago, there was a girl who was not only pretty but also big and strong. She worked as a maid on a farm by Lake Hjärtasjön She was ploughing with the farm's horse on one of the fields by the lake. It was springtime and beautiful weather. The birds chirped and the wagtails flitted in the tracks of the girl and the horse in order to pick worms. All of a sudden, a horse appeared out of the lake. It was big and beautiful, bright in color and with large spots on the sides. The horse had a beautiful mane which fluttered in the wind and a tail that trailed on the ground. The horse pranced for the girl to show her how beautiful he was. The girl, however, knew that it was the brook horse and ignored it. Then the brook horse came closer and closer and finally he was so close that he could bite the farm horse in the mane. The girl hit the brook horse with the bridle and cried: ‘Disappear you scoundrel, or you'll have to plough so you'll never forget it.’ “As soon as she had said this, the brook horse had changed places with the farm horse, and the brook horse started ploughing the field with such speed that soil and stones whirled in its wake, and the girl hung like a mitten from the plough. Faster than the c*** crows seven times, the ploughing was finished and the brook horse headed for the lake, dragging both the plough and the girl. But the girl had a piece of steel in her pocket, and she made the sign of the cross Sign_of_the_cross>. Immediately she fell down on the ground, and she saw the brook horse disappear into the lake with the plough. She heard a frustrated neighing when the brook horse understood that his trick had failed. Until this day, a deep track can be seen in the field. (Hellström 1985:16)” Amanda finished telling the story. “Your mom use to tell you that story?” Caleb asked as he laughed. “Come on don’t laugh! Didn’t your parents ever tell you stories like that?” “No, not really?” “Come on, you were brought up around the supernatural, and they didn’t tell you crazy stories when you were kids to help make you more aware?” Amanda asked in a more serious tone. “Not really, I mean we were told what every creature was and how to kill it or protect ourselves from it. They didn’t tell us crazy stories, they didn’t have time,” Caleb looked disappointed. “I’m sorry, if it makes you feel any better that was the last story I heard from my mom before she died,” Amanda looked back up at the stars. “I’m sorry about that, you must miss her,” Caleb said in a sympathetic voice. “I do, a lot. But I know she is there watching out for me, you know somewhere in the stars…” Amanda closed her eyes and imagined her mom looking down at her from heaven. “Something is over there by the south shore,” Dean stated interrupting Amanda’s day dream. Both Amanda and Caleb sat up in the boat and looked over to where Dean was pointing. They didn’t see anything just an empty dock in the dark. “I don’t see anything,” Caleb said looking harder. “It was over there, in the form of a horse, like you said, but it just disappeared,” Dean explained and looked around for it. “Are you sure you saw something?” Amanda asked looking around in the water. “I’m positive, it was standing over there, and I am almost certain there was a lady with it,” Dean confirmed. “Oh great,” Amanda groaned, both Caleb and Dean looked at her confused. “What is oh great?” Caleb asked with an uneasy expression on his face. “There are two Nixes’ then, we aren’t just dealing with one,” Amanda stated the obvious. “So, we will just kill them both then,” Dean stated grabbing the purple knife that Amanda lent him. “No, you don’t understand, if there are two, there could be more. Think about it, the bodies over the last few years haven’t been discovered. Unless they are really good about hiding the remains, of the people, there are most likely more.” “How many more?” Caleb asked not liking the outcome of this situation anymore. “God knows how many, and where they are hiding. As long as we can capture, not kill, just capture one, I can ask it and figure out how many,” Amanda turned around in a circle holding her knife out now, prepared for anything that came her way. “And how exactly are you going to that?” Caleb asked sounding out of breath, since he was slowly becoming filled with fear. “Talk to the creature, how many times must I say I have lived around these creatures my whole life, I understand their language, trust me, I can figure out the truth,” Amanda flinched pointing her knife at the shore now. “Sure because having a reasonable conversation will totally work,” Dean rolled his eyes, but still keeping a sharp look out for the Nixe. Caleb and Amanda were still in the boat, but instead of sitting they were standing, which probably wasn’t a good idea, since the boat was an old wooden one that wasn’t very large either. Standing made it hard to balance, so they had to be careful of their every move. Every noise, every breath, every movement, all three of them flinched and were ready to kill. Each of them held their knife, or in Caleb’s case, the charm, out pointing it in every direction in front of them. Both Caleb and Amanda were breathing hard, and becoming more scared; for all they knew the creature could be underneath them in the water. It was late at night past eleven o’clock and the only light that was being provided was by the stars and moon, which was slowly disappearing behind fog. Fog was inhabiting the lake; everywhere they looked was slowly being swallowed by fog. Amanda started to get an uneasy feeling in her stomach. She knew something wasn’t right, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. It wasn’t the fact that she was going to face a Nixe but that she had to capture the creature, figure out how many, and then kill them, while protecting Caleb and Dean at the same time. This was what she did; it was a part of her, the part that had to be kept a secret. It was her responsibility as a mermaid to make sure no harm came to the human race, especially from creatures that were somewhat similar to her; creatures that gave her kind a bad name. “Alright here is the plan,” Amanda said slowly and quietly, not taking her eyes off anything that moved. “Once we see one of the Nixes’ try and capture the best you can. Dean there is rope on the dock, tie it up and don’t let it go. If the horse comes around, tie it to the tree,” she continued to say slowly. “I don’t think rope will hold it,” Dean suggested as he slowly reached down and grabbed the rope, not letting his eyes get distracted. “That rope will, there is a very faint hint of mermaid venom in it; enough that when you tie a mythical creature up with it will burn and they won’t try to resist it. The rope will be torturing it enough that it will spill information, plus they are pretty gullible also,” Amanda responded, she was going to continued but stopped, she heard footsteps, was prepared. Caleb and Amanda’s backs were turned facing the shore; there was a noise that sounded like a horse neighing and both Amanda and Caleb turn around to find a white horse rearing, with its front legs in the air. The horse was inches in front of Dean. Dean was terrified out of his skin practically. As soon as the horse’s feet were on the ground again, all four, the boat that Amanda and Caleb were in tipped over, throwing both of them into the water, the creature’s home court advantage. When Amanda surfaced she looked frantically for Caleb who was nowhere in sight. She looked quickly in Dean’s direction who was slowly being backed up toward the water by the horse. She had to think fast, she could help Dean right now, not when Caleb could be drowning. “Dean the rope!!” She shouted, breaking Dean’s trance he was in, causing him to remember what the plan was suppose to be. “I get Caleb, just get it tied up and quickly!” Amanda dove under the water, snapping her fingers as her tail appeared and her legs disappeared. Above the water, on the dock, Dean tied the rope into a loop and tried to lasso, the horse. The creature was too quick and dodged the rope, taking off into the woods. Dean didn’t give up he ran after the horse, taking out his gun and shooting it in the leg, causing it to slow down; slow down enough that Dean was able to capture it. He tied the horse to one of the trees around him, at sat down across from it, with his back against a tree, and waited for Amanda. At first the horse struggled and tried to free it’s self, but Dean could tell that Amanda had told the truth about the venom in the rope, because slowly the horse stopped and didn’t move at all. Amanda who was now looking desperately everywhere for Caleb, couldn’t find him. She kept swimming around franticly, until she heard a high pitch scream. She knew that the Nixe had him, and was probably trying to drown him right this second. She swam in the direction of the high pitch scream that the Nixe was screaming. That was a way that they drown their prey, by screaming so loud it hurts their head and they breath underwater, causing their own death. The more Amanda kept swimming the louder the scream was becoming until, she saw the Nixe holding Caleb down to the bottom of the lake. She swam over holding the knife out in front of her, but the Nixe moved, and swam the other way. She picked up Caleb, who didn’t seem to be conscience, during that moment, and swam to the surface. Once she reached it, she didn’t snap her fingers to turn back to her human form; instead she started swimming toward the dock. “Dean!!!” She shouted at the top of her lungs. Dean heard her shout, and came running toward the dock. He saw Caleb lying there lifeless in Amanda’s arms. Once he got close enough, she snapped her fingers so he couldn’t see her tail. Dean leaned over and helped take Caleb out of the water, and lay him on the dock. As soon as they did this, Caleb started coughing up water, and was breathing again. Both Amanda and Dean sighed, in relief. The only problem was that it was too early to celebrate. Behind Amanda moving slowly, toward her, was the Nixe. Its white tail was separating the water behind it, and it’s green hair was blending in with the water. Amanda didn’t know that it was behind her, until it grabbed her foot and dragged her under. Luckily, she was able to snap her fingers before she couldn’t hold her breath anymore. On the Dock, Caleb jumped up and stared down into the murky water. “We have to go get her,” Caleb shouted looking franticly everywhere in the water. “Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, hold on a second Calebmy. You almost nearly drowned, you go keep an eye on that horse, or Nixe whatever it is, and I will look for the b****,” Dean explained. “Fine, but you better find her…alive,” Caleb mumbled and walked toward the woods where the horse was tied up to the tree. Dean looked into the water, and couldn’t see a thing, “Damnit” he said pissed off, as he started walking to his truck, at a fast past. Once he got there he took the breathing device and the underwater flashlight that Amanda lent him. He kept the purple knife in his back pocket, but when he jumped in the water, he held it in one hand while the other held the flashlight. Amanda was able to untwist out of the grasp of the Nixe. Letting go the Nixe, didn’t swim away like the other times, instead it came straight at her. Thinking quick, she reached for the knifed and prepared to kill. The Nixe could smell the venom, and grabbed her wrist trying to get Amanda to drop the knife but it didn’t work. They start wresting, twirling each other, flinging each other against rocks that were on the bottom of the lake. If anyone saw the fight, all it looked liked was the swirl of blue and white tails, constantly thrashing the other. Finally the Nixe had her pined to the ground. It had a hold of her knife and was trying to stab her in the heart, but Amanda was resisting, as best as she could. Thinking quick she extended her neck enough and bit the Nixes’ hand holding the knife. This caused the Nixe to retreat. Slowly watching, the creature die, screaming in pain, the Nixe fell to the ground and the flesh disappeared quickly only leaving the bones, which looked like a fish. Amanda just sat there on the ground, staring at the remains of the Nixe. She heard something coming, and didn’t want to take a chance so she snapped and held her breath. Luckily it was Dean, and when he saw her, he started to swim faster toward her. Once he got to her, she held onto him, as he brought her to the surface. As soon as the broke surface, she took a big gulp of air as if she couldn’t get enough of it. They swam together to the edge. Dean helped her out and looked toward Caleb’s direction. “You okay?” Dean asked not looking at her. “Yup, fine. I killed the Nixe in the lake, so hopefully the horse is the last one,” Amanda stated walking toward Caleb’s direction following Dean. “You are okay!” Caleb sighed, relieved to see her. “Yup, so let’s cross our fingers this is the last one,” Amanda smiled and walked up to the horse. “Šta želite li?” (What do you want?), the creature hissed at Amanda. “Koliko vaš vrsta Ima li ovde?” (How many of you are there here?) Amanda growled back at the creature in its own language. Caleb and Dean looked at each other with confused looks on their face. They did not understand what Amanda was saying. “What is she saying?” Caleb leaned over and asked his brother in a whisper. “I don’t know, for all we know she could be trading us for a bag of salt,” Dean rolled his eyes, not liking the idea that Amanda was communicating with the creature. “Mislite da ste veliki i loše ne? samo zato sto se specijalne veze prema moru ne znači i da da vas čujemo!” (You think you are big and bad don't you? Just because you have special connections under the sea doesn’t mean I have to listen to you), the creature barked at her. “Te nije' odgovor moje pitanje, koliko?!" (You didn’t answer my question, How many?!) She growled back. “Dva, da je to samo mi i devojka” (Two, it’s just me and the girl),” the creature replied, more cooperative. “Thank you, now who wants to kill it?” Amanda turned around and asked them. “He said there was only two of them, and since I killed the one in the lake, one you can have some fun and kill this one.” “I’ll do it,” Dean replied and took the knife and jammed it into the creature, killing it, just like Amanda did in the lake.

It was the next morning the sun was shining and there was a feeling in the air that seemed good. The people around the lake and in the town were safe for now, and it was thanks to three people who didn’t get along at this moment, because they didn’t know who everyone was, not yet.

Amanda was standing at the end of the dock staring out at the water, that was a war zone, just a few hours ago, but now a peaceful place. A creature with such similarity to her could be so evil. Amanda realized there was more evil around her, then she ever imagined. She always try to run away from her problems, but after this experience, she realized she can’t and she needs to do something.

Amanda got out her cell phone and dialed Jay Lutz’s number.

Caleb and David were walking up toward Amanda when they noticed her talking on the phone, they were about tot turn around and give her some privacy, when they heard something that they didn’t understand, and made no complete sense to them….yet.

“Hey Mr. Lutz, I can see you are still ignoring me. You know I’m truly sorry for what I did, and years have passed. But anyway I’m calling this time to tell you I was able to figure out what was the matter, here, so if you were deciding to come, well I finished the case. Maybe I will talk to you later then…bye” Amanda hung up the phone, and just looked down at the ground; she felt upset and didn’t know how to fix the situation she was in.

Caleb and David walked up behind her and stood there for a moment, not wanting to disturb or frighten her. Amanda could tell someone was behind her so she turned around facing them.

“We just wanted to say we were moving on, and it was good working with you,” David stated and faked a smile.

“But…we over heard your conversation, which we are sorry for ease dropping…” Caleb started explaining, but was interrupted by David who was making comments under his breath, but he continued. “Anyway, were you talking to Jay Lutz by any chance?” Caleb asked uneasy about the topic.

“I was leaving him a voicemail. Before I started working on this case, actually right before you guys came and talked to me for the first time, I called him asking for his help, and he didn’t answer or call me back. I was just calling him letting him know that I took care of it and his help wasn’t needed anymore,” Amanda explained to them, still not realizing the connection.

“Really? You know Jay Lutz, wow,” David was speechless.

“How do you know him?” Caleb asked not in his fake business voice, but in his questioning case voice.


Amanda could tell something wasn’t right about the situation, but she told them anyway. “He saved my life when I was a kid. He taught me almost everything I know about the creatures out there, excluding the water creatures, which I taught him about,” Amanda laughed.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t expect him to answer my calls any way. He probably is ignoring me and I wouldn’t blame him, not after what I did a few years ago,” She paused for a second, remembering the past.

“He had two sons, one daughter, but she died. His sons and I use to hang out until I ran away,” Caleb perked up when she said that; he knew who she was now and everything was making complete sense.

“His younger son had a crush on me, and his older, well he was the like the older brother I never had, and had always wanted. The whole Lutz family treated me like I was their daughter and took me in, and I betrayed them,” Amanda sighed.

David looked over at Caleb realizing the same thought Caleb was thinking.

“Well you deserved it…” David mumbled and Caleb hit him and gave him a, you’re stupid look, “but luckily the Lutzs are forgiving,” David said louder and faked a smile.

“What?” Amanda asked confused and not understanding what was going on.

“You are Mandi Mackenzie aren’t you?” Caleb asked excitedly.

“Okay?” Amanda was still confused.

“The mermaid, from Alaska, whose step-brother is a werewolf, that Mandi Mackenzie?” Caleb had a huge smile growing across his face.

“Yeah, so…that’s how I know so much about water creatures, you caught me,” Amanda rolled her eyes, and started walking away, toward the Wood’s house.

“We are Caleb and David….Lutz,” Caleb stated, and Amanda froze.

That would make complete sense. They knew how to kill the supernatural, the fake ID’s and stupid lies; it was them, in the flesh.

She turned around with a look on her face as if she had just saw death.

“I’m sorry,” were her only words, as she turned around started running toward the house, crying, just leaving Caleb and David standing there unsure of what just happened.