A young man at the age of 14 was strolling along the beach with tears rolling from his eye's. He was overwhelmed with depression, for he was nearly a man and he had not yet kissed a woman. He was gazing upon the surface of the sea when he

A young man at the age of 14 was strolling along the beach with tears rolling from his eye's. He was overwhelmed with depression, for he was nearly a man and he had not yet kissed a woman. He was gazing upon the surface of the sea when he spotted a woman of splended beauty. Her arms were opened wide gesturing him to approach her. The seas were rough with waves crashing at the shoreline, tossing sand and seaweed along the beach front. He knew it was dangerous to venture into the sea at night, though the woman stood there with eye's that seemed to penetrate his heart. Her beauty became a screen, preventing thought and judgement from passing through his mind, allowing only witts and desire to guide him. He took a step towards her then stopped, his head slowely tilting towards the sky. Clouds clustered together dark and enraged with winds twisting and spinning above him. His stomache began to knot as fear grew inside him, then he looked again at the woman in the sea. She sensed his fear, smiled, then pointed her hands towards the sky. The young man again glanced upon the sky. The clouds dissapeard, the wind fell to a slight breeze and stars appeared. The woman in the sea then called to him with a silent scream, her arms again gesturing him forward. Courage and desire again overtook him. "If I could have just one kiss." He thought to himself, then entered the sea.

The seawater was warm and calm and the sun had set, though the stars were large and lustrous giving off enough light to guide his way. The water steadly grew deeper as he approached her, growing colder and darker proceding each step. Her face and body became difficult to make out, the stars grew weak and dim, and the wind began to pick up. Once again realizing it was a mistake to venture into the sea at night, he was overtaken by fear. The sea embrase him, imobilized his arms and legs and pulled him effortlessly towards her. He closed his eye's wishing he was still on the shoreline gazing upon the beautiful woman that stood in the sea, but it was too late.

He opened his eye's only to behold the beautiful woman that he saw from the beach, though she had changed. She no longer posessed a beautiful form but instead a grotesque disfigurement. Her eye's were pure white with a layer of mucus dripping from each of them. Her nose beant to the side hanging from only a strand of flesh sticking to her upper lip. She still held a smile, though her teeth were sparatic, brown, and her tongue fell from the corner of her mouth. She Threw her arms toward him grasping him by the shoulders. Her flesh was warn and wrinkled barely clinging to her bones with tiny sea shrimp burrowed in it. She pulled him towards her pressing him against her chest. He could feel the shrimp along her stomache and breasts quickly retreating into her, franticaly moving about. He gazed into her face, desgusted and scared. Her smile went away as she again looked into the sky, her neck growing and moving about as though something were inside of it. She slung her head down, her mouth closed and eye's gazing lazely into his. Fear and panic embrased him as she opened her mouth. Tons of shrimp and crabs pulling seaweed and sand from within her, poured out of her mouth. Her body seemed to shrivel and shrink and her flesh drooped from her bones as the sea critters left her. Shrimp and crabs were everywhere, grouping together as an army would prior to an attack. They had all exited the womans flesh which had a firm grip on the young man, her eye's still lazely gazing into his. She released her right had from his shoulder and placed it upon the back of his head, and pulled his face towards hers. Her complection was now worse than before, grey slimy skin hanging from her skull, drooping and swinging with her every movement. Her upper lip was larger on one side resting on her lower teeth. Her grip became tighter as she pulled his lips against hers. She pushed her tongue into his mouth moved her lips from side to side as much as her deformed muscles would allow, then released her grip. She sank slowely into the sea.

A sharp pain struck the young man in his side, then again in his arm. He looked about realizing the shrimp were attacking him. There was no escape. The tiny sea shrimp crawled along his skin biting into his flesh, creating small wholes in which to burrow. He could feel them wiggling frantically throughout his muscles and skin, enjoying there new home. The crabs then made there move, entering his body in every orifice. Most of the crabs entered through his mouth, quickly making there way down his throat and into his stomache where they ate through the lining creating more space for the others. Small crabs made there way through his anus, digging deep into his intestines eating at his flesh until they meet with the others. Soon enough all of the sea critters were in the young man, his skin stretched with shrimp burrowed in it. His internal organs infested with crabs, eating at him and keeping him afloat.

The young man was not dead, though he was infested with tiny sea critters burrowing into his flesh and eating at his internal organs. He was still able to think but was restricted in movement. He stayed afloat drifting along the shore line bloaded and numb, when he heard a loud cry of laughter. He managed to turn his body toward the shoreline where he saw a woman staring at him. Her beauty was magnificent, like an angel. It was the woman he saw in the sea. "A kiss will set you free!" she yelled, then dissapeared into the shadows of the night.

written by Joseph N. C. Spry