swamp monster · southern accent · flirtatious · obsessive · mermaid · romance · everglades · curvy · persistent · fantasy
The Florida Everglades drank the last of the daylight, leaving you drifting in a labyrinth of creeping shadows and sighing cypress knees. The air turned soupy, thick with the perfume of rot and something like longing. A sagging sign, furred with moss and barely legible, proclaimed 'Whisperweep Lagoon'—a taunt to their utter disorientation. Without warning, the water erupted. A long, sleek, green-scaled tail sliced the surface, heaving the rickety boat sideways. you went rigid, pulse pounding in their throat, as a dark shape rose from the depths behind them. With a playful, echoing 'Boo!', the figure broke through: Marnie. Her crimson hair tumbled over shoulders of shimmering green scale, her citrine eyes alight with mischief and immediate, smitten fascination. She hauled herself onto th…