My 24th Birthday

My 24th Birthday

My name is Jackie Moore and I have been on edge the past 48 hours because I have not packed for my birthday trip at all. I’m turning 24 and I am finally going out of the country for the first time to Guadalupe Island, Mexico. Waking up on the 24th of May in my cluttered New York City penthouse, I jumped up to try and get my suitcase together. As I grab my folded clothes that I left on the couch my friend Ronda facetimes me and tells me some strange news.

Ronda’s cousin Marilyn who was just on vacation in Guadalupe Island had called her previously to let her know to be careful on our trip. Her roommate who went with her had got attacked by a Great White Shark while diving and they had been seeing more attacks on the rise. I laughed and shrugged off what Ronda was telling me and told her I wasn’t worried. Even though I was calm and unbothered, Ronda seemed concerned. She said her cousin’s roommate lost two limbs in the attack and is completely in shock. I started to think twice but instantly shook the doubt in my head and continued to pack my bags and hung up the phone.

After my phone call with Ronda and packing my bags I sit and search up the recent attacks on the island. Even though we were in a pandemic, there are still a lot of people traveling especially to Mexico, and they were on a streak of 2 attacks a day. Scary as it sounds I still shrug it off and continue to get ready for the day.

On the day of my birthday, May 26th, it’s 7am and I am rushing to the airport to meet Ronda to get on the plane. My Lyft was running behind on time and I woke up late so I was already completely messing up my birthday. But I couldn’t help but have a lot of anxiety going on this trip, something didn’t feel right. By the time I addressed this random feeling we were already pulling into the airport and I had to get ready. Once I got through security I met Ronda at the gate.

“Over here!” Ronda yelled, as she proceeded to wave her arms to get my attention. Something still didn’t feel right so I wasn’t as excited to see her. She slowly noticed my mood and as I sat down asked if I was okay, I sat and told her I wasn’t feeling well and something wasn’t right. Shockingly she had a change of heart from 2 days ago and told me it was all in my head and that it was time to have fun and proceeded to sing me happy birthday. It honestly made me feel better.

As we landed in Guadalupe Island my worries began to erase as I set my eyes on the palm trees. We got a lyft to the La Toubaña Hotel and we were on our way. After we got settled we got dressed to get ready to go to Gran Ensenada Beach. The beach was roughly 20 minutes away and Ronda wanted to pregame before the lyft. We opened up our bottle of Pink Whitney, filled up our glasses and finished them before the lyft was 3 minutes away.

As we got to the beach I realized I was drunk. But more than I have ever been before. ‘I’ve drank more than this before and have never been this drunk’ I thought to myself. I could barely walk. Completely stumbling on the beach while Ronda was skipping and frolicking around completely fine. I thought it was strange she was pretty much completely sober and happy and I was stumbling and feeling sick. I plop down on the sand to stare at the tides to see if it would sober me up. After all it was just one cup, how long would it take?

Almost 30 minutes go by and I seem to be getting worse. I can hardly keep my eyes open and I’m still stuck sitting on the sand, but no one is coming to help me. I tried to call for Ronda but she was still talking to a man who she had been talking to the whole time ever since I sat down. I couldn’t understand why she was ignoring me and what she would want with a man so old. He seemed older, like in his late 30’s. He had scruffy grey hair and rough looking skin and dirty fingernails. I call for Ronda again but she still doesn’t answer. At this time I’m starting to realize I’m blacking out.

I woke up panicking. Something wasn’t right, even though I’ve woken back up it is completely dark and I don’t see Ronda or the beach anywhere. But for some reason it sounds like I’m even closer to the beach. I could tell I was on a boat. I got terrified and begin to scream, what is happening to me? I thought. Then I suddenly hear Ronda, “Jackie? Jackie, are you ok?”. I tried to punch and kick on what felt like a box. As I’m kicking and screaming, Ronda slowly opens the door. I frantically stood up on the surface of the boat and tried to hug her but as soon as I stood I was snatched!

I looked and it was the man that Ronda was talking to before and another man that I haven’t seen before. I began to scream and ask what’s going on. Ronda looked at me and laughed and pointed to the ocean. I looked and there was something sticking out the water, not a shark but something that looked just like me. I looked closely and I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a mermaid. I am shocked and confused and begin to scream again. The men leaned me closer to the mermaid, balancing me on the boat and I was shaking. The mermaid came and touched me on my cheek and said “this is the one”. Those were the worst words I ever heard in my life, next thing I know I was dropped in the ocean with the Mermaid.

I began to panic even more as I didn’t understand what was going on. But the more I sank I started to remember what I learned about mermaids. In Haiti there are 3 types of mermaid sisters (which happens to be the country right next to the islands) one of the mermaids are believed to be responsible for multiple men’s death over the years. The stories are also believed to say that they contact other people to kidnap a person for them for whatever they need… or else. As soon as I come to this realization the mermaids grabs me and somehow takes me to somewhere where I can breathe. I was confused how this was able to happen until I looked up and saw what was believed to look like Atlantis. I was in disbelief, it was beautiful and couldn’t believe to see it still somewhat exists, but then I turned back to the thought to figure out what this mermaid really wanted and why Ronda sold me out.

As the mermaid begins to communicate with me, she begins to tell me that one of the men there needed a wife. To stay there with them… forever. I instantly got cold and shook my head no and said I needed to go back. I was starting to miss my NYC apartment and wished I never came on this trip. This was all so nuts. I tried to swim away and prepared to hold my breath when the strangest thing happened. I forgot that mermaids are known to shapeshift… into anything. I got a bad feeling as I turned around to look back one more time and what I saw was insane. The mermaid was transforming into a shark.

As soon as I saw this I began to swim away as fast as I could, I had to get a head start. I swam for my life as the mermaid wasn’t done transforming yet but was close. As I kept swimming I realized I wasn’t as far from the surface as I thought I was, I swam faster and almost tired myself out as I realized a shark shadow from afar. I knew the transformation was complete, but I was close to the surface. I swam closer and closer as something strange happened. A diver came in and grabbed me as fast as they could and pulled me to the surface.

I coughed and coughed until I can finally catch my breath. I look over and see Ronda and the two men in handcuffs, luckily someone else was on the beach and saw the whole thing from afar and notified the authorities as soon as possible. I was so shook up I couldn’t say anything, I knew no one would believe what I saw. The authorities gave me a towel and as I tried to warm up I looked over and saw the shark fin peeking out of the ocean. I am so glad I got out of there in time.

While I got sent home back to New York and spent days in therapy, Ronda and the three men were arrested and sentenced to 20 years in jail for attempted murder and kidnapping. Neither one mentioned the mermaid, and neither did I. I still have nightmares till this day and have never left the country again.