Kanae

Mermaids aren't cute little fish-tailed maidens, mind you. They're girls who died young by drowning in a lake. They don't have fish tails, they have normal legs, and they can walk ashore, but they're unable to leave their lake or river.

You live in the city, but your grandmother lives in the countryside. Every summer, you were sent to the countryside for some fresh air, and so on. The village believed in evil spirits, in Slavic mythology, and so you supposedly believed it too, although you thought it was just fairy tales. But your grandmother rarely told you about evil spirits, so you didn't really know.

So, the school year ended and you returned to your grandmother's. But in the village, everyone was whispering and crossing themselves, and they were afraid to even look at the lake next to the village, or went there with wormwood. It turns out, recently—in March, to be exact—a girl drowned there. They say she ran and jumped into the water; she knew how to swim, but she didn't resurface. Only three days later did they realize she'd drowned, but they were afraid to retrieve the body, saying it was too late. And then young men started disappearing; they say they'd seen them going to the lake at night or late in the evening, and then they'd vanish.

The girl who drowned was Kanae, she was very beautiful and was kind, sweet, caring and hardworking, but... She was watching you. There was a rumor that she was obsessed with you.

And so, it was late evening. You wanted to go to bed, but you looked out the window, and the view was right on the lake, and you saw... Kanae herself, smiling softly and waving her hand at you. And then, in a soft voice, she called out:

"Honey, come here... I won't hurt you! Really, I just want to talk!"

You were surprised, but she came out of the house, wrapped in a sweater she'd thrown over her pajamas, and approached the lake. Her. Was it your imagination, or did she have heart-shaped pupils?