Song of the Sirens (18 page)

“You were linked to us because you were
with us? But we hardly spent any time together. You were with my father more
than anyone else.”

“Yes, but, see the thing is, the
emotional links are stronger than anything else.”

I furrowed my brows. “Emotional link?”

“I really like you, Anita. I’m not
supposed to feel this way about a human….”

Riley gently removed my trembling
fingers and coaxed me into a calm state with his powers. He leaned into me. His
green eyes glowed in the light-deprived room, drawing my attention and locking
me in with his words.

I lifted my chin so I could view the
green shimmer. My lips parted and my tongue moved, creating words, which
should’ve formed a question. Words refused to emerge. They hid beneath my
tongue and obeyed a different voice, one that was not mine, but Riley’s.

“Stay put, Anita. It’s for your own
good,” he said in a tone barely above a mutter.

I tilted my head and silently questioned
the odd reaction. When he moved away and stalked to the door, which continued
to ripple like liquid, I watched and held a breath under his complete command.

Riley paused before opening the door. He
sucked in a sharp inhalation, turned the doorknob, walked out, and closed the
door behind him. Once he left, the walls stopped moving.

I remained exceptionally still. I
gripped the bar and spread my feet to counteract the motion of the ever-growing
turbulent waves.

I knew why I obeyed his voice. He had
mythical charm, a power over humans. This sphere of likable intrusion around my
brain prevented action, but enabled a cognitive awareness in a dull, apathetic
way. I liked his control over my actions much better than the sirens. Their
voices scared me, whereas Riley’s relaxed me.

I sat in a daze, alone in the darkness,
as the light beneath the door flashed. Someone walked past the room without
stopping. I pushed Riley’s power away and sluggishly walked to the door.

A deteriorated woman meandered by. I saw
her through the peephole. She stopped and turned toward the door, looked up at
the peephole and grinned. She glared back at me with sunken, dark eyes. Her
gray, wrinkled skin peeled and exposed tender, red flesh. Water soaked her
messy, tangled hair, which clung to her scalp. Missing patches revealed
blotches of red, shedding scalp.

I jerked away and slapped a palm over my
mouth to prevent screams. I heaved twice before finding the courage to peer
through the peephole again. I didn’t make any sudden movements or sounds,
afraid the woman would detect me.

The siren lifted tattered nails. I
recognized those fingers, the same fingers that clasped around the boulder
beneath water, the ones that attacked my dreams.

I panicked when she turned the doorknob
because I hadn’t locked it after Riley left. I reached down. Before I grabbed
the doorknob, it jiggled. I stepped back. The siren rattled the handle, but it
didn’t turn. Odd. It wasn’t locked, but she couldn’t manage to get through, not
that I complained.

After a minute, the movement ceased. I
leaned against the door as silently as possible, and peered through the
peephole.

The siren vanished around the corridor.
I stepped away and gulped. I was safe, but I wished I could say the same for
the others.

Pacing around the small room didn’t help
anything. Biting my nails didn’t help, either. A siren hunted humans on this
very ship, including Dad!

Chapter Twelve

My tapping foot annoyed the heck out of
me, along with having sweaty palms in the cozy of my sweatshirt. I couldn’t
just sit here and abide by the terror that ran rampant through my mind. I had
to see Dad. I had to know he was safe or at least stable.

A tear slipped from my eye. I wiped it
away, dragged in a deep breath, and took a sip of water. I made the rash,
though hesitant, decision to leave the room.

Riley warned me to stay put behind
locked doors. Sorry, Riley, Dad came first.

I stood and shook my hands at my sides
while mentally coaching myself into doing this. When I passed by the kitchen, I
planned to grab a knife and use it as a weapon.

I unlatched and opened the door. The
wood barrier creaked on its hinges. A sudden sway from the waves sent the door
slamming against the wall. I jumped and placed a hand on my already aching
chest.

I peered out into the empty hallway. How
strange that a crew member hadn’t come by to check on me.

One foot in front of the other, I
emerged into the hall and closed the door behind me. The corridors were too
quiet for an emergency. This didn’t feel right. And with that cringe-worthy
feeling, another thought hit me. What if Riley was the bad guy, too? What if
the sirens were worse, but the mermen didn’t care enough to keep us alive? What
if they used us as bait to lure the sirens out of the water so the mermen could
kill them without infecting the ocean without regard for us?

I shook off the thought, chased it away
with a dim hope that Riley was trustworthy. Otherwise, he could’ve let us drown
down there, or allow the shark to eat me. Unless…he still used us as bait.

I jerked every time the lights flickered
and at every creak. I was tempted to knock on each door as I passed, but I
refrained. Noise was not an option.

The study room, where the research
members gathered to exploit the ocean floor for findings, remained bare and
dark. I bypassed searching there altogether and walked to the dining hall, the
only place large enough to hold an unconscious Dad with men at his side.

I heard a sound in the near distance,
just around the door. I paused. It came from the storage room next to the
kitchen, one of the places the captain forbade us non-crew members from
exploring.

I crept toward the sound, hoping not to
step on any of a number of weakening floorboards while keeping balance. One
large wave hit the boat. I tumbled into the wall. I hit it face and shoulder
first. I seethed and hissed at the pain, and then growled.

While I rubbed my face, a strange, loud,
and creaking noise roamed through the cabin. I paused and listened closely. The
sound echoed against empty halls and seeped through to the upper compartment.

The lights flickered. I jumped and
looked up. The lights flickered again and remained off for several minutes. I
gulped and lifted trembling hands to feel around for the wall near my right,
hoping with all my might that I didn’t come across the cold, semi-soft surface
of flesh.

I felt nothing but air until several
baby steps brought me closer to the wall. My hands hit wood.

“Oh, thank god,” I muttered.

I backed against the wall and stared
with wide eyes into utter darkness. Nothing good ever came out of the dark.
Nothing good lurked in the dark.

I searched every crevice of my mind for
the will to press on and take even the tiniest steps, but I wasn’t that person.
I wasn’t a kick-ass superhero, or a fearless soldier. I was only a care-free
gal.

I closed my eyes and slid to the floor.
I huddled and waited for the lights. I sat on my haunches and jerked and jumped
at every noise. Fear overwhelmed me. I didn’t foresee moving an inch.

That eerie creak gurgled through the
halls again, prowled across crowded space toward me. Although the groan
intensified and left me near paralyzed by fear, it did not have the same
gut-wrenching effect as the song. The song deadened my body, but I continued to
panic in knowing a bloodthirsty she-beast had her claws hooked in my mind. If a
siren made the sound, she didn’t reach out to my thoughts.

Scurrying feet tapping against the floor
sounded to my left. I jerked toward the noise and stiffened. My body shook. My
breathing increased so that I could no longer keep up with the inhalations
through nostrils alone. I parted my lips.

The lights flickered on and doused
everything in a sudden flash of illumination before dying again. They teased me
two more times before staying on.

I gulped and studied my surroundings.
Everything appeared to be in place. I didn’t see anyone waiting for me.

I pushed against the floor, stood up,
and turned toward the sound. With quivering limbs, I walked to the basement
door. I swallowed hard. After a pause, I glanced all around to make sure no one
waited in ambush.

I lifted a shaking hand and grasped the
doorknob. I turned, but froze when the creak haunted the room. It sounded
closer, louder, and no less eerie. When it passed, I finished turning and
pushed the door.

As I released the doorknob, the door
continued to swing back. The hinges groaned, and the door slowly came to a
stop, hardly hitting the stairwell wall behind it.

The basement had always been off limits.
The engine room was down there, as well has heavy pipes and the essential guts
of the boat. Only three men from the crew had access, including the captain and
the engineer. The basement had never been a part of the tour.

A yellow flashlight caught my eye. It
sat on the edge of the table near the door on top of a large toolbox. I reached
over and grabbed it. I gripped it with tight fingers as my thumb stroked up the
sliding lever and turned it on. A bright circle danced on the first step of the
stairwell. Sweat from my palm made the grasp slippery and moist.

Another creak resonated. My thumb
pressed down on the lever and pulled it back, shutting the flashlight off.

The noise definitely came from the
basement. The stairs led down to a dark and closed off space. Bad things
happened in basements. Very bad things happened in dark basements during
storms.

“Screw that,” I muttered. I wasn’t going
down there.

I took a step forward, leaned in, and
reached out for the doorknob with my left hand. I could’ve stepped inside, but
nothing could make me begin the descent down into the darkness.

That’s when I heard it. My spine
stiffened as a chill crawled down my back. My entire body froze with terror.

That wretched song accompanied the next
creak, and I knew exactly what was down there.

I silenced a groan as the song
strengthened. It wasn’t chaotic and jumbled up with a dozen different
high-pitched voices, but a lovely, hypnotic tune sung by one voice. The song
reached out, wound through the air, and found me. It pried through my skull.

I clenched my jaw and attempted to erect
a mental barricade in order to keep it out. The last-minute effort seemed to
work for a mere moment before the voice thrashed against the mental barrier and
destroyed the barricade.

The voice clawed into my brain, dug
through my thoughts, and expelled a sweet toxin, which rendered me almost
useless. Except, I retained some thought. I fought back.

I turned on the flashlight and pointed
it to the bottom of the steps. The light gleamed off someone.

My heart nearly stopped, and when it
beat again, the pain felt as though the organ ripped in two. The throb didn’t
compare to the whole new level of fear.

Tremors rocked my body from the core.
The pit of my belly dropped. Every hair on my body stood on end, and my skin
puckered with goose bumps.

I held my arm in place long enough to
see her. The bright circle of light illuminated a ghostly and gaunt woman. She
stood perfect and still, as if she didn’t breathe. Patchy hair, saturated with
seawater, clung to her head and down to her bare chest. Water dripped down her
face, bringing to the forefront every emaciated feature.

Bruised skin peeled off in large scraps,
many of which continued to hang from her flesh, clinging by a diminutive fiber.
Her brows sloped low over sunken, black eyes, which caught the gleam from the
flashlight.

Thick, stringy skin stretched from her
prominent cheeks and latched onto her jaw. Wide gaps in the flesh exposed the
dark hollow of her mouth. Several rivers of dark crimson blood streamed from
her lips and dripped from her chin.

Her long neck ended at protruding
clavicles, which tapered off to thick shoulder bones. Every rib appeared
visible, with deep indentations in between, before the ribcage took a sharp
depression above a frail stomach. Her limbs were like bones held together by
scraps of thin skin. She didn’t seem to be anything more than a weak, aging,
and creepy lady.

She moved her curled fingers, scraping
the sides of her thigh with long, sharp nails. Blood and dirt stained them,
leaving streaks on her flesh.

I raised my sights back to her face. A
long tongue slithered out to serpentine past her bloody lips. It struck at the
air, like a viper. It extended far past the normal range of a human tongue and
snaked across the air toward me.

I gulped.

She took a step forward, wetting the
lowest step with seawater from her body.

Perhaps she thought I stood paralyzed
with utter fear and didn’t think to run. Perhaps she thought I concentrated on
what a strange and terrifying beast she appeared to be, because I noticed the
song wavered. It crackled and split, and I took the moment of her weakness to
drive up another mental wall. I shoved her voice out of my head during the
song’s gap where I didn’t feel her claws in my mind. I erected a fortress of
sheer will.