Song of the Sirens (25 page)

“Good job.”

Riley walked to the bed and pulled out
the corners of the sheets from beneath the mattress. He wrapped up the pile
like a disgusting present and tied the ends of the sheets together. He grunted
as he pulled out the mattress.

I realized what he planned and ran to
the other side to help carry the mattress out of the house and to the beach.

Riley moved with ease, while I huffed
and puffed along through the darkness, slowing him down so I didn’t trip over
sand dunes.

We dropped the mattress on the beach
halfway between the backyard and the water. Riley untied the sheets.

“When the sun rises, the light will turn
the pus into ashes and disintegrate the ashes and leave no trace of the sirens.
You’ll have to get another mattress.”

“Right,” I mumbled.

Two heaps surrounded the mattress. He
must’ve killed another one. Three sirens made it this far, and three sirens
died.

The wind caught my hair and slapped my
face with an icy chill. The weather didn’t get better. I knew what that meant.

I gazed up at the brewing clouds.
“There’s another one, isn’t there?” I asked.

Riley stared at me. “You’re perceptive.”

He told me the weather would ease up
when all the escaped sirens died, so I didn’t know whether to take his comment
as sarcasm or not.

The wind died for a second as something
rustled in the tall grass to the left, behind us. By the time I turned to face
the sound, Riley’s cold hands hit my back and shoved me toward the mattress.

I grunted and stretched my arms to
balance my fall. I barely missed falling face first into the decayed mess. The
stench hit my nostrils. I gagged.

Grunts and groans sounded behind us,
followed by a screech. I recognized that screech all too well.

I snapped my chin toward the fight.
Another siren won a surprise attack on the unsuspecting protector and clawed
with a heated ire.

Because Riley held the strong belief a
scratch or bite from a siren could infect him, his skill at combat seemed
subdued.

I feared a bad outcome. If she killed
Riley, nothing could stop her from killing me and wreaking havoc on my town,
starting with Dad. The other protectors wouldn’t get here in time.

I felt the urge to intervene and help,
but I couldn’t actually help.

One power Riley possessed that the siren
didn’t was control over water. The waves rumbled beyond the beach and lifted in
a staggering wave. The ocean sounded like a waterfall, strong and irritated,
and swirled above me.

I knew to stay in place. I remembered I
left the knife on the bed, now here on the mattress. If I could find it, and
stab the siren, I could save us. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anything to tape
an arrowhead to the blade with.

I quivered and rolled over as the wave
extended from the ocean like a pliable arm.

Riley yelled out something in a foreign
tongue, similar to what I heard in the song, as the siren screamed. I clutched
my ears, drew my knees to my chest, and huddled on the sand. I felt like a
helpless coward!

The siren shifted toward the backyard,
closer to the lights. I saw her blistered, wrinkled face. She exposed two rows
of long, jagged teeth. Her forked tongue slid out in between the spaces of her
teeth as she hissed at Riley.

The foamy wave crashed down on her,
crushed her body beneath a ton of water pressure. The wave then wrapped around
her limp body and rose so high I could no longer see her.

I glanced to my left at Riley. He lifted
his bow from over his shoulder. He pulled out an arrow from his quiver, drew it
taught against the bow, and aimed up.

Why would he kill her so high in the
air, and while attached to water? Wouldn’t that spread her disease and take it
back into the ocean?

I opened my mouth to protest, to remind
Riley of his belief, but he knew what he was doing.

The wave reached as far as it could
before it snapped back into the sea in a thunderous roar. Riley continued to
aim high into the night sky, which became clearer with every second. The siren
weakened, and the weather eased up.

His aim, in a gradual manner, lowered
until he pointed the arrow almost horizontal before releasing. The metal cut
through the air and sliced through the falling siren.

She didn’t scream. The only sound I
heard was her thin body hitting the ground. The arrow didn’t go through her,
but embedded the tip inside her gut. Riley possessed impeccable aim.

He pulled the bow under one arm and
draped the other end over the opposite shoulder. He caught his breath and ran
to the beast as her body bubbled and rotted on the beach.

Then he came to me, and pulled me up.
“Are you all right?”

“Yes.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and
shivered. What a wild and disturbing night. What else could possibly happen?
With that thought, I jerked my chin toward the waves. I expected to see an army
of zombie mermaids lurch out of the water with menacing faces and the intention
of killing everyone on sight. They would annihilate the town in a bloody,
violent mess, and then scatter and take down the entire state, the country, and
what would stop them from gorging on the world and killing off the protectors
once they regained strength?

“Are you all right?” he repeated.

I shook with intensity. Riley wrapped
his arms around me, and pulled me against him. He cradled my head against his
chest. He spoke in my ear, “It’s all right. There aren’t any more. We took care
of them.”

I trembled. I raised my arms around
Riley’s shoulder, clutched the edges of his quiver in my fists, and tugged.

“How do you know?” I asked.

“The weather.”

The wind died, clouds dispersed, and the
stars and moon shined above.

Tears slipped, but I didn’t cry just
yet. “It’s over?”

He expanded his chest against mine when
he dragged in a deep breath. Riley exhaled. His breath coursed through my hair.
“I don’t think any more escaped, or swam in a different direction, but if they
did, I’ll find them.”

“Are you going to leave?”

“I have to.”

“Why?” I tightened my hold.

“I have to return to my people and
figure out how to destroy them so this never happens again, even if it means
dragging them to the surface to a boat one by one and executing them so their
blood doesn’t dissolve in the water.”

“What if another one comes here? How
will you know?”

“I’ll think of something.”

“You should kill them all, no matter
what King Neptune says.”

Riley stiffened. He didn’t like the idea
of going against his ruler, but he had many times now.

“We thought they would die out from
starvation in the caves, or turn into cannibals and destroy one another.” He
tried to stand up for his king’s actions.

“You were wrong,” I said in a bitter
tone. “What makes you think they’ll die out this time?”

“I know. We’ll have to open the
entrance, but only King Neptune can use his trident to corral them. He has to
agree with me in order to do this.”

We stood in an embrace without another
word for some time.

Riley shifted. “You should get inside
and get rest. You need it.”

“If I leave now, you’ll leave, too.”

“I have to wait until sunrise to make
sure the ashes dissipate.”

“I’ll wait with you.”

He sighed, took my hand, and walked to a
log against the outside of the backyard fence. We sat down next to one another.
Riley pulled off his bow, and set it on his lap. He draped his left arm around
my shoulders, and held me as the skyline brightened with the coming of the sun,
and an ending to my nightmare.

Chapter Seventeen

I must’ve dozed off because when the
sunlight hit me, I faced a new day. Dawn shone bright. Seagulls croaked below a
powder blue sky and faint stars. The sun rose over the horizon, spreading red
and pink swirls through the sky. Gentle waves created a serene noise, and the
heaps of rotted pus turned ashes had disappeared.

I missed it. I imagined once the
sunlight touched the cinders, particles floated up and burned in midair. The
only thing that stood as evidence of last night was an old mattress with a
burnt hole.

How should I explain this to Dad?

I stood, stretched, and searched the
beach for Riley. He must’ve been halfway back to Atlantis by now, preparing the
execution style idea for his king.

The world awoke to daybreak as if
nothing happened, except for the lives lost at sea. The ones who would never
know of the horrors of the deep were lucky.

I returned to the house and with a new
obsessive habit, checked every window, lock, closet, and beneath every piece of
furniture until I was satisfied.

I checked on Dad. He slept.

I wandered to my room and opened the
door to face a box mattress. Oh yeah, I’d already forgotten the missing bed.

With a yawn, I settled onto the couch,
and draped the red and gold-knit throw from the back of the couch over my body.
I settled in. For once in a very long time, the song didn’t find me, and
neither did nightmares.

****

I stirred to a distant noise. I pried
open my eyes and immediately lurched up to a sitting position. I scanned the
entire living room, adjacent dining room, and kitchen.

Dad made breakfast, a far sight from a
hissing, grotesque monster in the shadows with the clear goal of devouring us.

With a moan, I tossed aside the throw
blanket and met Dad. We ate together, and though we avoided any talk about what
really happened on the ship and to the crew, we reminisced over old times. Our
laughter filled the house. I was sad to know the men died at sea, but so happy
to have Dad safe.

“Do you think you’ll ever go back out in
search of Atlantis?” I asked while I washed the dishes. I had to know.

“You know, dear, it’s been a part of my
life for decades, but suddenly I’m just not interested in it. At least for
now.”

I kept a smile to myself.

“I think I’m in need of a shower,” he
declared.

I returned his smile. He disappeared
past the corridor.

When I finished the dishes, I left the
house, and this time, I
locked
the door.

The salty sea air carried on a light
breeze. Shades of powder blue streaked the late afternoon sky with flurries of
thin, white clouds. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary in an otherwise peaceful
beach town. One would never have known that zombie mermaids hunted humans in an
attempt to revive their depleted bodies last night.

The light brought hope and serenity into
the world, but the visions of the sirens would always haunt me.

The weather gave no trace of an
impending storm or a sudden feeling that the world would die in an imminent
hurricane. As I neared the shoreline, the wind picked up. The strong breeze
pushed lighter particles of sand toward the east. They moved low above the
ground and flew over minute dunes on the beach, creating an illusion of quickly
flowing fog.

I stepped through the current as it
shattered around my feet and continued around me. I looked up from the uncanny
stirring. It paid little attention to me.

A twenty foot, newly renovated, wooden
dock sat on several pillars that plunged into the ground and water below. The
pier lacked boats today, but it wasn’t empty.

My heart skipped a beat. I had never
been so happy to see the handsome, young, powerful protector. I didn’t expect
to see him so soon, or ever again for that matter. On the other hand, he told
me he would only see me again if something were wrong.

I frowned.

Riley sat on the edge of the dock in red
and white trunks. The bow and quiver rested on the dock beside him. He dangled
his feet over the edge, crossed his arms, and watched the pacified ocean as the
sunlight shimmered across the waves.

 I huffed, then paused. I contemplated
going to him or turning around and locking myself inside the house for the
remainder of the summer.

Riley shifted and glanced up. For a
transitory moment, he stared before lifting the left corner of his lips into a smirk.
The expression on his face lacked enthusiasm or content. On the other hand, it
also lacked turmoil or fear. Something must’ve gone halfway decent when he
returned to his kingdom.

Walking away and ignoring Riley wasn’t
an option now. I bit my lower lip, and summoned enough faint courage to
approach him. He watched as I maneuvered through the shifting sand, climbed the
steps to the dock, and strolled toward him. He returned his attention to the
sea.

When I realized Riley would neither move
nor stand to greet me, I took a seat next to him. I pulled my knees to my
chest, and wrapped my arms around them. Placing my chin against my knees, I
entered the silence with Riley.