Siren Song
M monster X F human, 4,660 words
I initially had other plans for the story I was posting today, but inspiration really struck for this one, and I decided to write it as an early birthday gift to both myself and this blog! My birthday’s tomorrow and this blog turned three last week! Thanks everyone who follows me, it’s really nice to have so many people appreciating this little space with me.
Anyway, this story involves a mysterious siren calling to you at night. But is he friend or foe? And can he really give you what you desire?
There was something singing in the depths of the castle.
You had been in the castle for only a few days. It was a job, a fairly unique job and one you took with no small amount of pride. The castle was undergoing restoration and you, along with several other people, had been called in to carefully restore different aspects of the castle.
You were repairing the beautifully embroidered tapestries that hung throughout the castle. For a couple of days, it had even been nice. The work was interesting, there were other craftspeople around the castle to talk to, and the pay was decent. Admittedly, the castle was warm (it was the middle of summer and there was obviously no air conditioning) but other than that, it was overall a great stroke of fortune that you’d gotten this job.
And then the singing had started.
At first, you’d thought it was something you were just dreaming about. You’d wake in the morning with the last notes echoing in your mind and the fading remnants of music-filled dreams. Exhaustion had followed you throughout the day, like your sleep had been restless. No matter how early you went to bed, you woke with a foggy head.
And then the sleepwalking started.
It started small, though that hadn’t really been that much less concerning. You’d woken up standing across your room, staring at a wall. For a time, you’d chalked it up to the stress of a new job and a new location and hadn’t told anyone.
But the longer you stayed in the castle, the worse it became. You started waking up in the hall. In other rooms. Waking up became a slower and more difficult process. You would become aware that you were up and out of bed, but the soothing, wordless singing that surrounded you prompted you to keep dreamily moving forward. There was usually a full minute of gradual awakening before you grew aware enough to stop yourself.
It really started to worry you when you woke up in a part of the castle you didn’t recognize. Technically, there were no areas that were off limits, but there were places that you just didn’t regularly go in the course of your job. And the dank, slightly moldy basement was one of them. There had been a moment of awful, gut-wrenching panic when you realized that you were in pitch-blackness, so dark that there was no difference between closing your eyes and opening them. Panic had seized you for a moment and you’d turned, fumbling in blind panic, and sprinted from the basement.
In hindsight, bolting down a damp stone hallway in pitch blackness wasn’t the smartest move you could have made. Really, it was lucky you didn’t slip and break a leg, or worse. After you got through your bolt of panic, you’d calmed enough to slow down and, a few seconds later, you’d come across the stairs. They’d led up out of a trapdoor and into a part of the castle you’d recognized.
It was relieving that you had found your way back, but the experience had rattled you. At the dinner you and some of your coworkers shared, you told them your problem.
“Dude,” said Monica, who was focused in furniture restoration, “that’s fucked up.”
“I know.” You slumped back, picking listlessly at your food. “I have no idea why it’s happening.”
Bennet, who was reorganizing the castle library, shrugged. “I heard that sometimes you can sleepwalk if you’re in an unusual location and really stressed. Are you really stressed?”
You shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t feel that stressed out.”
“It’s a big responsibility,” Cory said. You’d worked with him a couple times, restoring some of the old clothing in the castle. “Maybe you’re more stressed than you realize?”
“How can I be that stressed without realizing it?” you asked. “Look, I don’t know why it’s happening, I just want it to stop.”
“There’s a doctor in town,” Bennet said helpfully. “I got the number of the office when we got here. I don’t know how soon you can get an appointment, but it’s something.”
“Thanks,” you said. “Send me the number.”
“And,” Monica added, “we can keep an eye out for you, if you want. If we see you wandering around, we’ll wake you up.”
Admittedly, you didn’t have a lot of hope in that solution. Everyone was usually asleep when you were wandering around. But you smiled at her anyway. “Thanks. That’d be nice.”
“Could you move something in front of your door?” Cory suggested. “A big piece of furniture? Maybe if it’s hard to get out of your room, you’ll at least stay put.”
You shrugged. “I can try, I guess.”
There was a wardrobe in your room that you managed to pull in front of the door before bed. It was difficult enough to move that you figured you’d wake up before you managed to actually get out of the room. It was only a temporary solution, but given that the doctor’s office couldn’t even see you until next week, you didn’t have much of a choice.
You felt more secure as you got into bed, but there was still a nervous twist in your stomach as you got into bed.
Dimly, you were aware that you were moving. It felt like you were floating under the surface of a black lake, bobbing peacefully. Distantly, you could hear wordless song. It was mournful, but beautiful and utterly heart-wrenching. You moved toward it, the haunting sound of it tugging at your chest.
A voice whispered in the back of your mind. Shhh, it murmured. Come to me. It’s all right. Shhh.
The voice was soft and soothing, but you could feel that something was wrong. You weren’t supposed to be here. Where were you? Relax, the voice murmured. Just relax. It’s all right.
No, this wasn’t right. This wasn’t right! Panic surged through you and you blinked your eyes open, jerking out of your stupor. The voice started to speak, but as you woke, it grew faint and garbled before vanishing entirely.
You were in the basement again. The walls were still damp and stone, with a slightly fuzzy substance on them you really hoped was moss. You could hear water flowing from somewhere nearby. Behind you was completely dark, but in front of you, there was a faint bluish glow.
You had no idea where you were, but you were reluctant to head back into the gloom behind you. Hesitantly, you started forward into the faint glow.
The noise of running water got louder as you headed toward the light. The hall ended, stretching out into a long, perpendicular tunnel. A river ran through it, with only a thin bit of solid ground on either side. The walls were covered with some kind of glowing lichen. It would have been beautiful, if you had known where you were.
There was a loud splash from nearby. Your head snapped toward the sound, but all you saw was something slender and dark slipping under the surface. Worry tightened around your stomach and you started backing toward the hall.
One of your feet landed in a puddle of water and you felt your balance shift. You whirled your arms frantically, but you overbalanced and slammed down on the ground, hard. Nothing was broken, but something was definitely bruised and the wind had been knocked out of you. Groaning, you pushed yourself up.
Something was watching you from the water. You could see the upper half of its head poking up above the surface, dark eyes focused on you. It moved toward the edge of the water, shape growing clearer as it approached.
You were pretty sure you were still asleep. You didn’t feel asleep. You felt achy and cold and terrified. But there was no way you could be awake. Because the thing that was watching you from the water was a merman.
He had dark skin, but a sort of bluish-black rather than the brownish black of human skin. His tail swished through the water behind him, sleek and black. A long fin ran down the top of his tail, spreading into the long, surprisingly delicate-looking fin at the end of his tail. One of his hands slipped out of the water and you saw that it had short, sharp claws and webbing spread between each finger. His hair was long and, at closer inspection, probably not actual hair. It looked like the long, thin tentacles of a jellyfish, and you could see them twitching slightly in the water.
A thrill somewhere between excitement and terror passed through your stomach. You could feel your breath coming in shallow, quiet gasps. The merman looked at you for a moment, apparently sizing you up, then hummed a few notes.
The noise was ringing and bell-like, resonating in the hollow of your chest. “You were the person I heard singing,” you said, almost whispering. “You drew me here, didn’t you? It was your voice I heard in my head.”
The merman smiled. His teeth were all needle-sharp. Your breath caught in your chest. In a single, smooth motion, he placed both his hands on the edge of the stone side and heaved himself up out of the water.
You barely had time to register what you were doing before you were on your feet and fleeing down the hall.
You weren’t entirely sure how you managed to get out of the basement. It was a blur of skidding around turns and running down twisting halls. Eventually, you found a doorway and bolted up it into the castle.
When you got back to your room, you saw the wardrobe shoved haphazardly off to the side. Apparently, moving it aside had failed to wake you after all. Or perhaps you’d been awake the whole time and just been under some sort of spell. Either way, it didn’t seem like there was anything you could do to stop yourself from leaving your room.
You spent the rest of the day trying to think of a new plan. Just leaving was, technically, a solution, but it was one that made you sort of nervous. If you ditched this project, your employers would almost certainly trash you to others in the community, and embroidery restoration was niche enough that if you failed this job, you would probably never work again in the field.
Admittedly, weighing that against the possibility of dying and being eaten shouldn’t have been much of a contest, but you’d spent practically your entire life trying to get a job in a field you were passionate about. The fact that you were going to have to run from it because of some weird creature skulking in the basement of the castle was frustrating. You attempted to pack your bags several times, only for sour disappointment to stop you.
By the time evening rolled around, you had a different plan.
This thing was trying to draw you in for some reason. You were going to make it regret that.
The kitchen had a whole bunch of knives, because you were expected to make your own food. You took one of the smaller ones, wrapped it in some cloth that you stitched together in a sort of makeshift sheath, and returned to your room.
You’d always woken up around the same time at night. Tucking the sheath around your waist with another piece of cloth, you grabbed your phone and set an alarm for about 3 A.M. You weren’t sure if it was going to entirely wake you up, but it was something. Maybe it would at least be loud enough to shock you out of it.
Even with all that, you didn’t feel comfortable sleeping. You sat on your bed, legs tucked underneath you, staring out the window. The moon rose, nearly full, over the trees in the distance. The moments ticked slowly by. Drowsiness lapped at you, threatening to pull you under. Your blinks grew longer. Your thoughts slowed. You were so tired. You could feel your body falling asleep around you, drifting between sleep and wakefulness.
There was music coming from somewhere. Beautiful, wordless singing that rang like a bell. It was full of longing and desperation and a deep, endless sorrow. It drew you inexorably. You were moving before you even realized what was happening.
A distant part of your mind recognized that this, regardless of the knife, was a bad idea. But you couldn’t stop. The music pulled you in and dulled your conscious mind until all that was left was the desire to go toward that beautiful song.
Down the halls, through a partially-hidden passage, and into the basement. Your mind came and went like waves on a shore. A few times, you nearly woke up entirely, but then a swell of notes would push your thoughts back into sleep.
The deeper you got into the basement, the harder you fought against it. One of your hands slipped to the knife at your waist. Even with your hand on the knife, you were nervous. The song slowed your movements significantly. There was a solid chance you wouldn’t be able to actually use the knife before he got to you.
The sound of water grew louder and you stepped into the glowing blue hall. In the middle of the water. His mouth was open and from it issued the song that was ringing in your head. It was almost a physical presence this close, a weight you could feel wrapping around you.
A voice whispered in the back of your mind. Welcome back. Come to me. Join me.
You felt yourself kneel next to the water, bending over the edge. He swam up to you, pulling himself out of the water. One of his hands came up and cradled your cheek and chin. His skin was cool and smooth and his claws pricked against your skin like needles. The way he was holding your head made you feel like he was seconds from kissing you.
The song was still there, but it was fainter. Your will was seeping back into your limbs. Your fingers tightened on the knife and, in one swift motion, you pulled it out and pressed the tip of it to his throat.
He froze. The song stopped entirely and your head cleared. The knife pressed a little more firmly against his neck. “Let me go.”
He made an odd clicking noise in the back of his throat. I think I could say the same to you, no?
You’d heard the voice before, but this was the first time you really registered it as coming from him. It was almost as musical as his song, though it echoed exclusively in your head, not in your ears.
“If you don’t let go of me,” you said in a tense voice, “I will cut your throat right now.”
The hand against your face slipped away. You sat back. He eased his head back from your knife, then turned and plunged sinuously into the water.
He swam a short distance away, then poked his head up again to watch you. When he saw that you hadn’t left, he emerged further, watching you with clear interest. You stared back at him. There was a part of you that wanted to run, to get away from this obviously dangerous creature. But a larger part of you felt you had the upper hand, at least temporarily, and you wanted to end this. “You keep calling me here. Why?”
He plunged under the water, tail rippling after him. For a moment, you thought he had simply left, then his head broke the surface. There have not been people living in my castle for many years.
“Your castle?” you repeated, unable to keep incredulity out of your voice.
He moved closer with a powerful stroke of his tail. My castle. It is my home. My territory. He rolled onto his back, revealing a slim, muscular torso.
“Are you drawing us down here to get rid of us?” you asked. Your hand tightened on your knife handle. The merman looked at you, then plunged under the surface. If you focused you eyes very carefully, you could just barely see him swimming, long, powerful tail flexing and twisting like an eel’s.
Abruptly, he sprang from the water in front of you. With his hands splayed on the stone, heaving his upper body above the waves, he was taller than your kneeling form. You could see the individual filaments of his hair. The sharp, oddly pretty structure of his bones. The intelligent gleam in his dark eyes.
You are an interesting human. Such desires… Are you unique in your kind?
“What are you talking about?”
The merman slouched back into the water, still watching you carefully. I am a siren, my dear. We can sense your deepest desires and dreams.
“You’re psychic?” you asked, with cautious skepticism. The siren made a clicking noise again. You were pretty sure it was him laughing.
To an extent. I can sense your desires. They guide my song, help draw you in. He eyeballed you from the water, expression inscrutable. You are of interest to me.
“In what way?” you asked. The siren lifted his head close to yours. You hesitated. You weren’t sure how fast he could move and if he could get his teeth into your throat before you could swing the blade. Slowly, you pulled the blade forward. If he was going to try and take you out, he would come with you.
He didn’t seem to notice. I have seen many humans in my time here, though few stay for long. Human desires are often similar to one another. Accomplishment. Affection. Admiration. Simple things at their base. But yours… He squinted at you, tail swishing back and forth. You differ.
You sort of wished that was more surprising to you. But you were aware that you were somewhat different from other people. You were a loner. You preferred being in nature, separate from people. Sometimes, you felt something pulse through your veins, something wild, and you wanted more than anything to slip into the trees and shed your skin and be one with the world around you.
The siren’s eyelids fluttered and he tilted his head back. Yes. That desire. It’s unusual. It… intrigues me.
“And that’s why you called me down here?” you asked. The siren pulled himself closer to the shore, folding his elbows over the stone lip.
I saw your dreams for days. And I found them… attractive. Shimmering, pearly lights glowed along his side for a moment in a striking display. I have been here for a long time. But I have not had a companion. I have been wishing for another to hunt with. To be with. His hand moved out of the water and caught your face, holding it. The tips of his claws scratched lightly along your cheek, sending a pleasant tingling through your body. Your breath caught. I can sense your desire even now. I can sense your longing.
You sucked in a short breath. His face was so close to yours. He was handsome, oddly enough. And the sensual sound of his voice in your head was attractive. “How do I know you’re not going to draw me into the water and kill me?”
One of his hands struck out, seizing your wrist. The knife twisted from your grip. His body surged out of the water, other hand seizing your shoulder. His weight against you made it hard to move. But more than that, you were aware of his mouth at your throat.
His lips brushed your skin. You froze. For a moment, his lips worked at your throat, like he was nibbling without teeth. You felt yourself tremble.
If I wanted to kill you, I would have. You could not stop me. I could rip your throat out, pull you under and drown you. He pulled back. But I have no desire to do so. I wish for a companion. And in you, I sense a kindred spirit. One who belongs to the fierceness of the waves and the hunt. This is what you desire, is it not? A release from the restrictive human life? You need not worry about the minutia humans fret over. You can be free.
Desire welled inside you. You pressed your lips together, trying to keep your good sense in charge. “I can’t just… I can’t just decide that. I need time to think.”
Of course. Think on it. I will sing again tomorrow night. Come to me with your decision. With that, he turned and vanished into the water.
You seized the knife and stood. There was already no sign of him. With apprehension and desire fighting in the hollow of your chest, you turned and left the water.
Luckily, you remembered the way out. You climbed out of the basement and sat against the wall. Your legs were trembling. Already, what you had just experienced seemed unreal. But it had been real. You were sure of it.
“Hey, are you okay?” You looked up. Monica was peering down at you, concern written over her face. “Were you sleepwalking?”
“Yes,” you said. “Pretty much.” Monica offered you a hand and you took it, letting her haul you to your feet. You leaned on her a little bit as you headed back up to your room.
Monica walked with you all the way back to your room. “Are you sure you’re doing okay?” she asked you, looking cautiously into your face. You nodded. “You’ve got a doctor’s appointment about this, right? It’s probably not good to be wandering around the castle all the time. It’s not the safest place ever.”
You glanced up at her. “Can I ask you something that’s maybe a little weird?”
She nodded, sitting on your bed next to you. “What’s up?”
You took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It’s… okay, I know there’s not a lot of details here, but if you suddenly got this opportunity to do something you’ve always kind of wanted to do, but it was something you didn’t really have any experience with and it also means you have to leave everything you know behind, what would you do?”
Monica blinked at you. “Woah. That’s a lot. Did you get a new job offer or something?”
“Uh,” you said. “Yeah, I guess it’s something like that.”
Monica sat down on the bed next to you. “I mean, we don’t know each other that well, so I don’t think I can totally tell you what to do here. But I mean, maybe you should think about what you really want. If this is something that you really want, even if it means you’re giving up a lot, maybe that means something. If you think it’s really worth going, even if you’re losing a lot, I think you should at least go for it.”
“Even if it means leaving everything behind? And knowing you might never get any of it back?” you said cautiously.
Monica thought for a moment, tilting her head back. “Hm. That’s a really big decision. You can’t try it out for a little bit, see how it goes?” You shook your head. “Well… Like I said, I can’t tell you what to do. But I kind of think that maybe… if it’s something you really want, something you think you might never have another shot at, you should go for it. I mean, I think it’s better to regret a shot you did take than a shot you didn’t, right? You’ll never spend your life wondering what could have happened if you didn’t take it.”
You nodded. “Thank you.” She smiled and stood up, sensing that the conversation was over.
“No problem. I’ll see you later.”
You stayed in your room most of the day, fussing with your belonging. There wasn’t much in the way of things you could actually bring underwater, but you weren’t overly attached to most of it anyway. You hadn’t spoken to your living family in years, and the few objects you owned from them weren’t things you were all that inclined to keep.
The only thing left to do was to wait for night.
It was approaching midnight when you heard the singing echo through the castle again. There was no need to fight it this time. You let the music overwhelm your mind and followed it down into the basement.
The siren was there, waiting for you when you stepped into the glowing hall. He dipped his head slightly at you, eyes gleaming. I wasn’t sure you were going to show up. But I am glad you did.
You knelt next to the water. “You were right. I want to be… something else. I don’t think I belong in this world.”
No. You were built like me. For the swiftness and precision of the hunt. For the simple pleasure of moving with the current. For a life without the overcomplicated structure of humanity. He bobbed closer to you, stretching a hand up out of the water. You reached down to take it. His scaled skin was cool against yours. He tugged at your arm, gently but insistently pulling you toward the water.
“Hold on.” You stripped down to your underwear and carefully slipped into the water. It was a cold shock and you shuddered. The siren swam around you. His tail fins brushed against your bare legs and you felt his hand trail down your back.
Relax. His voice was soothing, echoing through every corner of your brain. Shh. Go under and I will help you.
He pulled at you abruptly and you sank under the water. It was too dark too see. You could only feel him swimming around you. His mouth pressed abruptly to your neck and you felt a thrill of fear. For a moment, you were sure he had lied, that he was going to tear out your throat and kill you.
His teeth, needle-sharp, sank into your neck. Something cold flowed from him into your veins. Your head spun. His voice echoed through your mind, musical as his song. Shh. Don’t fight. Sleep now.
There was no fighting it. You sank into oblivion.
You grew slowly aware of the world around you. Your eyes flickered, trying to open. Shh. No need to struggle. Let it happen.
You tried to move your legs, but they felt wrong. They were long, oddly long, and wouldn’t move separately. As you grew more aware of your body, you realized they weren’t legs anymore. It was a tail. A long, powerful tail.
You looked down at yourself. Not only could you see, but you could see fairly well in the dark water. Your entire body felt like powerful, corded muscle. Your mouth was full of teeth and you were super aware of the way the water shifted around you.
Awake, so soon? You are tough, aren’t you? You shifted to look at the siren and stopped. Beautiful iridescent lines and stripes ran along his body. It was beautiful. You couldn’t stop staring. The siren gave a clicking laugh. Like what you see?
I didn’t notice that when I was human, you said. Speaking was almost instinctive, as easy as pushing the words toward him.
No, I don’t think humans can see very well. He reached out, resting his hand on your hips. Were they still considered hips if you had a tail? You are striking yourself. He lowered his head, pressing your foreheads together. I was about to show you how to hunt. But perhaps that can wait for a bit.
We have time, you agreed. You wondered if he could feel what desires you had now. The motion of his mouth against your neck suggested that he could.
