Song of the Sirens (9 page)

Riley returned. His hands moved along
the side of the sub as if pulling himself along. Flashes of movement and
glowing colors caught my attention through the corner of my eye. I turned my
head left and looked out the main window.

Ahead of us, at least a dozen more of
these humanoids I knew only as mermen darted back and forth around the pincers.
With narrowed eyes, I couldn’t make out where one merman ended and another
began in the ball of dashing tails and trails of glowing color. They tried to
distract the arms, as if they didn’t realize it was a machine and my father
controlled it.

At another glance, I realized the mermen
were far too quick to get caught in the arms. While the metal pincers and arms
moved at a sluggish weight in the water, the humanoids dashed with speed faster
than dolphins. Most appeared as glowing green and silver blurs.

While Dad attempted to destroy the rock
gate and move the granite boulder, the mermen hurried to replace everything
before those menacing talons escaped.

I concluded these men were on the right
side, at least at this point. They seemed to desire keeping my nightmares at
bay as much as I did.

I glanced at Dad. Sweat beaded down his
temples. The last thing I wanted was my father to kill an innocent merman for
helping us.

Dad grabbed a merman, who busied himself
by pushing the boulder back. He squirmed in the grasp as other mermen
surrounded the pincers.

“Dad!” I cried, racing to him and
shoving his hands away from the controls.

I glanced up to see whether my actions
were enough. The mermen spread apart the pincers and liberated the merman.

My eyes darted to the other end of the
boulder. I glowered at those menacing fingers, a symbol of a hundred horrid
ways to die. I listened closely. Aside from the gentle hum of the engine, the
gush of stabilizing air and pressure in the cabin, and the echo of the
mechanical creak from the arms and pincers, I finally heard them, the
whispers
.
They emerged from the cave, swam through water, penetrated the vessel, and
entered my mind.

I clutched my head and fought with
strengthening resistance. Their chattering was strong, but now that I was aware
of their tactics, I fought back. I recalled the nightmares. When I had no idea
what happened, she controlled me. When I heard a warning from Riley and fell
into sleep against my will, I fought back. I applied the same logic to real
life.

I sucked in a breath, clenched my eyes,
and erected a mental barrier. A moan escaped my lips as the whispers tore down
the imaginary wall with iron claws.

With a gasp, I opened my eyes and stared
at the boulder. I leaned in. The whispers strengthened until so many voices
bombarded my head that I couldn’t decipher my own voice.

Some of the whispers hissed and
screeched, while others sang an enchanting melody. Once they won the mental
war, defeated my futile defenses, they simmered and dragged me toward them.

The pincers pushed the boulder another
few inches. The fingers and hands drew back inside the black cave. For a few
seconds, they seemed to give up until a pair of hands clutched the boulder
wall. Long and bony fingers curled over the edge. They pulled out ghastly arms
as a head emerged.

I trembled. The mermaid, the siren, the
beast from my dreams stared at me. Patches of stringy, black hair floated
around her decrepit and hollow face. Her carnivorous stare met mine and lured
me.

She craned her thin neck and tilted her
head to the side as if attempting to understand the vessel, the only thing that
stood between her and a fresh meal.

My lips twitched.

The whispers faded into the background
as one, singular voice sang to me. Her sweet, but deadly, voice entranced my
body.

She curled her thin lips up. Light
bounced from the curve of her jagged teeth, gleaming and promising to rip us to
shreds.

She pushed against the boulder and
squeezed out of the narrow slit as other hands appeared behind her. The flesh
of her bare torso waved in the current as loose and broken pieces of skin slung
to small creases beneath the ribs. Parts of her flesh had been removed, eaten,
or deteriorated, exposing raw muscle, glints of bone, and glimpses of entrails.

Her voice seduced me. I leaned against
the control panel and placed my palms against the window.

Without averting her large, black eyes,
she came for me. Other beastly sirens escaped from the cave behind her, and
suddenly a vicious brawl broke out in the background. The mermen battled the
monsters. Bright, glowing tails and healthy, taut skin wrapped around the pale,
gaunt women.

They didn’t get to my personal nightmare
in time, because she swam toward me at a languid pace, tired but determined.
She reached out, her emaciated fingers and pointed nails curved into claws.

I stared in wretched fear, unable to
pull away or move. Yet, somewhere in my mind, I knew she couldn’t get to me.
The windows were thick.

Her nails hit the window first. It
startled her. She examined the glass and wiped the clear barrier with a palm. I
concluded a vessel like this, a clear barrier, and humans this far beneath the
surface and still out of her grasp were things she never experienced. She
searched all around for a way to get to me. Her grasp on my mental faculties
faltered.

I staggered back, shook my head, and
pushed her out of my mind.

She returned her focus to me and
appeared in front of the window, gaping with darkening eyes. She narrowed her
brows and twitched her upper lip as if growling. She had the face of evil, and
it struck a chord.

Without turning my head, only moving my
eyes, I caught the slow movement of her finger tapping the window. With
clenched fists, she banged against the window, startling me. I grunted but
couldn’t scream.

A trickle of anger seeped through my
mind. I didn’t care for this at all, this complete awareness of dire situations
and yet incapable of reacting the way I wanted. That diminutive trickle
gathered its forces inside of me and waged a slight, but noticeable, battle
against her voice, which struggled to keep control.

When the barrier didn’t let up, the
mermaid trembled, opened her mouth to unleash a banshee scream, and slammed
into the window.

The sudden and forceful strike shook the
vessel. I yelped and jumped. Her anger and frustration cracked the mental hold,
and I staggered away from her impending claws.

Cracks formed at the center of impact
and spread with swiftness. It reached to the edge of the window on either side
of her, and branched out.

I breathed and gripped the back of the
chair. The fracture splintered, and white fissures frosted over the entire
six-foot wide window.

I stepped back. The window could break
at any moment. Thousands of pounds of pressure would rush into the small
vessel, and we would die a horrible death. If we were lucky, we would die
before the mermaid fed on us.

She pulled back to slam against the
window again when a glowing, silver fin rammed her from the side. The merman
took her by the hair and yanked back. She bellowed and clawed into the water.
The merman jerked back with a fistful of diseased locks. Another merman darted
toward them as fast and precise as a torpedo. They did not show mercy, and for
that, I was very grateful. No matter what the mermen planned on doing with us
intruders, at least the insanity of the mermaids would not reach us.

As the two men grappled with the weary
she-beast, they floated away from view. Several mermen gathered at the pile of
ruins near the entrance. Two bottlenose dolphins aided in pushing the giant
boulder. Everyone struggled. If only I could take over the controls and help
them.

The crowd of mermen unknowingly pushed
aside one of the dolphins. Perhaps realizing the severity of the situation, the
loyal animal continued to push to the best of his ability from the odd angle.
Unfortunately, he neared the gaping entrance, and the claws of a siren.

My hands raced to my mouth, clasping it
shut before I bellowed. I swallowed an inconsiderable amount of air and
inadvertently held my breath. I felt for the poor animal who tried to help.

A mermaid violently fought against
others to emerge next. I believed she was siren number three to escape. How
many could there be? I didn’t want to know the answer.

As if another mermaid had given the
emerging siren a hard kick in her tail and shoved her out, the decrepit woman
spilled out of the cave mouth as another emerged behind her. While a handful of
mermen left their duty at the boulder to restrain her, no one seemed to pay
attention to the poor dolphin that panicked and floated too close to the fourth
mermaid.

She dug her talons into the thick,
rubbery flesh of the dolphin. The animal opened its mouth, as if lamenting, and
widened his eyes. He thrashed around, hitting the boulder, the cave, the other
dolphin, and the mermaid.

She didn’t loosen her grip. Dark red
blood swirled around her, and mixed into the water by the dolphin’s desperate
whipping.

She opened her mouth, unhinged her jaw
so her mouth widened into an unnatural and considerable void. A tongue lashed
out as razor teeth chomped down. She ripped a sizable chunk out of the
squirming and terrified dolphin. The mermaid hastily devoured her prey. She was
very hungry.

The blood summoned others. Many bony
hands clutched around the boulder, and the third mermaid returned to partake of
the feast.

Blood, bits of blubber and flesh mixed
into frantic water movement, obscuring the scene. The mermaids inside did not
come back out in those last few moments when the men closed off the barrier.
Perhaps they were too busy devouring. They hadn’t eaten in a while, I guessed
by their features, and the sight and taste of food seemed more overwhelming
than the afterthought of freedom.

A hard tap on the side observation
window drew my attention to Riley, again. He signaled to me in underwater signs
used as communications during scuba explorations. He gestured the signs for
mask and mouthpiece.

I frantically shook my head. With wide
eyes, I mouthed
no.

Riley returned my stare with a rigid and
stern expression. He nodded his head. His narrowed brows and tight lips
indicated he did not want to argue. He slapped two fingers on his back wrist,
indicating time, and then pointed to my father.

I gulped. He wanted us to prepare. I had
a gut-wrenching feeling he planned to try the impossible.

With quivering hands, I secured the mask
over my face and inserted the mouthpiece. I breathed twice to ensure it worked
properly. The tanks were full and heavy.

I walked to my father to secure his
equipment and placed his mouthpiece between his lips. I did so with ginger
movements, afraid of lighting his anger. He remained calm and didn’t spit out
the mouthpiece this time.

Riley placed both palms against the
observation window and looked around its edges before locking eyes with mine.

Although I had no idea what he planned,
I knew I didn’t want to stand near that window. I expected him to charge
through the door, but Dad wouldn’t let me near the controls to unlock and
unlatch it.

I watched, as hypnotized by Riley’s
glowing green eyes as much as I was by the allure of the sirens. The
penetrating radiance created a haze around his lower torso, the hidden parts
where his tail and fin swayed. As the seconds pulsated through time, revving up
for devastation and panic, a vibrant, green glow appeared at his palms where
his palms met the surface of the vessel. Like ripples of water, a vibration
pounded against the window and turned it into visible waves.

I gasped through my mouthpiece, backed
up, and stood inert. There was no place to run, and reality forced me to stare
danger in the eye.

Riley opened his mouth and released a
shrilling, sonic blast. I clutched my ears to defend them from sonar waves, the
high-pitched sounds akin to those made by whales.

The entire vessel shook, distracting my
father from his mindless, zombie tasks enough to glance at Riley.

A seven-foot radius around Riley’s hands
transformed into a watery, semi-permeable surface. To my disbelief, he reached
through the material and stretched out an arm toward me, and opened his palm
for mine.

Surprise stunted me. I took a moment to
comprehend the gesture.

I expected the doors to miraculously
detach from their locks and open the gateway for thousands of pounds of
pressure to hit us. I anticipated the force of water so severe, that it knocked
me against the wall and held me captive until the entire submarine filled with
water. Pressure should’ve exploded in my veins, wreaked havoc in my ears, and
tossed my body into the clutches of the most ruthless case of the bends.

Riley’s fingers twitched, bringing me
back to the third choice at hand, a choice I never imagined having.

He couldn’t enter the vessel. I imagined
he wouldn’t be of much use flopping around on the seat as half fish. He
couldn’t stretch far enough to snatch us, so I bent down at the waist, locked
arms with my father, and hauled butt.