SaiOuma Stories

a siren secret

[ I was inspired by Once Upon a December to write a siren au. The song above is just a pretty song any lovely siren would sing. I've recently started writing for myself so the long story below might bore a few, I'm not sure. Content warning: Suicide attempt, abusive parent, murder attempt]

The water washed over his feet. The sand shifted and crawled over his toes as the waves spread over the beach. A warm breeze rushed to greet him as he peered up at the moon, full and bright overhead. Shuichi's empty eyes reflected its beautiful round milky whiteness. He was sure it was the perfect sight to see last.

Every night he returned to this beach. Walking along where the sand meets the ocean. His shoes long since deserted at the top of the hill, where a path ends. The same path he takes from his house to the shore, the same gravely rough path he's followed since the day his mother drowned at sea.

Shuichi only ever lived with her. His father was the kind of man to wake up early, disappear off to work, then come back at night without so much as a word to him. His mother was so warm and caring. Always sure to pick him up from school, because she knew the bus rides made him nervous.

She always took him down to this beach when the time was available. She always made him put sunscreen on before they left the house, and always packed a lunch for them to share. They would walk side by side down to this beach. Shuichi would recall his day at school, and even if it remained as mundane as it always did, she always made a point to remind him how much she was proud of him.

Shuichi wondered where the fairness in life was to take such a kind soul as hers, in such a horrid way? 

It makes sense, at least in his eyes,  as to why God wanted her back. She was an angel on earth. Such a place couldn't be fit for her. Shuichi gazed out at the light silhouette of the moon rippling in the water. It had been a year since then. So long and yet Shuichi felt as though he had lost her just yesterday. The pain lingered, faded, but yet so fresh. 

He won't forget lying under the sun umbrella pitched in the wet sand. The sky was grey because a storm was rolling in, and had already rained before they arrived. He won't forget how drowsy he felt, filled with a fitting lunch, and a good swim,  he had drifted off so easily, so fast. She had just been there, right next to him, assuring him she'd wake him up when it was time to go.

But she never woke him up. A scream had. Not her scream, a child's scream. He jerked awake, rain was just starting to fall, large droplets hit the umbrella as Shuichi looked to see an adult shielding their child's eyes from a crowd. He looked to find his mother but she was not near him. 

It was a sickening discovery to find the lifeguards shaking their heads at the women lying on the sand. A sorrowful expression. An expression of 'it's too late'. Pale and pitiful. When they noticed him staring, and the resemblance between him and the women, a cruel silence fell. 

Shuichi rubbed his eyes. His father still left to work every morning. Shuichi sat in the kitchen alone most afternoons. Wondering what kind of conversation he would have been having now, if the seahad not  swallowed her in a wave too big to survive?

There was a song she used to sing. It had no words but she'd hum it to herself. He'd listen thoughtfully, hearing the soft hum of her gentle voice. Once as a young child he asked her why she sang that song. The memory was so faint now, he was grateful it hadn't slipped beyond his grasps just yet.

"It's a siren's song." She told him,  her face blurred with time, the sun behind her from the window blinded her figure, in his memory only her voice carried. "A siren's song is a special song. To those who hear it and live, are to live in peace."