Love Lines

7: Dweller By The Wood

Chapter Seven

"So you're telling me..." I looked around the room I now found myself standing in. "People think this place is haunted?"

"Yes for the umpteenth billionth time. Ghosts are real you know. As are everything you've ever nightmared and more."

"Did you just say 'nightmared'? That's not even a real word."

"Well, once you're done sightseeing, I'll show you what I mean. So what do you think, besides not believing it's haunted that is?"

I looked around the meditation room again, noting the two huge stones in the middle of a white sand pit. From the way it looked, the rocks were naturally formed sitting two to three feet apart. Where one stuck out, the other was caved in. Lines were drawn in the sand, all evenly spaced, looping and ringing both rocks.

The sound of running water with an accompanying melody gave the place a tranquil feel, nothing 'creepy' as Andrzej had put it. All twelve signs of the zodiac were painted on the midnight blue ceiling in gold. To me the whole place was beautiful.

"I like it. Can I move in here?"

"Um, no but you can come as often as you like...where are you going?"

"What's that noise? Don't you hear that?"

The music had caught my attention completely, pulling me in like I was a fish on a hook. I headed over slowly, not really sure what it was or even if it was coming from the water. From my brief tour of the room, I knew the pool was situated in a little alcove, hidden away for someone to go look for. When I tried to ignore it, I found that I couldn't, the music turning into a sort of call. A call I couldn't ignore no matter how hard I tried.

"What are you talking about?"

"That..." I tried to think of the word but everything was wiped from my mind but that music.

"Natalie...you probably shouldn't go over there. If it's what I think it is...and of course you're going."

"Can't you hear it?" I asked him absent mindedly. "I think it's coming from..."

"I know where it's coming from and it's not a good idea to listen to it." I barely heard him searching his pockets for something. "Where's the damn beeswax when you need it? Ephiphany, stop right there!"

I couldn't listen to him even if I wanted to. Before I was conscious of anything other than the noise I'd breeched the entrance of the alcove and had the pool in my sights. The way the faint light played on the water's surface made me smile and just as I reached the edge, I felt a hand slip into mine. It broke the call and I blinked a couple of times, taking a few steps back from the water. I shook my head a little to get the ringing out of my ears.

"What the hell was that?"

"Like I said..." the water began to ripple "...crap."

Just as he got the 'p' out, two human heads broke the surface of the pool. One was male, who was smiling at me, and the other was female who in turn was smiling at Andrzej. I squeezed his hand and we took a collective step back.

Both of them were the epitome of beautiful, reflecting the opposite gender differences of the same face. They had dark hair, some strands wrapped up in seaweed and others decorated with sea shells. Their teeth were deadly sharp and I suddenly had a flash of a set of them biting into the skin of my arm.

Fear laced through me, making the lines on my face shift faster than before.

"Sirens," Andrzej whispered to me.