Sea Salt (2Doc)

CHAPTER 2: Sunset

Murdoc froze. A thousand thoughts ran through his mind, yet everything stayed still. A siren? It was a siren?! Don't they, you know, EAT people? He had read tales of them luring in unsuspecting sailors with their enchanting voices, which cause them to go into a trance-like state and crash their ships. And if they were not on a ship, they would follow the siren's voice nonetheless, even if it meant walking into the ocean and drowning themselves, according to the myths, at least. Still, the very thought sent a chilling fear right through his very being. The siren tilted its head slightly to one side, "Hm?".

Beads of sweat began to form and his hands felt cold. Calm down, Murdoc. There's no such thing as sirens. Sirens are mythical-fucking-creatures originating from Greece, for God's sake! Keyword; MYTHICAL. Even an escaped science experiment would make more sense than this! Get it together, Murdoc! This might as well be a hallucina-

"Are you alright? You're sweating a lot," The siren spoke, interrupting Murdoc's train of thought. It glanced at the empty, plastic water bottle on the floor, then back to Murdoc.

"You should drink some water, or take off your clothes too. I saw some humans do it near a beach once." It suggested.

The lighthouse keeper backed away from the siren, shaken. He swallowed to wet his dry throat before speaking, "Are you a... are you really... "

"Well, i-if you're not comfortable with taking your clothes off, then-"

"No! That's not what I meant!" Murdoc yelled. The siren was stunned by the man's sudden change in tone.

"Are you... actually a siren?" He asked just above a whisper, eyeing the creature desperately as if trying to urge it to tell him that it was just a figment of his imagination. The other looked at him, puzzled. "Of course, I am. Why would I lie?" It replied.

That was all it took for Murdoc to stand up and dash towards the open door behind him. "What's the mat-"

He slammed the door shut, pressing his back hard against it in hopes that the creature was weak enough from blood-loss to not break through.

The siren began banging on the door, shouting; "What's wrong? Did I say something weird?" Murdoc couldn't trust this thing anymore. It's playing with him. It is clearly trying to lure him into a false sense of security, so it could pounce on him and tear him limb from limb! Murdoc pressed his back harder against the door, running through the few options he had in his head. He could run downstairs to the secret compartment where he held his emergency rifle and shoot the monster dead. And if he couldn't do that, then he would stick to his original plan and try to escape via his spare boat. The siren couldn't fly if it wanted to catch him, but can it transform into its aquatic form? He had to risk it. "Hey!" He was once again rescued from his thoughts.

"Why did you run out all of a sudden? Why are you not letting me out?" Murdoc began to hear how brittle the creature's voice sounded. The siren's eyes widened in realisation, "Are-are you one of the poachers? Is that it?!" It strained its voice, seeming near tears again, "I can't believe it. I-I thought that you were actually a good person!" It screamed, "I thought that you wanted to make me all better and let me back when I was!" Murdoc was confused. What is it babbling on about? The siren continued between sobs, "My parents were right," It wailed, " All humans are evil... ".

Evil.

The word burned its way deep into Murdoc's mind. Evil? Him? The siren was clearly misunderstanding. He hates poachers. He would rather die at the bottom of the sea than associate with those scum. Was the creature trying to make him feel sorry for it? He wouldn't be fooled that easily.

The siren was crying louder now. It slid down the door and on its knees, "Please... don't-don't sell me away... " It pleaded, its voice barely audible past the broken sobs. Murdoc grew hesitant. "Please don't cage me... please don't chop me up... just please-"