The Siren Who Wouldn't Sing

Chapter 1: A Song I'll Never Sing

"Come on!" she called, and raced after the dolphins once again. With a huge smile on her face Vivian followed, catching up to them quickly and swimming alongside the smallest of the creatures, craning her neck a bit to watch it as it swam.

Her sister beamed at her from several feet away and then pulled ahead a bit, clearly challenging Vivian to a race.

"You won't win this time, Aiyana!" Vivian declared, and threw all of her strength into swishing her tail as hard and as fast as she could. Last time she and Aiyana raced, Vivian had just eaten a huge meal of sea kelp, so she lost the race as well as the half-digested food. But this time, she wouldn't lose.

The dolphins remained by the sides of the sirens for only a minute or so before falling behind them. Aiyana and Vivian raced neck and neck, laughing in the face of the competition and because of the sheer speed, the feeling of the water gliding across their skin. 

Vivian's smile grew, her teeth pearly white in contrast to her dark skin. Hours spent in the sunlight combined with the dark color of her mother's skin had gifted Vivian skin the color of hazelnuts. Sometimes, when the sun was beginning to set or to rise, her skin acquired an almost golden tint.

She glanced backward for just a second when some of the dolphins released high-pitched whistles, almost as if saying goodbye. Vivian waved to them once before turning back to focus on the race, and the pod branched off from the sirens and headed to the east. She'd see them again, Vivian knew. She was familiar with that pod; they were always found in the waters near Syrin, the island she and her own pod called home.

"To the edge of the reef!" Aiyana yelled, reaching an arm forward to show Vivian where their race would end. It was about two hundred yards ahead, at a massive forest of coral growing over piles of boulders and dirt. Only the very tip of the reef came within several feet of the surface. The majority of it was deep underwater and surrounded by fish of all colors who fed and thrived off the coral. The reef itself grew in every color under the sun; deep sapphire, sunset orange, red and green the same colors as the roses roses on Syrin—purple, like lilacs and calla lilies—and every shade in between.

The reef grew in a massive underwater valley surrounded by mountains on every side, but once you cleared the steep inclines, the legendary Rainbow Reef stretched on as if it would never end. The coral forest seemed to give off a light of its own, illuminating the deep blue water around it.

Vivian came to a halt as her eyes fell over the reef, her sister shooting forward and leaving Vivian in her bubbles. "We're not supposed to be this close to the coast!" Vivian protested, but Aiyana paid no attention to her and surged forward at full speed until she reached the finish line. Then she turned back to grin at Vivian across the reef. She could feel her sister's infuriating pride over her victory, even if the race was unfairly won.

"We are if we're hunting," Aiyana replied. Her voice carried easily across the reef, through the water, to Vivian—who shuddered at the word. Aiyana knew it bothered her. "Oh, Vivian. You know you have to do it someday. And your someday is coming very, very quickly."

Vivian's breath came quicker as she took in the vision of her sister across the reef, hovering in the water just above one of the mountains, suggesting that Vivian join her in hunting and killing a human.

Aiyana was beautiful—in fact, Vivian thought her to be the loveliest person she knew. With shoulder length blonde curls and large, captivating green eyes, as well as skin significantly lighter than Vivian's, Aiyana and her sister looked almost nothing alike. In fact, the only features they had in common were the thin, angled nose and full lips that their mother had passed to them. Other than that, they were entirely different from one another. This was to be expected, of course, because the two girls had different fathers. Nonetheless, Vivian still wished that she looked more like her sister.