Beautiful Cries

Chapter Three: Captivated

Ever since then, the young siren had made it her mission to follow Alena's every move, and Alena knew that she'd be lying if she said that Jesenia hadn't grown on her.

Unaware of Alena's thoughts, Jesenia floated next to her as she scoped out the nearest shoal, finding baby blue crabs crawling through the shifting sand along with dozens of clams and broken shells.

"Why are we still searching these shoals if you favor hunting men?" The young siren questioned lightly as she twisted freely in the water, her scales reflecting against the thin barrier from the surface.

"Because we need food," Alena replied, shifting silently in the water as her eyes narrowed on a piece of wreckage that the tide had brought in against the rocks.

"Men are food aren't they?" Jesenia's fingertips skimmed over a pair of slick, moss covered rocks lazily. "Or at least that's what you've said before if I recall correctly."

Alena pinched the bridge of her nose before shaking her head and readying her spear directly above one crab's hard exoskeleton.

"Yes I've said that," she muttered, "but only under the influence of the full moon."

Jesenia went silent, but started up again with more curiosity. "What difference does the full moon make?"

Alena froze in her pursuit of the crab, annoyance racing through her as it scuttled into a small cave and out of her sight.

She muttered under her breath and turned around with the sharp spear still in her hands. "It changes me, changes who we are."

"How can it change who we are?"

Alena took a deep breath. "It's like a tonic of sorts, it lures out the worst of us, the beasts inside of us that seek nothing but blood."

"Sounds a bit out there if you ask me," Jesenia scoffed.

"Well you haven't lived as long as I have," Alena snapped, "and one day you'll feel it, the pull, and when you do you won't be able to stop it; the deterioration of your humanity to the thing inside of you."

She swam towards the coves that were hidden on the outskirts of the port, refusing to banter with Jesenia any longer.

She didn't understand how someone who had been exposed to such killings for the longest time could still be so guileless. Although that was how Jesenia was wired she supposed.

Alena knew she was broken, and nothing could fix that.

"Alena!" Jesenia suddenly called out. "Wait for me! You may be older but you swim a whole lot faster, so slow that tail down!"

Ignoring the young siren, Alena swam faster, trying to escape not only Jesenia, but the curling darkness that stirred inside her.

Her instinct went into overdrive, all the ravishing kills, screams that were cut short, blood stained lips and the faded look in a man's eyes when he knew the end was nye. She could remember all of them. Every man she had dragged down into the harsh seas, their pleas for mercy, for some kind of redemption, when none were given.

She sailed past corroded decks of what used to be a magnificent ship, Death's warm, soothing hand emanating from the cool depths as glided to a stop. The sea stopped, stretching far into its dark expanses while echoing down into one of the deepest trenches known to man.