Thalia

A Break In Monotony

Thalia's eyes glazed over with thought as her peers sang their hearts out just a few yards from her. They were gorgeous; their voices eerily angelic. Her eyes drifted back to them and then to the vast unknown of the sea surface. Her skin was ghostly pale, but her eyes were an abyss of oceanic beauty in itself. Her skin was olive, pale but olive nonetheless. She sighed, her fingers caressing the harsh coral beneath her nails. Swimming away, her majestic ivory stained tail glimmering iridescently under the rays of sun that found their way down to the depths of the ocean.

"What do you do when you don't feel the same joy that you're meant to feel..?"

She tilted her head to look back and then swam further, the warmth of the water caressing her cold skin. She continued on but swam to the surface. Her hands grazed the harsh edges of a rock she'd visited a million times before. Looking up at the scarlet sky, she let out an exhaustive breath, collapsing on the stone, her head cradled in her arms. Her arms glowed as the sun hit the scales depressed into her skin.

"Was I meant to feel this lost..?"

A figure of a ship slowly melted into vision as the clouds softened out. Perking up, she narrowed her eyes, looking around cautiously before diving into the ocean once more. Swimming toward it, she touched the wood of the ship. Her fingers drifted over the metal picks and nails, all the way up until her fingers pressed against the glass of a window. Slowly, she looked in, careful not to get caught. Looking in, she saw a man dressed in a white shirt, pink beanie and glasses. He was sat at a table with a few friends, drinking. His friend was swiping on a small thin box-like object, his hair dishevelled and a roll-up of paper on fire in fingers. He'd press it to his lips, breathe it in and then exhale smoke. Tilting her head at this, she arched a brow, leaning in further.

The man in the beanie then grasped a guitar, singing something while his friends ignored him or watched him. He laughed every now and then, interrupting the harsh reverberation of his acoustic guitar. It wasn't normal singing, however. It was more like rap-singing. Thalia had never heard this but fell in love instantly with the poetic nature of his words combined with the delicate thrumming of strings. He then stopped, smiling as he set the guitar down.

The man in the pink beanie then yawned, saying "Alright guys, I'm gonna hit the hay".

"Aight, goodnight, Alex," exclaimed his friends collectively as he left the room.

Getting up from the table, he walked past the window, Thalia ducking from sight. She followed him through the ship until she saw him arrive in his bedroom. As he got in his duvets, she peered in from the window.

Would it be selfish to just take him..? Surely he'd die underwater...

He was beautiful. His eyelashes were long, eyes; a dark brown. His brown hair curled outward, his lips thin, jaw wide. His skin was a pale pinkish hue. He was beautiful. Carved from stone. Her eyes then caught something gleam. A small ring on his finger. It glowed as he turned in his sheets. She'd been alive long enough to know what this was. Her heart sank as she leaned against the wood of the ship, away from the window. She slowly slid down the wood until she suddenly perked up, eyes wide as shells. Her sisters... This ship was prey. She looked back at him and bit her lip in anxiety. She took a deep inhale from her gills, closing her eyes. Her lips opened to let a soft melody of a haunting pitch arouse him from his sleep. He woke up with glazed eyes, looking to the window, becoming entranced. She slowly swam up to their deck, Alex following in disoriented, yet hot, pursuit.

She sang her song, the ocean slowly clasping her waist and lifting her to deck. She met Alexander's gaze, her lips inches from his. Her hands touched his soft skin, her eyes glazed over with an ivory haze. She guided water from the ocean and slowly steered the ship the other way with it. Her hands slowly left his cheek as the boat turned, Thalia drifting further from him. She slowly stopped singing, the ocean lowering her under the surface, Alex groaning and holding his head. She looked at the ship longingly, clutching a nearby stone as it drifted further and further away.

Was this to be her life..? To linger sadly as the men of her dreams sail off the emerald sea to other lands, to other women? She looked at the mahogany glisten under a setting sun, with Alex looking around in confusion. A tear clouded itself around her eyes, her heart sinking once more into the pit of a stomach that shouldn't have had a pit in the first place. This wasn't what she was supposed to feel. She was meant to feel chaotic but instead, she felt intense pining. Pining after a life she wouldn't have.

Soon, she was diving back away from it, until she bumped into one of her sisters. Kore. She had the most beautiful fin of them all. It was permed, cut and razored to look sharp and glimmery. Kore was very much hung on her aesthetics.

"Hey, Kore... What're you doing?"

"Thalia, I just saw a ship! You've got to come and see! I told the rest of the sisterhood to join already, they're just getting ready."

"Uh, well, we could wait-,"

"No, I'm getting first picks, let's go!"

Kore grasped her hand, swimming toward the ship that was a few hundred meters away at this point.

Thinking fast, Thalia tugged back on Kore's hand.

"I'll race ya, Kore-,"

Kore grinned, but Thalia had already rocketed past, creating plenty of space between them. Bubbles rushed past her cheek as she felt the pressure thunder from within her gills. Jumping out from the ocean, she sang her siren, attracting a dazed group of men already. She rose up to Alex once more, quickly pressing her lips against his and pulling him from the boat. He felt the ocean's grasp around his body, enveloping him as she took him from the ship. However, instead of drowning him, she hastily swam toward a hidden cave she'd been residing in for ages in secret. A cave for contemplation. Soon, she heard her sister's call, panicking as she put him in between rocks, her hands around his jaw.

"Please don't die, okay?"

He was out of consciousness, his head resting on the rocks as beads of water dripped from his hair like gems. Thalia closed the cave off with heavy stones with the help of her forceful tail. This would prevent him from awakening to their deathly lullaby...