Naari (Write to Rank 2)

Voices Of The Sea (Round 6)

The turquoise water tugs at my feet, like a mother calling her daughter home. The white foam of the waves splash against my shimmering tail of kyanite blue. I feel the warm tropical water soothing my iridescent scales as I swim deeper. I look at the burning sun once more and dive down deeper. The dark blue depths of the ocean don't frighten me anymore as they did when I was human.

How long ago was that? Five years? Ten years? I've lost count in this endless cycle of singing, killing, singing and killing again. I had never wanted this life of being the weapon of nature the day I had fallen into the sea. I had just asked to live as I spluttered and choked on the freezing salty waters. And now I am frozen in this beautifully lethal form. My voice will make you want to drown, one little song of mine could sink a shipful of people.

"What are you thinking, Darya?" Adrianne whistled, suddenly appearing out of the endless blue and circling me twice in excitement. The water split into bubbly globes as she gracefully manoeuvred the currents.

"The past," I shrugged, flapping my tail with increased vigour. The Sea was getting impatient and She didn't like to be kept waiting. Adrianne mirrored my move as we moved at inhuman speed.

"Andre?" she asked.

I just nod. My boyfriend Andre isn't a topic I want to bring up in my conversation with my siren sisters. Every time I remember his face, I feel the same melancholy tunes well up in my stony heart. My songs are almost a lament for what I lost.

My memory of my human life however is fuzzy. I just remember a name and a rush of gorgeous copper hair. I can't seem to remember why at certain times I feel bouts of anger at those memories and at other times the overwhelming love is the only emotion that smothers me. I cry alone into the night at times when we're alone at sea.

The ocean suddenly grows warmer around me, wrapping me in a comforting motherly embrace. I nuzzle against the arms of the water. "I'm here for you," she seemed to say.

When we reach the destination, me and Adrianne climb through the pressing layers of water and throw our heads out from the surface. I slide apart my veil of black hair to find a very stormy sea above. The angry clouds are churning grey in the sky. The winds are howling and the biting cold draught brings in a small of salt and the tangy taste of the weeds.

Yumiko and Maia appear just then and we huddle together on a large rock, spreading our beautiful gossamer fins like a silken gown. The Sea starts speaking then, her voice ringing like conch shells in our ears. She has a mission for us. We listen intently. Though the water won't do any harm to us, but the lighting of the fire will. We need to be very careful of explosions and wooden splinters that fly off in projectile motions once a ship begins to combust on its own.

Well, not on its own. We make it possible by teasing the engine a bit with our magic. It's dangerous at times if we enter the ship but can't escape but then, we always love a little challenge or immortality would grow very boring soon.

Just as The Sea finishes her sermon, we notice the black hull of a monstrous ship advancing. The night drops suddenly like a curtain. Today was my turn to enter the ship. Just as my sisters start singing in a language incomprehensible to humans. I slink my way to the very bottom of the ship. I realise it's a heavy vessel as the displaced water is strong enough to throw me off once.

I call my siren powers into disposal. My tail cleaves in two and becomes powerful legs, a remnant from my past life. I was a rock climber and I had always dreaded the water. The side is easy to climb and soon enough I'm standing on the deck. The entire ship is still as death, the crew lulled to sleep by the baleful sounds.

The upper deck was just an assortment of rooms and living spaces. I pass by curtained windows of the cabins, pitying the sleeping humans who'll never know what hit them before it's all over. I have the blood of so many people on my hands in this cursed life as a siren. Killing is never fun. The repercussions after every quest of ours are too great and we tend to take months to get over once such trauma.

The Sea needs food and we're her hunters. We exactly don't have a choice in all this. She instructs, we obey. My soul is the price I paid for immortality.

My thoughts stop abruptly as I realise I'm looking into one particular room with the curtains drawn apart. Beyond the glass, a couple is snuggled into the expensive duvet. They look eerily peaceful. My breath catches as I take in the face of the man. Copper ringlets framing a square face, a small dimple on his jaw and perfectly drawn lips. A little stubble on his face is the only sign of ageing.

"Andre!" I gasp. He's with a woman. Purple hair, piercing on her eyebrows, full lips — Lydia. The name comes back to my tongue like I was used to speaking it all the time. The past attacks me with hordes of memories, smothering me. I feel the empty spaces in my head being restored like a film reel being played backwards.

And I feel anger. Irresistible, all-consuming rage makes everything red before my eyes. I hear screams, I hear pleas, I hear the desperate croak of a choking throat. I abruptly turn away from the window and stomp down the stairs.

The engine room is at the lowest level. As I burst open the door with unnecessary force, the fog seems to clear from my memory. I have a purpose today. The ship begins to shudder as I close the engine room and fly down the empty halls. Tripping over people sleeping in the corridors and almost stumbling over my own feet, I quickly scamper to the main deck. An explosion removes the ground from my feet as the entire lower deck bursts into flames. I'm aware of a searing pain in my entire body as I'm thrown off into the water. My sisters thankfully gather me to safety as layers after layers crumble into the water in the raging inferno.

The wounds from the fire are already healing into spotless skin as we continue to sing in the ancient languages of the ocean, before the humans were even born.

And then the screams start. The people had been awakened by the fire and they start jumping into the bottomless water in their desperation.

But I break from the grip of my sisters as I move towards the wreck. In spite of what I felt, I need to see him once more. It don't know if it's the desire to let him know what hit him, or maybe the welling up emotions of love, but I moved from the shadows of the ship to the open space. He was gripping onto a stray piece of wood, his hair pasted on his scalp, as he struggled to breathe, fighting against the pull of gravity.

He knew swimming, unlike me when I had fallen in.

And then in his death throes he sees me emerging from the water, standing there in my gown of lapis lazuli, formed from millions of glistening particles of sea salt. His eyes widen as he sank and then rise again.

"Daariya," he gasped, reaching out to touch me. I laughed, my voice sounding foreign in my own years. It came in peals like bells ringing far off. It made him sink yet again as he gulped a mouthful of water, straining to breathe. His screams were music to my ears. I wondered how I looked like to him — an angel of justice, a devil of vengeance.

"Yes," I breathe, "Remember me?"

"Help me please, " he chokes, "I love you."

"Really?" I throw back my head and shake the sprays out of my hair, "Because the last thing I remember is that you carried my half-conscious body to the cliffs and cast me into the roaring seas."

"Look, there has been a mistake... I..."

"You hired men to do away with me because I had caught you and Lydia in bed together and had threatened to reveal it all to Lydia's dad. Those men had raped me as you held me down and then strangled the air out of me. You murdered me..."

The sea suddenly gives a mighty heave, sucking him in, as waves pour over his head, and obliterates him from my teary vision.