She of the Sea

50 of 53 - A Human Gesture

When Doctor Armando raised the padding and Cassie saw her momma's sightless eyes and mutilated body, she died inside. She had remembered her momma as a beautiful woman who had loved her so much, she was willing to die for her daughter. For the rest of her life, however short it may now be, her treasured memory would be forever blighted by the sight of the ugly shell of what remained, hideously preserved in some toxic fluid, imprisoned in a clear cylindrical casket like some circus sideshow freak.

Cassie's awareness of what went on around her retreated to a place of darkness deep within herself. Her heart still beat, she still breathed, her body continued to function, but her thoughts ceased to exist.

She floated in nothingness.

"Sirena."

Cassie didn't know how long she remained in oblivion. It could've been minutes. It could've been centuries. The call from the sea sparked a lone electrical impulse to fire between two of her dormant brain synapses.

She ignored it and tried slipping back into torpor.

"Sirena."

Perhaps she had been gone so long the world had ended and this was her call to judgment. Maybe she wasn't human, but Cassie never doubted she had a soul. She was a child of God, no better or worse than her human counterparts. Her kind had been placed on Earth to save lives, to live among humans and to love them. To be denied a chance at salvation just because of what she was would be the cruelest of jokes.

"Sirena."

She could no longer fight the call. Her mind began to return. Then she heard a familiar voice.

"Hurt her and I'll kill you. I'll torture you first and you'll wish you were never born."

Rafe? Her heart leapt, his voice like an oasis in the desert.

Someone held her upright. Something sharp pricked at her throat. A laugh. "But that can only happen after this thing is also dead."

Armando, the embodiment of everything evil in humans. A monster who wouldn't even acknowledge her identity by saying her name. Her voice had gone hoarse. "I'm not a thing. My name is Cassie."

Her sight returned and she recognized her custodian standing with Rafe, trying to reason with the doctor while he made her walk toward a door.

Soon they were outside, the cool rain a welcome relief to her skin, a healing balsam. Her consciousness completely returned, and she felt strong.

While on the drug they had administered to her, Cassie had been unable to sing. She hadn't been able to remember how. She could sing to the doctor now and enthrall him, make him let her go.

"Sirena."

The call warned her not to do so. Whatever existed deep in the sea, the angel directing her had other plans.

Armando stumbled while dragging her aboard a boat. She recognized it. Ofelia's boat. Her boat. What was it doing here?

The doctor shoved her. She fell hard against the deck. He was driving the boat away at full throttle.

Shots zipped over her head. She heard the snap and felt the vibration of bullets slamming through the hull.

Her eyes expanded. The dim lights shining from the instrument display provided enough illumination for Cassie to see Doctor Armando's face twisted with rage. Neither of them had been hit by the gunfire, but from where she lay, she was getting wet from seawater leaking through the breached hull.

Cassie stood and held on to the gunwale. She shouted above the noise of the motor and pounding rain. "Turn back. We're taking on water."

He ignored her and kept the boat pointed toward the middle of the Gulf, each minute taking them farther from shore.