The Siren of Red Summer

The night was warm and well-lit by the moon, which hung overhead like a glistening orb in a canopy of black and navy blue. Every few moments the warmth of the breeze would strengthen as the air forced its way around every solid object on the coast. He stood there under a red light, confused at what had just occurred only moments prior. It was supposed to be a memory that reflected a celebration of life, etched in the fabric of his mind for eternity. Somehow it was exactly that, but not quite as he expected.

Three childhood friends had planned a trip together for months and had not been in the same place with each other for years. This was going to be an amazing time and fantastic symbol of their friendship, which had only grown tighter as the distance between them increased over the years. They called to check on each other almost daily, making sure to fill each other in on the details of their life experiences along the way. For this trip, they decided to book an Air BnB in order to be more amongst the locals.

The 3 amigos, as they referred to each other, were no stranger to adventure. Kaufman was the oldest of the bunch. He had been an adept athlete back in their school days and was well known for those activities. K, as the other two called him, was a bit of a structure of a human. He was quite tall, standing at 6’5 with very broad shoulders and well defined muscles which had developed during his many years of athleticism. Since school, K worked with his father to develop a family owned landscaping business that was now currently doing quite well. He didn’t get into a lot of deep conversations and the thing he most looked forward to on this trip was being intimate with beautiful women he met on the beach.

Jeremiah was also a bit of an athlete, although not as experienced as Kaufman. He would much rather prefer to be engrossed in a conversation about music, art, or philosophy. Over the years he had become quite the artist and musician and he now operated his own art gallery in Brooklyn, New York. Jeri, as he was called, stood about 6’0 and with a slim athletic build. He also loved trying new things, especially foods. The third amigo was Antony, or Ant for short, since he despised being called Tony. He was more moderate in height standing at about 5’8 with an average build. Ant had struggled a bit to find his path in life but eventually turned it all around when he went back to university to study aviation. Ant then became a commercial pilot and now provides buddy passes to his friends whenever they needed. This was everyone’s favorite thing about Ant’s new job.

Upon arrival to the beach town, they immediately discussed the game plan. Each of them had their own personality quirks and so as one may expect, the game plan for each of them was different. K was on the prowl for some sexy vacationers looking to enjoy their time visiting the beach town by getting wasted everyday and having the occasional one night stand. Jeri and Ant knew K very well and expected this. As far as they were concerned, they would see K back at the room later.

Jeri just wanted to be on the actual beach to observe the beauty of nature first hand. He didn’t have any specific plans outside of that. He was quite simple in that way. When it came to the music and art, he would take those and leave all else in a heart beat. Ant on the other hand couldn’t be asked to spend too much time in nature. He enjoyed the occasional walk or jog through the park, but too much time outside made him uncomfortable. The others felt like he spent too much time behind the screens of his various devices. So all three of the guys decided to start off at the beach since two of the three had an interest there.

As the sun rotated across the sky, the rays seared the skins of the many people on the beach. “Excuse me miss, is your booty the ocean cause I could see myself drowning in it later.” A horrible and awkwardly delivered pick up line scraped through the air in a husky Georgian accent. Jeri and Ant looked at each other and then to K and then back to each other. In a silent communication, they both turned and walked away from K. The object of K’s pick up line didn’t even bat an eye and seemed to think ignoring him was the best response. A couple of other women who were close by contorted their faces at the words and just laughed it off.

After a couple of hours on the beach, Ant now had enough. “I’m heading back to the room brother, you know I can’t be out here in this heat for too long.” Jeri nodded to Ant and then turned back to his view of the ocean, carefully watching as if he were studying each wave. K had disappeared since the others walked away from him earlier. On his way back to the room, Ant decided to walk the long way around a few blocks of the beach town before the sun set. He stepped out of the beach and onto concrete barefoot, holding his shoes in his hand. His intention was to wash his feet on one of the water spouts that sat at the entrance to the beach, but the line was too long. So he just carried on walking barefoot.

“You just coming from the beach?” a soft voice escaped into the air towards him. Ant turned to look behind him and saw no one. This surprised him because he heard the voice as if the person were standing directly next to him. He craned his neck slowly around him to see what he was missing. “Too much time in the air’s got me losing my damn mind.” He muttered to himself as he continued to walk. “Do you have a moment to talk?” The soft voice uttered at him. This caused Ant to stop in his tracks and carefully examine his immediate surroundings. There were people around but no one as close as that voice sounded. After pausing in step for a few moments he started walking again, this time cutting his detour short and heading straight towards the room.

“Yoooooo!!!” A loud voice yelled as a large figure rushed him. It was K. “ Where you going?” He asked Ant. “Dude you scared me! You see how dark it is out here right now?” K looked a bit confused. “But aren’t you a pilot? Don’t you fly at night?” K began to patronize his friend a bit. “Yea but I don’t have huge guys yelling at me and running up to me in the middle of the sky.” Ant snapped back. K didn’t really care about it anymore. “So where you headed? You wanna get a drink with me and go talk to some girls?” K gestured down the block where there could be seen several bars with a lot of people around them. “No sir, I’m heading back to the room man. My head hurts.” This was Ant’s way of saying he was creeped out by the voice he heard earlier, without sounding like a crazy person. “Ok, whatever. I’ll be back in a few.” K said as he walked away from Ant and down the block where the open bars were.

As Ant turned away from the spot where he and K were talking, a tall woman with long dark hair and wearing a red dress with red lipstick stood directly in front of him. “Excuse me he said in a low tone, a bit surprised at the close proximity this person was standing to him. He then attempted to side step this woman, but she simultaneously stepped to the side as well so that she remained directly in front of him. “Excuse me?” Ant said to the strange woman in a more aggressive tone. “I asked you a couple of questions earlier and you couldn’t be bothered to answer.” When she said that, he immediately recognized her voice as the one he heard a little while earlier. “Oh right, where were you? When I looked around for who asked the question, I didn’t see anyone.” At this point Ant was genuinely intrigued by this woman.

“It doesn’t matter. Can I walk you to your room?” She asked with a smile. She stood about the same height as him. “Why?” Ant asked suspiciously, not understanding how such a pretty woman could be randomly attracted to him. He wasn’t a physically bad looking guy; his attitude just reflected his perception of himself. “Because I’m attracted to you.” She said in a matter-of-factly tone. “Is that ok?” Ant looked her in her eyes as if to determine whether she was being serious or not. “…Ok.” He uttered reluctantly as he began to slowly walk again. She was now walking beside him. “So how long are you here for?” She asked. “Just for a few days.” He replied. They exchanged a bit more casual conversation and it wasn’t long before they had arrived to the gate outside of his Air BnB. “Well this is my stop. Thanks for walking with me.” He spoke to her as sincerely as he could. “Oh it’s not a problem. To be honest, you reminded me of someone close to me.” Ant then looked up at her and replied “Oh yea? Who?” She paused for a few moments and then looked into his eyes and said “My ex-husband.”

This answer caught Ant off guard. He didn’t really know how to feel or what to think about such a thing. He wasn’t the smoothest playboy with women and so they just stood in silence for several moments. Then Ant finally broke the silence by uttering “Interesting. I’m going to go in now.” He said as he begin typing in the code to the gate which enclosed the courtyard to the home he and his friends were renting through Air BnB. “Can I come in with you? Maybe we can talk a little more?” She said in a shy voice. To Ant, it seemed like she could be an escort or something.

“No disrespect, but I’m not paying for anything if that’s what this is about.” Her face screwed up into an expression that showed that she was slightly offended at his assumption. “Ummm.. pay? Who said anything about paying for something? I just wanted to talk.” At that moment Ant stepped into the gate and before he could close it behind him she had partially slid into the gate with him. Ant was a nice guy and did have a bit of a romantic soft spot for beautiful and well-mannered women. “Ok, you can come in right here and we can talk a little more.” He closed the gate behind them. They stood under a red light that shined down over the courtyard, with palm trees swaying overheard against the night sky. “So what’s on your mind?” He asked her as he folded his arms across his chest. “You are so familiar to me.” She said a bit passionately. “Because I remind you of your ex-husband?” Ant responded. He thought it was a bit rude that she had compared him to her ex, but he was willing to indulge the conversation a little longer.

“Well yes, that’s true.” She said. “He was also a pilot while we were together.” At that moment Ant’s eyes got wide. He wondered to himself how this person knew he was a pilot. His mind raced at light speed creating hypothetical scenarios of how this could be possible. Finally, he settled on the idea that perhaps she overheard part of the conversation with his friend earlier. At that moment, a few blocks away, Jeri had walked into a corner store. He was always on the lookout for interesting things on his travels and decided to pick up the local paper and have a glance. On the front page he saw a picture of what appeared to be an airline pilot. This was funny to him since his friend Ant was also a pilot. This alone gave him an extra boost of interest when he began reading the details of the story. An eyebrow raised at the grim details of the story he was reading on the front page of this local beach town newspaper. All he could say was “Holy smokes…”

Things started getting a bit heated with Ant and the mysterious woman standing in the courtyard. The soft warm night breezes of the beach found their way through the neighborhood and onto the faces of these two. Suddenly the woman leaned in and started kissing Ant. Her lips were so soft to him that he wanted to stop her but he found that he could not. Soon she began to rub his chest. After kissing for some time, Ant was now as passionate about this connection as she had been. He begin to caress and grope her body intensely. She took one of his hands into her and directed it to her neck as if she wanted to him to choke her. When he resisted this, she led his hand down to her side and then she pressed something into his palm and closed his hand around it.

Ant was so enthralled with the exchange of passion through kissing and touching that he barely noticed she had put something in his hand. Suddenly he felt both of her hands around one of his wrists, and as he noticed this, he felt his hand jerk violently towards the woman’s abdomen. Although impassioned, he found himself a bit perplexed in the presence of this woman. As he continued to kiss her, he noticed that her passion seemed to fade. As he backed his lips away from her face, he looked down at his hand to see an abundance of red liquid covering it and the front of her dress. This was extremely shocking to Ant, so much so that he immediately jumped back from her. When he did this, her body collapsed right in front of him. Now he was on full alert. It was at that moment he noticed that he was holding a large bloody knife in his hand.

She lay there leaking crimson under a red light as he watched in horror. Each second she bled onto the tiles of the courtyard, her breath became more shallow. Ant stood there in complete shock, not knowing what just happened or what to do. His first thought was to call an ambulance but then he thought about the fact that it looked like he just murdered this woman. A tear slid down his cheek as emotion overwhelmed him. After a few moments of standing there he was able to snap out of the shock. He immediately dropped the knife on the ground and started wiping the blood from his hand. Then he opened his phone in an attempt to call for emergency services but was delayed by a text message from Jeri that recently came through. The text was a picture of the newspaper headline he was reading earlier with a text caption from Jeri that said “You never told me you murdered your ex-wife Mr. Psycho Pilot LOL.” Ant had no idea what this was about but that was enough to cause him to drop to his knees in front of the lifeless body of the mysterious woman.

What was a joke to Jeri, was now somehow a reality for Ant. This was all far too shocking for him. After 30 minutes he was still kneeling in front of the dead woman in shock. Blood had now seeped onto his pants as he continued to kneel there. It wasn’t long before someone was punching in the code to the gate and opening it up. It was Kaufman and he was a bit surprised to see what appeared to be Ant kneeling with his back towards the gate. “Hey man, is everything Ok?” He said in a bit of a shaky voice. “What’s going on?” He asked as he slowly began to approach Ant. “I…I….I….I…” Ant was a complete nervous wreck at this point and struggled to form a sentence. “I….I…K-k-k-killed her…” He said as streams of tears continued to flow down his face. K looked at him with even more surprise. “What the hell are you taking about?”

“I KILLED HER!!!!” Ant screamed as he gestured to the blood soaked mass in front of him. “I KILLED HER!!!!” By this time K made it over so that he was standing right beside the kneeling Ant. “Killed who? Dude you’re starting to get me worried.” Ant responded angrily to him. “You don’t see this freaking dead body right here you idiot?!” K’s eyebrow raised slowly as he looked down at his friend. “Ummm…no I don’t Ant. There’s no dead body here. There’s no one here but us man. Have you taken drugs? We may have to get you to the emergency room.” Kaufman squatted down to help lift his friend up to his feet. “Come on big guy, it’s OK.” Ant was still bawling his eyes out when the words that K said began to register. He stood up beside K and then looked back down to where the woman was. To his complete shock and surprise there was no longer a body there.

There was also no blood or knife in the courtyard. His tears dried up and he wiped his eyes so he could look again to make sure he was seeing correctly. “But there was this woman in the red dress and we made out…and she made me stab her…” Ant spoke a bit frantically. To K, this was all complete nonsense. He had no idea what his friend was talking about. The moon shown like a nocturnal sun in the crisp navy sky as palm trees danced in the warmth of the wind. This while they just stood there in the courtyard under the red light looking at each other, trying to make sense of the moment.