The Sirens

“It's happened again,” Maxie announced, waving their phone screen in front of their best friend Evergreen. It had a picture of a small wooden sailboat, oddly named The Knight, next to another photo of a smiling man.

“Was it... was it just one person this time?” She asked, momentarily distracted from the notebook resting on her lap. She had been trying to write for days, but was constantly drawing a blank.

Her story needed a hero, but none of her characters seemed to quite want to step up.

“Yep!” Maxie responded, popping the ‘p’ casually, but Evergreen could see the hurt in their deep brown eyes. Maxie was brilliant at acting - it was their dream career - but they could never seem to fool Evergreen. Their eyes always gave whatever they were feeling away; a true window to their soul.

“Why doesn’t anyone do anything about it?” Evergreen asked, tearing her eyes away from Maxie’s and shutting the notebook with a soft thud. “People are dying.”

“He was doing something about it… Or, at least, he was trying. No one can resist the siren’s calls, Greenie.” They never called her by her full name, teasing Evergreen with various nicknames instead, but despite that she knew Maxie was being serious. “No one.”

“Mm…” The young girl bit her lip, staring at the closed notebook on her lap.

No one?

Or perhaps, no one but her?

Evergreen had a secret that only Maxie knew.

She had never felt attraction to anyone.

She knew what that there were words for that, of course. She knew how to use google. She was aromantic and asexual. And attraction was what the sirens used to lure people in.

What if she was the hero the people were waiting for?

“Ever… what are you planning?” Maxie asked seriously, dark brown eyes meeting her blue ones. They studied her face, and after a second horror crossed their features. “No. No. Don’t you even dare think about doing that.”

“What? Do what? I was just… thinking…” she lied, rolling her eyes like Maxie hadn’t practically read her mind.

“Yeah right.”

“Fine. I was just thinking that if they use love-”

“You still experience love, Greenie!” They shouted abruptly, interrupting her. Evergreen blinked, confused.

“But I’ve told you-”

“Romantic love isn’t the only kind of love.” They hissed sharply, grabbing their friend’s face so that she had to look them in the eye. “Platonic love isn’t worth any less than romantic love.”

Evergreen sighed, pulling her hand away. They had given her that rant many, many times before.

“I know, I know, stop internalising, blah blah blah!”

“Not ‘blah blah blah’! I give good advice! I’m like… like a wise old person!”

“Pfft! ‘Old’? You’re younger than me!”

“By like, what? Four weeks?”

“It’s more like five weeks and six days.”

“That’s close to four!”

They both laughed, falling into an argument as old as their friendship, Maxie forgetting all about the sirens for a moment.

Evergreen did not.

Maybe she could be this story’s hero...

...

That night, she took a boat.

'All it will take', she thought, recalling the legends she had often been told of as children, 'is destroying their light'.

Without their light, the sirens would have no ways of luring in unsuspecting ships or uneducated passers-by.

Sure, the odd idiot might ignore the many warning signs (the same ones she had just rowed past) but for the most part, people could be safe.

Evergreen blinked, realising all of a sudden that she was looking at the same light she had vowed to destroy.

It was a constant and beautiful lime green, both beautiful and strange enough to make anyone want to investigate.

And then she heard a sound.

Evergreen strained her ears, searching for the sound that was just quieter than the gentle lapping of the waves or slow swishing of her oars.

It started out as a constant, melodious humming, becoming louder and more beautiful with each unexpected but alluring note.

It was the most beautiful sound she had ever heard.

It sounded like bright summer skies, like the giggles of herself and her friends, like the soft twinkling of the stars, like the scratching of a pen on paper, like the sweet crunch of popcorn…

The young girl could feel herself relax, almost wanting to drop her oar and join in with the strange sound-

No. This was the first trick. The first lure.

She wasn’t falling for it.

It didn’t carry the romantic edge of fresh roses, sweet chocolates, flushing cheeks and first dates like it usually did.

The monsters couldn’t fool her so easily.

She tensed, humming a very different song to tune out the sound; a fast paced pop song, not at all like the slow paced enchanting melody of the sirens. It was less bewitching and more endlessly irritating.

The dense fog (that she was alarmed to realise she hadn’t even noticed was there) suddenly dissipated, revealing the light to be even brighter and star-soaked rocks to be scattered around her boat, several creatures perching pleasantly on them, as if the deathly cold salty ocean depths beneath their feet didn’t bother them at all.

No, not ‘creatures’, but people.

Beautiful people of all shapes and sizes, some with cute freckles or soft curly hair or endearing glasses or strong muscles or pretty dresses or wide, perfect grins that shone in the moonlight...

Yet something was off.

All their eyes shined a bright, glowing green like their light, shining and eerily unblinking.

They were all perfect.

Too perfect.

The singing continued, strong and enchanting.

Evergreen snarled, brandishing her oar like a weapon.

“Stay back!”

The singing increased in volume, becoming less melodious and more insistent, an undercurrent of broken dialogue breaking through.

I do not understand, why it is not working?

How are they resisting?

No attraction. They have no attraction.

The last revelation came clearer than the rest, and all of the beautiful people hissed simultaneously, carefully formed illusions tearing away as if they were being ripped off by an unearthly force.

They became monstrous and poorly formed caricatures of humanoids, ruggedly scaled tails slapping angrily against their rocks, all still sporting bright green and inhuman eyes.

Too bright, too green.

Maxie’s dark brown ones were sorely missed

Stay back, the song now hissed, melody becoming sharp and sickly, like the track of a horror movie, go away! We do not want your kind here!

Evergreen’s boat knocked against the rocky shore and she leapt from her boat for the light, heart thumping hard against her ribs like it wanted to break free.

The monsters weren’t going to give their means of livelihood up so easily.

They appeared all around her, clawing and scratching and fighting to catch her for an easy meal.

Only she wasn’t like the others they had caught. She wasn’t easy.

But, though she fought and fought, swinging her oar wildly and straining to catch hold of the light and she could tell they weren't used to fighting back, Evergreen quickly realised that she wasn’t winning.

That she couldn’t win.

But she could still live.

The brave young woman shoved one more siren away from her, taking the opportunity to jump back into her boat, pushing off with all of her remaining strength, not having the breath left to even cheer.

And then she felt icy water slosh about her ankle.

The boat was leaking.

Monstrous bite marks formed a large hole in the hull and water was gushing in steadily.

You foolish human, the song crowed, tune light and mocking (how Evergreen ached for the sweet melody they had been singing mere moments ago), you may be different, but we get to eat you anyway.

The sirens began to circle the boat, fins of sickly dark colours sticking up in the water like that of a shark, green eyes glowing gleefully under the dark waves. Evergreen pulled off her jacket, plugging the hole as best she could, panicked by the way the water continued to seep through.

“Help!” Evergreen called desperately. “Help! Anyone! Please!”

But she was all alone in the water, too far from shore to run but too close to the siren’s lair to swim to safety.

It was hopeless.

“Help!”

She was going to die.

“Please...”

She wasn’t going to make it.

“I made a mistake!”

The boat was tipping.

“I knew it.” A familiar voice came, sounding gruff but undeniably relieved, causing Evergreen’s heart to leap in her chest. There was a splashing of oars, and a small sailboat came into Evergreen’s vision through the fog, the name The Knight painted carefully on the side.

“Maxie! Oh, Maxie!” Evergreen leapt over the water, over the danger of the sirens and into the safety of their boat, knocking her poor friend over. “Oh, Maxie! I’m so sorry.”

“It is alright Evergreen.” They responded with a perfect smile, pulling her into a hug before snatching up the oars. “Everything is going to be okay.”

Together they rowed off into the mist.

Evergreen had never been so grateful to see her friend’s bright, green eyes in her life.