Heart of the Siren

We enter upon the year 2064 in what used to be the United States of America. The world has become war barren and the people are now fighting amongst themselves more than even before. Much like the Red Scare when communism had reach this once great country of freedom, now it is nothing more than the shadow of its former self. There no longer the Constitutional Rights, the Bill of Rights nor Birthright Citizenship. People trusted nobody around them thought that they were out for each other’s throat, trying to cheat them out of money or various other forms of greed or heretics guilty of treason plotting to destroy society. Censorship was the worst it has ever been to the point where the news was simply outrageous lies made to make companies money and people had no clue as to what has happening in other countries besides their plot to tear the American people apart and divide the lands amongst themselves.

The way it started was about 6 years after the end of the global pandemic called “Floris- 26”. People were dying from an illness that appeared to come from the overseas nation of Russia and causing a deep hatred of the Russian people and hate crimes towards them rose. Violent riots which caused major destruction in which the biased news media would twist stories to lies of occurrences that may have not actually occurred or where to a different extent than what was told. Politicians wanted to control the country using whatever means necessary to take the win for election. Including dividing the very people and the lands in which they promised to serve and protect, censoring the truth of what truly occurred. The censorship and the surveillance grew so much over time there were camaras on each building and an entire skyscraper just for the routers for the surveillance footage itself. There was a whole group of the military created just to enforce the new laws and regulations pushed onto them by the President.

It had gotten to the point now that even the Catholic Church was in on the regime promising love and forgiveness of all sins and healing of this illness if they displayed unmistakable faith in God and the teachings. The Catholic Church went so far as to write a decree affecting those whose faith wavered and failed to follow the government’s protocol to which they were killed on the spot as heresy and treason was contagious. Questioning the government or the Church was now considered an act of heresy and treason without a right to trial. Because of this a major civil war erupted within the United States of America with threats of a world war as the other countries were tired of seeing the pain and anguish of the American people. People soon after began to point fingers at one another questioning their faith and their loyalty to the President, accusing others of treason. Within one year of this new decree much more people were killed from violating protocol than people who died from the illness itself, all because of this modern witch hunt. Which ironically the actual witches were safer than the patriotic and the faithful people who fell accused of crimes they never committed, the population quickly dwindled down from 4.8 trillion people to just above 12 billion and though there was less people to cause pollution there were even less to clean up the rubbish left behind. Countries around the world offered to assist with clean up and to help save the people who were dying by the thousands per hour just in the United States alone. The United States government refused all aid telling the citizens that it was the other countries who brought about this calamity and that they sought their destruction.

It is here on this beach that we met a young woman called Ayoel. She slaved hours a day to make a dent in cleaning the beaches of trash several inches deep that often consisted of plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and an assortment of tires, clothes, and even whole vehicles. Ayoel once loved to talk with other people and help them heal from traumatic events which has always been her gift to humanity. She worked as a specialist in Social Services for those who were served injustice and were harmed, protecting these people and helping them heal. This work once made her smile each day and she would joyfully sing the Lord praises in the church choir. That was until she dared questioned the agenda of the government via the news noticing the pronounced censoring and the blatant lies that she saw the one evening on her family’s television and was promptly kicked out of the place she once called home for “we have no need for a traitor against our country, we do not wish death upon ourselves, begone from our sight least we spill blood.”

Since then, moneyless Ayoel labored for her daily bread as the church no longer welcomed her through their doors, but instead spat at her and threatened to call Decree of Protocol Enforcement. She slept near the beach in where she labored long hours for small pay which she was not surviving on. She became so weak that she barely had enough strength to lift the shovelful of junk into the wheelbarrow beside her. It was late evening when she collapsed no longer able to move after 10 months of hard labor and severe malnourishment.

She cried as she screamed, “Why Lord have I been forsaken? I, Ayoel, your faithful daughter who once sang your praises on the daily for hours on end at the very church you raised for your people. My faith was never in question for you are my one and only God in Heaven. So why have I been removed from my home away from my once loving family? Why does the church that I attended all my life suddenly turn away a child of God just because I questioned the taking of lives? All those lives taken over a simple question of why people are so rotten against one another and why this decree is being taken so seriously so far as to draw death? A question of the government’s practices, a question of what is true in the news, and further question of why the church is now involved? Why God, have I been forsaken for doing the service in which you have sent me to do in your place?”

She wept and struck the little bit of sand that was bare on the beach with her fists and after a few strikes felt her hand hit something small, hard and felt a lot like metal. Pausing to see that which she hit Ayoel looked up to where her hand landed and was astonished to see what appeared to be a severely tarnished heart shaped locket with a long chain that to her eyes reminded her a lot of kelp from the bottom of the ocean which is hard to believe because most of the sea kelp has gone from existence. She proceeded to pick up this peculiar heart shaped locket and turn it over in her hands. Finding the bevel in which the locket opened she attempted to pry it open, but with little success, hoping to see if there was anything inside as it was quite heavy for such a small locket. She noticed that in some areas where the tarnish had cleared from her constant rubbing at the sides that a golden sheen shown through.

After about an hour she finally gave up and exclaimed at the tarnish heart shaped locket “Just what am I to know what to do with you if you do not open for me? Why do you not open?!”

She had then felt a shiver go through her whole body and felt a strange sensation about her head, a combination of tingling and cooling. Then came a sad voice to her mind which was a smooth and cool as the ocean she now sat nearby. “Why do you weep and close your heart dear child? Do you not know the love of your own creator?”

Ayoel yelped clearly surprised and looking around her bewildered. All that she saw around her was the beach covered in rubbish and the large rocks amongst the waves of the ocean. “I must be losing my mind, truly I must be so hungry that I am now hallucinating.”

“I wouldn’t be so quick to conclude that if I were you dear child. Give yourself more credit than what you are now.” Came about the cool voice again slightly deeper than before, this time sounding like it was now coming from the waves instead of her head. Standing straight up as if stuck by a pin Ayoel glances around trying to find this hidden person. She then notices that there seems to be a boulder that was not there the last time she looked which she found strange.

“Why do you say that? I questioned my government and the church; in return I was cast out by my own family for trying to serve the people and save them from the lies being told. Obviously, I have been forsaken by God and do not deserve to be here for I have failed to save the people. I failed to save and protect the people I swore to protect by being a fool! I have been betrayed by my own family as they failed to stand at my side when I seeked to stop the injustice being placed on the people of this fallen nation. Now here I stand with little strength and nothing in my belly. How can one know the Creator’s love when he has left?” said Ayoel sadly in a rather gruff voice as she paced the little bit of sandy beach she cleared. After a few moments she heard a humming from the waters beside which she strode the strange boulder now gone. The humming had a slow calming flow to it which was much like those waves, first a deeper humming that would slowly become slightly higher pitched occasionally.

After Ayoel calmed down some the voice then returned. “I understand your plight my dear Ayoel, as I, Amatrix, have gone through the same. I foolishly followed my brother who ultimately betrayed me and brought upon my rather tragic death. However, I closed my heart not because of the betrayal, but because of the rage that I held against my brother for because of him my people no longer had a leader to protect them and my rage as I screamed at him caused a massive tsunami that killed many beings. It was because of that large scale of death that I gave up my voice and closed my heart to others. However, I decided to share my heart with you as you share a tragedy much like mine, even in death I shall help you to save your people as I failed to save mine. Please, open your heart with me and save your people from this undeserved injustice.”

With those last few words Ayoel felt the heart locket pop open, she looked down upon it and saw it no longer was tarnish and instead shone a pure yellow gold with a fine chain of gold kelp leaves. It somehow played a chiming tune that followed the same melody of the humming that she had heard shortly before. “How….?” Ayoel began.

“Do not question, just open your heart and believe. There will always be aid when you least expect it.” With that the voice was gone and so were the sensations. Ayoel waited some time before she walked away from the beach with the heart shaped locket on, her faith renewed and her heart open playing the melody from the heart of the siren.