Dear readers, thanks for the alerts and the favs. You might get the idea by now that this fic was mostly inspired from mermaid media such as Mermaid Saga and Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (lol yes really) and a horror movie called She Creature, even though the story is called 'Siren' and Mia is technically a mermaid although she doesn't like being called one but a lot of things have happened since I wrote chapter 1 so things are always up for a change. Please likey this chapter :)
SIREN
"Maria? I have something to show you. It's a surprise." He led her eagerly down the stairs of their basement, holding onto her hand as he led her down.
"What is it?" She asked. She was blindfolded.
"We're almost there."
He made her walk further into the basement, before turning round. "Now. Take off your blindfold." He said; she did as she was told, and as she saw it, she stared in shock. There was a large tank filled with gloomy seawater standing in front of her. She didn't quite understand. "Go on and have a look." He said, grinning widely as he gestured for her to walk closer to the tank.
With his permission, she walked up to it and placed her palm flat against the glass. She peered in and squinted her eyes, trying to get a better look. There was something inside, a murky, blurry outline. She stepped back with another gasp as she heard a loud splash and a large orangey-grey fish tail protruded out and slapped hard against the surface of the deep, gloomy water.
"What kind of fish is that?" She exclaimed. "You've never caught anything that big before."
"Look closer."
She nodded, and then, she saw it. She saw a human face through the darkness. She saw long, white hair, and a pair of lime-green eyes. Its flesh was eerily white too, contrasting heavily with its tail. Its tail was…magnificent. It resembled a goldfish tail, thin, speckled and streamlined, like a veil. It was swimming around in circles before finally swimming up to the surface of the water. A pair of long and scaly arms reached up for the mouth of the tank and the creature lifted itself up.
Maria gasped in horror, her mouth falling open. "It's…It's a…a…a mermaid." She squeaked, before she clasped her hands over her open mouth before exclaiming louder, "A mermaid!" She turned to him questioningly. "But how?"
He walked up to her and put an arm around her shoulder before facing the tank, smiling triumphantly up at the creature in the water, "I found her washed ashore this morning. She's quite a catch, isn't she?"
However, Maria let out a weak laugh and shrugged out of his hold. "Why have you chained her?" She asked, gesturing to the shackles around the wrists of the creatures.
"She tried to climb out."
"...Why is she looking at me like that?"
"I don't know. Maybe she's hungry. I haven't fed her yet."
"Very funny. This is too much. This is a joke gone too far."
"You don't believe me?"
She gave him a look of disbelief. "The tail looks real. Who is she? Friend of yours? It looks convincing, but next time you should really tell me about new female friends you make–" She stopped when a wave of water suddenly hit her and she shrieked, throwing her arms over her head protectively. "Eeek! She splashed me!"
"She heard you." He said, chuckling as he watched the creature in the tank slip under the water and swim away from the pair to the far end of the tank. "You hurt her feelings."
Maria was wiping away excess water from her eyes angrily, "Quit it! Stop fooling around! Tell that friend of yours to get out of there and go home!"
But he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her in order to convince her, "I'm not fooling around, Maria! She lives in the ocean! She's the real thing; I'm telling you, she's real! They're real! Look! There's your proof!" He yelled, letting go of her to point at the tank. "That girl–She's a MERMAID! They DO exist!"
She scoffed at him, brushing him off. "Don't be a fool. Even if she is real, what do we do with her? We can't keep her here."
"Yes, we can! I want to! I want to look after her and–"
"You're a madman! Wherever you found her, put her back right now! You'll get us into trouble, you fool!"
"And why should I?" He sneered.
"How can you possibly keep her? We don't even know what she is! What does she eat? We can't! We just can't!"
The more he listened, the angrier he became, "No! You're the crazy one here! Get out! I showed her to you because I thought you would understand me…I guess I was wrong…Get out! Get out! I don't want to see you again! GET OUT!"
She frowned at him, then turned away. "Fine." She spun on her heel to storm up the stairs, slamming the door shut behind her.
When she was gone, he was breathing heavily. However, when he turned to the tank, he saw that she had returned to climb up to the rim of the tank, staring at him wordlessly with those sinister green eyes of hers. They were such a faded shade of green, they blended into the white of her eyes; if he didn't see the little black dot in the middle of her orbs, he'd thought she was completely pupil-less.
"I knew it…" He breathed as he met her unwavering gaze, "I knew you were real all along…"
She made a noise and flung herself away, creating another large splash in the water as she dove underneath. He watched her swim around the perimeter of the tank before she stopped behind the glass in front of him. She looked so elegant…so surreal, so beautiful…so very ethereal, so extraordinary…
He walked up to her and placed his hand on the glass; she did the same too, except her hand was webbed, with a thin, translucent membrane between the gaps of her fingers. "Shh, shhh…shh…it's alright…she's gone now…that mean scary woman is gone…it's just you and me now…" He crooned, smiling at her, "…You're all I need…You're all I need in this worl–"
He was briefly interrupted when he felt something wet and slimy slap him on the side of the head only to look up and see a portion of her tail retreating away from him.
"O-oh…" He stuttered out, as he calmed himself. He watched the tail slip back into the tank and under the water in a blink of the eye, and he gulped before letting out an uncomfortable chuckle, "T-t-that was you…um, c-can you speak, by the way? Do you understand me?" He asked, but there was no response, except from a long, unblinking stare. "No, of course you can't…Of course. Very well, perhaps if I have the time, I can teach you a few things...I can teach you how to speak English...are you hungry?"
He reached to the side and lifted up a bucket of fresh, raw fish which he had caught today. "I saved these for you from today's catch."
She swerved her gaze from him, to the bucket in hand, then back to him. Before long, she swam to the surface of the water again, and he could see the entire length of her tail. It started near her waist, maybe above hip line; her scaly flesh dissolved into the tail as both were almost the same in colour. Where her hipbones should be, where two scaly fins that had long, pointed tips, like the whiskers of a catfish. Even the back of her tail was outlined with sharp spikes.
With one fish in hand, he tossed it over and it landed into the water, floating on the surface. In one massive swoop, she had snatched it quickly from the surface and disappeared under the water with her back to him. Blood pooled around her as she chewed on the fish greedily. Once she was done, she returned to the surface for more. Waiting. He threw another fish and another and she took them and devoured them whole. She caught the fish the same way as usual. He tossed another fish, but this time, she left it alone. She probably had enough.
When he was finished, he settled the bucket on the ground. "I hope you like your new home." He said, as he stepped away from the tank. "You are going to be here for a long time."
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Present day.
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"Hey, fish-babe, heads up."
She glanced up to see Dante tossing a slippery and slick dark-grey, flimsy thing towards her direction. Her reaction was to hold out her arms and a slippery fish landed in her grip. She frowned, fed up with his never-ending list of nicknames for her. "And what is the meaning of this?" She asked, as Dante sauntered to the car with the keys in hand.
"You're still hungry, right?" He said, as he pushed his guitar case into the back seat before he manoeuvred to slide into the driver's seat. He indicated to her to get inside the car by nudging his head towards the empty passenger seat beside him. "Get in."
The fish he'd given her was a salmon. It was dead, with its great glossy eyes and its jaw agape, exposing tiny little teeth. She wasn't even going to bother to question him where he might've gotten a fresh fish from. Clutching the dead fish with two hands, Mia entered the car and sat down, before slamming the door shut beside her. Dante watched her for a short moment, but when she gave him a blank stare in return, he reached towards her and pulled the seatbelt over her, and plugged it into the clip. "There ya go."
Mia raised an eyebrow at the seatbelt. "What's this for?"
"So you don't smash through the windscreen and land on the tarmac and split your head open if anything happens." He replied casually, as he pulled out a pack of air fresheners from the glove compartment. "No offense, by the way. I just like this car very much."
"...None taken."
When he was finished hanging up the air fresheners, he jammed the keys into the slot and twisted. The engine stalled at first, and he growled and with an impatient "Aw, come on", the engine finally roared on and the headlights flashed. He switched them off, before shifting the gear stick to its respective gear and pushing the handbrake down. The car began to move out of the garage and onto the road.
Mia had never been in a car before. Needless to say, this was rather exciting for her. As the scenery rolled by, she giddily stared outside the window, chomping on the fish. Meanwhile, Dante fiddled with the radio despite the mere half hour drive to the train station. Adjusting the radio with the rounded dial, he flicked through classical music, bumbling pop music, exotic salsa music-he turned to her and asked if she liked that-to which she replied with a firm 'no'-before he discovered a channel belting out thrashing, hardcore, eardrum thumping music.
"Hell, yeah!" He exclaimed, grinning at her. But all she did was watch him while eating her fish. "...You know, that's kinda cute in a creepy kind of way." He remarked loudly over the intense volume of the radio. It seemed he'd switched it to Rock FM and the pulse-pounding, brain-bashing metal music began to echo in the background and travelled out of the car itself. His rolled-down window also gathered some unappreciative persons as they stopped at a red car light. The driver in the car beside them threw Dante a dirty, sour look. Dante had merely replied with a grin.
He must be referring to the way how she was eating the fish, she thought, as she chewed absent-mindedly on the salmon's stringy, raw flesh. She was eating it head-first, gnawing on the skull quietly, before she swallowed. Even the tail disappeared down her gullet, too. "Do you have any more?"
"Nope, just that one. Your throat can handle all that?"
She nodded.
"Finally, I found a use for that salmon. It's been in my freezer for days."
"That's not funny, Dante. Are you laughing at me?"
"No, of course not." He reached over and using his palm, he ruffled her hair. Then he repeated, "Course not, babe..."
She looked at him tiredly but said nothing. Once they arrived at the train station, Dante parked at an empty spot and climbed out. He grabbed his guitar case, slung it over his shoulder, and was joined by Mia. It was lucky he'd gotten Lady to come by with some clothes, and it was lucky she'd finished the fish. "Do you think I will fit in?" She asked worriedly, and he nodded.
"You look human enough to me." Dante replied, "Can you walk?"
"Yes. I'm okay now."
At first, they made their way towards the train station side by the side in silence. The train station was bustling with travellers today. He threw a sideways glance to see that she wasn't exactly keeping up in pace with him. She was lagging behind, stopping to gaze at a newspaper stand or a coffee shop or families with their screaming children getting ready for the beach. Perhaps she wasn't okay as she mentioned after all. He didn't want her lagging behind or getting caught up or distracted by the busy passerby's. Dante hurriedly thrust his hand out to her and she stared at his invitation curiously.
"Hold my hand."
Damn, he cursed mentally; those words sounded a lot smoother in his head than coming out of his mouth. She reached for him regardless and when her small, but cold fingers slid into his awaiting palm, he instinctively curled his fingers around her tightly and managed to guide her that she was finally matching his pace. He grinned at her again, and she responded with a small smile.
"Alotta people are looking at you." He murmured under his breath.
She blinked at him wide-eyed. Had she been oblivious to the abundance of looks aimed at her direction? In particular, those looks were mostly from men. "Why?"
"Cos' you're pretty." He replied, and her cheeks went a little pink. "Heh, you're blushing. I thought you'd be used to that kind of compliment."
"Um...I-I don't remember anyone saying that to me before..."
"You don't have to be so modest, babe. It's true." Dante added, before he winked at her teasingly. After all, the lore and myths all said that mermaids were meant to be pretty. Now that he thought about it more, the additional attention Mia was receiving was beginning to turn against them as he watched the crowd before them warily. We're attracting too much attention. This could be trouble. He briefly remembered Patty's baker boy cap which, if he recalled correctly, should be inside his guitar case with Rebellion. The blasted girl slipped it inside when he wasn't looking (or when he was asleep or showering) and he hadn't been bothered to take it back out since.
At one of the schedule boards, he unzipped the case a fraction, delved an arm in and found the hat, which he plopped over her head. Then he checked their tickets and found their train which was waiting at Platform 4 and would be leaving in fifteen minutes. Thankfully he'd booked a table seat; he took two seats and Mia took the two seats opposite.
"Are you sure you want to go on with this?" She asked wearily.
He nodded. "I'll keep you safe, I promise." I need to find out what that Laurent wants anyway since he won't talk...Getting up close and personal is always the best when it comes to settling matters.
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"Dante?"
A few hours had passed. She didn't realize Dante lived so far away from that place called 'Capulet City', where the man who had hired Dante to retrieve her resided.
"Dante." She hissed, but there was no response from the devil hunter. He had kicked his legs up on the table, lying with his arms resting behind his head. A newspaper was strategically placed over his face as though it acted as an effective barrier against pesky trolley attendants who arrived at the aisles occasionally, asking passengers if they want a drink or biscuit or whatever else they had for sale. "Dante."
She got up from her seat and shook him, but nothing happened yet the snoring did get a little louder. "Dante, I'm hungry." She whimpered, silently wishing that he'd given her another fish back in the car, "I want something to eat. Help me."
There was no response. Glancing around the train carriage, she saw unassuming businessmen and other individuals in their own seats, quietly keeping to themselves. Her wandering eyes landed on a particular young and attractive, but bulky man. Underneath his tight shirt, she could see the bulging muscles and his honed built. He looked yummy. Literally. He met her gaze when he realiszd she was staring at him from across the carriage, and she stiffened but she did not and could not look away.
A few moments passed and her eyes narrowed. Then she smiled and hopped out of their seat and into the aisle. She headed towards the toilets which she found, to her advantage, were vacant. The man had been reading a magazine but he folded it and got up in his seat. She threw her glance over her shoulder. He had followed her.
"Sam?" His female companion who was sitting beside him spoke up, "Sam, where are you going? Sammy?"
"...I'll be back soon..." He mumbled, as though he was in a trance.
"...Oh, okay." She settled back into her seat quietly.
In the toilets, Mia slipped inside and kept the door open for her human prey to enter. His eyes were glazed and he was slack-jawed with his mouth open, since she'd managed to hypnotise him the moment they locked eyes. "Shut the door quietly." She commanded, and the prey did as he was told.
Licking her lips, Mia didn't really know where to start. It could be anywhere, really. Humans were too big prey that it was akin to a crocodile eating a deer. It might take hours to devour him whole. Hm, but where to start? The neck. She always liked necks. Yes, that would do. She grabbed the human man and pulled him forwards, although when she did that, Dante's face briefly flashed in her mind. She paused, stunned for a moment that she'd thought about him when she was about to feed...or was it because she was holding this man...this stranger...so closely to her, so intimately, when she had held Dante the same way before?
She brushed the thought away. Hungry right now. Eat now, think later. Her dinner was waiting. In the tiny cramped space, if only she could see that the tiny mirror reflected a pretty face until she opened her mouth - and her jaw stretched open to an unimaginable size - her mouth was big enough to fit his head...and a row of fangs elongated from her gums, ready to bite into the man until the door jerked and Mia gasped.
Letting go of the man, the door was pulled open with a force so brutal that it almost fell off its hinges, and Mia stared wide-eyed at the silver-haired devil hunter at the doorway. "D-Dante!"
"Are you cheating on me?" He was saying that, but this time it didn't sound like his usual jokes and even his tone had deepened to contain a serious inflection. "With this guy? Seriously?"
She shook her head furiously.
"Let go of him."
She nodded and threw her glance down. "I'm sorry. Dante, I wasn't going to-you have to believe me, I wasn't-"
But Dante reached into his jacket and when he pulled out one of his guns, Mia gasped again when he aimed the nozzle at her directly and-
"Dante, no!"
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"Ah!"
Mia woke up with a start, then quickly glanced around the carriage. Oh. It was just a dream. A scarily realistic dream. Even though Dante said he didn't know if she was a demon, he seemed positive she wasn't 'evil'. Now she wasn't so sure herself. She looked opposite her to see Dante sleeping in the same position as he was in her dream, with his legs kicked up on the seat and a newspaper placed over his face.
Calming her erratically beating heart, she shifted up slightly in her spot and glanced over the seat's head, to look at the rest of the passengers in the carriage. Where the man she'd lured-that young bulky man in her dreams-was supposed to be sitting, was a girl with headphones clamped over her head as she peered inquisitively at her laptop's flashing screen. There was no bulky man anywhere. She sighed a breath of relief.
It was just a dream.
However, her stomach was gurgling lightly and she knew she was hungry, well, maybe just a little. She could manage, hopefully. But there was still the danger that the dream might happen. It might. Somehow. She decided to go to Dante instead and she got up in her seat, making her way across the table and into his seat. She reached over and put his legs down onto the floor one by one before she climbed into his lap.
"Dante." She shook him by the shoulders but when he did not wake up, she began to run her hands up and down his chest. Finally, he shifted and a hand grabbed at the newspaper, pulling it away from his face.
"Mmm, what are you doing?" He said, with a Cheshire cat-like grin as he swerved his eyes down to her roaming hands; he encircled his arms around her waist, bringing her closer to him.
"Bad dream." She mumbled as he rubbed at her arm. "I had a bad dream."
His lips were by her ear as she sunk into his chest, and she closed her eyes to rest. Dante was so warm to touch, unlike herself-she was cold all the time-and she was snuggling deeper into his welcoming embrace. She felt him nipping at the shell of her ear playfully, before he reached over and kissed the top of her head. His hands moved to rest on the side of her hips, sliding up and down over her curves. When he threw his glance at her, he noticed the smile playing on her lips.
"You okay?" He asked and she nodded. Wanting him to hold her, she curled up against him further. Dante was more than happy to oblige. "Admit it. It's great being with me."
"Dante?" She gave his shoulder a tight squeeze.
"Yeah, baby?"
"Thanks for looking after me." She replied, and he patted her on the head, earning a warm smile from her. "...When we get to the manor, what's going to happen?"
"I dunno. We'll find out in a few minutes."
"Huh?"
Soon, the train's tannoy had switched on and a mechanical female's voice was echoing through the carriage. "The next stop is Capulet Central Station. Please watch the gap whilst alighting from this train."
Dante stretched slightly but found that he was rather comfortable in his seat with Mia resting on him. "That's our stop." He found himself almost grudgingly saying, "Let's get moving."
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When they finally arrived at the de Chard Manor, Dante drove through the wrought-iron gates and onto a bumpy, stony path. As their rented car bounced and hobbled with protest over the ravenous path, a fountain loomed into view and he steered around the circular stone ornament, before focusing on the single route straight ahead. Mia, in the passenger seat, stared at the statue in the middle of the fountain. it was a naked woman with plump breasts and a fish tail-a mermaid. Once they arrived at the front of the mansion, they were greeted with an incredible, massive Gothic building covered in overgrown, but trimmed shrubbery. It was at least three storeys tall, with balconies littering almost every possible window of the building. Dante pulled the car up beside one of the numerous rows of statues and glanced at his map of crudely-drawn directions before glancing up at the manor again.
"Hm, Italian Renaissance." Dante commented as he fixed his gaze on the architecture of the building, "Nice."
"Are we in the right place?" She asked nervously.
"Yep, we're in the right place." He replied, when Mia gave him a worried look. Dante slid out of the driver's seat, and Mia followed.
As Dante pulled out his guitar case from the boot of his rented car, the front door of the manor creaked open and a familiar man stepped out to greet them. He was adorned in a black dinner suit with a white shirt and matching gloves. His shoes were polished and clean. "Mr Dante, I'm so glad you made it." said the man dressed in the butler-attire.
"Yeah, and in one piece, too." The devil hunter grunted, slinging his giant case over his back.
"Yes, yes, indeed." Caleb said, before he threw his glance to Mia as she stood beside Dante anxiously. "And what have we here? This is...it?"
"Yep."
"It's got legs." Caleb added, subjecting Mia to a stony glare from head to toe. She nervously slid behind Dante, hoping his taller build and trenchcoat would hide her from the man's penetrating gaze.
"Yeah, and it's got a name too." Dante replied, "Mia."
"...Yes." came Caleb's stoic reply, "Shall we get going? Master Laurent is waiting for you two inside..."
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