Chapter XI

That day I started making plans to go out to the Outer Banks in North Carolina for a week or so while Johnny – I had started calling him by that affectation after my anger had cooled – rested in bed. I popped in and out all day, reapplying the aloe gel and 'a'ali'i and ko paste to his eyes and insisting he keep a cool cloth over them. I offered him a gel-filled sleeping mask that I had put in the refrigerator so that he could read or watch TV, but he politely declined. He was still trying to figure out "where it all went wrong", so I just left him to it.

By midafternoon I had gotten us a cozy little condo on the beach for two weeks (for a pretty penny, I might add) and two train tickets to North Carolina, so I started packing clothes and toiletries for the two of us. I didn't take as much as a normal teenage girl would (once again drawing attention to the fact that I was not human), since I didn't need a razor or shaving gel because the only hair that grew on my body came out of my head. I didn't need to be jumping on it that quickly, since the first train out that way left two days hence, but I just wanted to get out of the city as quickly as possible. I had a bad feeling that something was going to happen, and my bad feelings had yet to be wrong. I tried to ignore it, but it was growing stronger and stronger. I had just reconciled with Johnny; I didn't want to lose him now.

I took my mind off things by playing the nurse to Johnny, treating his burns constantly and bringing him anything he needed. Mrs. Dunberry had the day off, but I would have given it to her anyway. If They did come for me, I didn't want that sweet old lady getting hurt. She was like a grandmother to me, and I couldn't let anything happen to her if I could avoid it. The same went for Johnny (except for the grandmother part). I had to protect them both, even if Johnny thought he was protecting me. It was a façade I had to allow, for all our sakes. Still, it was saddening.

I soon had everything we needed packed, though we wouldn't be leaving for a two days. That left me time to treat Johnny's burns and make sure the serum I had given him wasn't going to pop up any nasty little side effects. There didn't seem much chance of that, but I wanted to be careful. But Johnny was doing just fine, and the burns, he said, were hurting much less with repeated applications of soothing aloe and the salve I made.

"You'd make a good doctor, or a chemist," he commented as I gently spread my special salve over the much-reduced burns. I just smiled.

"Any change?" I asked later when I brought lunch in for Johnny.

"My eyes hurt much less, thanks to your plants," he replied with a smile. I smiled back and sat on the edge of the bed.

"You're sure you don't want that eye mask?" I asked. "I won't tell anyone about it."

Johnny chuckled. "It's not that, sweetheart. I just want to think for a while."

"You've been thinking all day. You think too much; such men are dangerous."

Johnny laughed outright this time. "Well, maybe you're right." He shifted, sitting up against his pillows. "Tell me one of your stories. You know so many that I've never heard."

I smiled. "I'll be right back." I went to my room and returned with a Spanish guitar. After a quick tune, I began to strum, checking the strings, until my thrumming turned into a song. I sat cross-legged on the foot of the bed, my eyes closed, rocking to the haunting melody that followed my dancing fingers. My voice joined in harmony singing:

"A fierce one-eyed man, name of Baron LaBonne
A meaner Pirate had never been known
And he sailed on the Dark Lady
A ship strong and sound with a perilous crew
And high on the mast the skull and bones flew
Fleet and swift was the Dark Lady

And every night the Baron would drink a toast
He'd say, 'Here's to our lovely lady host!
My one true love...'
'Hear, hear!' the crew replied
And the Dark Lady sighed.

A rich Spanish galleon was spotted one night
The Dark Lady's crew prepared for the fight
Clash of sword... No Spaniard survived it
Except for the maiden with dark eyes so bold
Found in the hull with the jewels and the gold
LaBonne laughed and he took her for ransom

And every night the Baron would drink a toast
He'd say, 'Here's to my lovely lady host!
My one true love...'
'Hear, hear!' the crew replied.
And the Dark Lady sighed

Now the girl Carlotta was a beauty quite rare
With each passing night LaBonne couldn't bear
his empty bed. He brought her to it
The Baron soon found he felt more than desire
His love for her grew and his soul was on fire
He proclaimed that they would marry.

That night the Baron drank with jubilee
He said, 'Here's to my lovely bride to be!
My one true love...'
'Hear, hear!' the crew replied
And the Dark Lady cried

The following night a storm brewed at sea
The Dark Lady saw her chance to be free
of her rival: the beauty Carlotta
The ship steered herself to the heart of the gale
Where a wave swept the maiden out over the rail
Sweet revenge on an unfaithful lover!
That night the Lady drank a toast
She said, 'Here's to your lovely lady host!
Your one true love...'
No voices replied
And the Dark Lady smiled.

And now any night when a storm fills the sky
They say that a ghost ship sails in its eye
Fleet and swift is the Dark Lady
A ship strong and sound with a perilous crew
And high on the mast the skull and bones flew
While the captain gazes out to sea.

And every night the Baron must drink a toast
and say, 'Here's to our lovely lady host!
My one true love…'
'Hear, hear!' the ghost crew replies
And the DarkLady smiles.
And the Dark Lady smiles.
And the Dark Lady smiles." I ended the song with a dark, chilling laugh as the last chords of the guitar faded away.

Johnny was silent for a time. "The ship herself was alive?"

"It seems that way," I replied. "I heard the song a long time ago. It just stuck with me, I guess." I spent the rest of the day telling and/or singing stories for Johnny. After a few hours I went to make dinner.

When I came back, Johnny had gotten up, showered, and dressed. I tried not to let him, but he insisted that he needed to get something from the now-abandoned asylum. I said I'd get it for him, but he firmly said that only he could retrieve it. Shaking my head, I watched him go. I spent my time in the library reading and researching ancient Romania. I had always been fascinated with Vlad Tepes – Vlad the Impaler – and since I had some free time I decided to learn what I could from Johnny's books. I was a little uncomfortable being alone in the house, since I had gotten used to being with people, but I tried to ignore it. My fears that I was being watched were confirmed when I heard the bookshelves creak on the other side of the library. I pretended not to hear them and picked up a graphing calculator near my hand. I started punching in numbers while mumbling to myself about the price of the condo in North Carolina (though not saying where it was), as though I were calculating the price of our trip. I set down the calculator just before more hands than I could count seized me from behind. I went down soon, drugged with chloroform, but by God I went down fighting!

(from Jonathan Crane's P.O.V.)

I could just feel that something was wrong when I got home. I should not have left Sirena alone, I realized, but I couldn't bring her with me to the asylum. Still, how could anyone get to her in my house? No one knew she was there. And certainly her pursuers couldn't have found her. Then again, their resources were governmental and much more sophisticated than those I used. I hurried inside.

"Sirena?" I called. "Sirena, where are you?" There was no answer. I became anxious and searched the house for her, calling her name. Then it hit me: the library! Where else did Sirena spend her time when I wasn't around? Smiling, shaking my head for not having thought of it before, I went to the library. But she was not there. I went to her favourite chair by the fireplace, but there was no sign of her. Nor had she apparently been near the piano. Finally I went up to the desk where she liked to sit and write at times. There were open books and loose sheets of paper all over the desk. The papers were all covered with notes on Vlad de Dracul, but no note as to where she was. Then I noticed a graphing calculator lying askew on one of the books. Why would she have needed a graphing calculator if she was taking notes on Vlad the Impaler? Curious, I picked up the calculator and switched it on. My eyes met with a meaningless string of gibberish:

'4sin(10cos(75log(-10/sin(0BAln(sin(0A40log9log9)0sin()80/sin(0,7log(log(1'

"What in the world?" I murmured. It made no sense at all. Was this supposed to be a message? I was confused, confounded. This wasn't like Sirena at all. Which meant…They had found her while I was gone. I groaned, thinking of how I had promised to protect her. I had failed, and now They had her again. I shuddered to think of what was going to happen to her. Against my better judgment, I had grown attached to her. I loved Sirena. I had to help her if I could. If only I could decipher her strange message. I looked it over again carefully, searching for hidden letters among the symbols. There were only two – a BA and an A – but it still made no sense. Then I looked at the buttons themselves. Above each symbol in green was a letter! I quickly switched the calculator to ALPHA mode and retyped the message. Now it spelled:

'THEY FOUND ME BASE AT NNL HELP ME JONNY'

"Oh sweet mother of God," I whispered, lapsing into the use of colloquialisms in my fear. "She's gone!" For the first time in my life, I felt fear. Not fear for myself, but fear for another. I was afraid for Sirena's sake. I knew what was going to happen to her, wherever she was being taken. I had no idea what she meant by NNL, but I knew I had to find out and fast!