The silhouette of a ship trembles over the limit between the night sky and the sea. The cold winds screeches and howls and the waves whip the sides of the decrepit wooden structure. Sailors move from bow to astern, yelling alarmed instructions to each other, not knowing that they're being observed by three pairs of eyes.
The sirens effortlessly emerge from the water, as if not noticing the commotion of the sea, and lean their slippery, serpentine bodies against a protruding rock. Their eyes glisten with interest.

A song soars from their throats, filling the intoxicated air with ages-old incantations known only by the depths of the sea, reaching the sailors' ears, and replacing their agitation with a promise of instant release. The voices are sweet and delicate, yet commanding and loud, patient but conditional; there's an underlying reminder that to truly possess the comfort they guarantee, a bigger sacrifice has to be made.

The ship shakes under the whiplash of big waves, but the men don't react to it. Some throw themselves off the ship's rail and try to swim towards the sirens, but are quickly swallowed by the waves. Unguarded and old, the ship lets out a creaking, desperate wailing as it cracks. In mere minutes, the bow and the astern detach from each other and start to sink. A multitude of objects, barrels, and wood fall onto the water as the remaining sailors try to hold onto something.

Followed by Aria and Sonata, Adagio swims towards the remnants of the ship. She spots an attractive prey; a young girl barely keeping her head above water. She approaches her from underwater, holding onto her, and the girl lets out a scream as sharp claws close over her legs and drag her down. Adagio constrains her between her arms, wanting to get a better look at her. She weighs so little, and her body is so soft and fragile, so easy to break and cut. Her light, purple eyes look at her in terror, and her lips get paler as the minutes pass by. Adagio plays with her hair, relishing in the confusion and fear in the girl's face, and licks her lips as she looks down on her with the calculating eyes of a predator.

The girl starts to lose her strength, and she can't hold back her breath anymore. A myriad of bubbles flee her mouth, and her eyes start to fade away. Adagio could just let the sea claim her life, but that just wouldn't be much fun, would it?

Adagio takes her to the rock where the three sirens had congregated before, laying her body over the hard surface. The girl coughs incessantly, and her trembling body desperately takes in the oxygen in deep breaths, but she doesn't wake up. Having the small life of a helpless human wrapped around her fingers is amusing; just a change in her mood would be enough for her to do what she originally intended. She climbs over her, scales rubbing against the damp dress. She caresses her cheek and leaves a playful scratch. She knows how easily she could slice her face; it would just take a little more pressure.

A desperate cry from afar reaches her, cutting across the deadly night atmosphere. Sonata and Aria have already gotten started. She decides it'd be better to take the girl somewhere else. Those two are too impatient to understand this kind of matter.


She opens her trembling eyelids with difficulty. The intense morning light seeps into her eyes, and she tries to move her hand to cover her gaze, but her limbs feel weak and feeble. As she comes to her senses, she realizes there's a weight over her body. She tries to sit up, and she gets to see a glimpse of blondish orange hair before falling on her back as the weight moves, swiftly sliding over her, and a face enters her vision. A pair of round magenta eyes look at her from behind unruled strands of hair. Their intent gaze makes Trixie's heart speed up inside her ribcage. She sees those same eyes turn red and cold in a fragmented memory. She lets out a scream and tries to move from under the weight that keeps her firmly pressed against the sand, twisting her body uselessly.

The creature looks at her with an uncanny, delighted shine in its eyes. Despite her panicked state, Trixie barely can move, and the creature smiles as her movements falter. It holds her wrists tightly, hurting her with its pointy nails. Trixie feels the tears trying to escape, and turns her face to the side, closing her eyes. She feels the breath of the creature against her ear, sending a shudder down her body, and a shaky cry escapes her lips.

A tongue slowly slides from her ear towards her cheek, making her body tense in terror. Is she going to be eaten alive? Her chest starts to go up and down at a quicker frequency as the wet path on her skin comes to an end. She waits, unable to do a single thing, feeling each heartbeat as if it is the last one.

The pressure in her wrists becomes more intense, making her wince, and she fears that they will break. And then, she feels a light sensation on her cheek. Not the lacerating pain of teeth penetrating the skin, but the soft feel of warm lips brushing against her face. Her mind goes blank, and her heart seems to hold back a beat. Her wrists are freed before she can process what's happening, and a hand caresses her hair. The weight is lifted from her trembling body. She contains her breath, not daring to make a move, and listens for any sign that the creature is still there; it can't just have gone away, right?

She lays there, waiting for some strength to come back to her limbs. She takes a deep breath before slowly sitting up and looking around, searching for that thing, but only the wind and the waves surround her. The morning air is chilly, and she feels another shudder spread through her body. She hugs her knees and starts to cry, unable to understand a thing. Her dress and hair are damp and sticky, the sand is glued to her body, and she can't stop trembling. She can't even feel relief for being alive; she doesn't know where she is or what happened with anybody else, or if that thing is going to come back.

She's found hours later by a fisherman and taken to a nearby village, where she's left in the care of the local priest. There aren't any other survivors. As time goes by, she is less and less sure about what happened, and the memories become blurry, but she clearly recalls those red eyes.

She starts doing tricks again in the streets to get back a sense of normalcy, but deep down she knows it has no use. A part of her lives in the depths of that night's sea, in a time too close to forget yet too far to accurately remember. She returns almost daily to the place where she was found.

She holds some doubt about what she's doing. It may be stupid to keep on coming back as if the mystery will unravel itself if she just waits enough, but what else can she do? Once again, she sits in the sand with her arms around her knees, contemplating the sun melt over the calm water. Her mind goes back to the sea shanties being sung out of pitch and the faces she had started to regard with a certain familiarity lighting up with a flick of her hand and a well-placed coin. It's like all of that pertained to a different place, a dreamland that can't be reconciled with the swirling chaos that came after, which she's still unable to piece together.

Trixie shudders and closes her eyes tightly as she feels them starting to get wet. She hurries to dry those stupid, stupid tears. The murmur of the waves is the only signal of livelihood in this place. At least there's nobody who could see her like this here, she thinks. She rests her cheek on her knee and opens her eyes, expecting to see the already familiar scenery, but her gaze meets with magenta eyes.

She lets out a shriek and bends back. She tries to get up and run on shaky legs, but steps on the hem of her dress and falls on her knees. Panicking, she attempts to at least crawl away from the creature as fresh tears prickle her eyes; this time she doesn't even bother to contain them.

Trixie turns her head to look at the creature, fearing to find it quickly approaching her to take advantage of her painfully inefficient escape. Instead, it is laying on the sand, looking at her every move with a smile. For the first time, she can see the creature well; a long fishtail is born from the hips and reaches into the sea; its every scale shines like red glazed glass under the falling sun. The hair tangles around the feminine body, creeping over the shoulders and sticking around the back and face. The lighting makes the skin adopt a golden tone; the reddish plumb lips seem to call for her without making a move. Trixie is out of words, even out of thoughts, and can only sit there and stare, waiting for the smallest indication that she might be attacked, but it never comes.

"Are you done cowering and screaming?"

The siren's voice is husky and deep, but it has a bright quality to it, and Trixie finds herself lost in its surreal sound. Her cheeks and neck turn red as she processes the words.

"I-I... Trixie never cowers!", she stammers in a shaky breath, "and Trixie just screamed once!"

"Oh, really? It just looked like you were scrambling in fear to me, my mistake", her voice sounds apologetic, too apologetic to be sincere, as if she is coddling a child. "Then tell me, what was that display?"

"I... it was nothing! Anyways, wha- who are you? Introduce yourself!"

Despite her demanding tone, Trixie feels her hands shaking.

"You should avoid ordering me around, little darling. It's not going to end well."

The siren turns around and stretches her arms and back over the sand, splashing some water around with her tail. Her golden cascade of hair falls around her like petals of a flower, uncovering her nude chest, and Trixie immediately turns her head away; it doesn't seem like her blush will fade away any time soon.

"That being said, you may call me Adagio."

Trixie clears her throat, trying to compose herself.

"You're in the presence of the great Trixie Lulamoon, and I, uh, she wants to ask some questions."

"Hmm, is that so? I thought she'd be far away from here by now. What business does that Trixie have with me?" From the corner of her eye, Trixie sees her turn around again and rest her chin in the palm of her hand. She perceives the edge of pointy nails, making her feel chills; she can almost feel the constraining grip on her wrists. She gulps down; right now running away is as tempting of an option as staying, but she can't do that. That would be cowardly. And, isn't this what she has been waiting for?

"You... eh, you were there, right?... that night, I mean." Trixie looks into Adagio's eyes, they're glistening with a knowing light. The shadows on her face grow larger as the sun goes down.

"Yes, I was there, don't you remember?", Adagio tangles a strand of curly hair around her finger. "You were drowning when I kindly took you to the surface. You would have died if I had delayed another minute."

"Really?" Trixie asks with a frown, revisiting her faint memory. "I thought that you... it looked like..."

"Like what?", Adagio seems amused. "Like I was going to kill you? That was an option, too."

Trixie feels her heart almost stop beating right there. Time seems to slow down as she studies the distant features of the being in front of her, containing her breath, but just a couple of seconds go by. She lets out her breath, inhales deeply, and tries again, unable to assess if she's being serious or not.

"That night, I heard voices… they were mixed with the wind, and I wasn't sure if I was hearing right, but it was just like in the stories." She makes a pause, feeling her shoulders tremble and her breath rise. "Was that also you?"

The siren's smile widens.

"Would it change anything if it was me?", she asks with a little bite in her voice, making a pause before continuing. "You mentioned some kind of stories, do you humans know about our incantations? do you tell each other about the power in our voices? Well, I wasn't the only siren present that night. We were spectators of an already unfolding tragedy. You could say that we did an act of kindness for the victims, gifting them some solace with our song in their last moments. But even though I helped you, I'm being interrogated as if I'd done something wrong. How boring."

Letting go of her hair, Adagio puts a hand over her mouth, simulating a yawn.

"If I wanted to harm you, I could have put a spell on you to make you come to me on your own, you know?"

"But why me? Why did you save me?" Trixie asks in a hesitant voice.

"Isn't that obvious? I did because I wanted you to live."

Trixie lowers her head, putting her forehead against her knees as she closes her eyes tight, feeling them wet. She doesn't want that weakness to show, not now!

"I don't understand anything."

The question 'why does this all even matter?' pops up in her head. She doesn't know why she's so keen on knowing what happened then. It's been weeks since the event took place, but deep down it doesn't feel like it. Even after listening to some answers, she doesn't feel any relief, and nothing makes any more sense than before.

"Well, I don't understand what's the problem", the siren's voice sounds annoyed at first, but it becomes more earnest, if not caring, at least not dismissive, as she continues. "But understanding is not a necessity for living. Otherwise, none of us would be here." Trixie lets out a small cry, and the siren responds with a sigh. "You just have to live. You owe me that."

Trixie lifts her head and searches for Adagio's face with her eyes, but her gaze only captures the sun shedding its last rays of light over the horizon. The siren is gone as silently as she came; it feels as if she was never there. Trixie notices that the silence left behind sounds ugly in the absence of her voice. That might be the only trace of the existence of sirens, the emptiness that stays when they're gone.