What the Sirens Do to You

Vampiresswolf

Will didn't expect to wake.

So when he did, he was confused. The first thing he felt was sore. He was sore all over, especially at the base of his skull, and for some reason, his left wrist. His body felt like it had gone through a meat grinder a couple of times before being pounded back into a vaguely human shape.

Is this what being dead feels like? He wondered. If so, it was the worst sort of afterlife he could possibly imagine. Weren't your earthly pains supposed to magically disappear once the body was gone?

Was his body gone? How would he know? He sure felt alive. But that was impossible. He distinctly remembered passing out so far below the surface of the ocean that there would be no way he'd have made it all the way to the top before having died. He tried remembering why he had been in the ocean at all. He remembered fishing for a body. He remembered slipping on the rocks and he sort of remembered waking up, though that memory was a little fuzzy, to be honest. And the siren…

He froze. He had followed a siren. He was so stupid!

As he began to curse himself, he remembered the arms that had encircled him at the moment he fell unconscious. Why would he be alive? Had the siren decided he wasn't good enough and returned him? Will shifted, groaning and opened his eyes.

He promptly squealed, a sound he would later deny ever uttering. Hovering above his face, eyes crinkled in concern, were dark gold-brown eyes, surprisingly kind, set in a dark chocolate face. Ringlets framed the face as the girl spoke, her voice honey to his ears.

"Are you alive?" The face was suddenly accompanied by a warm, moist hand reaching out for his arm to check his pulse. He jerked backwards when he realized there was a dark crest, Fins, his mind supplied, adorning the bend of the elbow, "I won't hurt you." The voice said, reaching out a little more forcefully this time and capturing his wrist. Her lips moved, silently counting, before she nodded, once, and sat back.

He took in the rest of her. She wore a silky purple shirt that seemed to move on its own, and nothing below her waist, as a dark golden tail poked out from the shirt to disappear in the glittering water below him. In the dim light, he could make out that they matched her eyes in a way that was pretty enchanting. This close, he could see the edge that accompanied the tail. Rather than soft lines, there was a strong ridge, below which he could tell sharp spines could protrude. There was a belt at her waist, a dagger settled among a sheath on her hip.

"Nico's going to be so happy you woke up!" the siren continued, and he frowned, looking around the cave to where she was pointing, "He's been here since you arrived, fell asleep not so long ago. He's never called before. I was so worried you'd die. He's already been through so much, he'd probably never get over it!"

Wills eyes alighted on a body curled up on another coral bed similar to the one he realized now he was laying on. There was the one that had brought him away from his family, to certain doom.

And yet, he couldn't bring himself to hate him. He looked so peaceful sleeping there. His face was scrunched as if warding off a bad dream, his mouth slightly open to show surprisingly rounded teeth. His arms were curled under his head, and his ridged tail slipped over the edge of the cot to sink into the water. There was a deadly looking black sword resting crooked on his hip and his hair was adorably ruffled.

Will mentally slapped himself. This monster stole him. He was part of a species that killed thousands on a monthly basis. He was not adorable.

And yet, Will couldn't stop looking at him. Maybe he was still entranced by the song that was only a memory at this point. He processed that the female siren was still talking, something about his clothes and how he could still possibly die, when he caught sight of the wrist that ached.

His eyes blew wide. Encircling his wrist were what he could only describe as teeth marks. From where, he was uncertain, but they hurt. He gasped and pulled it close, looking at it under the light the cave offered.

"Oh. Yeah, that's the Bite. It should go away." He looked up at the girl in confusion, Hazel, he reminded himself, the name filtering into his brain from the conversation he had only been half listening to, "It's what transforms you. You're already almost there." She nodded to his waist and he frowned again, mind incapable of processing what he was seeing.

His legs were fused together. Not just stuck as though glued, but legitimately fused. there wasn't even a seam.

He screamed. What else was he supposed to do, after all? His legs were no longer legs. His feet were splayed out and more flipper-like than foot-like. He had a reason.

The sound woke the siren, and as Will continued to hyperventilate, Nico rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and turned toward his sister. Will caught them conversing, the boy sounding overly concerned as the girl smiled, trying to reassure him that nothing was wrong.

"Nothing's wrong? nothing's wrong?! My legs are gone! What have you things done to me?" Will found his voice, and the black-finned siren flinched, face remorseful, as will continued to scream at them, blame them for everything that had gone wrong so far in his life. Under his panic, he realized his voice had a new, lilting tone in it. I have to get out of here. Will's only thought filtered like a mantra as he desperately searched for the cave opening.

"It's below us." Hazel supplied, and he looked down, into the water. Before he could push his way past the sirens and into the water, not even concerned about how exactly he would escape with fused legs, let alone how he would explain this to his parents, the girl pushed him back. The boy still sat, hunched and looking rightfully guilty, as she continued, "You can't swim until your scales grow in. Even if you tried the last part of the transformation are your gills. You'd die before reaching the surface. Plus," She smiled at him, as if she wasn't destroying his entire livelihood with every word, "It's daytime out there. The humans wouldn't even ask if you used to be one of them. They'd just kill you as soon as they saw your tail. You need to keep it wet once you're done transforming, which shouldn't be long now. the moment you try to remove yourself, you'll get sick." Will watched her, his stomach curling in on itself, as she demonstrated, pulling her tail- which was ended in a magnificent fan he'd only ever seen on fancy goldfish, from the water. The moment it hit the air, she retched, falling forward in her illness and into the dark water below. Her head popped back up out of the water and she smiled as she shimmied back to her original seated position.

"You're stuck here whether you like it or not. The fact that you can understand us means you have lost your human speech. They wouldn't be able to understand your words anyway."

Will gaped at her, and suddenly it was just all too much to handle, and he flopped backward with a defeated groan, looking at the roof of the cave, and let the tears flow freely, for it was all clear now.

Will knew his life was over.