Lost at Sea
Chapter 11

Wild emotions swung through Eleanor’s frame, wrecking her concentration as she tried to understand why she could never hold it together around him. A swell of memories flirted just beyond her reach, just barely, leaving her feeling just as frustrated as before she’d ever met that man.

With an air of defeat, she brought her tail down even harder, propelling her with an intense speed towards the rock spires where she knew her sisters were waiting. The hunger that she hated so immensely was clawing ravenously at the very morrow her bones. The need to kill, to feed, was almost too much for her. His very scent and the sound of his heart beat made it almost impossible to resist.

“About time,” Lizbeth snarled as Eleanor surfaced. Her muscles were clenched so tight she was beginning to shake. She had waited almost two times longer than the rest of the sirens. Black spots danced elegantly around the edges of her vision as she pulled herself onto her rock, her teeth gnashing impatiently.

Without a word to signal them, the sirens began their song all at the same time. The melody seemed different to Eleanor, all the more melancholy. It twisted the water in the air into a storm worthy of a hurricane’s status. Slowly, it drifted to cover the ship on the horizon, and a sinister smile graced Lizbeth’s lips. Unsettled, Eleanor turned away.

They slipped beneath the surf with an eager drive behind their movements. Her mind felt blank and cold; in doing so, she was able to force herself to hunt without much torture to herself. The water felt cool against her skin and helped to distract her from the horror she was about to commit.

As soon as they surfaced, a primal piece of her took over. She was only doing what she needed to do in order to survive. And yet, she saw Jasper’s face in the frightened eyes of the man she hypnotized. Every piece of her was torn in half as her mind told her she was biting into his flesh, not a stranger’s. She was putting him at risk of her by keeping him near her.

Her stomach twisted uncomfortably when she finished. For the first time in her new life, she felt like vomiting. Her heart was clenching like an iron fist had wrapped around it. She realized with dread that she could not keep this secret from Jasper any longer. As much as she hated herself, and as much as she knew he was going to hate her, it was time for him to know the truth.

Eleanor made her excuses to her sisters and slipped back into the waves. The water was choppy and gray after the storm they’d brewed, but she wasn’t worried about it. She was highly capable of picking out the currents that would take her in the direction she needed to go and the ones that would take her in the opposite direction. With a lot of effort, she willed herself into the correct stream and retreated back into her mind while her body did the work for her.

What would she say to him? There was no easy way to tell an individual that the world they were living in was only a shallow piece of reality. Eleanor wasn’t sure how to convince him of the veracity of her claims; aside from showing him her tail, but even then there was a chance that he might insist she was one of those ditsy mermaids.

She steeled her nerve. No matter what, she had to tell him. This was not a silly secret that she could hide in the deepest corner of herself. This was her species, and being what she was was a threat to his survival. No, he needed to know. And she had to be the one to tell him.

Her hands pressed against the stone rubbed smooth by the water it was constantly submerged it. She stared sullenly at the algae in front of her, the very space she knew was the gateway to her future. This very moment would be the moment that would either destroy her completely or light a candle of hope inside of her.

However, even she knew lighting a candle under water was impossible.

She took a deep breath. In, out. Still, her hands shook as she pushed through the opening and slid into the cove where her doom awaited.

He sat with his back to her, drawing something in the sand with a stick. His dirty hair glinted brightly unlike anything she’d ever seen before in the dim room. The muscles in his back tightened and contracted as he bent over to reach a particularly far glyph. She waited, content to watch him until he noticed her presence.

As it was, she didn’t have to wait too long. He turned suddenly, his cheeks rough with stubble that glinted as brightly as his hair. He regarded her cautiously, an obvious response to their not-so-friendly meeting not even a full day before. In an effort to set him at ease, she flashed her teeth in a grim approximation of a smile. The effect it had on him was, instead, the opposite. He settled back more nervously than before.

“What is it?” He asked. Eleanor blinked at the unexpected echo that filled the cove. Her earlier nerves crept back up to her sides and smothered her fiercely.

“I’ve decided I’ve kept the truth from you for far too long,” she whispered, willing him to stop her. He didn’t. She sighed, knowing her fate was now sealed. “I do not remember you because I am not the girl that you knew.”

“That much is obvious,” he murmured to himself, not realizing that her hearing was better than he’d expected. She tilted her head to the side, but said nothing. It would make him uncomfortable to know how far her ears had advanced.

“You have to understand that I didn’t choose this life. It was forced upon me whether I wanted it or not. I spend each day in a constant hatred for who I am and what I have become. You would not have recognized me if I had surrendered myself to my instincts.” She knew she spoke the truth. She had watched the change in her sisters over the years. Each passing day brought them closer to a deathly sick look; their cheeks hollowed out, their eyes sunk in, and they could not speak without baring their teeth. They had built a culture of their own on which their social standing depended on how many men they could entice in one song. It was not an easy life to live separated from her sister.

“What are you saying to me?” Jasper prompted when her pause became inappropriately long.

“I don’t know if you’ve been able to tell, but I am not human.”

“So, what are you then?” He asked, narrowing his eyes as his voice raised. “A trick of my delusional mind? I’m dead, aren’t I?”

She frowned. Of all the leaps she had expected and prepared for, she had not foreseen that one. She took a moment to settle her tongue, and then she at last spoke the truth.

“I’m a siren.”

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