The Monster

            You know, it’s a funny thing. When you have hated something for so long, hated it to the bottom of your soul, and suddenly, you ARE that thing? It is even more ironic, when you are actually in the process of hating and hunting something when you find out.

            So that’s where I was, holding an iron knife and creepy through a black forest with my family, when I heard it.

            “Missa. Missa. Missa.”

            “What? Aren’t we supposed to be silent?” I whisper ahead, where my mom, dad, and three brothers crouch.

            “Shhh!” They all say.

            “You talked to me first!” I retaliate quietly. They shush me again. I hear the voice again, I don’t understand, why would they yell at me for talking to me, and then talk back to me?!

            “What?!” I whisper again.

            “Shhhh!” My oldest brother, Josh, says. I roll my eyes. We wait for it to come closer. The disgusting thing. A creature, not a person, no matter what the lovers say. The hate grumbles in my stomach, it wants freedom; it wants to slash and destroy. But most of all, it rages and bubbles. Waiting for the chance to strike.

            It’s dark, and I can only see the creatures glowing, human-like eyes, I say “human-like” because no matter the “feelings” or “only slightly different DNA” they are not human. Then I can see. As if someone flipped a switch and suddenly it was day. Did I fall asleep? No, I’d be dead, it would eat me. And my family is still crouched in front of me. But they’re staring at me. The beam of their flashlights blinds me, I screech. It sounds inhuman.

            “Missa…. Welcome to the world of Magic.” The whispery voice says, if you could see voices, this one sounded like a curtain blowing in a light moonlit breeze, eerie, but beautiful. I feel the hot breath on my cheek, and a kiss is placed there.

            “WITCH!” My father screams and comes at me with the knife. I look down at my hands, for I can’t see my eyes. On my palms the Sign sears into my skin. Me, he’s going to kill me.

            “NO!” I scream, a new reflex to me, or, the evil me. Should I hate myself now? My arms shoot out at my sides, a light blinds me again, it is silver, gold, and ice blue. I hear a ear drum shattering howl and a wolf leaps in front of me. It is slightly translucent, like it’s not really there. But the blood that leaks from it where my father stabbed it is clearly pooling on the dirt forest floor, though the actual wolf no longer seems to exist. My youngest brother, but the age of seven, sits in its place. Bleeding from a large gash in his side. I step forward, choking on a sob.

            “Back! Don’t touch it you, you creature!” My mother spits.

            “But, Mom, it’s me, Missa! Your daughter! I don’t know what happened but, this isn’t happening, it is a dream! Right? Daddy? Daddy!” He won’t even look at me, my beloved Daddy. My voice is odd. Whispery, like that other one. But beautiful and melodic, but like a seductive demon, luring its victim to their deaths.

            I run forward, on my newly bared feet, and pick up the almost lifeless body of my brother and I run away, too fleet for possibility, or, I guess now it’s not. Now that I am a Siren. Siren is what we are, but the myths and beliefs are quite different, we do not dwell in water, but we do sing. I’m using “we.” Oh no. They are beautiful, I suppose I was before, but after the transformation you are irresistible to men, and if you are a male, the opposite way. My mostly dead brother in my arms, seemed to be an Allagi. Or Changer, in Greek. It is sort of like a patronus in Harry Potter, but the Allagi actually turns into their spirit.       

            I stop near a lake and lay him down gently, ignoring the red blood on my recently appeared white, flowing dress that rippled and blew behind me in a long train that must have looked absolutely magnificent when I was running. I felt magical… and evil. Is that possible? I suppose both are appropriate, in many ways, Siren are similar to  the legends of witches, faeries, which do, incidentally, exist, have a few similarities as well. And you know, we sing to catch guys and then eat them. I look at my hands. The swirling black lines have etched themselves permanently onto my palms, I run my fingers over the raised lines and shiver. A Siren. The monster in my belly roars its rage, for now it knows, it can never have its way, it will forever be the thing it hates. With that thought, I feel the energy drain out of me. And it finally dawns on me.

My family is going to kill me. I’m going to be stabbed with an iron knife, and I’m going to be dead. It’s the purpose of the knife, you know. To kill me. I think I’m delirious. I turn back towards my brother. The iron wouldn’t kill him, only me, bronze is lethal to him. I must be very careful only to touch the hilt, not the blade, just a scratch, a prick even, would be enough to evoke blue flames to burst out on my body, obviously killing me. I pull the blade out slowly, Ian twitches in his… sleep? Unconsciousness? Partially dead-ness? I drop the knife into the lake and look at my hands again. What can I do with them? Can I heal him? And if so, how? I’ve studied  what Sirens do, but with too much hate clouding my mind to remember anything but the rage.

Do I sing? Do a spell? WHAT?! Ian’s life is fading fast and I have to do something.

“Sanarlo.” I say. It bursts from my mouth, I know enough from Spanish class to know that it means, “Heal him.” And as soon as my mouth utters the three syllables something amazing happens. Water creeps up from the lake and twines itself around my brother it swirls in the gash on his side and tendrils creep out and close the wound like a girl would dramatically close a double sided door when she was angry. One drop stays outside and it runs down the angry line of red and as it does, the cut disappears.

Ian sits up and says, smiling, “Hi.”

Author's Note

Her name may be changed later

Reviews

[Archia]

This sounds really interesting. I like how you introduced everything, and it was good because I have no prior knowledge about sirens and all the stuff. One thing though, that I didn't really like was how you referred to Harry Potter, this is your story not his. I don't know, that's just my opinion. But really, I forgot about that as I read the rest. I'm really interested to see how this goes.

[Sylvana]

Wow, I love the detail in this! It sounds so interesting. I want to know what happens.