1 A Siren’s Call

The rain had been pummeling upon us in a seemingly endless storm. The sky had been darkened, by the thickness of it, one could not tell whether it were day nor night. Our boat rocked turbulently as waves sloshed over the sides of our miniscule dinghy. The rotting old oak wooden panels creaked from the water seeping through. It seemed as though it were crying out in pain with each beating of a wave.

The strong aroma of salt suffocated our dried and scabbed noses, the same smell we've been forced to endure over the last seven months with our labor upon the Queen Anne's Revenge. The six of us, who had just escaped our slavery, remained crammed together shivering from the cool Mediterranean breeze. Our blistered and bloodied skin had been pricked with splinters and chilled with goosebumps. If we weren't to be taken to Hell from drowning in these rough waters, then surely we were to be frozen to death.

I ran a hand through my dirty hair repeately pushing away a loose tassle that kept slapping in my tired wet face. The salty air had dried it out to a point where it felt it might soon just snap off. We all looked the same; tired, starved, and wearing the uniforms we had been allotted. I doubt my own mother would be able to recognise me now. I must have dropped thirty pounds since being taken by one of Blackbeard's men some few months ago. My beard had grown past my shoulders and my skin had been darkened and aged, from all the hours working in the scalding sunlight upon the Queen's deck.

Some of the men had been rendered unconscious from the exhaustion of our escape. By my guess we had been fighting this storm for three days and night, paddling and bailing out buckets of water the entire time. We had all begun to lose hope of ever making it out of this alive. I had even begun to regret joining these five other men in their plight towards escape. I could not help but think it must be better working as a slave with the guarantee of food to fill my belly, of shelter to hide from the torrential downpours, and of somewhere dry to rest my head; rather than to be stranded out here with only the whispers and promise of death on the howling wind.

One of the men, I wasn't sure of his name, kept rambling about sea creatures, ney, sirens, he said, as he turned an oar to keep us afloat. He went on warning about their incomparable beauty and their deadly ways. Clearly dillerium had set in. His eyes scanned across the nights waves in fear. Most did not listen, but just tried to catch a warm breath between shivers and continued fighting each rolling wave. Not all of us were as patient and eventually the biggest rogue across from him grew vexed from his never ending stories. "Shut your face and paddle old man! Or I'll throw you into this blasted sea! The rest of us looked at each other quietly and then down as we continued paddling into what seemed neverending blackness.

Our arms were tired, but we kept going. We knew we couldn't stop. If there were any chance for us surviving, we would have to keep working as hard as we could. The waves were getting larger. At one point I thought I saw a glint of silver streak that illumminated through the distance . I must have imagined it from a mixture of my prolonged exhaustion and the old mans nonstop ramblings.

We now new east, for the sun began to rise. A reflection it must have been alas I continued seeing more and more of these silver streaks in the water, but no one else seemed to take notice. The old man started up again. His mumbled nonsense grew louder and more vexing with each thing he said. The other's groaned.

I was fixing to ignore the old loon until he mentioned glowing creatures with skin plated in silver. He seemed to notice my peaked interest and told his tale. The others seemed to have given up or just too tired to care anymore.

"Approximately twenty years ago, I was aboard the Adventure Galley," he began. "It was a huge ship and I was first mate to William Kidd himself." A small smile flickered across his face as he remembered his time there.

"One night upon the Adventure, we had a storm like I had never seen before. The waves from this storm were so large, they crashed over the massive walls of the ship." He paused and used his hands to demonstrate the size of this monster of a wave. "I in fact had never seen waves so large. It was as if Triton had been disturbed by our presence and wanted us gone. I watched the waters. I had heard stories of these-" out of nowhere another rogue wave toppled over our boat leaving us all even more soaked and cold. He eerily continued his tale "Stories of these women. They were said to be the most beautiful women man could lay eyes upon. They would sing their beautiful song of lust and cast their spell upon us sailors. Legends foretold they would come with these storms and lure us to our death.

"I was watching the waters. I thought I had glimpsed a streak of silver. Aye, it was almost like lightning. I thought I had imagined it. But then I saw it again, and again. Soon hundreds of them began flooding past mine eye." I started to think back to the streaks I had seen. Where these the same? He kept talking. They couldn't possibly. These were just tales told by mothers to young children to keep them from straying out into the seas.

"The others aboard the Adventure started to take notice. They all looked over the sides of the ship trying to see what these slivers in the seas were. They kept watching, looking upon the dark waves and then-"

Another wave, larger than the last, crashed over us. A series of two-no, three waves crashed over us and flipped the dinghy as a streak of silver passed by again. We all struggled to flip the vessel over and finally, using all our strength, were able to do so and heave ourselves back aboard. Once I had settled and cleared the water from my eyes, I looked around the boat. The old storyteller was gone. I tried to get on my knees and look out into the water, hoping to glance his head among the waves, but alas, the rocking of the water upon our little ship prevented me from doing so.

I tried to tell the others. Tried to tell em that one of our own, one who helped us get to our freedom was gone. The other men just shrugged. They didn't seem to mind that the drunk had fallen off. They were too exhausted to bother caring.

The oldest man remarked, "It's better he be gone than filling yer head with them tales of nonsense."

I saw another flash in the water. It was larger than the others. I kept watching for me in the dark bottomless pit of a sea as I rowed, using all my strength. The drunk's tale had sent a shiver down my spine.

Hours went by. The water started to calm. It had seemed the storm was coming to its end. The other men began to cheer. Their hearts had been filled with the hopes that we would make it out of this Hell. Soon, we all began to fall into the pull of our exhaustion and fell asleep.

I began to dream. My mind was filled with memories of my time slaving away during my time on the Queen. Memories of me at home with my family, my mother and younger sister. Memories of my time with Katrin. The woman of whom I planned to spend the rest of my life with, whom I planned to have children with.

She was standing on the edge of the dock, right near my house. Her beautiful auburn hair had been adorned by a light blue hat and matching dress. All I could think of was how much I loved and missed her as I ran up to her. I wanted to hold her in my arms, kiss her, tell her how much I had missed her. I wanted all of that. But alas, that was not to be. As I neared, I saw she was talking to another.

He was a tall man. His dark curly hair was neatly kept. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he planted a kiss upon her rose lips. I stood there, full of betrayal. Anger seething through my veins so forcefully I thought I might hurt someone. She glanced in my direction. Her honey brown eyes seemed pleased with my reaction. Her mouth started mouthing something. I couldn't make out what she was saying at first, but then she began to get louder, almost screaming it at me. Her words were unintelligible, but carried a songlike melody. Her voice kept getting louder and louder, the sound was unbearable. My ears began pounding with immense pain caused by her shrieking. And then my eyes opened.

I was back on the boat, with the four other men. The dream had stopped but the song continued. We were all awake now, all suffering from the same piercing melody. More slivers of silver shot by us by the hundreds. The water started to calm as it was consumed by a silvery glow.

One of the streaks stopped right next to our boat; a glowing orb directly on the starboard side. It stayed there. Four more orbs came to a rest near our vessel. The five of us jumped up and huddled in the center of our watercraft. We didn't have any weapons, but our fists were clenched ready to take on whatever creature was about to attack; perhaps a large sea dragon or the famed Scylla. The small boat rocked slightly, trying to maintain our weight without flipping.

The orbs grew larger as their glowing presence neared the surface of the water. Soon heads emerged from the surface. These were not monsters! They were women; beautiful women.

They put their hands on our boat and lifted themselves onto the ledge, all singing the same tune I had heard in my dream, but now their tune was entrancing. It was as if the most amazing singers from around the world had come together to share a song. They all moved their mouths in sync; so that it sounded as if it were only one voice singing. Their tune was one that could not be understood; it must have been in some unknown language of the forgotten people.

They were the most beautiful women I had ever seen. Their pale, almost grey skin was matched with striking long white hair. They had green eyes that appeared to glow. Their skin was covered with patches of scales.

I leaned forward towards the one in front of me. She was the most entrancing of them all. I remained staring into her emerald eyes as she continued singing her song.

She reached her arms out to my face and grabbed my chin pulling me towards her. I didn't fight against her pull and followed with her as she started lowering herself into the water, my lips trying to reach hers. Soon we were both in the water. I had completely forgotten about the other men and descended deeper and deeper into the sea.

I began running out of breath. I didn't care. I was too transfixed on her steady green gaze. Deeper and deeper we went. Holes started to form in my vision. I was going to die. But then something happened.

A fish of some sort had swam by and she had glanced in its direction, breaking our gaze, and ultimately the trance. Realization suddenly hit. She was pulling me down to drown me. All of the drunk's mumblings had been real. I broke out of her grasp and started swimming my hardest to get to the surface before I completely ran out of breath.

She tried to grab at my feet yet somehow I was able to kick her off. I kept paddling, quick as I could to make my way back towards the surface. My vision kept getting darker and darker. I can't remember what happened next. I must have made it to the raft. All I can remember was waking up on our little boat all by myself.

They had taken the other men, that much I was sure of. Or did the storm drown them and I just imagined the sirens and their call? Either way, something had happened that night. Something I can't explain.