The waves were crashing forcefully against the family of rocks bellow, providing a white noise like sound to blend in with the silence of the night. It was perfect, peaceful, and not a soul was in sight. The moon dimly shone down pass the clouds that covered it like a protective blanket, only barely illuminating the beach below. The dim light bounced off the angry waves, allowing a dark blue aura to shine through. The night was almost unreal, the stars that painted themselves over the pitch black sky, the vacant beach that looked as if it went on for miles, the seemingly never ending pier and the absence of any sign of another human.
You continued to walk down the pier, looking down ever so often to see the waves crashing themselves upon the rocks through the cracks in the wood.
Late night beach walks had become a usual occurrence for you, but there was something different about tonight, something unusual. Not once when you walked the lonely pier at night had you had any such feelings of another human’s presence anywhere nearby. But tonight, despite the initial sight of there being no one else around, the feeling of anticipation swam thick through the air. The atmosphere was displaying some sense that something unnerving was somewhere near, but you couldn’t quite put your finger on what.
Continuing your nightly stroll across the intimidatingly tall pier, you stopped yourself short in your tracks. A sound, seemingly coming from miles away began to ring through your ears. You turned around, swishing your head back and forth like prey listening out for a predator. The sound was a low and hypnotic humming, reverberating off of nothing. It echoed through your mind, making you forget your surroundings and focus only on the heavenly song coming from below.
As a child, and even an adult, you had heard stories. Stories of sailors suddenly going missing, even after months at sea. One moment, they were there, and the next, they had disappeared off the face of the earth. Many teachers, adults, and even scientists had come to a conclusion that the ‘mythical’ creature, known as a Siren, had been the cause of the sailors sudden disappearance. Other people laughed in the face of those who thought a seemingly fictional creature could have had anything to do with the men suddenly vanishing. There was no sign of a shipwreck to be found, but, there was also no evidence to back up the claims and theories that a Siren had been the cause of the case, forcing everyone into a mixture of confliction and uncertainty, but, it was hard to not suspect the possibility of ‘fictional’ creatures being the cause of the disappearance of sailors, along with their ships, after it had happened numerous times over the course of years. After a while of it happening, the scientists and detectives working on the cases soon began to lean towards the possibility that a sea creature could be the cause them, after all, it was soon one of the only options.
The more the sailors and ships disappeared, the more the detectives and scientist’s attempts to figure out what was happening failed. They had tried almost everything, but there was one thing that helped them come to a conclusion that the possibility of a Siren being the answer to the cases was most likely true. They had once tried putting numerous recording radios in the ship, the playback of the radio clearly showing a muffled song followed by some screaming and then nothing but silence. The song couldn’t be entirely heard through the radio because of unknown reasons, but what they did find out, is that the creature responsible for the shipwrecks liked to do so slowly. Hence the name society gave the Siren; Adagio.
This forced several families to bring their children up to stay cautious of the ocean, your parents were one of these families. However, as soon as you turned eighteen, you discarded your parents negative facts of the sea and what lies beneath its surface, and so far, nothing short of relaxation and contentedness has come from it. Until tonight, of course.
The low humming of a song continued to swim through your ears, taking over your mind completely. You knew that you shouldn’t follow the sound, you knew that you shouldn’t even be letting it ring through your head for this long, but something about it, something about the way the song echoed off of the non existent walls made it practically impossible to not give in.
Finally, you allowed yourself to take the first step forwards towards the song. The sounds of the waves crashing beneath you somehow matched perfectly with the sound of the ethereal humming of the melody.
Beginning to walk back towards the stairs of the pier that led down to the beach, you could hear the song growing louder, now being able to tell that the humming had merged into currently incoherent words.
As you finally made it to the stairs, you looked down towards the rocks, seeing the prominent silhouette of a figure sitting there. You couldn’t see much from where you were, but you could make out that it was a woman. A woman with a gorgeous head of curly hair that hung just below her back, looking thick enough to be used as a jacket. As you slowly walked down the steps, you could see a strong, red glow coming from the mysterious woman on the rocks. The glow radiated off of a red gem that seemed to be held in place by nothing short of her own skin, it stuck to the middle of her chest like a sticker. The light pulsated as she sang, her song becoming louder and louder the closer you got.
You stepped off the stairs, looking towards the woman with half wide eyes that had apparently stopped blinking. You stopped and simply stared at her for a moment, inspecting her as the perfects notes escaped her mouth. As you looked closely, you noticed something. Is that…a tail? Yes. The woman sitting on the rocks was sat so that her tail was folded to the right and she held herself up by resting her weight on her arm of which was leaning on the rock. At first glance, the tail could be played off as fake, but the more you looked, the more you could tell that the tail was connected to her body by more than a band- it was connected by muscles, bones, and flesh. That more than confirmed the fact that you had unfortunately run into the Siren known as Adagio.
You continued to venture across the beach, making your way to the rocks of which the singing Siren sat upon. As you got closer, you were finally able to make out the lyrics of the hypnotic song.
”My heart is pierced by cupid,
I disdain all glittering gold,
There is nothing can console me,
But My Jolly Sailor Bold~”
”His hair, it hangs in ringlets,
His eyes as black as coal,
My happiness attend him,
Wherever he may go.”
Hearing the lyrics of the song only drove your need to hear more, higher. Adagio’s voice was angelic, hypnotising, and majestic. The song sounded as if to be calling out for you, and you alone. You could hear the faint sound of footsteps as you walked to the Siren on the rocks, leaving a trail of shoe shaped dents in the sand below. The clouds covering the moon began to part, allowing the fluorescent glow to shine down on the Siren. She looked heavenly, her bright orange curly hair shining nearly as bright as the gem in her chest, her yellow scales glistening in the moonlight, and her long tail swishing back and forth like a grandfather clock. Her crimson eyes were currently closed as she continued to sing her soothing melody.
The song grew louder, and louder, until you were standing behind Adagio, listening to her tune and admiring the Siren in awe.
”From Tower Hill to Blackwall,
I’ll wander, weep, and moan,
All for my jolly sailor,
Until he sails home~”
As the Siren’s song ended, you found yourself unable to tear your eyes away from Adagio, still standing there, wide eyed, as you continued to admire her as she practically shone beneath the glow of the moon and stars.
As you stood there like an unafraid deer in headlights, you watched as the Siren slowly turned around, her tail following as she smoothly turned her self to lay chest down on the rock, finally meeting your gaze. Her eyes were half lidded, glowing red and matching the gem in her chest. Her tail was dipping in and out of the water behind her and she looked you in the eyes. Her arms were crossed in front of her as she lay before you on the rock.
Once you made eye contact with the Siren, it was as if it was a life choice, as you now found you were physically incapable of looking anywhere else. Adagio stared back at you, a smirk tugging at the corners of her lips. Her eyes seemed to penetrate through yours, looking intensely into your soul. The sound of the waves crashing against the beach were now dying down, now all that could be heard were the distant sounds of on and off white noise.
Adagio leaned forward slightly, tilting her head to one side, never losing her smirk, nor breaking eye contact. After several hour-like minutes, the Siren finally spoke, her voice like a mother lion.
“Are you my Jolly Sailor Bold~?