Pastel Colored Sadness

INTRODUCTION the Curse of a Siren

⤝⤞

Introduction

The Curse of a Siren

⤝⤞

The first time I set eyes on Thomas Skygrove was the first day of our sophomore year. He had moved into town with his twin sister Justice, who also joined our class. But I didn't think that when those two joined us, that I'd fall so helplessly in love.

Nor that their leaving would launch such an adventure in my life.

While at school, Thomas kept to himself most of the time, always sketching or painting, or amazing people with how smart he was. He was quiet, delicate, and beautiful in a way only he could be. His short, white hair was as soft as cornsilk, his eyes almost violet in color, his skin as pale as snow. He wore piercings in his ears, jeans that hardly passed mid-calves, and a white button-up collared shirt he'd push up to his elbows once in a while, showing his thin wrists and delicate arms.

I was totally, and completely in love.

Only Sam, my childhood friend, knew of this. He would always tease me about staring at Thomas when nobody else was looking, how I noticed all the little details that nobody else knew, like the fact that Thomas hated black.

Anybody could have guessed that if they'd only seen he never wrote with a black pencil, always purple or blue. He never painted with black, either, only mixed it in occasionally, when he needed to. His paintings always had pestle colors in them somewhere, too. He was gentle in every way.

Sam shook his head as we sat down under a tree during self-study time, "How is it that you can't learn math but you can learn poetry and everything there is to know about Thomas Skygrove?" he whacked me on the backside of my head, math papers from the book he used on me flying from their places between the pages. Those closest to us on the schoolyard turned, rolled their eyes when they realized we sat so close, and then left. We weren't exactly the most liked of everyone in the world. I'd say that being what we were automatically made normal people avoid us.

I covered my head with embarrassment, my shoulder-length brown hair like a curtain hiding me from the rest of the world, "Watch it! We still have the ceremony to go to tonight!" I exclaimed. It was an excuse I'd used all month for anything I wanted to get out of.

"Then don't be such a dumbass!" Sam snapped at me, obviously annoyed with that excuse. He could be so mean at times, but he was like an older brother to me. As was his duty, of course, but still. Nobody could break the bond of family we shared, not even the sea.

"Once we finish the ceremony, I'll be allowed to start dating anyone I want," I say dreamily, thinking of the life I'll have by Thomas' side as his wife.

"You'll have to perform the ceremony yourself when you want to marry. And to have children, and you'll do it every year until they're all well and grown, about to do their own ceremonies," Sam nodded in agreement.

"Otherwise the call to the sea will be too strong," I knew it well. There was a constant reminder every time I touched salty water and heard the waves even when I wasn't anywhere near the sea here in the center of Missouri. It was so stressful thinking about it that I pushed my fingers into the dirt below my palms. I never wanted to leave the land permanently without any way of returning, never wanted to forget my mother and younger brother, to forget everything on the land and wander within the deepest parts of the sea, forever alone. Forever searching for some part of me that I'll never have again.

These thoughts stay with me as I stand before Sam on the other side of a ring of torches made from logs and cloth marinated in seawater, changing the flame's color to blue. Beside me are my half-siblings that I will only ever see for ceremonies like this until we went to the sea. Behind me is a blue-colored masked dancer covered in cloth and silver plates that rippled and shimmered like the scales of a fish with every step, the blue fire reflected in their every step. Each of his hands held a burning log of blue fire, his pale feet bare against the earth as the full moon above us rises to its apex over our clearing.