The Siren Calls

Chapter 1- Seluna

"Seluna!" Kenna called from outside the cave, "You must hurry, the clan is nearly ready to begin the hunt."

I sighed and pushed my hair away from my face, smiling. I was ready for this. I folded my arms and swam out the narrow entrance to my sister who was impatiently waiting for me.

"It is my first feeding, Kenna. Relax, I am not going to get into trouble," I affirmed. She grabbed my wrist angrily and started muttering under her breath as we propelled ourselves to the rest of the clan, awaiting our arrival.

"Seluna," A silky voice cut through the crowd of Sirens, "Where have you been? It is almost time, I can sense the ship approaching the hunting grounds."

"Avia, I apologize." I bowed my head.

Avia closed her icy blue eyes in concentration then shot me an irritated look, "She has forgiven you for now. Let us go." As she began to lead the extensive group towards the surface, my friend nudged me.

"Come, we don't want to make Avia any crosser." Corellia said softly. 

We swam quickly through the ocean to the surface, emerging next to an enormous ship. The sky was dark but sunlight streamed through the clouds, casting shadows on the gray water. These are our hunting grounds.

Avia had already begun the Song and several others had joined in. All of the Sirens swayed back and forth in the water, luring the men to them. They leaned forward as if in a trance and I immediately realized that something was wrong. There were too many of them.

"What do we do if there are too many for us to take immediately?" I asked Corellia nervously.

"We take them all down to the air pockets and ... consume them one by one. Remember? Storage." She replied.

There is silence between us.

"Are you nervous?" I whispered, grasping for her hand in the dark water.

"No. What do you mean?"

"To kill them, I'm a bit anxious." I smiled nervously.

"Don't be. We have prepared for this our whole lives. Just get one and drag it down."

I nodded and joined in the song, letting my haunting voice swirl into the air. The men leaned forward dreamily. After a few minutes of this, they started to throw themselves from the ship and swim towards my sisters. I watched as the more experienced Sirens kissed the men disappeared under the rolling waves with them.

Suddenly, as if in slow motion, my head started buzzing and aboriginal instinct took over. My vision focused on a particular young man as he launched himself off of the heaving ship. I maneuvered myself through the crowd of Sirens to the area where I could tell the young man would hit the water. Following my sisters, I moved smoothly through the water, trying to look captivating.

The young man hit the water harshly and went under, coming up again only a couple yards away from me. Before any of my sisters could take him I was by his side. The others backed off when I gave an abrupt hiss. The boy's eyes were glazed over and an idiotic grin was plastered on his face. Disgust churned in my stomach.

I took a deep breath and wrapped my arms around his neck. His eyes widened and he leaned towards me. I kissed him tentatively, swallowing the sick feeling in my chest, and slowly started to bob in the water, pulling him farther under every time. His arms wrapped around my back and I took him in my vice-like grip. In a short rush of motion, I pulled his head under the water and flipped around towards the ocean floor.

They said this was the difficult part.

As the sound of the song was cut off, the young man suddenly let go and his eyes widened. He started to struggle against my grip. He kicked and pushed against me but gave up after a few seconds, knowing the futility of his actions. For a moment I felt a pang of guilt as I looked into his horrified eyes. I looked away and focused on the task at hand.

He slipped into unconsciousness after a few minutes of descent. He should've been safe because of the Kiss but I quickened my pace, just in case. I didn't want to take any chances. When we entered the colony I followed the crowd of Sirens streaming towards the air pockets, clutching their prey.

In the dim light, I could see fish darting in and out of dwellings and seaweed swaying in the gentle currents. Little bubbles of cold light were strategically placed throughout the colony. Canyons cut through extensive stone walls and caves dotted the entire region. Sirens of all ages and classes swam from place to place, carrying out their assignments and going to their training sessions.

From the day that we emerged from the kelp stone, we were trained to lure men to their deaths; an ancient practice that was begun by my distant ancestors. We had begun with one Woman. She was discovered on her lover's ship, a sailor's ship. The men threw Her overboard, showing no pity or compassion. She was looked upon with mercy only by the Ocean Mother and was turned into the first of our kind: Sirens. Luring men to their deaths to punish them for their heartlessness and brutality.

I reviewed the instructions I had been given over and over. There was a large cave entrance at the lowest part of the colony that held multiple, smaller caves that were used to hold prisoners... Or prey... Or whatever we wanted to call them. That was where the air caves and Mining Pits were, and that was where we were going.

The young man in my arms was fully unconscious by now. We reached the entrance of the air caves where the hunting group was bringing in their catches in record time. The honeycomb of cells was filling up with men by the second. They were being brought to the air caves to preserve them until Consummation.

My success in this hunt was recorded by my class leader and would be shared the next night at the Feast. I put the young man, still quite unconscious, into one of the crowded air pockets. The other men in the pocket stared murderously yet with an awed wonder at me. I shivered under their gazes.

A hand brushed against my arm and I started.

"You'd better go." Corellia whispered, "Get ready. And calm yourself, you did great." She gave me a tired smile.

I nodded, "Thank you. I will."

Once she swam off I took one last look at the unconscious young man I had dragged down lying on the floor. His chest was heaving and he was surrounded by the other men. One of them threw a glare at me when he caught me looking. I shot away from the bars of the cell and frowned, shaking my head.

I'd better go.