The Death Song | ✓

3| The lure

The moon shone brightly in the dazzling night sky. The crew of Lucia had long gone to bed. They were all accommodated in a room each; taking all the rooms as a result, but it didn't matter. After all, the owner knew his business would be booming afterwards.

Everything had fallen quiet, not a wave in the sea, not a customer in the tavern. The city was deep asleep. The captain was in a room directly facing the sea. He had left the windows wide open, thinking the light breeze could help him rest his eyes for a couple of hours. He didn't like walking on land, and sleeping was out of the question.

In his already half-asleep state, he felt sweat forming on his forehead. He turned towards the window, but the cool summer breeze had abruptly come to a halt. He opened one eye lazily and saw the window was closed. Vividly remembering leaving it open he sat up on his bed. The wind wasn't nearly strong enough to close.

A low and distant humming reached his ears. He flinched with his eyes roaming around the room. No one was awake so late and he was sure that there weren't any housekeepers that worked this late.

An empty glass that was placed on the small table beside him started swaying in place before falling to the rough carpet on the floor without breaking. The captain jumped to his feet, now wide awake and highly alert as the glass rolled towards the window. The humming continued to get louder and louder. The voice sounded like it belonged to a female and it was highly soothing and euphonious, like honey to the ears.

The young captain couldn't help but admire the voice and feel drawn to it. He started walking to the window. The floor was cold and creaking with each step, but he didn't even notice it. His feet took him to the window and his hands opened it.

The street was deserteds. His eyes were drawn to the calm sea as he leaned outside. The words of the song the woman was humming were indistinguishable, but still so luring. He had the urge to jump out and follow the voice. He lifted his leg to the window frame and started to rise up his body. His feet were dangling off as he sat on the window sill and was about to jump from the second floor. As he was about to push himself off, the humming stopped.

He finally came back to his senses and noticed where he was standing. He immediately leaned back, his heart now beating out of his chest, letting out a scream as he fell back into the room.

Did he sleepwalk? If he did, how could he remember everything? Was the voice even real? The glass was still on the floor, against the wall, beneath the window but he didn't dare to even touch it. The captain closed the window shut and went back to his bed, but was unable to get any sleep for the rest of the night.

Every once in a while, he thought he head the voice again, but it would just be his mind playing tricks on him. He was even starting to doubt himself. He usually could handle alcohol well, but maybe this time his strong drink of choice combined with his tiredness had made him hazy.

Then the words of his young sailor echoed in his head and a shiver went down his spine. He had told him about someone singing late at night, keeping him awake. Was that what he was talking about?

The sun started to come out from its hiding and the captain got up from his bed. It was useless to keep trying to get some rest. He went to the tavern, sat down and decided to wait for the owner to show up to ask for some food. When the innkeeper finally showed up, he was surprised to see the tired and concerned look on the captain's face but when he tried to ask him about it, he got nothing. After a while, one by one, his crew came to eat as well. They saw their captain with black bags under his eyes and disheveled hair, but knowing him they just blamed it on his dislike of the land.

"Did any of you hear anything last night?" The captain asked them with a tired, hoarse voice.

"No cap, did you?"