The Siren's Code

The storm

Cassie had laid awake for what felt like most of the night listening to the storm, the rain crashing on her corrugated roof was way too loud to sleep. After an eternity of tossing and turning she clambered down her ladder and set up the futon, thinking, probably stupidly, that she may be safer downstairs. Through the glass doors she could see the flashes of lightning, with the crashes of thunder all but drowned out by the rain. Snuggling into the makeshift bed she turned on her side, wishing Basta was with her to cuddle, wishing too that this would pass and hoping that there was no serious damage going on outside. Her sleep when it came was fitful, jolted awake by claps of thunder, or cracks of god knows what, her dreams were of a tsunami rushing towards the house, her trying to run but not moving, so vivid she had to check more than once if it was actually happening, going out into the wind to see the sea. She did feel a little bit of a nutter, as she wasn't sure really what she was looking for, it was pitch dark, the sea a cauldron of white, and if it really was a Tsunami this was probably not the most sensible course of action. But the dream kept recurring, she found herself trying to get to Jay's house on high ground, but each time it wasn't there, or she was lost or she went the wrong way and had to retrace her steps, and each time the tsunami followed like a serpent snaking through the jungle, It was unsettling.

But somehow and at some point she had shaken off the nightmares and got into proper sleep, and as she opened her eyes in the morning, things seemed calmer. No more rain, just a moody, overbearing sky, sulking that the gods had not allowed it to unleash its full fury. The path was sodden where she looked out, with palm leaves and other debris covering the ground but nothing obviously wrong. She checked her lights, they were still working, a good sign.

Pulling on some shorts she wiggled her toes into her flip flops, stkPods behind her ears she went to see if the world was still out there.

Guests were up, shuffling around sleepily, opening shutters, retrieving wet sandy shoes and belongings that hadn't made it inside or dozing in damp hammocks. There was no drive to get up and out, as the air was cool and claggy making you want to go in and wrap up, a feeling rather at odds with normal life here. As she got to the restaurant the shutters and guy ropes were already off, Lula was sweeping debris from outside, it was shaping up for business as usual. Except she saw as her eyes adjusted from light to dark, it looked like there had been some sort of party there, rum bottles, glasses, overflowing ashtrays, stray items of clothing still on chairs, dirty plates...

"Wow, who had a party?"

Jay sat up from the hammock he was lying in, it was rare he squinted as his pupillary light reflex was augmented, but he shielded his eyes as he looked at her to mask the roughness.

"I guess it had something to do with you?"

Jay felt like crap, as he played the night back in his mind he'd only headed there after the call with his unit to check on the storm defences, but found a titanic party in full swing and got sucked in, the draw of mind numbing substances calling him like sirens.

As the storm grew a group of guests had instigated a lock-in, safety in numbers, and they certainly had everything they needed to go down in style. By the time Jay arrived they were already a lot more up than down, with free flowing rum, and coke, the party was in full swing, and as the storm raged around them Jay was enticed into the mêlé.

The rum acted as a blocker, it allowed him to be side tracked by the lively debates on slightly absurd topics animating the group, distracting the chaos in his brain which was getting harder to take. He couldn't yell in rage like a child let loose at the injustice of it all, each new sensory input prodding and poking the anguish already there. Too much too raw, the piranhas inside lashing out at any external stimuli, the pain, the noise, the containment of his skull like a pressure cooker needing to release.