Sirens (Theo Raeken) [1]

The First Success

Lex's arms are sprawled sideways, like a bird's wings during flight. Her hands have knives through them, pinning her to the wall. Her head lolls to the side and her face is bloated and a pale yellow. And blood. Everywhere. On her hands, on her face, down her chest and spread across the ground. Her wounds are the deep incisions of claws.

"Come out! We know you're there!" Theo is yelling. His voice feels almost muted in my ears. My body feels too heavy to keep up and my knees buckle.

I can't pull my eyes off the body. Something about it isn't right, like it's almost ritualistic. A sort of signature. Theo's hands are under my arms, lifting me off the ground. He's stopped yelling, defeated.

The body has already started smelling: the foul reek of exposed flesh. Theo is squeezing me tightly, but I'm unresponsive. My body is frozen, rigid. My eyes fall onto Lex's corpse again, soaking in all the details. My eyes shift to her hands. A note. There's a note pinned between the knife hilt and her bloodied palm.

"Theo," I say into his shoulder. My voice is so muffled that I can't even make out my voice properly, but Theo hears perfectly.

"Yeah?"

"The note in her hand," I say. I can't stop my bottom lip wobbling and my jaw feels like it's trembling too much to get the words out in a smooth sentence.

He eases himself away gently, with a last squeeze before he approaches the body hesitantly. He tugs out the knife with a loud squirt of blood. I wince as he drops the bloody knife to the ground and pries the paper from her hand, sticky with half-dried blood.

He hesitates before unfolding it. He holds it out to me and I look up at him uncertainly. He gives me an affirmative nod of the head. I close my hand around the folded sheet of paper.

I pry it open.

The writing is calligraphic, a magnificent scrawl of loops and curls. Such beautiful writing for such an unnerving message.

Because when I open the letter, addressed to me, I become frozen to the spot, unsure of what to do other than read it out loud. Maybe it'll make more sense out loud.

"To Arden, because we wouldn't want Theo to turn out like your father. - Your Pack."

Theo cocks his head slightly. He says what we were both thinking. "Your father's pack."

"No, no, no," I say, my voice hoarse. "That's not possible. Nobody could've heard it."

"Arden," Theo says, sliding his hands along my upper arms and shoulders. "Tell me. Tell me everything."

"My father...he had an affair with another woman and that's why my mom got angry and lost control," I pause, looking thoughtfully at Theo. "Lex...a few days ago, she approached me about setting her up with you." I glance over at the body. "It's not possible. We were at school. I would've known if one of my father's former pack was there."

"I don't know about that," he says. "I think anyone could be a part of his pack. Think about it: at least one out of a hundred could be a teenager."

"I just - why would they do this? What are they trying to say?" My emotions are spiking at a high and I feel tears on the inside of my lids.

"I don't know," he says. "All I know is that if they can kill a girl for being a minor annoyance to you, then they won't have any problem slaughtering us all."

"Why are they doing this, Theo?" I ask. "Why would they do this to me? I'm his daughter, for god's sake."

Theo puts a hand gingerly on my back and guides me inside. "I don't think they meant this as a warning," he says. "I think they meant this as a favour."