The Siren's Prisoner (Completed)

Chapter One

Chapter One

 I walked down the hallway of my home I'd lived in since I could remember, a cave. It didn't look like a cave except that it's walls were gray and it had a permanently cool temperature. I was walking toward my mother's living quarters, where I knew she was waiting for my arrival expectantly. 

 I had received a letter two days ago requesting my presence. A letter politely demanding my presence, that was the extent of my relationship with my mother. She wanted someone she could control and I had nowhere to go, so I allowed myself to be controlled. As I neared my mothers living quarters, I schooled my features into a face without emotion. My mother wasn't a mind reader, but she was very good at reading faces. My mother was not one to be trusted, even by me. 

 "Thank you for joining me, Raeka", said my mother,"I do so love spending time with you." I mentally snorted, but my features remained emotionless. My mother liked to see me to simply remind me that I was her daughter and so I owed my life to her. "Could Leena not join us?" she asked, a picture of innocence. I knew she full well knew that Leena had died nearly one hundred years ago. She liked to try to get a reaction out of me by mentioning my long dead twin. It had worked the first couple of years too. My grief was too new to be able to remain outwardly emotionless when she mentioned Leena. I had learned better. My grief was still there, but now I was in control.

 "No, Mother, I'm afraid she can't make it", I said, just as innocently. I was surprised to see a flash of anger at her failure to rile me up.

 "Too bad, she was always good company." Another lie, mother hated Leena and ignored her. The fact that Leena was born human instead of Aikaode shamed mother. 

 I ignored her jibe at Leena. "Why did you request my presence, Mother?", I asked. It was better to get straight to the point. If she had her way, we would do this dance all day.

  "I happened to see you from a distance in the hallway the other day and thought you looked dreadful. Although, now that I see you up close, you looked absolutely horrid." I let the insult slide right off my back. I had gotten used to them long ago. I wasn't sure if I believed her claim she had accidentally seen me in the hallway, but it didn't matter. I had fed in three months, and I knew that if I didn't feed and become beautiful in her eyes once more there would be hell to pay.

  "I must have lost track of the time", I lied. I would have to feed soon. I didn't have a choice. Mother tended to check up on me at the most inopportune times. I wondered what I looked like now. I had not seen my reflection in nearly a hundred years. In my grief, I had destroyed all the mirrors in my living quarters soon after Leena's death. Every time I looked in the mirror, I saw Leena's face. Except for the eyes, mine were violet ,whereas, Leean's where sky blue. 

 I turned my attention back to Mother and was surprised that I had somehow missed most of her speech, probably about I should be more careful about aging. "You may go feed now", Mother said, the dismissal clear. I turned to leave the room. "Oh, Raeka", she said. I turned my head slightly. "Make sure you don't lose track of time again. We wouldn't want you to grow old, would we?" She smiled sweetly, but the venom in her green eyes made me shudder.

  "Yes, Mother." I left the room quickly.  After I was sure that I was far enough from the door that I knew she wouldn't hear, even if she was listening, I sighed. It seemed I had been forced once again to go to go to the prison cells. I hated the cells, I hated that there were people locked inside them, and I hated what I was about to do. 

 I walked down the stairs leading to the cells. My footsteps echoed off the stairs like a bad horror movie, promises of what was to come echoed off the stone walls. As I neared the bottom of the stairs, crying from the prisoners could be heard. They probably thought it was my mother was coming down the stairs. We didn't need as many prisoners as we had and I'd once asked Mother why we did. She said that their lives had different flavors. Like human beings were her own version of a sick wine collection.

 I stopped in front of a cell door near the stairs. "Hello, Leonard, mind if I come in?" I asked. "Not at all, Miss Reaka", Leonard said. At fifty years old, Leonard looked more like eighty. I felt a stab of guilt at my part in his looks. Living here wasn't good for the aging process, the reason being me and my mother. I was glad that Leonard was a gentleman to his very core, he'd never dream of yelling at me for what I was about to do.

 As I entered Leonard's cell, I looked around. I say cell, but it was more like a room. Mother actually took great care of her prisoners. It wouldn't do to lose her collection to heart attacks and such. The prisoners had a strict exercise regiment and healthy meals prepared daily. Leonard's room had a bed pushed up against one wall, a dresser in the corner opposite, a bookshelf filled with books on the same wall as the dresser, and a comfortable chair in between the dresser and bookshelf. There was a library, media room, cafeteria, and gym down on the prison floor. There where no locks on the cell doors. The punishment for not following the rules or trying to kill me or my mother was death. No one broke the rules after they saw mother could and would kill without thought.

 Time to stop stalling and just get it over with. "What song would you like me to sing?" I asked Leonard. It seemed to me that if I was going to steal from him, I might as well bother to learn songs he liked.

  "I think that I'd like to hear Amazing Grace in that beautiful voice of yours." He grinned. Leonard was my only friend and I braced myself for his reaction.

 I began to sing and was not disappointed to see Leonard's eyes glaze over and his grin to become mindless. I felt some of Leonard's life flow into my veins and wind back my internal clock until I felt it stop. I was now twenty years old to the day again. My body had been twenty for the past one hundred years. 

 Leonard slowly came out of his daze and looked at me. "Well, Reaka, I reckon you don't look a day over twenty", he joked, grinning. I felt my eyes brim with tears. His smile faded. "What's wrong,Reaka?" I burst into tears.

  "I'm so sorry, Leonard!" Leonard moved toward me and his arms surrounded me. I let my head rest on his shoulder as my tears slid silently down my face. "I'm so sorry I have to do that to you", I said.

  "It's okay, Reaka,"Leonard said softly,"I can't imagine a more beautiful way to die."