The Hunters of Artemis: A Siren's Call

4)Bloody End

That was the second time someone said the strange six letter word; mortal. First it was from the strange actors who said the words, and now, the half-naked woman wandering the beach.  I wondered if the nearby college had a huge frat party or something such. Perhaps all three individuals I encountered had been incredibly wasted. As the young woman walked me farther and farther away from the scene where the men and women were, I finally found my voice.

"Er...thank you for walking me home," I say, partially wondering if perhaps the girl's boyfriend was among the drunken idiots that were now at least five-hundred yards behind us. Maybe she was walking me away from the scene solely because her own boyfriend had been one of the men possibly ready to take advantage of me. Maybe she wanted to defuse the situation before I called the cops.

"Tis not a problem."
She said nothing more as the walk continued.

Silence passed for a few moments before I broke it. "I'm going to take a guess one of those lovely hornballs is your boyfriend?" I asked, my disgust not hidden. It was hard to keep my tone in check given what a pig the guy was.

To my vast surprise, the young woman giggled. "Boy and friend," she said slowly, shaking her head in amusement. "No. I could tell what those men were thinking. They would have taken advantage of you had I not come along."

"So you don't know them?"

The girl gave a gentle roll of her slender shoulders but said nothing more. This conversation was getting incredibly odd for me very quickly. The woman no longer seemed interested in talking to me but she continued to walk me home. We walked in silence for a while. As we finally got to the back of my grandparents' house after what seemed like a two-mile walk, a muffled shriek came from far off in the distance. It sounded like it came from where the woman and I had just came from. "What the heck was that?!" I couldn't hide the fear in my voice.

"What was what?" the girl asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"I swore I just heard someone scream!"

"It is the gathering possibly getting a little more entertaining," she answered casually, watching as I made my way up the stone pathway through the sand to the back of the house. I watched as the woman looked as though she heard nothing out of the ordinary. I felt incredibly strange about the young woman having followed me back, but, there wasn't much to say about the matter. The woman continued to follow me, only seeming satisfied in retreating once I was on the back porch of the large house and no longer content to walk on the beach. "Er...thank you again," I say, very unsure of what to make of this strange night. No more words were exchanged as the young blonde woman appeared to give a strange sort of roll of her bare shoulders.

Just then, the lights on the front porch bolted on while the door whipped open violently. "Gabi!" Sam called angrily. "What the hell! Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for you??"

"Take a chill pill, Sammy," I scolded. Little did my big brother know he was embarrassing himself in front of someone. "She was just walking me home," I mutter before nodding my head behind me where the girl is standing.

Sam looked perplexed at this information before gently shrugging. "Gabs, who you talking about?"
Looking around in wonder, I found my female savior was no longer beside me. Glancing down the lake front, I found something weirder. She wasn't anywhere in sight.

***

I didn't tell Sam what happened on the beach with the men. I figured it would have just worried him and then with my bad luck he'd have to play big brother and either go down the beach to confront the guys, or, call the police. Another run-in with sheriff overweight was the very last thing I wanted to do to ring in my first day back in Kenosha. Considering it was my own stupidity of walking alone that caused the run in to happen, I figured it would just be best to not mention what happened at all.