Hearing Sirens

FireLilly

The smell of aging fish was strong the next morning. Gray attempted to block out the smell with his whole being. However, he knew deep down, even once all the fish was eaten, the smell would remain. Yet, his conscience was forcefully deadened.

He heard the uncomfortable weeping from the middle of the vessel. Blocking it out was extremely hard as well. The despair was so heavy, the guilt so strong. The fact that Tessica still refused to come up from the bunker made It even more impossible. She was the only one who could help him.

Sirus was also a source of absolute wasted air, as he smoked a cigar while sitting on the hammock beside Gray. He played with his honorary hat as he fumbled his fingers over the sculpted paper material in his hand. Gray became agitated as he turned around  abruptly.

"Oh come on sailor,  we are going to be just fine," Sirus said strongly. "You have been hearing things all week apparently. It was probably just another one of your inner voices."

Life for life.

The voice repeated itself. Gray shivered in fear. He hated how afraid he was. He wished to only be as stubborn as Sirus, except with the knowledge to listen to the warnings. Things were just starting for Sirus, and he still refused to accept it.

"Oh my precious Firelilly,"

Gray listened as Leon continued to suffer aloud. He felt his body become weak. He now understood Leon's rough personality. He concluded who the letters were for. He assumed why he believed in the Sirens but refused to learn more or talk about them. As Leon grieved, Gray taught himself the truth.

Leon was in love, not with a Siren but a Selkie. A human in seals clothing. A woman from another world. The more Leon cried out for her forgiveness from her and death for the Sirens, Gray shuttered inside. The child, who was she?

"Gray, time to go fishing again," Sirus commanded.

Gray got up but instead of listening to the one in command, he walked over to the man who was suffering. He reached him and kneeled down beside him. He peered at the child in front of them. Her eyes were now shut, not that Gray had paid much attention to them anyway. Her hair was turning darker as it dried, looking more black than brown as he originally thought. A blanket was wrapped around her to hide the body.

"It was an accident Leon," Gray pointed out. "None of us were aware Selkies even existed along with Sirens, right?"

The two young men looked at each other. Leon's eyes were turning red from his tears. Gray had never seen a man so upset in his entire life. Let alone one that seemed to feel nothing sentimental  to begin with. It was unsettling.

"I knew," Leon admitted. "But, I didn't accept it."

Gray tried not to let the confusion show on his face. But he also knew the crew couldn't survive without knowing the truth. After all, Leon had already snapped at Sirus when he was told to throw the body in the water. He was now the "crazy" one.

"Accept what Leon?" he asked him.

Leon looked over at the child as he sighed heavily. Gray watched as he rolled his eyes, not at the question, but at himself. He dug his nails into his palm, like Gray often did to himself.

"I was in love with a woman I met off the coast of Ireland," he started. " I found her naked and wrapped up in a sheet on a midnight walk near a cave I had set camp at. I helped her find clothes and shelter, she repaid me with her loyalty. Her name was Hattie later nicknamed Firelilly. She came with me on every ship I ever served. I was only a young boy at the time, barely nineteen. However, she was the most gorgeous woman I had ever met, and boy could the thing eat."

Leon laughed as he wiped a tear off of his face. He reached over and touched the hair of the lifeless child.

"The night she left we had gone back to the place where we met. I was going to ask her to marry me, she one the other hand showed me something unbelievable. Something that scared me away when I should have just loved her anyway. It was a pelt from a seal and she told me it was hers. She had hid it when she laid eyes on me in fear I would walk. I thought she had gone crazy."

"She cried as she realized that my love had died in a matter of a couple of words. Her last warning was that if I wasn't to listen to her about the Selkie's I would at least listen to her one warning of the Sirens. Because, upon finding out about us, they would hunt me down, knowing I could feel for something so far from human."

"She told me if she couldn't have me, she would find another me somewhere. If I was ever in trouble she would bring up her child knowing that she was my guardian angel. I laughed at her. But, when we were cursed on the ship, I began sending bottles addressed to her and to anyone else, in hopes maybe we would be saved. She didn't let me down, but I never believed her story, causing me to let her down."

Gray looked at the child one more time in complete shock. It did look so much like Leon it was frightening.  He found himself doubting it wasn't the man's, but refused to bring up the thought. It wasn't time.

"I hear them too Gray," Leon brought up, snapping Gray into real life again.

"Them, the Sirens?" he questioned.

"Yes," Leon confessed while looking over at Sirus who was oblivious. "and I hope you can forgive me because at first I hoped that if they would just get you they would leave us alone. However, I was in the wrong. You don't deserve to die. You don't deserve any of this."

He continued to look at Sirus as Gray gulped uncomfortably.

"But that man, the one who refuses to accept the fact starvation and dehydration isn't our biggest threat, he does."

Gray felt his body heat up like he had chugged a bottle of whisky. He stayed completely still as he tried to take everything in. One thing striking him the hardest. That one thing being that Leon had a point.

It was life for life and once that life was given, it would be over. They had no excuse past that, assuming they would be reasonable and stick by their words. The chance was extremely slim; but it was a chance that needed to be taken. Otherwise, the only one who has the unrealistic expectation of getting home, was Sirus himself.

"But, why does a Selkie's life matter to a Siren?" Gray asked concerned.

"I only have two explanations," Leon told him. "One, they are making up reasons to stalk us now. A reason to scare us until they start singing to kill. Two,"

He shook his head as he glanced at the child before covering her face.

"It would be insane," Leon cracked.

"What?" Gray asked trying to catch on.

"Me having a doppelganger and it being a Siren."