Siren's Call

Chapter 1

"Ben!"

I heard the voice of my brother calling out to me from the kitchen, but I didn't move just yet. Sleep still had me in its clutches, and it wasn't planning on letting go any time soon. I grumbled something unintelligible, rolling onto my stomach and closing my eyes. Let me sleep in for once Sam, dammit.

"Ben!" Sam called again, and this time his heavy thudding steps joined his impatient tone. "Get up! We're going spear-fishing!"

At that, I perked up. We hadn't been fishing in ages, and although I strongly preferred a rod to a gun, Sam still referred to fishing in general as 'spear - hyphen - fishing'. Just like he referred to vehicles in general as 'gas - hyphen - guzzlers'.

I sighed and rolled out of my bed, taking a blanket down with me. Climbing to my feet, I stretched my back, smiling when I felt and heard the series of dull cracks and pops. Shaking the tiredness from my limbs, I stepped over to the wardrobe and pulled out a white polo shirt. Undoubtedly, Sam would be wearing a singlet, then complain to me when he got sun burnt and the skin on his shoulders peeled. I snatched a pair of black cargo shorts from the pile of unsorted clean clothes on the end of my bed before stumbling into the kitchen, the mixed aromas of breakfast making my stomach grumble in anticipation.

"Look what Chesh dragged in," Sam mused, a grin tugging at the corners of his lips. I shot him a glare, picking our tortoiseshell cat up off my usual seat before sitting down with a huff. Chesh hissed in annoyance, before bounding off to find another comfortable spot to snooze. It was originally my idea to name the feline Cheshire, even though he looked nothing like the cat from Alice in Wonderland, but it was Sam who always made infuriating jokes and puns related to the name of my cat.

I ignored my brother as he made another series of puns and bad jokes whilst he finished his eggs and bacon, before he finally left me in piece and disappeared to pack his Jeep with the fishing and snorkelling gear. As I had previously suspected, he was wearing a singlet top with who knows what heavy metal band on it. I would have told him to change his shirt or put some sun cream on, but he'd already left before I could say anything about it, leaving me to brood over my breakfast grumpily.

Once I'd finished the perfectly cooked eggs and bacon - my brother was an expert chef, I'd give him that - I dumped my plate in the sink and trudged into the garage, where Sam was already waiting, a smirk on his face.

"You always keep me waiting, little bro." His tone was sarcastic, and I gave his shoulder a half-hearted punch as he backed his 'Big Bertha'- a lime green 1986 Jeep Wrangler -out of the garage and onto the street. The drive down to the mile-long jetty was spent listening to the 90's classic radio, with a few short conversations in between songs, when Sam made the mistake of challenging me to a race. Whoever reeled in the biggest catch got out of doing chores for an entire month. He was so on. I would not lose to my spear - gun - wielding brother.

By the time we made it to the beach, the sun was already high in the sky, although there did appear to be quite the storm brewing near the mountains in the north. That was probably the only reason that there weren't too many people about. That, and it was the middle of Winter, and although it wasn't exactly cold, it wasn't too warm either.

Sam unpacked his diving gear- and by diving gear, I mean a wetsuit, flippers and snorkel -as well as hefting a large duffel bag over his shoulder, a duffel bag that I knew all too well to be filled to the brim with long, thin arrows that resembled spears with a sick-looking barb on the end. I sighed, knowing that I'd never convince him that spearfishing was, ultimately, pretty cruel, although in his defence, at least with spearfishing the prey died instantly.

As he waddled off in his flippers to the rocks- a known hotspot for large amounts of bream and, occasionally, a sea trout or two -I retrieved my rod, bait and tackle box from the boot, before locking Sam's car and slipping the keys into my back pocket.