Siren's Call

Chapter 2

The poor, silly human flailed about wildly as he sunk down beneath the waves. I would have thought that if he's a good enough fisherman to be able to hook me, then he'd be a good enough swimmer to be able to stay afloat. Apparently not.

He was floating downwards, arms reaching out to grab onto handholds that weren't there. Judging by the look on his face, he seemed to be frightened, but the fear was quickly turning to resolve as he realised that he was going to drown. I sighed in frustration. I'd already had to rescue his stupid brother, who had gotten on the wrong side of one of the reef sharks that I'd had plenty of scuffles with in the past over food. The boy had tried to shoot the shark, but his horrible aim meant that it missed, hitting one of the other sharks and turning the entire area into an instant bloodbath. He was currently lying on the beach, his arm bleeding from a shark bite.

I'm not supposed to be rescuing humans, I'm supposed to be eating them. Yet here I am, swimming down into the depths after the second human, the stinging pain from the hook in my tail still hindering my movements slightly. I am in no ways looking forward to yanking the damn thing out once this is over.

Just as the small human's eyes close, I reach him, wrapping my arms around his in what his kind tend to call a 'bear hug'. I've seen a bear before once. It mistook me for salmon, so I killed it. Didn't taste good though.

The scent of this human's blood is almost intoxicating, but I ignore it and power upwards, the unconscious boy in my arms. As soon as I breach the surface, a huge bolt of lightning flashes across the sky, highlighting the human's unnaturally pale skin. If I didn't have a keen sense of smell, I'd think him a vampire.

I carefully lay the drowned human out on the rocks that he fell from, having to actually climb out of the water because the waves were so rough and would have tossed us right back into the ocean. My gills flare in agitation as I pull myself out, scales scraping on the rock painfully. With a huff of exasperation, I lie down next to him, lazily checking for a pulse as my left hand inadvertently runs through my hair. He was still alive, to an extent, but his lungs were likely filled with water.

Rain began to pelt down on us, downing my mood further as I sat up and tugged the human's shirt off. I can't believe I'm doing this, I growl in my mind as I place both hands on the boy's chest and push down. I have no idea of how to administer what humans call 'CPR', as I literally breathe underwater, but I'm pretty sure getting water out of their lungs and getting air into their lungs is fundamental.

After a few minutes, and just before I had planned on giving up and eating him, the human jolts, a stream of water bubbling out of his mouth. I look away as he slowly comes to, disgusted by land peoples' methods of removing seawater from their precious, delicate lungs. He continues to cough and splutter, before the brat promptly sits up and vomits all over me.

"What the fuck!" I snarl, shoving the human away from me with such force that he almost fell right back into the churning waves. Snatching the now confused and frightened human by the hair, I drag him back further up the rocks, just as a particularly massive wave slams into them. As soon as I release him, seething with rage as I wipe some of the revolting gunk off my face, he flinches and scurries away from me.

Good. Start running before I eat you, brat.

"Wha-what the? Wha- what the hell? What the shit! Am I- are you... am I dead?" he stuttered, still moving away from me as I struggle to remove the disgusting regurgitated eggs and bacon (judging by the smell) from my tail. I am so glad it's raining right now. Turning around to face him, I note that he runs his dominant hand through his short charcoal hair when flustered. Wait. Why would I notice something as silly as that? It won't matter if he ends up in my stomach.