Rite of Passage

Chapter One | Poisonous

That night, she dreamt of the song. 

A flash of brilliant blue light and a plunge into the deepest depths of the sea. A splash, a hum, and nothing.

Then the song begins.

And it's heavenly and unearthly. The high, dreamy voice of the singer pours out of her heart as she sings lyrics, verse after verse. Her lyrics are indecipherable, but they show images. Images of the sea, with its beautiful colors of the lightest sea green, the darkest blue, and the softest black, gently rousing the sand of the beach. She sings of the shallows and the depths.

She sings of true love and heartbreak, joy and despair, dreams and reality. 

Yes.. she sings.

Aphria Honoria jerked awake, her eye wide, a deep feeling of dread and anticipation boiling in her gut. Trying to calm down, Aphria stilled and listened. 

And hear, she did. A soft, crooning voice was singing. 

"Dive with me to the depths of the sea... I don't want to go alone. We can swim through the shallows and the depths.." Aphria's eyes, if possible, widened as she realized: she had woken up singing - again. The panicked siren clamped her hands over her mouth. 

"Aphria? Is that you?" 

Her older sister, Vita, poked her head in Aphria's room, her smile casual but serious. "I heard singing," she explained.

The young siren blushed. "Yes, that was me," she confessed. "I'm sorry." 

Vita gave her another gentle smile, but Aphria found that it was hard to look at her sister, and not just because of the flashy baby-blue gown decorated with pearls she was wearing. "Mind if I come in?" 

"Oh... sure." Aphria managed a smile. 

The older siren came in and took a seat on Aphria's deep-blue bed and pretended to shade her eyes. "Urgh, sometimes I feel like this place is too blue." 

Despite herself, Aphria laughed. Her older sister was, as usual, right: Aphria's bedroom walls were coral blue. The pillows sitting on her dark blue bed were a pearly white but decorated with azure blue gemstones; her bedroom's carpet was cerulean blue, too. Even Aphria's hair, which she was twirling around her finger, was a pastel blue. 

"Siren rules and traditions, Vita," Aphria teased. "Everything is blue." 

"Oh, come on." her older sister rolled her eyes. Then her face tensed a bit as she locked eyes with her sister. "Now, that makes the fourth time you've been singing in your sleep, Ria... are you nervous?" 

Aphria knew instantly what she was talking about. As a young but almost mature siren, she was facing her rite of passage in a month's time. And the rite of passage for sirens was to choose a human to drown. Aphria was supposed to lure a human to its death with her voice. 

The young siren's throat tightened. "I'm not nervous," she said finally. 

"That's the spirit. Your voice is gorgeous," Vita laughed. "There's nothing to be afraid of." 

"Oh, thanks, Vita." she put on a fake smile. 

"Anyway, it was nice seeing you. You should probably get dressed properly for breakfast." Vita stood and swam out the door. 

You don't get it, Aphria thought moodily, staring at her sister as she left: a crown made of coral was sitting atop her golden locks; a matching coral necklace was strung at her neck. Her gown, of course, was beautiful, just like Vita.

But sirens were beautiful but dangerous - the poisonous flowers of the sea.