Fins (A Siren Fanfiction)

Chapter 12

Upon seeing the pistols, Sirena and Campbell began hissing and charging at the three men. Quickly, I put my arm up to calm them. I didn't want them to get hurt.

"Keep your friends controlled, Soot!" Ray Gruner sneers at me. "Or my boys will be forced to shoot!"

"What do you want?" I demand from the stranger.

"Like I told you," Ray smirks. He points to the two merfolk. "I want them!"

I step in front of the pair, shielding them with my body. "You can't have them. They're not for sale."

Ray laughs. "Who said anything about buying them? I'm claiming what rightfully belongs to my brother and since he's no longer around, as next of kin, his property becomes mine."

His puzzling words echo in my head. "What do you mean he's not around?" I probe the man. "Where's Captain Gruner?'

Ray rolls his eyes. "Driven by madness, the man took his own life. I'm his only living relative so his estate and property rightfully goes to me, including the pair you're hiding back there!"

My mind spins. Captain Gruner dead? Surely, I would have thought Captain Pownall would have killed him by poisoning him with the laudanum. Apparently, the horrible man did the right thing by ending it all by himself. I return my gaze back to Ray Gruner and his thugs.

"I won't let you have them!" I tell him.

He reaches into his jacket to once again to display his pistol tucked into his trousers. "You don't have a choice, Soot. I hold the winning cards here, so I suggest you cooperate."

In the excitement, I had forgotten to question his acknowledgment of me.

"How do you know my name?" I ask him. I probe further. "You don't know me. I've never met you before, except when I accidentally bumped into you on the street."

Ray Gruner snickers. "On the contrary, I know all about you. My meeting with you that night wasn't accidental. I intended on it so I could make sure you were living in this town. I used your boss, Madame Dupont, here to help me deliver my brother's journal to you so you can learn more about him."

None of what he says makes sense. "Why?" I ask him.

"You'll find out soon enough." He lifts the revolver as I start to back away. Madame Dupont nervously tries to calm him.

"Now, now, Ray," she attempts to appease him. "Let's not do anything rash. We can be civilized about this and negotiate an agreement. No one has to get hurt."

"No one is getting hurt, if you don't all cooperate!" He demands. "Now here's what we're going to do. We're going to march out of the town and into the woods."

"And then what?" I huff. "You're going to kills us? Shoot innocents behind their backs?"

"Soot!" Madame Dupont gasps. "Don't give him any ideas!"

"I will if you don't follow my orders!" Ray Gruner hisses. He waves the revolver toward the other end of the street. "Now move!"

We play our parts as directed. Ensuring our entire party complies, we march toward the end of the main street to where it crosses into the path toward the forest. Many of the passersby, lost in their own worlds, ignore us as Ray and his goons force us into the dirt path and into the row of trees that conceal our whereabouts away from the town.

-----------------------------------------