Two Tails, One Rotten Heart

A song to say farewell

Under the waves Nala opened her mouth and sang. The other sirens joined her until their voices rose up and up reaching the ear of each and every townsfolk. It wasn't until at least ten bodies hit the water and began to sink that the blood frenzy began, sirens shot out with snarls and howls grabbing the bodies and dragging them under, feeding on them. Screams started to rise up as well but a line of the sirens still surrounded the town and kept the song going. The people were defenseless unable to stop their bodies from moving towards the water that was quickly turning red, unable to stop walking into the waves even as they saw the body parts floating and bobbing in the water.

Nala stopped her song and joined in the fun. She grabbed a girl and stopped to look into her screaming face, Juliette from the sea caves, before sinking her fangs into her neck. She continued like that, looking into the face of her kills and recognizing them before killing them. Some she remembered more vividly than others but it was also a bad memory, never a good one. She saw a flash of red hair before Asherah dragged the man down and devoured him. Cari was not here, not yet. Her job was more complicated, the Empress had ordered her to destroy the town not just the people and so she needed the waves for that. Aphrodite had given her daughter the trident of Poseidon, an ancient artifact used to control the waves. If Cari's legends were true it works best with the crown of Amphitrite but that was given to the mermaids when the two groups split the sea. Nala could feel the rolling waves breaking over the town and she needed to complete her task before the entire town broke apart and it was too late.

After five kills Nala was sated and could focus on finding Caden. She streaked through the water passing by dead and broken bodies and sirens in the middle of their hunt and sirens in the middle of their songs. Nala let out a few notes as she circled the town hopefully enticing any leftover survivors to come down and play. A shriek to her right had her coming to a stop and turning to see a boy slashing at a siren clumsily with a knife. Caden. The siren reared back a clawed hand but Nala grabbed it. "Mine" she hissed. The Empress had declared it. Caden was her kill if she could find him and she did. The siren backed away and went to find another prey. Now Nala understood how annoying it was to have someone else try to steal your kill. Caden was trying and failing to swim to the surface but she beat him to it and grabbed his shoulders. They were face to face and so Nala could see the fear in his eyes until he looked closer.

Caden recognized her face. Nala, the sister, the twin of the girl he loved and suddenly the fear wasn't there but there was pity for what the girl had become and acceptance for his death that was surely coming. Nala was not sure why she paused but she did, she paused and looked into that face expecting a bad memory some kind of insult this boy had paid her but...there was none. Caden was only ever nice to her and to Ula since they were children. His only crime being friends with Samuel but Nala had killed him. What was the point in killing this one too? She grabbed him under the arms and shot through the water away from the killing until she reached the coral reef she knew was not far away. Nala hauled him up and waited as he coughed up half the sea from his lungs.

"Why?" Caden gasped out. Why did she save, why didn't she kill him, why had she done this.

"I don't know." Nala whispered. She was suddenly very tired of everything, the fight with Ula, the killing, the anger that was always living inside her like some parasite. Caden did not thank her and she was glad for that.

"Nala!" She spun around pushing Caden behind her but it was too late, Asherah had seen. She paused there, her tail keeping her up and just watched. Nala sitting down on the reef not attacking the human boy whose death had been granted to her.

"What are you waiting for? Kill him." Ash demanded. "I can't" Nala replied.

"He loves my sister." It was the only reason she could think of, not that it mattered to Ash.