The Siren's Song

Chapter 69- out of my depth

(Y/N) POV:

Our bodies push through the surface, sparkling with the way droplets of water cling to our frames, how what I'd been wearing is ripped away by the power of Her waves to adorn me in tight-fitted scraps, exposing me once more to the world.

There's a haze that surrounds the boat, a glamour that prevents them from sensing the alienness of the water, the foreign screaming feeling that something is wrong, the waters are bitterly cold, digging into my skin.

Her command fills us, seeps into our veins, overcoming our entire sense of being until it's all we know, all we exist for.

My veins burn with the liquid ice that takes over it, the words of the siren song bubbling up in my throat and as mouths open the hauntingly enticing call to death begins. 

The air thickens and crackles, filling with the unnatural pheromonal high of sirens, commanding the air they breathe, commanding their attention as it carries combined voices over to the people on the boat, luring them out, sweetly calling them to sink into the waters, to their deaths.

My throat seals up as I see the boat come to a still, see figures begin to approach the deck in the beginnings of a trance, tugged towards the water, unable to resist the call.

I tear my eyes away from the sight, unable to face them as they approach, seeing the guilt and torn feelings that flicker in Habaek oppa and Mi-sun unnie's faces, see how it bothers them even as they sing.

But I can't bring myself to allow the words bubble past my lips even as spikes of agony begin to drive themselves into me, even as Her command surges in stronger.

Sing. Do not defy me. Do not push away what is right.  Her voice cuts through me, cold and icy and demanding.

Her command comes into me as a tidal wave, crashing into me, head spinning and jaw being forced open, kept like that as the poisonous melody pours out of me, luring them in. My eyes clench shut as I sob, unable to bear the sight of seeing them being ripped away from me, at my own hands, at my own doing.

Don't fight what is in you. Accept it. Sing and this will all be over, She croons- with all the maliciousness of a predator luring their prey in, under the guise of innocence, of posing as a non-threatening figure. But I know the lethalness that lies under it.

I shake my head, the cry escaping me silently when Her waves constrict my movements, forcing me to remain there, holding me captive.

Sing. You have never dared defy, you have always obeyed and you break the trust of a centuries long bond for them, She demands voice disgusted and hurt.

As if any bond beyond one of servitude ties me to Her.

I hear a splash into the water, hear the sound of a body hitting the waves and dazed splashes as they swim closer.

I beg for it not to be them and yet when my eyes fearfully open my heart stops at the sight of Tae, song-drunk as he swims closer, eyes vacant and blank and entranced, body and mind betraying him as he tries to get close.

The sight of it, of someone I trusted, someone I cared for in the waters, approaching death, approaching me because of the song, because of me has the song trailing off- the shock so sudden and immense it silences and quietens Her command, loosens the noose She holds around my throat.

Not him. Not them.

And the unearthly, inhumane scream that tears out my throat has the song faltering, the melody stilting and the others hesitating- another two voices falling silent.