A Swelling of Tides

Everyone in Highwater knows the sea is dangerous at night.

Parents warn their children of it at night, that the waves and the sand and the salt are a terrible force, that the creatures that lurk within it will rise to steal you away without a care. Before the sun rises the next morning, you're gone, with no trace of you left upon the shore.

Marin Draycott has never much believed in sirens. She'd never seen one, and never known anyone snatched away by the supposedly-wretched creatures. When her father would tell her tales, they'd seem like half-truths, merely a tall tale to stop his daughter from straying too close to the danger of the high tide in the darkness. The Sirens of Highwater were merely folklore, and Marin didn't believe in them one bit.

Until one night, when she and her best friend, Lilian, sneak out one night onto the shadow-covered sand, and the waves ripple too much beneath the steady sky. The sirens rise to claim their prize - a body, a soul, for each high tide - and steal Lilian away into the depths below.

The water barely ripples as she falls and Marin swears to all that will listen she will find a way to bring what's left of her best friend back.