〰🐚Siren Series🐚〰

Demure Siren: Chapter 3

Blue was all he saw when he opened his eyes. Beautiful blue, with dark stars surrounding a big black moon.

Blinking made his sight a little brighter, showing him the porcelain skin like freshly fallen snow, contrasted by hair as black as night. A delicate hand brushed the hair out of his eyes, showing Keiji a heart-stopping smile. His face felt hot. Embarrassment and something warm fluttered inside his chest. She was looking at him wonderingly as he held her close. She was no dream, she was real.

"Sayuri," he whispered seeing recognition sparkle in her eyes when he spoke her name. Lips parted, but before she could speak someone screamed from behind them, "Be gone you monster!"

Sayuri jumped back into the ocean and disappeared under the surface in the blink of an eye. Shocked, Keiji he turned to see who had chased this angel away. Behind him stood a monk, sweat dripping over his bald head.

"What have you done? You chased her away?" Keiji lashed out, his heart stinging at the loss of his love.

"Yes, good thing I spotted you. Otherwise, that demon would have dragged you back to the depths of the ocean."

"Demon? What are you talking about, Sayuri is no demon. She saved my life!"

"Just because she's pretty, doesn't mean she's not evil."

"No, you've got it all wrong. Sayuri saved me. I held the necklace and spoke her name, just like she told me to."

"She cursed you, give me that!" The monk demanded.

"Don't you dare touch it. I'm not cursed, I know-" Keiji's knees gave in and his vision blurred for a minute.
The monk grabbed his shoulders, helping him to stand upright. "Let's just get you to the temple."

Keiji felt his eyelids getting heavy as the monk walked him back to a temple up the hill. Blinking in and out of consciousness, Keiji was surprised to wake up on a futon in the middle of the night.
His heart stopped when he realized the monk had removed Sayuri's necklace. His only way to find her was gone.

As he searched the temple grounds in search for the necklace, Keiji found the monk sleeping on a desk in a room with scrolls scattered all around.
Most of them were about the teachings of Buddha, but some of the scrolls the monk had lain his head on seemed to be of a different nature.

They spoke of ghosts, witches and demons. Suddenly Keiji saw the picture of a woman with a long orange fishtail. Even though her face was hidden away by her long black hair, Keiji just knew that if she were to turn around he would look into those heavenly blue eyes and she would smile at him brightly. The text beside the picture, however, made him question if he was truly looking at Sayuri.

"A siren, highly dangerous, when she sings storms break lose at sea and ships sink, earning her the nickname, Queen of the Funayurei. Her song can be heard on land and has even led some people to committing suicide. Do. Not. Approach!"

Keiji cocked his eyebrow, "that doesn't sound like anything like Sayuri. Where is the part about her selling scarfs, what about the necklace?" His heart stopped when he spotted the necklace in the monk's hand on which he had laid his head to rest.

As Keiji carefully lifted the arm of the monk when the image of an old witch startled him. Her bulging eyes and menacing smile staring straight at him. He read the accompanying words, "Umeko, the witch of mount Kunimi, changes people into animals or other creatures, grants the wishes of the desperate in exchange for-."

The last words were scraped away, but this was enough for Keiji to form a new plan. He would go out to Sayuri himself.

Singing a lullaby Keiji carefully pried the monk's hand open, making sure not to wake him as he retrieved his necklace. He left a note of thanks for the care at the altar, bowing and lighting some incense, before making his way up the mountain, determined to see Sayuri again.

His feet were bleeding, legs shaking heavily as he reached the top. Catching his breath, a small hut came into view, built with the remains of human beings. Keiji swallowed his fear and held the seashell tight in his fist. He had to find her, all the things people said about Sayuri were wrong, he just knew it.

The door opened with a creek, announcing Keiji's presence to its resident.

"Come in, my boy." A crackling voice cooed.

Stepping into the dark hut, Keiji tried his best to keep his fear undetected. "Are you Umeko?"

"Yes," the witch laughed showing her bulging eyes, teeth like daggers and drab-coloured body in the dim candlelight. Keiji was so scared he couldn't speak.

"I know what you want," Umeko grinned, pleased with his fear, "You want to get rid of these legs and have a tail, like fish, so you may be with your siren."

"Yes" was all Keiji could sputter.

Bony fingers fished a bottle from under her cape, flashing its blue substance in Keiji's face. "I can help you, but I must be paid."

"I have no money to give you." Keiji stammered becoming pale as death.

"I'm not asking for money. You have the most beautiful voice of any human, the voice with which you paid your scarf, your voice will be your payment. If she confesses her love to you before the second sunrise you will get your voice back. If not, you will become a full fish, permanently."

"But if I don't have my voice, how will I talk to Sayuri?"

"You have a pretty face, muscular body, expressive eyes; surely such handsome features will capture any woman." Feral eyes roomed over his body, pushing a shaking Keiji in the corner.

"Well, have you lost your courage?" Umeko taunted in an ear-piercing laugh.

"No," Keiji spit back.

"Then put out your tongue so I can cut it off as my payment."

Tears rolled over his cheeks but Keiji reluctantly stuck out his tongue, his mind losing consciousness when it was clasped between two bony fingers.