Free Song of the Sirens by Kaylie Austen Page B

upper lip as if growling. She had the face of evil, and
it struck a chord.
    Without turning my head, only moving my
eyes, I caught the slow movement of her finger tapping the window. With
clenched fists, she banged against the window, startling me. I grunted but
couldn’t scream.
    A trickle of anger seeped through my
mind. I didn’t care for this at all, this complete awareness of dire situations
and yet incapable of reacting the way I wanted. That diminutive trickle
gathered its forces inside of me and waged a slight, but noticeable, battle
against her voice, which struggled to keep control.
    When the barrier didn’t let up, the
mermaid trembled, opened her mouth to unleash a banshee scream, and slammed
into the window.
    The sudden and forceful strike shook the
vessel. I yelped and jumped. Her anger and frustration cracked the mental hold,
and I staggered away from her impending claws.
    Cracks formed at the center of impact
and spread with swiftness. It reached to the edge of the window on either side
of her, and branched out.
    I breathed and gripped the back of the
chair. The fracture splintered, and white fissures frosted over the entire
six-foot wide window.
    I stepped back. The window could break
at any moment. Thousands of pounds of pressure would rush into the small
vessel, and we would die a horrible death. If we were lucky, we would die
before the mermaid fed on us.
    She pulled back to slam against the
window again when a glowing, silver fin rammed her from the side. The merman
took her by the hair and yanked back. She bellowed and clawed into the water.
The merman jerked back with a fistful of diseased locks. Another merman darted
toward them as fast and precise as a torpedo. They did not show mercy, and for
that, I was very grateful. No matter what the mermen planned on doing with us
intruders, at least the insanity of the mermaids would not reach us.
    As the two men grappled with the weary
she-beast, they floated away from view. Several mermen gathered at the pile of
ruins near the entrance. Two bottlenose dolphins aided in pushing the giant
boulder. Everyone struggled. If only I could take over the controls and help
them.
    The crowd of mermen unknowingly pushed
aside one of the dolphins. Perhaps realizing the severity of the situation, the
loyal animal continued to push to the best of his ability from the odd angle.
Unfortunately, he neared the gaping entrance, and the claws of a siren.
    My hands raced to my mouth, clasping it
shut before I bellowed. I swallowed an inconsiderable amount of air and
inadvertently held my breath. I felt for the poor animal who tried to help.
    A mermaid violently fought against
others to emerge next. I believed she was siren number three to escape. How
many could there be? I didn’t want to know the answer.
    As if another mermaid had given the
emerging siren a hard kick in her tail and shoved her out, the decrepit woman
spilled out of the cave mouth as another emerged behind her. While a handful of
mermen left their duty at the boulder to restrain her, no one seemed to pay
attention to the poor dolphin that panicked and floated too close to the fourth
mermaid.
    She dug her talons into the thick,
rubbery flesh of the dolphin. The animal opened its mouth, as if lamenting, and
widened his eyes. He thrashed around, hitting the boulder, the cave, the other
dolphin, and the mermaid.
    She didn’t loosen her grip. Dark red
blood swirled around her, and mixed into the water by the dolphin’s desperate
whipping.
    She opened her mouth, unhinged her jaw
so her mouth widened into an unnatural and considerable void. A tongue lashed
out as razor teeth chomped down. She ripped a sizable chunk out of the
squirming and terrified dolphin. The mermaid hastily devoured her prey. She was
very hungry.
    The blood summoned others. Many bony
hands clutched around the boulder, and the third mermaid returned to partake of
the feast.
    Blood, bits of blubber and flesh mixed
into frantic water movement,