by Giger, S. L.
“Get out of the car so I can show you.” I opened my door and walked around the car to his side. I kissed him on the mouth, whereupon I ran to the opposite side of the parking lot, which didn’t even take me one second. Alex stared around himself in confusion. I waved and walked back to him at a normal pace. “I can move extremely fast. That’s the most awesome advantage. While you were camping in the forest last week, I ran once around the whole world.”
His jaw dropped. “Um, I don’t know what to say.” He blinked. “Do that again!”
I ran and stopped a few times, which must have looked to him as if I disappeared and appeared at random spots.
“This is incredible!” he exclaimed. “And you walked out on the people who offered you that.”
“It’s more complex than this.” I was annoyed at him for bringing them up again, now that we were starting to have fun. “I learned that my creation was no accident. They did it on purpose and lied to me about it!”
“Why?” was all Alex could stutter.
“That I would love to know as well,” I sighed.
Alex nodded with a self-satisfactory smile. “See, I always knew you were special.” He poked my stomach.
“Well, I haven’t detected anything that differentiates me from the others.” I slightly pushed away from him. How could he always bring a flirty undertone into any kind of conversation? This made my knees go weak and I felt a warmth spreading through my body from where he had poked my stomach. I tried to pull myself together and stopped myself from letting my hands wander below his shirt. “Apart from the running, I can’t do anything special.”
“How about singing? Aren’t Sirens supposed to be able to sing beautifully?” Alex asked.
“That’s what I thought as well, but none of us can sing particularly well. I concluded that Sirens lost that trait because they mainly used it to attract lost sailors at sea. In the modern world, we don’t need to do that anymore. Or perhaps it was a myth and they never sang at all.”
“What about the sleeping and eating?” Alex now wanted to know.
“Everything inside me is frozen. I neither have a blood flow nor a digestion system. I solely live on human adrenaline.” I pursed my lips.
“Which means?” he laughed nervously.
“Once a month, somebody who dies will involuntarily donate their last energy to us.” I frowned and continued. “To stay alive, I go look for an unfortunate person who's had a fatal accident. Shortly before the person dies, I extract their last energy from their heart and insert it into mine. It’s astounding how quickly I got used to this method. As long as I don’t think about that person’s history or family, it’s simply my way to stay alive.” I held my breath for a second. “I hope you can live with a killer.”
“Well, you said you take energy from people who've had a fatal accident. That doesn’t make you a killer.”
I slowly exhaled. Even if he had taken it fairly well, I wanted to move away from this subject. I took his hand and pressed his fingers against my throat. “Here, feel this. I don’t have a pulse and my heart doesn’t beat either.”
“Hah, I was right. When we went camping, I thought that I couldn’t feel anything, but you were good at making up excuses.”
“Comes with this lifestyle,” I shrugged. “But due to that, I neither have to eat nor go to the bathroom, and I don’t need sleep either. My body works like a battery.”
“Must be very practical.”
“Sometimes. But sometimes I’d like to have some waffles with hot chocolate sauce,” I pouted. “Which would be deadly for me.”
He gasped. “I’ll try not to offer you any more sandwiches in the future then. Is there anything else I should know?”
I thought about it for a moment. “Well, you already saw that my eyes can look pretty different if I am upset.” Unfortunately, when Alex had told me that he'd spied on me, I lost my focus for a moment. I'd looked at him with my true eyes, which are abysmally evil. Most of the time, I managed to keep them normal. Yet, that only worked with a lot of concentration and additional colored contacts.
“Yeah, let’s hope you won’t ever get that angry in my presence anymore.” He breathed out.
“Other than that, I don’t think there’s anything else that’s extraordinary about us.”
“Except that you are incredibly beautiful and attractive, and all the guys notice that,” he mentioned.
“Oh, well, that.” I tried to wave it off. “You know, that’s something I could live without. It makes hiding that I’m not quite human a lot more difficult if men are openly gawking at me. Besides, the only one I need to be noticed by is you, and I hope that’s not just my Siren attraction.” I lay my arms around his neck. Instantly, every molecule inside me felt electrified and pulled toward him even more. For a moment, I lost myself in the dizziness of a kiss.
“It’s impossible to compare the attraction I feel toward you with anything else.” He squeezed my waist and I slowly let go of a breath, trying to concentrate on the here and now. “Are there more family members in the area or is there something like a Siren community?” he asked.
“There are others all over the world, but everybody mostly keeps to themselves. Or they remain with the people they chose to stay with.”
Alex shook his head in amazement. “That’s incredible. What more will we discover?”
“For now, it’s probably best we lay low and don’t draw any more attention to us.” I squeezed his hand, walked around the car again, and sat down.
He climbed into his seat as well. “Home?” he asked.
“Yes,” I smiled. “A new home once more.”
That’s how it came that I moved in with Alex and cut my ties to Melissa and Luke. And since, for the past three weeks, Alex and I had been living in a cocoon of intimate togetherness. Nevertheless, I couldn’t stop myself from worrying that this was only the calm before the storm.
Chapter 2
After three weeks of radio silence between me, Melissa and Luke, Melissa sent me a text message:
How are you? Has anything extraordinary happened yet? We miss you. Xo, Melissa
I ignored it because life was wonderful. Alex and I went for walks or drove somewhere and took hikes to waterfalls or some other pretty places in the area. Nothing odd had happened. Consequently, the Orbiters must have realized that Alex and I wouldn’t be a threat.
During the night, however, it had soon become clear that living with people who also didn’t need sleep had been quite handy. Even if Alex was young and fit, he still needed his seven hours of sleep. Otherwise, he’d have to catch up on the lost sleep later. Which meant that I had about seven hours to myself every night. I asked for more shifts at the Irish pub, which had been the one thing during the past year that I chose to add to my life. Otherwise, Melissa, Luke, and Roisin had always decided how I should spend my days. Above all, they'd all agreed that I had to finish high school. Anyway, at The Wild Rover, they temporarily gave me two more late nights. I was happy to be able to spend more time with Paula, who'd kind of become my surrogate sister. Except that it was now an older sister.
“Throwing yourself into work is not a good sign,” Paula remarked as she was drying glasses next to me. “It either means you are broke or there’s something else in your life that you need to run away from.”
“Mhh, more money can never hurt, right? But I have to say that I am pretty happy these days.” I couldn’t suppress that my face broke out into a huge smile.
“I still can’t believe you took that asshole back.” She shook her head. “He cheated on you!”
She had witnessed Alex suddenly breaking off all contact with me. At that time, I didn’t know it was because he had found out I was a Siren. He had been unsure about what to do with that information and Paula and I both thought that he had cheated on me. Now I obviously couldn’t let her in on the truth. Paula had no idea about my supernatural identity.
“It was a mistake. But now our relationship is better than e
ver. I have a good feeling about this. Plus, it’s not like Max behaved like a saint.” In my opinion, her boyfriend, Max, only had a bad influence on Paula. But so far, she had seen him through rose-colored glasses.
She groaned. “Men. We should renounce them and lead our lives without them.” Then she pouted. “But it’s more fun with them.”
“I’m pretty sure there are much better guys than Max, though.” I smiled and nodded to a customer who was holding up an empty beer glass.
“Well, if you know somebody who is suitable for me, tell me. After seeing how you just took Alex back, I realized that I might have been a bit too generous with Max. We can’t let them get away with everything.”
I filled up another glass of Guinness and brought it to the customer. If it had taken this drama between Alex and me to make Paula see that Max was not good enough for her, the pain had at least been worth it.
Luke was next to text me.
Nathalie, even though you might not like us so much at the moment, that doesn’t mean you have to stay away from us completely. Whether you like it or not, you belong to the same family as us now.
I showed it to Alex, annoyed that they still wanted to control me. “Why can’t they let me go my own way for once?”
“They are probably worried about you because they feel responsible toward you. Maybe you are a little hard on them.”
“Ugh, really?” My shoulders sagged because he didn’t absorb my anger toward them at all. “I didn’t choose to belong to their family. I have a family in Switzerland.” I firmly closed my mouth and pouted.
Alex’s face turned serious. “Why don’t you go visit your family now? I know about your secret and I’m still fine, so why should anything happen to them?”
I hesitated. “I want to see them. I cyberstalk them every day.” I swallowed down a lump that was building in my throat. “But they seem fine.” Without me, I added in my thoughts. “Anyway, somehow my gut tells me that there is more to come. Before that has happened, I’ll continue being a part of my family’s life as a ghost on the Internet.”
“Okay.” Alex kissed my forehead. “I still think you should reconnect with Melissa and Luke, though. After all, if they hadn’t changed you, our paths would never have crossed.”
I grumbled something unintelligible, sighed, and picked up my phone again.
I am fine. No, nothing odd has happened.
Then I sighed again and added: How are you?
“Good girl.” Alex patted my knees.
“I’m already listening to you as if we were married.” I pressed my lips together.
“No, you simply realized that what I said was smart and that’s why you did it. But we have been through so many highs and lows in the six months we have been together, I think we’d survive marriage.” He took my hands and played with my ring finger.
My mouth dropped open and I widened my eyes. I hadn’t expected the word marriage to enter any of our conversations so soon. When I got over the first shock, I started enjoying his touch on my hands, but he must have noticed my irritation.
“Yeah, I know, it’s a bit early to talk about marriage,” he stammered. “It was just a phrase—never mind.”
“No, it’s nice that you said that,” I replied and smiled. “If I got married at such a young age, I wouldn’t want anybody else but you to be my husband.”
That also put a smile on his face. “But would that even be legal?” he asked. “In the Siren world, for a Siren to marry a human, I mean.”
“Since when do you care about what is legal and what not?” I grinned. “But Melissa and Luke were married when he was human, so that wouldn’t be an issue.”
“Good. However, despite what you said, I’m still slightly afraid that you’d say no in the future because I’m not a good enough match for you.”
“You are an idiot.” I rolled my eyes.
Perhaps we’d have treated that matter less jovially, had we known about the many trials our relationship would still have to overcome. A Siren was made to attract but not to love. What if our pot of luck would be empty before we reached our happily ever after?
Chapter 3
High school had started again. Out of habit, I attended the first couple of days, but then started skipping school. I had been very isolated during these first lessons since I hadn’t acquired any friends in my own grade during the past year. My friends Sam, Phe, and Joe had all graduated and were now attending different colleges in Boston. It wasn’t the same without them. The biggest stupidity was that I was living in Boston as well, but they couldn’t know about it. Therefore, I had to keep up the pretense that I was still going to school in Orleans.
However, after many phone messages, finally, all three of my old high school friends could agree on a place and time to meet. They drove back to Orleans, where we met in a coffee shop. When I walked in, two girls from my grade looked up from their table and whispered something to each other. I wished I had supersensitive hearing. I’d have loved to know what they thought of my showing up at the café after not having been at school for several days. Yet I quickly forgot about that thought when I saw Sam walking toward me, smiling broadly. We hugged a bit tighter than in the past. He had been my first real friend here and over time, he had grown into my best friend. When we parted from our hug, he smiled at me a bit awkwardly.
“It’s great to see you,” Sam said.
“Same to you. How unfair that I don’t get to spend time with you every day anymore. You hardly even call.” I flicked my hand down his chest.
“I’m sorry.” He frowned. “It’s just such a different life up there and calling is so impersonal. We have to make time for more visits.” He took my hand and led me to the others. Sam hadn’t grown any taller and Joe was still dressed all in black, but perhaps he had gained a few pounds. His clothes weren’t hanging from his body so loosely anymore. Phe, however, looked very different. Her hair was dyed a dark brown, not like the bright red of before, and she was wearing colors that matched. She looked ravishing and had a healthy glow on her face, which probably came from holding Joe’s hand. I felt a sense of pride because I had known all along that they belonged together. I hugged Phe as well and winked at her after throwing a quick glance at Joe. Then I high-fived Joe who I knew wasn’t the hugging type.
“So, you are doing okay?” I pointed my eyes to Joe’s hand, which was now placed on Phe’s knee.
“Yes, yes, we can’t complain,” Phe said. “We hardly see each other during the week though because Joe is in the workshop all the time.”
“You are already building things?” I raised an eyebrow. He had only just started studying architecture after all.
“I’m helping the students in the upper grades. This gives us extra credit.”
“Wow, you are doing extra work? What happened to the world?” I shook my head, since Joe had been the laziest of the four of us.
“I knew I had to wake up someday. Anyway, how are you doing?”
“Ugh, I’m so bored without you. I can’t wait for this year to be over.”
“I don’t blame you,” Sam said. “Now that I am back here, I see how small this hick town is. I like Boston much better. There are so many options.”
“Tell me about everything!” I ordered.
“I write code for websites. It’s awesome. There are nice people in my class.”
“Like, any special people?” I grinned.
Sam’s face took on a slightly red color. “No. Not yet. But generally, people at college seem to be very active. I could take part in a protest every second day.”
I looked at him in confusion. “What are you protesting about?”
“Animal mistreatment, global warming, gay rights...” He trailed off.
“And you protest about all that?”
“Yes, it’s like a hobby. We have the most interesting discussions while waiting until the police force us to go home.”
“Couldn't that be dangerous?” I asked.
“
We have freedom of speech. We can voice our opinion. Here, take a button.” He handed me a round pin, which I could attach to my shirt. 'Science is Mighty' was printed on it.
“You are one of them as well?” Phe frowned at Sam.
“Why what's that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“It's a hype these days. Everybody at college wears them.” She rolled her eyes. “Sam, you'd much rather spend your time making the Internet a safer place. Wearing a button doesn't stop people from getting sick.”
“No, but it's a statement to support the doctors who research a remedy against the night flu,” he countered.
I nodded while wracking my brain to remember more info about the night flu. With all the changes in my personal life, I hadn’t paid too much attention to the media. Nevertheless, something that had appeared in the news so consistently hadn't passed by even me. I remembered that the night flu was a sickness that had started in China and killed a few dozens. From there it had moved to Europe and Africa. They were speaking of a pandemic. Yet, since Switzerland and its surroundings had been spared so far and nobody had become sick on the American continent, I'd saved my energy for other worries.
“Don’t you think the media is blowing this up into something bigger than it is?” I asked.
“There are already hundreds of dead people in Asia and Africa. Yet only now that occurrences approach central Europe, our political leaders become active.”
“Yes, and excuse me, but they are idiots,” Phe said. “The first thing they do is try to find somebody to blame for it and what they came up with is ridiculous.”
I shifted uneasily on my chair. I had no idea what she was talking about.
“Exactly, it's not somebody who created the mess; it's all of us. By living so wastefully and harming our planet,” Joe contributed.
“That might be true. Nevertheless, we have an inexplicable virus that might kill the entire population. Because so far, doctors have been clueless about what to do against it. So, why not wear a button to show my support?”
