by Giger, S. L.
“I’m not dependent on him. He just fills my days with happiness and makes life better,” I sang.
“That’s what I'm saying. If you open up your mind a little more, you will realize that many men could give you happiness.”
I shook my head. “Oh, Roisin, it’s pointless to discuss this with you.” I smiled.
“Well, I’m open to other points of discussion. What should we talk about?”
“Hmm. Today, school was kind of interesting.” I furrowed my brows. “I felt the hostility of the other students toward me. I guess some of them think that I might be an Alternative.” I made quotation marks with my fingers. “Did you realize how bad it has become? On one side, there is the flu, which has killed many people in Asia and Europe and has now reached Central America. Perhaps it could kill the whole population,” I said a little louder. “And on the other hand, there are crazy people who blame everything on witchcraft and hunt people down.”
She nodded. “It’s alarming. But we won’t get sick,” she said reassuringly. “Plus, we are faster than bullets.”
I pressed my lips together. Not everybody I knew had the advantage of being a Siren.
“I want to go to Europe and get a feel for how the situation is over there, where they’ve had several deaths because of the flu.” With Europe, I meant Switzerland, but I knew what Roisin’s answer to that would be. After I had escaped to my parents’ house when we first traveled together from Malaysia to America, she had been as upset as Melissa.
“Yes, good idea. Actually, I need some new boots and my favorite shoe store is in Munich. Can I come with you?” She smiled broadly.
“I didn’t want to make this into a fun shopping trip. But since I don’t know what I’ll encounter over there, I’d be glad if we went together.” I lowered my eyes to the ground.
“Sweet. Now?” she said.
“We wouldn’t get back before school, remember?”
“Right. Friday night then. And in that case, let’s go dancing now. You shouldn’t worry about something you can’t have any influence on.” She lay one arm around my shoulders and gently pushed me forward.
We started moving at Siren speed and she led the way to the club. I pulled up my collar a little more since the breeze while running felt like snow on my face. Nevertheless, I enjoyed swooshing past buildings and cars. I noticed every object individually and watched them fade in with the others to a dark color mix. Roisin led me into an abandoned alley near Vior and from there we walked the couple of blocks at human speed. Two security guys waited in front of the entrance and I could hear the loud music from the inside. Roisin waved at the guys and strode past them, being used to going in and out through these doors several times a week. I dutifully handed one of the guys my fake ID without batting an eyelid. As Serena, I’d have been much too nervous to do anything illegal like this, but by now I was very much used to it. The heavy, muscle-bound guy didn’t even look at my ID but simply gawked at my face, whereupon he smiled and let me through. When I entered the dimly lit room which was brightened up by flashes of light in uneven intervals, a wall of pulsating heartbeats hit me. I closed my eyes and let the beat of the music, mixed in with the quick heartbeats of all the dancing people, enter my body. Most importantly, I let the thousand beats and their vibrations leave my body again. This was the only way to stay calm and not get dizzy.
Still, it was difficult because it was close to my feeding time. Thus, my instincts automatically searched for the most vital heart in the room. Luckily, Sirens were masters of self-control and nobody had anything to fear.
Roisin had moved to the bar. It was easy to spot her since she had the only other non-beating heart in the room. I made my way through the crowd toward her. I pushed through a few guys and one of them was elbowing his friend and winking at him before smiling at me broadly. I returned his smile and advanced further to meet Roisin. In that moment, she turned around with two bottles in her hands.
“Here, I got us some beers.” She handed me a bottle. “We would appear awkward without any drinks.”
“Waste of alcohol,” I mouthed at her since we obviously weren’t going to drink it because it would kill us.
“Nah, I never liked this brand anyway,” she said as quiet as possible while throwing a flirtatious look at a broad-shouldered and generally handsome stranger. I closed my eyes for a moment. I distinguished his heart from all the others. He was definitely a sporty guy, for his thudding was very vital. But Roisin took my hand and we weaved through the people until we found a place with a little more space.
“He seemed like a good match for your energy level,” I remarked.
“It’s too dangerous to pick up guys at the place I work. Therefore, no male dates tonight. Besides, I came here to dance with you.” She winked at me and we clinked our beer bottles, both making sure that some of it would slop around when doing so. I chuckled at the many strategies I had already practiced in order not to disclose my Siren identity.
When we were shaking along with the crowd, one of the heartbeats became quite arrhythmic. I looked for it until I found out that it belonged to a young woman. Her eyes were rolling around in her face uncontrollably. She was as pale as freshly washed hospital bed sheets. I searched for Roisin, who seemed to have disappeared, and made my way to the woman. At that moment, she fell onto the floor. Her friends screamed out of surprise. One kneeled down next to her, yelling her name. A circle was forming around her, with everybody watching, nobody doing anything. The people on the outside of the circle were still oblivious to the emergency and the music continued as if everything was normal. Then, Roisin appeared with an automatic defibrillator. I stared at the person next to me. “Call an ambulance!” I ordered. Of course, I could have done it myself, but it was best not to appear in too many records. Somebody helped Roisin to tear the woman’s shirt open and they placed the electrodes on her body. I felt how her heart was racing now. Finally, the DJ had turned off the music and at least the vibrations of the bass were gone. Moreover, they turned on the normal lights and I heard a few yells of confusion.
Roisin turned on the defibrillator. I ushered the people on my side a little back, while still watching her body shaken by the electrical shocks. For a moment, her heart stopped beating, but then it started pumping normally again. The woman groaned and Roisin jumped aside just before the woman puked all over the floor. Roisin came toward me, wrinkling her nose.
“Gross. Probably drugs. She should be okay now.” She disappeared to get a bucket of water. The person who had called the ambulance informed the woman’s friend that they would be here soon. Now that the woman at least had survived, the other people stood there a bit clueless. Somebody announced over the speakers that they would turn the music back on in ten minutes, when the paramedics had transported her away. Despite that, most of the crowd started moving toward the exit. Roisin and two staff members appeared with a bucket. She let them do the clean-up and returned to me.
“It didn’t look like you were doing that for the first time,” I remarked.
“If you work in a club in New York, you have to learn how to use these machines.” She pointed with her head to the defibrillator. “Young people do stupid things all the time. With the bad air here in the club, reactions to certain substances often end this way.”
“I think the party is over. I'm going to call it a night,” I said.
“Yeah, put’s quite a damper on the mood, right? She should have to pay for all the customers the club loses tonight because of her,” she said disapprovingly.
As we walked upstairs to get to the exit, they dimmed the lights again and turned the music back on, but not on full blast yet.
I went home to Alex and cuddled up next to him for a while. Luckily, his roommate Brendon was also spending the night at his girlfriend’s place. This room felt crowded enough with two single beds, two desks, and chairs, which were lined up on both sides.
“How was work?” Alex asked sleepily when he noticed that I was back.<
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“Good. Until Roisin showed up. But it actually was nice hanging out with her.” At that thought, my body relaxed, and I realized it had been tensed up the whole time. “We went dancing in her club.”
“You don’t make any sense,” Alex mumbled sleepily. “I’ll dance with you in my sleep.” He gave me a kiss and was already breathing evenly again.
I watched him for a while. Part of me would have loved to fully wake him. It was a slight torture to be so close to him, smell his manly scent and hear his heartbeat without touching him. Perhaps the occurrences at the club, combined with his closeness now, were all a bit much to digest. The thudding of his heart would be much less inviting if I would get my next adrenaline shot already. Therefore, I let Alex remain in his peaceful state. One that I couldn’t experience anymore. I carefully peeled myself out of his arms again. The night was calling me.
When I hunted, I roamed broad parts of the land in a very quick amount of time while staying one hundred percent focused. It was essential that I spot a person in the first second that their body realized that it would die. This instant is even before the brain realizes that the body is in trouble. This time, the path led me down to South Carolina. Once more, a car accident with a small car that somehow had driven off the road and had landed on its roof. I concentrated on the still-racing heartbeat of the woman. It was kind of difficult to reach through the shattered window with the needle in my hand to jam it into her chest. Yet, if I didn't extract her energy right now, her heart would weaken and slow down. I made it in time and extracted her energy and immediately inserted the needle into my chest. Her adrenaline spread inside me as if I was standing under a reviving shower while eating one of those liquid power gels that marathon runners use. I couldn’t stop myself from throwing another glance at the girl before leaving. Despite all the blood, I could make out that she must have been about my age. I swallowed hard, thinking of my family. Like so many times before, I wondered how they had reacted when they received the news that I had gone missing. Always in moments like these, I promised myself that I would use my Siren life to do something good. That some of the sorrow was justified. Roisin had it made seem so easy to be a hero.
Chapter 7
In the early morning hours of Saturday, I zigzagged between the skyscrapers of NYC to meet Roisin at her apartment. Siren speed was still as much fun as it had been the first time, when I was training to run in the forest in Malaysia. Unbelievable that this was over a year ago already, and how much had happened since then. I ran up to the fourteenth floor and rang the bell. When nobody opened, I loudly knocked on the door. Since nothing happened, I checked my phone for a message from her. My inbox was empty. I raced up to the rooftop from where I threw a glance into every cardinal direction listening to the sound of the traffic below. Suddenly, my phone beeped.
Will be there in a sec.
I walked downstairs again and about a minute later, Roisin appeared.
“Sorry about that. I was held back a little.” She smiled as she unlocked the door.
“Does this grin mean that you were on a date?” I asked.
“Yeah, something like that. But I don’t think I will see him again. He only had herbal tea in his kitchen cabinet. One of those guys on a health trip.” She shook her head. “I only drank herbal tea when I was sick. Why would you do that to yourself if you are healthy and can drink anything you want?”
I chuckled. “I’d like to have your problems.”
Then, her face turned serious. “I hope you brought a scarf to cover your face or else your nose will be a Popsicle once we reach France.”
I pulled up my scarf a little more to show her, and also pulled a pair of gloves out of my jacket pocket.
“Great. Let me get mine and we can leave.” Roisin clapped her hands. “Is Munich good for your exploring plans as well?”
“Munich is close to Switzerland. Only four driving hours from where I lived,” I sighed. “I guess however it is in Munich, it will also be in St. Gallen.” If it was so bad that my family needed help, I could still figure something out on the way back. But Roisin must have read something in my eyes.
“Just don’t do any surprise escapes.” Roisin winked. She was referring to the time when I ran to my parents’ house under Melissa and Roisin’s watch, even though they had prohibited me from seeing my family.
“No, if I went to my family, I would do it without having you in tow,” I replied as self-confidently as I could.
“Let’s go, then.” Roisin locked her apartment and took off. I was close on her heels. We reached the coast in Chatham and from there ran out onto the black ocean. Everything in a twenty-meter radius I could see in all its normal detail. Everything farther away in front and to the sides appeared blurry. Our speed helped us to stay above the water, and in these temperatures, I tried to set my feet on the waves as little as possible. Nevertheless, I’d have to change into the other pair of sneakers that I had packed into a small backpack, once we got to the mainland.
“Roisin, how many times in your life have you crossed this ocean already?” I yelled, to compete against the sound of the wind and the rushing of the waves. Roisin changed her course a little, so that we could run next to each other. Our arms swung in a steady jogging movement while our legs worked at a speed in which I only saw a jumble of colors.
“Not so many times, actually. The US is quite enough for me right now. Perhaps two or three times a year I travel somewhere,” she replied.
“I could do this every night,” I stated and let my gaze wander across the horizon. “Look how beautiful it is.” Gradually the sky became lighter. “It makes the world seem like a vast and peaceful space.”
“It’s also rather lonely. I would go mad without society around me.”
We continued in silence and witnessed how the sun transformed the water into a sea of gold until it returned to a deep blue in the bright daylight.
We entered France at Hossegor, where we changed our shoes. Afterward, we continued up the coast. At the top of Rennes, we cut to the right and traversed the inland south of Paris, avoiding the capital. In Strasbourg, we slowed down and saw that all the public places were frequented by armed police officers. A long traffic jam was lining up in front of the German border. The reason for it was that all the vehicles had to drive across what looked like a big sponge mat. Then, the people had to get out of the cars and walk through a metal gate, which also had these sponges on the floor.
“What do you think this is good for?” I asked Roisin.
“I heard on the news that they disinfect all vehicles and all occupants who enter the country, in order to keep the flu from spreading. They even spray the trains before they cross the border.”
I furrowed my brows. “I can’t imagine that this really helps. Germs are in the air as well, and there is no big enough filter.” Then, I remembered what my parents had told me about their honeymoon. Their plane was sprayed with disinfectant when they landed in Australia. Already at that time, I thought it was quite a poor attempt to keep Australia free of foreign germs. “They must be quite desperate if they do that.”
“That’s only the first step. With so many police officers, I wouldn’t be surprised if they put up fences along the borders soon,” Roisin remarked.
“I hope not. That’s exactly what would bring the world further apart. If people fear connecting to each other because something bad might happen, everyone will soon be hiding within their own four walls,” I said, watching how yet another family got out of the car. The parents made sure that their two daughters wiped their shoes well on the disinfectant mat.
When my sister and I were younger, my family and I would drive for forty minutes on weekends to go swimming in a beautiful lake in Austria. Our car was never stopped at the custom border. Perhaps now it wouldn’t be so easy to visit a neighboring country for a few hours, anymore.
Once we had watched enough, Roisin and I wandered to a more secluded area and slipped into Germany unnoticed. In all th
e bigger cities that followed, we noticed a higher presence of armed police officers than usual. Otherwise, there were no more occurrences that struck us as odd. Finally, in Munich, we slowed down at the Viktualienmarkt.
“Hmm, I see tourists with cameras and old ladies with their baskets full of fresh goods,” Roisin remarked. “I would say people here are still following their usual business.”
I heard people’s chatter and laughter. Indeed, the atmosphere was still relaxed.
“If they were expecting some kind of catastrophe to happen soon, this place would probably be more deserted,” I said and was kind of relieved. “Let me buy some mustard for Alex.”
“Already thinking about shopping again? You can’t be that worried, either.”
Only then did we notice a big screen at the other end of the market. It was continuously showing the same message. I translated the message for Roisin: “If you detect any of the following symptoms: a sore throat, any trouble with breathing, or the slightest temperature, go to a quarantine room at your closest city hospital. Be aware of the health of the people surrounding you and in case of doubt, call this number.”
“Probably the news is making it sound worse than it is,” I said. As if to prove my point, we heard the loud jingle of a German news station. It wasn’t possible to ignore the melody. Therefore, all the people who had been walking or talking stopped. Everyone's eyes were glued to the screen, mine included. The guy on the news desk said how they had finally made a step in the right direction because they had found and captured a suspect who chanted his curses from a cave in Cappadocia. Then, they showed us the inside of a cave, equipped with a few rugs and other basic human necessities. Before I could close my eyes, I watched in disgust as a man was kneeling handcuffed in the corner of a room, and in the next moment, he dropped to his side because somebody had shot him. The news official concluded that this was a necessary statement toward the rest of the Alternatives.
