by Giger, S. L.
I whipped open How a Relationship Between a Human and Siren Can Work. Immediately I spotted the square boxes that let me know I could complete a psychological test. I let it slide into my invisible purse, where it disappeared.
After that, I headed to the history floor. I recognized that my third book title had already shown up on my last search. It was time to get some more knowledge about this topic, either way. I stuck the big tweezers into the proper spot in-between the shelves and moved them apart to gain access to The Danger of Male Sirens. Luckily, it also fit into my purse.
After that, I headed to the exit, taking one last look at the magical hall with the ghosts and lonely lanterns before I stepped out into the stone corridor. When I stood in front of the wall to enter the closet, I took a deep breath and hoped that no alarm would go off if I stepped through the brick wall with the books. But everything seemed to work fine, and back in the simple cleaning closet, my body and clothes appeared again. I checked my purse – the leather books were still in there. I stuck my head out the door. Nobody saw me step out of the closet since the public library was pretty much deserted by then. Once outside, a huge weight rolled off my shoulders. I really had managed to take books out of The Library! I was eager to show them to Alex and therefore sprinted into a deserted dead-end street, to then race out of it again and swoosh past traffic and red lights.
I entered Alex’s apartment with a broad grin on my face.
“Did you find anything?” Alex asked me.
“Yes, two books.” I placed my purse on the table and reached for the books. I handed him the bigger one and took the smaller one with the psychological test for myself.
“Huh?” he asked.
“I know – harsh, isn’t it?”
He looked at me, puzzled. “This book is empty.”
“What do you mean?” I looked over his shoulder, and the pages were blank. Where last time there had been a lot of text in small print, now there only were empty pages, and the book cover was simple leather without any inscription. How could I not have noticed that a second ago?
Then, words started to appear on the page as if they were fading in on a PowerPoint presentation. I gasped.
“What?” Alex looked at me. “Was there something there before?”
The words that appeared weren’t the normal print anymore. It was a handwriting font that looked a lot like my own chaotic writing.
“Don’t you see the text that just appeared?” I stared at the page, but Alex simply turned it with two fingers to find the text I referenced.
“Nope, what do you see?”
“Dear diary,” I read out loud. “Today I did something terrible. I stole a book out of a library. But I realized that I’ve done something wrong, and I PROMISE, I’ll bring it back.” I paused. What the heck was this? I read on. “You know, the reason I stole the book is because there’s this guy... He’s the most attractive guy ever.” I read on with dread in my voice. “His name is Alex. I’d glue a picture of him on this page if this book were mine.”
“You’re making this up,” Alex said.
“I wish I were that creative,” I said sourly.
He laughed. “The book is mocking you.”
I jumped a few pages ahead to find that half of the book was filled with my writing, telling things about my life. I would never write them down like that. It was quite embarrassing reading them, but the scariest thing was that it was all true. It even knew that I was still thinking about escaping to Switzerland now and then, although that was more out of old habits.
“Obviously, there’s some kind of spell on this book,” I said. My head spun and I checked the other book. When I opened it, I found the same handwriting with the same text.
“Damn, I shouldn’t have taken them,” I said to Alex. “I need to return them as quickly as possible.”
He pulled a frown and sighed. “I didn’t expect this to happen. Even outside The Library, I’m not allowed to experience magic.”
“You found me – that’s more than most humans ever get,” I said, and bit my lip. What could they do if they found out? Would I be punished? This clearly hadn’t been a good idea. Now we had nothing to read, and I’d have to go back to The Library the next morning to face the prospect of punishment. We sat around in the living room, waiting for something to happen – like someone magically appearing or flying through the window – but nothing strange occurred.
“Well, thanks for trying,” Alex said. “But since they have a spell like that over the books, I’m sure you’ll be fine and they won’t punish you further.” He didn’t sound one-hundred percent convinced.
I did take the books back first thing the next morning. I felt their weight like a heavy burden on my shoulders. The worry and excitement I had the first three times when entering this new world in The Library now yielded to an anxiety that a penalty would await me as soon as I stepped through the door. With shaky legs, I walked to the shelves. I expected that at least the ghosts would come up and give me evil looks or tell me to follow them to some kind of torture chamber. Therefore, I wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible and not give them any more possibilities to approach me. I put the books back into their places and, with my head ducked, hurried out of The Library. I wouldn’t return there soon. I guess having a guilty conscience is sometimes punishment enough. And to my dismay, I hadn’t even gotten anything out of the books.
As promised, I met Alex on the university campus right afterward. Here it felt as if winter was much further advanced than it actually was, because compared to last year, there were hardly any people out and about. The flu had also lessened these students’ collective desire to socialize.
“And, did they do anything to you?” Alex asked with concern.
“Not that I know of,” I replied.
“I guess we have to go with the harder path of finding other male Sirens in the world,” Alex said.
“Yeah. I’ll help,” I said. “We need to make a plan with Melissa, Luke, and Cathy – structure how we go about finding them.”
“That’s probably a good idea. I’m glad you’re finally on board.”
I clicked my tongue. “We have to do something before the world is destroyed, but if we’re doing this already, we need to make sure that the project won’t fail.” I nodded to underline my statement.
“Well then, let’s go.”
Chapter 18
As a meeting point to create a more detailed plan with the others, we chose one of the university pubs. It was still frequented by people, but it wasn’t so loud in it anymore that you had to yell at each other while speaking.
Alex and I were there first and reserved a table in a corner. Cathy arrived after us and strode toward us without hesitation as soon as she entered the pub.
“Anything new?” she addressed Alex and set her purse on the table.
They spoke about tubes and catalyzers, but the only thing I understood was that no merger had been strong enough so far. Obviously, I couldn’t be of any help. I had a question, nevertheless.
“You said you used cells from Luke and Cathy, but if everything on us is dead, what can you use?”
“Our spit, just as we do in normal transformations.” Cathy lowered her voice on the last word. “But it’s not enough because the blends with our spit dissolve again. The ones where we placed both genes inside a human gene are still intact but haven’t changed in any way yet.”
“Ah.” I thought I understood. At that moment, Luke and Melissa arrived. Luke already had a tortured tension in his face. I waved at them and they joined our table.
“We have to be quick,” Melissa said. “Luke can’t stand this for long.”
We nodded.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t think about that,” Alex said apologetically.
Luke waved his apology away. “I’ll manage. Has anything happened, or what is this about?”
“We have to look for others like Luke on this planet,” I said. “We need to hear their stories.�
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“Yes, but it’s hard because they don’t want others to know that they exist,” Cathy remarked.
“One of them we should be able to reach because we actually met him once at a Christmas party,” Luke said in a strained voice. “I think he lives somewhere in Canada.”
“Ah, good that you mention that now,” Cathy said enraged.
“You should go find him. Make contact and talk to him,” I suggested. I placed a small world map on the table. “Where could the others be?”
Everybody leaned their heads in to look at the map, but then the waitress arrived to ask if we wanted to order something.
“Yes, um, three Cokes and two small beers of the month,” I said.
“Anything to eat?” the waitress asked while writing on her notepad. We all looked at Alex and he shook his head.
“No, thanks,” I said. “If this continues like it has, we should emigrate to New Zealand,” I said a little louder for the waitress to hear.
“Our best bet is to start with remote places,” Cathy said.
“Like islands, mountains, deserts, and jungles,” Melissa added.
We studied the map. “That doesn’t narrow it down,” Alex stated.
“The Orbiters have to know,” I said. “If they really want us to get ahead, they’d better tell us now.”
Luke groaned slightly and tightened his grip on Melissa’s knee. “Yes, sooner rather than later.”
The waitress brought the drinks and placed them in front of everyone. Seeing the surface of the Coke sloping around in the glass triggered a memory of how I once received a puddle from the Orbiters in a drink. That brought an idea to my mind – if puddles were their favorite method of communicating with us, I had to try to reach them through that channel. Once the waitress was gone, I “accidentally” tipped my glass of Coke over so that the brown liquid spilled across the table and over the world map.
“Ugh, Nathalie, seriously, what are you doing?” Cathy snatched her purse from the table and rummaged in it for a tissue. I stared intently at the bubbles that were disappearing, leaving only a golden-brown liquid on the table. “So, Orbiters, where are the male Sirens? We’re stuck, and if you would be so kind and point this out, we might get ahead much faster.”
Cathy raised an eyebrow, but now everyone was looking at the brown puddle. Except Alex, who was trying to stop the Coke from running over the brim of the table with his hands. Then, Melissa gasped as small red circles started appearing on the spilled Coke over places on the drenched map.
“What is it?” Alex asked as we all stared at the map, spellbound.
“Brazil, in the Amazon,” Cathy stated, and leaned closer to the map. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to decipher the exact town. “Carauari,” she pronounced slowly.
I tilted my head to read the name of another place with a red circle. “Flores. It’s an island of the Azores. Alex, take out your phone and write this down,” I ordered. He didn’t question me and quickly wiped off his sticky hands on his dark pants.
“Flores and Amazon,” he repeated. “Cara-what?”
“Carauari,” Cathy replied.
“Churchill, Canada,” Melissa read. “That must be Jeffry.”
Nothing more happened, or maybe it would have, but the waitress came and dropped a tablecloth onto the Coke lake and all the red circles disappeared.
“Thanks.” I tried not frown.
“No problem. You should have called me. Do you want a refill?”
“No, it’s okay,” I said as I wiped the table. I tried to spare the map, but there was no need, because the circles had disappeared.
“That was incredible,” Melissa said when the waitress was gone. “They sent you a sign after you asked for it.” She nodded in satisfaction. “The Orbiters listen to you.”
I snorted. “It was about time.”
“We saw that there are three others. Do you think there are more?” Luke asked pensively.
“Well, we can’t know that now because the puddle was destroyed in the middle of it all,” Cathy grumbled.
“Can anybody explain to me what you saw?” Alex asked.
“You didn’t see the red circles appearing like radiations around the epicenter of an earthquake?” Luke asked.
“No, nothing.” Alex pressed his lips together. “So, your gods actually reply to your prayers.”
“They are not our gods,” Cathy said. “More like the Supreme Court, but you can’t usually present your own case to them. They only contact you if they think it necessary.” She wet her lips with her tongue. “Now that we have some kind of indication, who will go look for who?”
“Maybe Luke should talk to all of them because it might be easier from guy to guy?” Melissa’s clear green eyes swept across our faces.
“I want to be able to contribute something,” I said. “Let me try to talk to the one in Flores. I have the interview in London in a few days, anyway.”
“I’m not a huge fan of crossing oceans,” Luke said. “Therefore, I’d even be thankful if you could take him.”
“Perhaps we’d be more efficient if I went to Carauari at the same time as you go to Flores and you to Churchill since you already know Jeffry.” Cathy looked at Luke. “If either of us is unsuccessful, you can still have a second try.”
“Sounds good. So, I’ll go to Churchill,” Luke said and took a deep breath. “I don’t want to be rude, but for everyone’s sake, goodbye.” Luke got up and half-sprinted out of the pub.
“Um, one more question,” I said, feeling a bit foolish because I seemed to be the only one who didn’t know how to approach this matter. “How do I look for a Siren? I surely can’t count on my luck that they would show up in front of me on the street, like the group of Vampires did.” Perhaps I had been a bit hasty in thinking that I could find this male Siren alone – I, who had been a Siren for barely a year.
“The only thing you can do is walk around and listen for heartbeats. Wherever you don’t hear one is your best bet,” Cathy replied and moved her chair back. “I guess we’ll meet again when we have more news.”
We nodded, and she disappeared.
I hoped that I wouldn’t disappoint myself and them.
After paying, Melissa, Alex, and I walked outside.
“Too bad Roisin is missing all this,” I said with a frown. “I hope she’s all right and can find the Minotaurs.”
“Yes, I hope so, too,” Melissa said, and added, “Have you found something you can use as a professional radio recorder for the interview?”
“Yes. The first time going to school proved to be helpful,” I replied. “Orleans High has a school radio team, and I can borrow their interview microphone with the recorder.”
“Good, and you can use these. Luke created them for you.” She handed me two paper ID cards that could be pinned to a shirt. They had the official logo of the Irish radio station on them, and one showed a picture of Claire, the other one a picture of myself. Claire’s name was ‘Brigitta’, and my card said ‘Pansy’.
“Great, thanks. I already thought about buying a fan jacket and hat of the station, but these cards seem more official.”
“Good luck.” Melissa looked at me gravely and then glanced from Alex to me. “Now I’d better see how my husband is doing.” She gave Alex and me each a quick hug. “Bye.”
“Which leaves the two of us again,” Alex breathed. “Meeting your family is always so entertaining. My head is still spinning. Should I take it personally that you’re traveling to Europe without me?” he teased.
“Believe me, I would love to have a vacation with you on an exotic island, but this is work, and I’m afraid I’ll be much quicker without you.”
“So sure of herself, my girlfriend.” He sighed and earned a punch from me, and we both laughed.
Chapter 19
Hoping that one day would be enough to find a male Siren in Flores and talk to him, I left the US the day before my interview with Dr. Palmer. I had packed all the equipment I needed for th
e interview – along with a nice business skirt and a white blouse – into a backpack, which I had tightly strapped around my waist. When I raced over the ocean with the Azores as my aim, all I had on my mind was the red dot on Flores. Before that, I had never even heard of the Azores, so I bought a guidebook to read a little about the islands. They would be a beautiful place to go hiking, and with the mild climate, you could do that all year round. But unfortunately, my main goal wasn’t sightseeing, although I hoped I would get to see at least a little of this place while fulfilling my mission.
I finally reached one of the islands and wasn’t sure on which one I had landed. It took a while until the GPS from my phone sorted itself out, but once it found me, it told me that I was on Corvo. I had read that on this island, there was a huge volcanic crater in which now bloomed a lush garden. Since I had arrived on Corvo by chance, I thought I might just as well check it out. Hiking didn’t mean anything to me anymore, and in Siren speed, I quickly reached the brim of the crater. I let my face feel the warmth of the soft morning sun, which revealed the ocean in dark blue behind the wall of the grass-covered crater. Inside the crater, a small blue lake reflected the sky as if it had rained heavily and the water puddles hadn’t disappeared yet. I took a few deep breaths to savor the clean air and to sniff in a breath of the salty flavor from the ocean. This beautiful, serene place seemed as if somebody had cast a tranquility spell over it. Before I turned around to go back down, I tried to soak in that feeling of peace, so that I would be able to carry it with me when harder days might come.
I ran the remaining few miles between the islands to reach the bigger island of Flores. After crossing through so much nature, the sudden conglomeration of white houses with orange and brown roofs felt a bit crowded.
I sat down in the café of a bakery in Ponta Delgada and watched the people buying bread or drinking a coffee while reading a newspaper or talking to a friend. Most of them were locals and spoke Portuguese, but there also were two British girls in their early twenties, each with a big backpack leaning against her chair. Even in these troubled times, there were still travelers backpacking around the world.