Siren Blood

by Nas Magkasi

  “I just don’t know how else to explain it.” Tears welled in Mistico’s eyes.

  “Could it be that you’re a little upset that she is back now?” Domenico suggested gently.

  “Why would I be upset?” Mistico said. “I would be happy to have my best friend back, you know I would. But it’s not her. It’s someone else.”

  Zannan sighed. “It can’t be easy, seeing Domenico in love again. I know you’ve grown close to him over these months.”

  “That’s not it,” Mistico exclaimed.

  “If you’re looking for an explanation, dear, I’m trying to help you find one. It always hurts to see the person you love be with someone else.”

  “Adriana’s my friend. I want her back. I really do. I’m telling you—“

  “I know you do, dear. Tell me, are you involved in the wedding somehow?”

  “No. The wedding is tomorrow and they want it to be quick. At noon, they’ll just say their vows in front of the town and that’s it. No food, no dancing, no flowers.”

  “Maybe you’re feeling a little left out. Hmm?”

  “Father,” Mistico said, exasperated. “If you don’t believe me, can you at least meditate with me? If you get inside my head and feel what I feel, maybe –”

  Zannan waved her suggestion away. “Misty, they’re about to get married tomorrow. You’ve got to let them be.”

  “Which is why you’ve got to help me before it’s too late!”

  “Do you hear yourself, child?

  “Please, Father. I know you don’t like to use magic, but –”

  “Remember that I helped you and Domenico find Adriana and I couldn’t. I was wrong. She is alive. You’re going to have to accept that I might be like the humans, Mistico. I can make mistakes too. Magic is not always right and it’s better if we don’t use it altogether and let the world continue on in the natural order of things.

  “But you can use your powers for good. It’s a gift from God. I have it too. You know I do, but you just won’t teach me!”

  Mistico’s tears had stopped and she became unbelievably angry.

  “If I could turn back time,” Zannan said. “I would erase everything I ever learned about magic. It has done more harm than good. It has killed people. It has hurt the ones I love. Your mother is gone because of me and my supposed ‘good’ magic.”

  “But you also saved the town from the sirens, remember? This town still exists thanks to you!”

  “Without magic,” Zannan said. “People would not expect you to solve their problems all the time, then blame you when things go wrong. You’ll thank me one day.”

  Mistico jumped up from her seat.

  “You can use your powers for good, I know it. Things that are meant to happen in the world will happen, but God has entrusted you with a gift that you are denying. A man of your caliber – why do you want to be useless to society?”

  “Mistico, that’s enough,” Zannan said sharply. “I know you’re upset, but I’m your father and I know what’s good for you. Now with this Adriana business, you’re just going to have to let it go. I cannot help you. You are just going to move on from Domenico. There are other fishermen in town.”

  “Father, for the last time, he’s a friend, and I want to help him. If he’s marrying some horrible monster, I want to prevent him from doing that. Something’s wrong and I can feel it. You could probably feel it too if only you were to let yourself be open to it.”

  Zannan looked grave. “My final answer is no.”

  “Sometimes I think you are a coward,” Mistico said, before storming out.

  Mistico had no other choice but to get to the bottom of things herself. By the time she got home, the sun was already setting. After changing into a black set of clothes, she set off for Adriana’s house.

  She didn’t know what she expected to find, but it was the only thing she could think of to do, short of talking to Domenico. She didn’t want to hurt Domenico so she didn’t. In case she really was wrong. Still, she had to make sure.

  Maybe she could talk to Adriana’s mother. Everybody in the village knew that Adriana’s mom was an alcoholic. She was even banned from the local bar. But Mistico figured if anyone else would know what was going on with Adriana, it would be her.

  The mother and daughter lived on the very top of the hill, right beside the well. They had a garden of fruits and vegetables that Adriana had grown and maintained before she left. As Mistico crouched by, she noticed that the garden was barren. Dead weeds and rotting fruit were everywhere.

  The house itself was dark. Mistico looked inside the front window. She rose on her tiptoes. She made out Adriana’s mother in a chair, but she could only see the back of her head.

  Gingerly, she knocked, but she didn’t get up to answer. Mistico let herself in. She didn’t want to scare anyone, but her instincts told her not to make her presence known.

  When her eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness inside the house, she saw that the floor was full of broken plates. Mistico could hardly step around them; they almost covered the entire floor of the living room.

  “Hello?”

  She approached the woman in the rocking chair that wasn’t rocking. Mistico grasped when she saw her. Adriana’s mother was passed out with her tongue hanging out. Thick rivulets of drool covered her chin and wetted the white cotton of her top. Her skin took on a purplish sheen, but it could’ve been the darkness.

  Mistico checked for a pulse. She had a heartbeat, but it was very slow.

  An empty bottle laid by her feet. She must’ve been drinking. That was why she was passed out.

  A cackle came from somewhere in the house. Mistico gasped and jumped. When she realized that it was Adriana talking to someone else, she relaxed and started to tiptoe near where the voices were coming from.

  The other person was a woman. They were in Adriana’s bedroom down the end of the hall.

  “I can’t wait for tomorrow,” Adriana was saying. “I can’t wait to get out of this body. Women’s bodies are the worst. There’s no strength, yet you feel heavy all the time. What’s the point?”

  “No idea,” the other voice said. “The body I’m in from died giving birth. I’m still suffering from pain from time to time. And that Gio is always trying to hug me and kiss me. Poor fool. We’re both suffering. I expect he’ll be proposing soon. For now, he just keeps coming around with flowers. Like I have any need for them.”

  “I can’t wait for tomorrow. We’ll have one to feast on at least. Do you think we can eat him right away?”

  “Oh Maj. Don’t you ever think? It might be suspicious if Domenico simply disappears. Gio might want him at my wedding.”

  “Fine. You’re right. Oh well. We’ll just have to drug him until them, like I did to dear Mama. He’s such a fool. He believes everything I say. But he just smells incredible. Have you ever smelled him?”

  “No, but if he smells anything like Gio, I’d want to gobble him up too. It’s taking all my willpower not to chop Gio up into pieces.”

  Adriana, or whoever this Maj was, chuckled again.

  Mistico covered her mouth. She wanted to hurl, but she had to stand still and listen to as much as she could.

  “This is the last time I’m doing this,” said the other woman.

  “You’re telling me. I don’t ever want to spend this much time on land ever again. It’s not worth helping a demon. This better be worth it.”

  “It will be. These people killed our sisters. We need to avenge their deaths.”

  Mistico peeked in the door and saw the woman whom Adriana was talking to. She had curly strawberry blond hair and a strong profile. She didn’t recognize her, but she couldn’t believe that Gio was being seduced by one of them too.

  Adriana was sitting on the bed, legs dangling.

  “Why don’t we just start killing men at night and eat them?” the other woman said.

  Adriana sat up.

  “That’s brilliant! You know Mer, sometimes you’re a genius.”<
br />
  The woman smirked. “Thank you. I’ve always been the brains of the group. All we need is a knife. Corner one man alone at night, seduce him, and he’ll be dead in our arms not before long.”

  “Let’s do it now. I’m starving.”

  They both stood and made their way to the door. Mistico backed away, but a floorboard creaked.

  “Who’s there?” Adriana said.

  Mistico stumbled as she tried to run away. They ran after her, cackling. She screamed the whole way, but in a house on the top of the hill, few would be able to hear her. Sound traveled upward.

  Chapter Seven

  It was supposed to be the happiest day of Domenico’s life. He’d dreamt of it for so long that when the dream became reality, he was at a standstill.

  Adriana had demanded a quick wedding. No fuss, not even music. Just saying the vows in front of the whole village and be done with it. Everybody was at the town square, watching and waiting. Uncle Gio came with a new lady friend in his arms. He seemed happy and Domenico was glad. Gio deserved to have love in his life again.

  He wondered where Mistico was. After spending all week with Adriana, he realized that she barely cared about spending any time with Mistico. He had been so wrapped up in making up for lost time with Adriana that he’d forgotten about Mistico too. But he missed her. She could always make him laugh.

  When they all went wedding dress shopping, it was odd how abruptly she left. He went to look for her at her house that same night, but nobody was home. He’d assumed that she was staying at her father’s house. Yesterday night he looked for again and she still wasn’t home.

  He hoped that nothing was wrong. Mistico was important to him and he wanted her to be here to share his special day. Could it be that she was upset that he was getting married and didn’t want to come? Maybe she did have feelings for him after all. Sometimes when he was kissing Adriana, Mistico’s lovely face sprang into his mind.

  No, he told himself. Stop this line of thinking. More than anything, he needed a friend by his side. As he waited for his bride to change, he stood before the crowd, smiling back at everyone. Sweat lined his best linen shirt. His heart took a beating. He felt dizzy and his mouth was dry.

  It was normal to have cold feet, he knew. Yet he hadn’t expected to be this panicked when he’d planned to marry this girl for so long.

  Ever since Adriana had been back, he’d noticed small changes in her personality. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something was off. She looked as lovely as ever, but his constant love and desire seemed to be fading. Sometimes he even dreaded to see her. She was not the demure, generous girl he’d once known; she was now aggressive, ostentatious, and had a mean streak that became more and more apparent as the days went on. He didn’t know what happened to her while she was gone, but it was hard to believe that someone could change so much in the course of only six months. She laughed differently, moved differently, even pronounced his name differently. Sometimes when she looked deep into his eyes, he shivered for no apparent reason.

  Yet there was nothing he could do now. He still loved Adriana and there was good reason to believe that she would return back to her old self once she got used to living in Tetro again.

  She arrived in her white wedding dress that sent him a year into debt. Lacy frills

  zigzagged in all directions on her body. Her head was under a big white hat trimmed with lace. When she neared, he looked at her face again, the rosy apple cheeks, the serene blue of her eyes, and searched for the love he used to feel at the sight of her.

  As he looked at her now, all he felt was scared.

  Zannan puttered around in his garden after a stroll in the forest, where he had been admiring the trees and the squirrels. What a lovely day for a wedding. He hoped that Mistico had finally come to her senses and was enjoying herself at the wedding.

  After tea, he got on his knees and began a chat with Fred, the garden snail.

  “How are the kids?” Zannan asked.

  “They’re being punished for being in your rose bush,” said Fred. “So they’re in their shells for a time-out.”

  Zannan chuckled. “Splendid. What’s new on the garden front?”

  “Well…” Fred’s slimy countenance grew serious. “I picked up some news from Mother Nature.”

  “News?” Zannan frowned. This couldn’t be good. Snails were rarely channels for the energies of the world, unless it was important. “What is it?”

  “It’s about your daughter. It seems that she’s gone.”

  “Gone? Where?”

  “I don’t know,” said Fred. “That was all I picked up. You have more power than I do to get in tune with other beings.”

  “Thanks, Fred.”

  Zannan marched back into the house. Without wasting time, he lit sage incense and sat down on his meditation cushion.

  He’d seen his daughter only a couple of days ago. She’d been frustrated that he didn’t want to help her by using magic, but magic was something that they always argued about. This time she’d been really angry, and he hoped that she did not do anything too rash. He wanted to teach her that magic was not the solution to everything, but if something were to happen to her, he would never forgive himself.

  He closed his eyes and breathed, letting his third eye focus on the black space in his mind. Mistico was still alive. If she weren’t, he would know it.

  He breathed in and out. His mind swirled and expanded his inner vision into space. It zoomed down to the planet Earth. He had to concentrate on his daughter’s energy to find her. Earth spun around until it became a massive blur. Suddenly it stopped. Down he plunged into the place where Mistico was. He saw who had taken his daughter and where she was now. Mistico was alive, but badly injured.

  Adriana was involved, except he knew now that Mistico was right. She wasn’t Adriana. A demon’s rubbery face appeared, holding a deadly gold ring.

  Zannan also saw how the real Adriana died.

  There was no time for him to sit around. He had to find his daughter. But first he had to stop a wedding in the village before it was too late.

  Domenico listened to Adriana say her vows. Her voice dripped with sugary sincerity and her promise to love him forever made him want to shudder even though they were words he’d long to hear for so long.

  She held out a gold ring. It looked nice and shiny, but something in him screamed. That ring could not go on his finger. It glowed. It looked like it would burn him, just like Adriana’s skin when she was particularly hot. Everything was wrong about this wedding, this moment, but he looked out at all the smiling faces in the crowd and saw no escape. He looked for Mistico, but there was still no sign of her.

  How could he think about Mistico at a time like this? How could he consider abandoning Adriana, when she had been through so much? He would just have to stick it out.

  “With this ring,” said Adriana, slipping the ring on his finger “I take thee as – ”

  The ring almost reached past his knuckle before a grave voice boomed from above.

  “STOP THIS MADNESS!”.

  Everyone looked up at Zannan, who stood on top of an eagle. The eagle descended and Zannan jumped down into the crowd.

  “Expelleramus!” he yelled.

  The gold ring flew from Adriana’s hand and into Zannan’s pocket.

  “Hey!” She hissed at him.

  Zannan boldly stepped through them the crowd.

  “Domenico,” he said. “This wedding can not go on.”

  Domenico froze from shock. He hadn’t seen Zannan in years. Zannan refused company from everyone except his daughter. He even cast an invisibility spell over his house in the forest a few years ago so he couldn’t be found.

  “I’m sorry, son,” Zannan said. “This woman is not your beloved Adriana. The real Adriana has been killed by her mother.”

  The villagers grasped. Adriana’s mother was too inebriated to understand what was going on.

  “You are an imposter!” Zannan point
ed at the fake Adriana. “You took my daughter and now you’re going to pay!”

  Domenico turned to the woman he was about to marry. Fear was written all over her pretty face.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she managed to mutter.

  “Sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua…”

  A horrifying, earth-shattering screech escaped Adriana’s lips. The woman that came with uncle Gio’s shrieked well.

  But she had moved from Gio’s arms during the commotion. She stood right behind Zannan and before he could repeat the incantation, she raised an arm and stabbed him in the back before anyone could stop her.

  “NOOOOO!” Domenico screamed.

  Some of the men grabbed the woman and tried to restrain her, but she and Adriana began to transform. They grew into giants, their skin molting to the dark thick hide Domenico had seen ten years ago.

  He watched in horror as Adriana’s white hat popped off and her face stretched and transformed into one of a hideous bird.

  It can’t be. Not again.

  Chapter Eight

  The villagers dispersed. Once again, the women steered the children home and the men scrambled for weapons.

  Domenico ran to Zannan and carried him out of the way before he would get trampled by one of the beasts.

  He wanted to join in and fight with his uncle and the other men, but he had to do everything he could to make sure that Zannan stayed alive.

  “Zannan, can you hear me?”

  The knife was still in Zannan’s back.

  “Take it out,” Zannan said, gesturing the knife.

  Domenico did as he was told, and gently pulled the knife out. Zannan cried out in pain.

  “Now what?” Domenico asked. “Is there a spell you can use to heal yourself?”

  Zannan let out a dry chuckle.

  “No. There is none.” He looked as if he wanted to cry. “I burned all the books.”

  “What?”

  “I thought magic was something I wanted to save my daughter from. So they’re all destroyed. The cure for fatal wounds, the spell to destroy sirens, everything, gone. I thought they would never return and I wanted to have a clean break from magic. I was a fool. I just didn’t want the responsibility. Mistico was right, I am a coward.”