Her heart pounded. This was a sick joke. Who would do this? Who could do this so quickly and silently? She slapped the hood of the jeep with both hands. No cell phone. She was so out of breath that she was getting dizzy. She searched the ground but could barely see anything now. Inside; she must have left it in the seat. She yanked open the jeep door. A small cry thrust from her throat and the heat drained from her body. A dirt-covered doll lay in the seat.
She stumbled back a step. She was losing her senses and felt like she was no longer completely there, as if in a dream. She spun around off balance, arms out, her breath jerking in and out in gasps. Something else had changed. She felt faint. A dark shape lay in the ditch by the fence post. She had just come from there. She stared until realization settled over her. She was looking at her own body, her own blond hair soaked in blood, draped over a rock.
Her heart stilled. The cold night air stole through her soul. She felt thin as a wisp of wind. A hand slipped inside hers. She looked down and the solemn girl looked up. Her mouth did not move but her words crawled into Aayla's mind. Don't ever leave me again.
Sweet Silence
By Amanda Alberson
© 2013 By Amanda Alberson
Aiden looked over at his friend again and rolled his eyes. Jared sat on the edge of his seat wrapped in childlike excitement.
This is so lame! Aiden thought as he looked around the outdated bar, aptly named, The Boondocks. They’d driven for what seemed like hours into the endless Louisiana swamps before finding the clap board shack.
He reached out and poked Jared in the shoulder to get his attention then signed, “She better be A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.” He spelled the last word slowly with grand gestures to get his point across.
Jared laughed and replied, “Dude she will be, trust me.”
Shaking his head Aiden took another drink of his beer. He’d known Jared his whole life and trusted him in almost every way. Although being dragged to the middle of nowhere to watch some hot chick sing, even though he couldn’t hear her, had him doubting his own sanity as well as Jared’s.
The crowd was small, filled mostly with college guys just like Aiden and Jared. The shack felt larger on the inside than it looked from the parking lot. The dimly lit tables were nestled up against the stage as if they too were eager fans. The only other person aside from the lusty eyed patrons was a tall, steel eyes bartender who hadn’t spoken when Jared ordered their beers, only nodded gruffly and slid them across the bar.
The lights dimmed and Aiden’s eyes fell on the stage as the red velvet curtain began to part. A long leg slid from the darkness. From the folds of the curtains stepped a tall womanly girl with deep burgundy red hair. An aqua sequenced dress clung to her curvy figure. She looked like a 50’s pin up girl with her large innocent eyes and her thick, curvy body.
Aiden’s stare slid down her, over her hips, to her milk white legs that found home in the long split in her dress. She stood on stage drinking them in, her bare feet and perfectly manicured aqua toe nails peeked from beneath the long hem. His eyes traveled back up, enjoying every inch of her sensuous body. Her round emerald eyes sat on a plain but pretty face. She wasn’t a Hollywood bombshell but there was something alluring about her. Jared was practically clawing at the stage in a vain attempt to pull her closer.
Esilee scanned the small crowd. There was a collective sigh as she slowly slid her tongue across her crimson lips. She looked ravenously down at the young man gripping the stage and smiled. The young ones were always so eager, never any challenge with them. She took a slow, long breath and began to sing. The room fell deathly silent except for the soft murmuring of her voice.
Aiden looked over to give Jared a thumb up but his friend was too enthralled with the woman on stage to pay him any attention.
Finishing the last of his beer he grabbed his bottle as well as Jared’s and headed towards the bar. The bartender eyed him suspiciously as Aiden set the empties down and motioned for two more.
“What’s the matter don’t like girls?” The man asked. In the dim lights it was hard for Aiden to follow his lips and he was afraid he’d read them wrong.
Speaking to strangers always embarrassed him. He knew the look and the million questions that followed every time he spoke to someone new, so instead he just shrugged.
Esilee watched him stand at the bar, his back arrogantly turned to her. Fire blazed in her emerald green eyes as she sang louder. No one had ever ignored her before, no man could have, would have ever ignored the sound of her voice. The room let out a moan as she crooned even louder, her throaty voice growling the words. As her smoky song filled the room the men at the tables swayed along.
Aiden felt a slight change in the air around him, a light rumble in the bar where his hand lay and then it was gone. He continued counting out ones for the beers.
Esilee lowered her voice again to a soft lullaby and smiled as she heard heads falling on tables. She stepped from the stage, moving fluidly through the sleeping crowd, when Aiden turned she was standing in his path glaring at him.
“You don’t like my songs?” She asked. He could tell by her tense stance and the way she bit at the words she as angry.
He sighed; he had no choice but to answer her.
“If your voice is as beautiful as you are I’m sure no man on earth could resist it, but I can’t hear it, I’ve been deaf since birth.” He looked down at his feet, not wanting to see the pity or the surprise on her face.
Esilee felt the warm heat slide across her cheeks. He’d called her beautiful, without even hearing her voice. He wasn’t entranced by her siren song, he wasn’t waiting endlessly for the next notes to come from her, and yet he’d called her beautiful.
“Really?” She asked, not noticing he wasn’t looking at her anymore. She slid a finger beneath his chin and tilted his head up so she could meet his eyes. They were such a deep blue; they almost looked like home to Esilee. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d swam in the deep fathoms of the ocean. Certainly not since the giant storm had swirled her up and carried her to this wooded swamp. The waters were deep enough in places but too shallow in others. The creatures here were both familiar and different, but she found what she needed so she remained. Always lonely and often homesick, she craved something she did not understand until she saw Aiden. Something she’d never known in all her lifetimes nor in all the years she’d been here living off the locals and the college frat boys that came seeking the Siren of the Swamp. Esilee craved true love.
“Really?” She asked again, “You think I’m beautiful?”
Aiden smiled at her. Her features softened into those of a young girl, eager to be adored but too shy to seek the attention.
“Of course I do. I wish I could hear you sing, but there is something fairly close to it.” It was his turn to blush, he couldn’t believe what he was about to ask her.
“If I could put my hand here,” he reached forward tentatively and places his hand just above her breasts.
“If I put my hand here while you sing, I can feel your voice.” He smiled at her shyly.
She clasped her hand over his and began a low, deep ballad of lost ships and men buried in the sea. Her chest swelled and rumbled beneath his hand. He felt so much more than just the vibrations from her voice; he felt the emotions the song brought out of her. Sorrow and pain flowed from her and into his heart. They looked at each other, tears brimming in both their eyes.
It was then Aiden noticed the other men, dead eyed and swaying in their seats, awoken by her newest song.
“What are you?” He asked.
Esilee looked away, ashamed for the first time in her life for what she was.
“I’m a siren. I survive off the souls and flesh of men that are lured here and entranced by my voice.” She dropped her hand from his, waiting for the shriek of terror, for the utter rejection.
“Well you caught me.” Aiden replied.
She smiled at him through her tears.
“But I don’
t want you.”
“Too small a catch?” He smiled back, winking at her.
Caught off guard by his innuendo she laughed out loud, causing the men in the room to laugh along with her.
“No, I could never destroy you, you found beauty in me without magic or tricks, and how could I ever destroy that?”
“Are you going to kill all of these men? Do you know them? One of them is my best friend; I’ll beg you for his life if it would help.” He slowly slides one finger across her collarbone then up to her chin, bringing her eyes to his.
“I only need one; I would never take your friend from you.”
“How do you decide?” He looked out over the crowd. How did one choose which life was less valuable than another? Nothing about any of the men there stood out. None looked like bad men that would deserve a good soul eating.
“I don’t think about it really. I sing and at the end of the night I call to one of them to stay, one that came alone, or looks like he’s at the end of his rope. Sometimes old crab boat captains and alligator hunters wander in from the swamp. No one thinks anything of it if they go missing, it’s a hazardous job fishing these swamps, and sometimes men disappear.”
“That must be horrible for you. Surviving off the souls of others.”
She smiled at his concern, and without thinking she leaned forward and covered his lips with her own. A shock ran through him. His entire body began to hum as her tongue tickled his.
“I must be drunk.” He replied when she pulled away.
“How else could I explain being in a bar in the middle of a swamp being kissed by a soul eating siren? I’m drunk, maybe I passed out at the table and Jared is driving us home right now.” He began looking around the bar, realization settled into his blue eyes bringing fear with it.
Her heartbeat tripled, stopped and then pounded inside of her chest. She felt like she was dying. Never in her long life had Esilee ever felt this way. She’d desired men before but only for their flesh and their soul. This one made her want things she didn’t understand. Right then what she wanted most was for him to stop looking at her like she was a soul devouring monster, even though she was.
The panic began to build in Aiden’s chest as he looked past her, searching the sea of glazed eyes for Jared. When he looked back at her tears welled in her green eyes threatening to drag her smoky eye liner down her cheeks.
“I am sorry, please do not cry.” He signed at her without thinking. Esilee took his hands into hers.
“That was beautiful, what was it?”
“I said, I’m sorry and I don’t want you to cry.”
She was astonished there could be so much power and feeling in words that were not spoken aloud. All her life the power of her voice had been everything, now this man, this mortal man was breaking her heart with the wave of his hand.
Aiden couldn’t look at her with tears in her eyes. Frightened and confused as he was, her vulnerability moved him. She couldn’t possibly be a heartless monster, if that was true they would all be dead by now.
“Say something else, with your hands.” She whispered.
Aiden smiled and signed to her, speaking softly as he did.
“Hi, my name is Aiden.”
She watched intensely as his hands moved.
“Aiden,” she said, tasting his name on her lips.
“I’m Esilee.”
The bartender grumbled pulling their attention towards him; he nodded towards the stage, where the men were stirring from their stupor
“I have to eat Aiden.” She paused, tears returning to her eyes as she kissed him softly.
“Get your friend and leave, go back towards town and don’t ever come into the swamp again.”
He watched as her beautiful face contorted as if in pain. Ruby red lips quivered as he read them. He shook his head desperately signing at her as quickly as he could.
“No. I will not leave you here alone. I want to stay. I want to hold you and talk to you. I want to get to know you. Dammit Esilee I want to love you.” He plunged his hands into the red sea of hair framing her shocked face and kissed her. Their passion consumed them. Her body melted against his as he held her tighter. Aiden’s soft lips moved from her mouth to her neck and back as he lifted her from the ground and set her on the barstool. Esilee wrapped her silky legs around his waist and sighed against his lips.
A hand pulled at Aiden’s shoulder. One of the men stood behind him anger and alcohol burned in his eyes.
“Hey asshole, how about you share some of that action?” The man reached lazily towards Esilee. Aiden placed himself between them shoving the man’s arm violently.
“Back off.” Aiden growled. Esilee’s heart swelled. No one ever tried to protect her, and even though Aiden had to know she could handle the guy on her own, he still stood protectively between them.
“What’d you say to me boy,” the man sneered, “bach off? What are you? Slow?”
Before he could utter another ignorant word Jared was swinging on him. His powerful right fist collided with the man’s already crooked nose. It reminded Aiden of when he first met Jared on the Kindergarten playground. Three bullies were pushing Aiden around between them calling him every name they could think of, when Jared rushed in swinging wildly at all of them. His tiny fists flailed endlessly until the boys ran away, all bleeding from either the nose or the mouth. Jared had turned and stuck his hand out to Aiden and shouted,
“My grandma don’t hear either!”
They’d been inseparable ever since.
Aiden reached down and pulled Jared off the man who had long since stopped resisting.
“Take that guy Esilee, although I’m not sure how much soul he actually has.” He whispered to her.
Esilee slid from the barstool and hummed softly in the man’s ear. He stood and followed her through a door next to the stage.
“Everybody out.” The bartender barked. Slowly the room emptied.
Aiden gripped Jared’s shoulder, “Thanks man.”
“Anytime, what the hell happened? One minute I’m drooling over that hot babe, the next I’m kicking some guys ass while you’re making out with her.”
Aiden blushed, “You know me man, I’m a lady killer.”
Jared laughed and moved toward the door.
“Come on, I’ve had enough fun for one night.”
“I’m gonna stay.”
Jared’s head whipped around.
“Stay?”
“Yeah, we’re getting to know each other.” Aiden smiled at him and wondered if his best friend would leave him alone in a swamp shack with a siren.
“Dude, I’m not leaving you in the middle of nowhere with some chick and Murder Magee over there.” Jared nodded towards the bartender who was busy washing out glasses and tossing empty beer bottles.
“Come back tomorrow and get me, or I’ll call you before then if I need a ride. I’m sure Esilee has a car she can bring me home.” He was practically pleading. He couldn’t leave, there’s was just something magical about Esilee, she was like a drug and he needed more, so much more.
She stepped next to them as if conjured by Aiden’s mere thought of her. Her snow white complexion glowed in the dim bar light and her eyes held a shine Aiden hadn’t seen in them earlier. He wondered if it was the man’s soul trapped inside of her.
Esilee looked at Jared, who was looking at his friend with such a pained concern it hurt her heart. Aiden must be an amazing man to have a friend who cared for him so very much. While the man eating siren in her enjoyed the rugged bravery Jared possessed, she was attracted more to the soft, passionate emotions that Aiden displayed with each move of his hands. She didn’t care that when he wasn’t speaking aloud she didn’t know what the movement meant. It wasn’t the actual words that moved her, it was the raw emotion she could feel coming from each gesture. She’d heard men speak for more lifetimes than she could account for. They spoke with anger and lust and mostly with lies, Aiden spoke with only his heart, and for that s
he instantly loved him.
Their eyes met and something stirred deep inside of her, she knew she couldn’t lose him.
“I promise to bring him back safe and sound.” She smiled at Jared, but he refused to budge.
“Sorry sister, no man left behind, he’s coming with me.” He reached for Aiden’s arm, but Aiden stepped away.
“Not tonight Jared. I’m staying.” Aiden wrapped his fingers between Esilee’s.
“Then I stay too.” Jared said as he sat down on the barstool next to him.
Miraculous: Tales of the Unknown Page 5
