I slept surprisingly well. I wasn't scared of death, but nor did I welcome it. I think that was part of being a sailor. I'd looked death in the face many times in my life, be it in the heart of a storm or at the end of a cutlass, but somehow I'd always made it through alive. Today would just be another one of those times.

The weather was calm but cloudy. I just hoped that the rain stayed away.

I watched as Harmony left dock, then set sail straight away. The larger ship would travel faster than me, but with the island only 20 miles away, I wouldn't be too far behind.

It wasn't long before I saw the small island on the horizon. I can't have been more than 100 yards long, and was raised only a couple of feet out of the water. But there didn't appear to be anyone there.

My boat sailed closer, the disappointment starting to settle in my stomach.

Had the Captain lied? Or was this the wrong island?

As my boat neared the shore, I held onto the slim hope that maybe part of the island was hidden. Maybe it dipped on the other side and the Siren was there?

I felt the bottom of my boat scrape across the ocean floor so I dropped anchor and jumped into the water. It came to just above my waist, but was warm enough as I waded the rest of the way.

I'd only just stepped out of the water when I sensed a presence nearby.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end when a figure appeared over the rocks, heading my way. A figure in a tattered green dress and fiery red hair that seemed to glow like a halo of fire.

It felt like the breath was sucked right out of my lungs. Most people were scared of monsters with fangs, or peeling flesh, or blood shot eyes. My monster had dainty feet, curly hair and a kind smile.

She was smiling.

Somehow that made it worse.

"Hello?" she said, walking over to me, like she was a neighbour coming to greet me in the street.

My mouth opened and shut a few times, words failing me.

"Captain Hawkins said you wanted to speak to me?" she tried again.

She was only about 5 yards away from me now and I couldn't help but stare. She looked just the same but different too. Was she older? That would make sense seen as it was nearly 25 years ago that I saw her kill my father. But had the monster actually aged at all? It was hard to tell when the pictures in my mind were seen through the eyes of a 5 year old child.

The smile on its face had started to waver, probably concerned over my reaction. Or lack thereof.

"Wait! I know you!" she said, suddenly smiling again. "I saw you with Raephier not so long ago. How is he? Are you two friends?"

Hearing Raephier's name was all it took to snap me out of my transe.

"Don't you fucking ask about him! He's not your concern!"

The Siren flinched back slightly at my outburst, her posture immediately going more defensive.

It was not lost on me that I didn't like the sound of Raephier's name on her lips. That I had felt an urge to defend him from this beast. Yet to all intents and purposes, he was the same.

"What's your business with me?" she asked, her tone now abrupt and to the point.

Revenge.

I felt my hand instinctively move towards my side where my dad's fishing knife was hidden from sight, but I stopped before I got too close.

"To seek closure," I replied.

The Siren tilted her head to one side, like she was trying to decipher my words. Her gaze pierced mine and I fought hard not to look away. Her eyes narrowed slightly, before suddenly her face lit up in realisation.

"You want to kill me!" she said. Then laughed like it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard.

My fingers itched to grab my blade but I knew it wouldn't end well for me if I did.

"I imagine there are a lot of people out there who want to kill you," I shouted over her laughter, which succeeded in bringing it to an abrupt halt.

"Maybe that's true," she said, "but you're the first one that I've actually met."

I tried to keep my expression still, and not react to that, even though it was shocking if it was true.

"A murderer of the innocent like you? I would have thought they'd be queuing at your door."

"Sadly no," she said with a sigh, looking at me now like I was an object of curiosity. "But then the majority of people I've killed are not innocent, and there are usually no survivors to tell their tale."

"Well maybe I am one such survivor then," I said, keeping my chin up in defiance.

I knew that I was more than likely going to die on this island. That the moment I attacked, she would just sing and suck out my soul, but I'd be damned if I was going to show her one ounce of fear.

This monster standing in front of me had taken everything from me. My father, my brothers, my family, my childhood. She was the reason that I spent my youth in constant terror. She was the reason that I could never find happiness. She was the reason that I kept everything bottled up inside. She took everything from me. But she would not take this.

The Siren appeared deep in thought until something snapped her attention back to me and I felt her gaze take the whole of me in. I fought to control the shiver that tingled down my spine, her gaze making me feel naked and exposed.

"Oh my god, you're him aren't you?" she asked, stepping forward suddenly, which made me stumble backwards to keep a safe distance.

"Who?" I asked, feeling anxious for some reason, which didn't really make sense as the Siren was looking at me now as one would look at a kitten that had been left out in the rain.

"You're the little boy," she said, "the boy with the red coat and matching hat. The boy with eyes the colour of the sea."

I tried to swallow but my mouth was too dry. She remembered?

"The boy who watched you kill his father while his brothers killed each other? That one?" I bit back.

The Siren opened her mouth to say something, then stopped, but her gaze never left mine. And it was filled with pity.

"DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT!" I shouted, feeling myself lose some of the self control that I'd been fighting so hard to keep.

She immediately looked away, but then slowly her gaze returned back to mine.

"Look at you like what?" she asked, and she genuinely looked curious.

"With pity," I said, spitting the words in disgust. "You don't get to pity me. Whatever happened to me, however my life turned out, I am still worth more than a thousand of you. I am not a monster. You don't get to pity me."

"So you are here to kill me then?" the Siren asked.

I laughed. I couldn't help it. The situation was so ridiculous I had to laugh.

"I would love to kill you," I said, "but we both know that you're going to kill me first."

The silence stretched out in front of us as she just stood there looking at me.

"What if I didn't?" she said so quietly that the wind almost carried it away.

"What?" I asked, not quite sure whether I heard right.

"What if I didn't kill you. What if I let you kill me?"

I frowned. Was this a trap?

"Why would you do that?" I asked.

"Have you never thought that maybe I want to die?"

Her question confused me. No, of course I didn't consider that maybe she'd want to die, but I wasn't going to say that.

"It's a trap. And I'm not falling for it."

The Siren let out a small chuckle.

"What kind of trap? Why would I want to trick you? If I wanted you dead I would have done it by now."

She certainly had a point there.

"Then convince me then," I said. "Tell me why you want to die."

The Siren sighed wearily, then moved to sit down on a rock. She gestured for me to do the same but I shook my head. There was no way she was going to catch me off guard.

"I was about Raephier's age when I was first cursed. Some spiteful sea witch blamed me for leading a pod of killer whales to her home. They attacked, destroying her home and eating two of her children. It didn't matter that it wasn't me who they were following. They'd followed a shoal of fish, but of course she couldn't blame fish. She couldn't take her anger out on them. She needed someone to blame and that someone was me.

"She cursed me with The Song of the Sea. She told me what it was. Told me my family would turn me out. She wanted me to lose my family, like she'd lost hers. But my family didn't turn me out. They helped me find out as much about the curse as they could. They tried to protect me.

"Then one of my sisters got caught in a fishing net and she was taken by the fishermen. That was when I discovered my ability to walk on land. I'd chased after the boat and when they went to shore, I pulled myself onto some rocks to try to get a better view. And suddenly I had legs!

"They took my sister into a building, and slowly and rather wobbly on my new legs, I followed. I just watched them all night, waiting for an opportunity to try to rescue her. But the opportunity never came. And then the following morning, they started to load her onto the back of a cart and I knew I would never see her again. So for the first time ever, I decided to use my powers. I sang.

"There were five men in total. I was very lucky that my sister was protected by the cage that they'd put her in, so she wasn't harmed. I don't know if they all died. I just know that they fought so brutally that by the time I'd taken my first soul, none of them were still standing.

"I rescued my sister and took her home. I was celebrated as a hero. When Raephier took his first soul he was treated like a monster. I can't help but think that if the same had happened to me, I might not be where I am today.

"From that day on, I was seen as a kind of warrier. And it made my clan less fearful, and bolder than before. Suddenly humans didn't seem as scary as they had previously. Afterall, they had their guardian to protect them. And I lapped up the attention.

"With their newfound boldness, it didn't take long for us to clash with humans again, and this time I didn't think twice before using my song. There was a group of divers who were mining the coral near our home. In the past, if this had happened, we would have moved on and found somewhere else to live. But now we thought 'why should we move? This is our home and they are destroying it.' So I followed them back to their boat, then swam ahead and waited for them on some rocks. That was my second soul, and the rest of the men drowned at sea."

I shook my head in disbelief at her words, and they way she spoke of taking lives with such little emotion.

"I know what you're thinking," she said, "and you'd be right. I didn't think about the men, and their families who were probably waiting for them back home. You need to understand that we were always brought up to believe that humans were monsters. Things to fear and to despise. So no, I didn't feel guilty. Not at all.

"So I carried on singing. Anyone who threatened our home, or even came near was given the same treatment. Only I forgot one thing. I never checked for survivors. And soon the story had reached port of this monster who would sit on the rocks and lure men to their deaths.

"And then they trapped me. Two men came into the reef and started destroying it, and when I met them on the rock, they had their ears plugged, and they trapped me and took me onto land.

"I killed so many people there. I just kept singing and singing. The moment anyone came near me without their ears covered, I would sing, and the song wouldn't stop until I'd taken that person's soul.

"They beat me, and tortured me, and threatened to kill me. But I would just pretend to give in, then as soon as they uncovered their ears I would get my revenge. I didn't care if I died. But despite their threats, they cared. They looked at me and saw money and power. I would be worthless to them if I was dead.

"Eventually they realised they weren't getting anywhere and I was shipped off to a small island where I was held captive by a deaf man called Fritz. He kept me locked up, but he didn't treat me badly. But by then it was too late. The one thing I had never learned about being a Siren is the effect that taking souls would eventually have.

"It's like a thirst that you can never quench, like a constant burn that needs the relief of something cold. And the more souls you take, the worse the craving gets.

"I was in constant pain on that island, to the point it almost drove me mad. Fritz eventually figured out something was wrong, and he introduced me to Fingers."

I couldn't help the way my eyebrows shot up on hearing that name.

"Oh, you know Fingers do you? Not all that surprising since you're acquainted with Sirens. Well Fingers may be a greedy good for nothing goblin, but I owe him my life. He explained what was happening to me, and explained that I would need regular 'feeding' as he called it, but he also said that I should go as long as possible between meals or else the craving would get worse.

"I was put into the care of Captain Henry Wilkinson. I may have been a prisoner on his ship, but I liked him. He was always kind to me and he made sure I received regular meals.

"By this time I was more acquainted with humans, and my previous perception of them began to change. Sure there were plenty of monsters among them, but I also saw another side too. I saw men who pined for their homes and families. I saw men put their lives on the line to save their friends. And I saw love. And suddenly taking a soul meant something different.

"I wanted to stop. I tried to stop, but every time I went without feeding I would get closer to madness, and the closer I got, the more wild and untamed I became. The Captain became worried, as he knew that before long I wouldn't be able to control it, and he was worried for himself and his men. So he made a deal. He told me that he would only find men who deserved to die. He said the souls I took would be murderers and thieves, not deserving to be alive.

"And I believed him. Right until the day I saw you. I knew that your dad didn't deserve to die, and your brothers.......

She paused as if she was fighting the memory. My chest felt tight.

"And you," she said, looking into my eyes, and I saw that hers were filled with tears. "Your cries haunted my dreams for years."

She paused while she quickly wiped away the tears. I didn't know if she was expecting me to say anything, but I couldn't. It was like there was a lump lodged in my throat.

"I confronted the Captain after that, and he told me," she paused again while she swallowed back more tears, "he told me that there weren't enough bad people in the world to keep me satisfied."

She was practically shaking now with emotions, but I couldn't find it in me to feel any pity. I just felt numb. Which I supposed was better than the hatred I'd been carrying round my whole life.

"I tried to stop again, but I couldn't. Everytime I tried, I would start to lose control. The Captain assured me that the majority of the men whose souls I took were bad, but I couldn't be sure anymore. Every life I took would leave me wondering. Did he do anything wrong? Did he have a family waiting for him at home who depended on him?

"Eventually I stopped thinking about it. What was the point? Now I take only what I need and I don't worry myself with the questions. So now you see, I am a monster, just like you said, and I deserve to die. So I invite you now to come and get the closure you want. I won't harm you. Why would I when we want the same thing?"

I shook my head, unable to believe anything the Siren said. Surely she wouldn't just let me kill her. There had to be some point to this.

"If you wanted to die, then why not just kill yourself?" I asked.

The Siren let out a humourless chuckle.

"You think I wouldn't have, if that was an option? If a Siren kills themselves then the souls inside them will be released to wander the living realm forever, and they will never find their peace."

"Surely a monster wouldn't care about that?" I challenged.

She let out a bitter laugh.

"Oh it's purely selfish I assure you. My only comfort is that the souls I took might have a better life in their next one."

"And if I killed you?" I asked.

"Then they would find eternal peace."

My mind hummed with all that it had learnt, as I tried to make sense of where this left me.

The Siren stood up, snapping my attention back to her, my body suddenly alert, my hand hovering close to my knife.

"I'm all yours," the Siren said, taking a couple of steps towards me before dropping onto her knees and bowing her head. "Do what you came here to do."

My hand automatically reached under my coat and drew my father's fishing knife.

This was it. The moment I'd been waiting for nearly my whole life.

So why did it feel so wrong? And why wouldn't my hand stop shaking?

I looked at the Siren in front of me. Despite the monster she was, she looked like a woman. A defenceless woman, on her knees, showing no signs of aggression.

I took a tentative step towards her and raised my arm. I gripped onto the knife tightly, afraid that I would drop it, my hand was trembling so fiercely.

But I wasn't a killer. As much as I wanted to be right now, I wasn't. Sure, I had killed a few men, but it was always in self defence. Kill or be killed. This wasn't self defence. I wasn't even sure if I could still call this revenge. It was murder. Plain and simple.

"I can't do it," I said, my arm dropping pitifully by my side.

The Siren's head snapped back up to look at me.

"Of course you can. I won't fight back, I promise."

"Yes, but that's the problem!" I shouted in frustration. "I can't kill a defenceless woman!"

"I thought you said I was a monster."

"You are! I know you are! But what kind of monster lays down at your feet and asks to be killed?! Fight me! Attack me! If you want to die, fight for it!" I shouted desperately.

The Siren stood up and looked at me like I was a curiosity in a travelling circus.

"Fight you? But I don't know how to fight. I only know how to sing."

"Then do it!" I said, feeling desperate. "Sing!"

I raised my knife and held it in front of me, my knees bent, ready to attack.

"You do realise that the knife won't defend you against my song," the Siren said, looking bemused.

"I know," I said, falling down to my knees and fighting back the tears.

Why was this so hard?

I could hear the Siren pacing up and down in front of me. Would she kill me? I deserved to die. I couldn't even avenge my father's death.

"Humans are so weak," the Siren said matter of factly, stopping in front of me.

I looked up to see her smirking in my direction.

"You're all the same when it comes down to it. Weak and selfish. I can see that you know. Every time I sing, I see what their heart desires. And do you know what that is? It's something pretty, and young, and perfect. Human's never value what they have. Only what they cannot obtain. I seem to remember your father was the same. A pretty girl with shiney chestnut hair and a youthful complexion. So who was that then? A barmaid? The farmer's daughter?"

"Actually it was my mother," I spat out, her goading getting under my skin.

The Siren's eyebrows lifted.

"A bit young I would have said."

I said nothing, not wanting to give her the satisfaction.

"Ahh, so it was a younger version was it? The woman he fell in love with. Not the woman she became. Interesting."

"You know nothing, so don't pretend that you do," I growled out, before getting up onto my feet and staring her down.

"I don't need to know them. They're all the same. It wouldn't have been much longer before his eye started to wander."

"Just shut up," I said, knowing what she was doing, but not being able to contain the anger that was brewing.

"And what about you then?" she asked, "do you like them young and pretty too?"

And suddenly she looked 10 years younger. Her hair looked shiny and soft, her clothes brand new. She walked past me, swinging her hips seductively.

I jolted, momentarily afraid that she had started singing, but then I realised something and laughed.

"You think I'd be tempted by that?" I said, waving my hand in her general direction.

She immediately morphed back into her original form.

"So come on then," she said, walking right up to me so she was within touching distance. "If I used my powers, what would I look like? Who makes your heart sing?"

My heart suddenly started beating rapidly in my chest, though I maintained a stony gaze.

"You failed to put me under your spell last time, maybe you'll fail again," I said, hoping I sounded more confident than I felt.

The Siren laughed. "Last time you were a young boy. Young boys don't have the type of desire that's needed for my song. But you're a man now. A man with wants and needs. Tell me, who is it you dream of at night? Who would you like warming your sheets? I know there's someone. I can see it in your eyes."

I instinctively looked away. Then cursed myself for doing so.

"I knew it!" she said excitedly. "There is someone."

"There's no one," I replied, but I still couldn't meet her eyes fully.

"A lie!" she said with glee. "Who is it? Is she pretty? Unobtainable? Not yours?"

All the time she was talking, she tried to get me to look at her. I tried to remain impassive, but every muscle was stretched tight.

"I sense some shame. Am I right?"

"No!"

Yes

"Hmm, interesting. Why won't you look at me? Is it really that bad? Is it your mother?"

I snapped my gaze her way, my eyes boring a hole into hers.

"Don't you dare insult my mother!"

"At least you're looking at me now. So who is she then? Is she a friend? Or maybe she's an enemy."

I kept my gaze locked with the Siren's. She didn't know anything. It wasn't like she could read my mind. And if she did sing and found out the truth, well, I'd be about to die so it wouldn't matter.

"I'm not close am I?" she said with a sigh and I couldn't help but give a slight smile of victory.

"Oh I'm not giving up," she said with a smirk. "Is she.........Is she.........Is she....."

The intensity of her scrutinising stare made me start to sweat.

"Ah! Now I understand!" she said, her face lighting up. "I've been asking the wrong question haven't I? It's a he!"

I felt my body unwillingly give a pulse of adrenalin.

"No!"

"Oh yes!"

"No!"

"Why deny the truth? Are you ashamed?"

"I'm not answerable to you!" I said, then turned and walked a few paces away.

"Exactly," she said following me, "and I know that you have friends who are that way inclined, so why the shame? Unless..."

"Just stop talking!"

"Unless, it goes further than that. Who is it? Someone you shouldn't like? Someone who would hate you if you knew the truth?"

By now my blood was pounding in my ears. I spun around and drew my knife, pointing it towards the Siren.

"Why are you doing this?!" I asked desperately. I'd done so well in not letting myself think about it. I was the master of shutting away my bad thoughts into a box and not giving them a chance to fester in my mind. And now the monster in front of me was undoing all the hard work.

"I'm intrigued," she said, playing with me as a cat would play with a half dead mouse, "do you like your men strong and tough like your Captain, or pretty and soft like Rae-"

"DON'T!" I yelled, stopping her mid word.

The Siren stared at me with wide eyes.

"Like Raeph-"

"I SAID DON'T!" I shouted, even louder, before falling to my knees and choking back a sob. "Please don't. I can't....just don't."

"Isn't he with your Cap-"

"What is it you want from me? Are you trying to make me mad enough to kill you, is that it? Couldn't you find a better way? Or is it your job to torture people's minds as well as their souls."

The Siren was finally silent. I should have been happy that she'd finally stopped talking, but it turned out that my thoughts were just as torturous.

Raephier.

Raephier.

The name that I had to try to block out from my mind.

His face, his smile, his gentle nature, everything about him drew me to him.

When I first met him, I was frightened. No, terrified. I thought it was his powers. I thought he was using them on me, and that was why I found myself drawn to him. It was a bittersweet moment when I realised that wasn't the case, and I was genuinely attracted to him. And that horrified me even more. I'd barely acknowledged to myself that I was attracted to men, but to admit that I was attracted to a monster? The same type of monster that had killed my family? The bitterness and anger from my situation ran deep and I projected most of it onto Raephier. But as much as I tried, I couldn't hide away from my feelings forever. Not when I saw him every damn day. But by then it was too late. He was in love with Jacob, and Jacob with him. And I had to get away. I had to make sure they never found out.

"So after all that, you fell in love with a monster," came the Siren's voice, snapping me from my thoughts.

"Don't call him that," I growled. It wasn't lost on me that I had regularly called him that in an effort to distance myself from uninvited feelings.

"What a monster? Why not? That's what he is. After all, he is one of my kind."

"You and him are nothing alike!" I said, jumping up onto my feet and advancing on the Siren.

"He's a killer isn't he? Did you not know that he killed his own Prince?"

I frowned at her words, not sure what she was talking about.

"Raephier is no killer."

The Siren laughed, throwing her head back.

"Oh, that's just great! I can't wait to tell them. Can you imagine what they will say when they find out?"

"They won't find out!" I replied, lifting my knife and pointing it towards her.

"Oh, so you're going to kill me are you? I don't think you're man enough to even hold that knife. How do you think your dad is going to feel, knowing that you've fallen in love with a monster like the one who took his life?"

"You don't know what my father would think!"

"Are you sure? Because his soul is inside me right now, and I can feel it. And do you know what I can feel? Shame and disgust!"

"DON'T YOU DARE! DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO USE MY FATHER AGAINST ME!"

I stepped forward and grabbed hold of her shoulder, dragging her round quickly so her back was pressed up against my chest, the blade of my knife moving up against her throat.

The Siren turned her head to the side, so she was looking up at me. In doing so, her neck pressed further into my blade and I watched as a small drop of blood trickled down her neck.

"Do you know what happens when I sing?" she asked. "My eyes glow gold. If you see my eyes glow gold, you have less than a second before it's too late. It's your choice Lyle. You have one second to decide if you live or die. Are you ready Lyle?"

My head was spinning. No, the world was spinning. I wasn't sure which way was up and which was down. I couldn't even make sense of what she was saying. It was just individual words floating in the air.

Gold

Second

Eyes

Live

Die

Lyle

Wait, Lyle?

The world ground to a stop and I turned to look at the woman pressed against my chest.

"My name. How did you know my name?"

"One second Lyle! Do you hear me? One second!"

Her eyes flickered, like light glinting off something shiny.

"MY NAME!! HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?!!!" I shouted, gripping the knife tighter.

The Siren's skin started to shrivel, her hair falling out in clumps. It took everything I had not to give in to the repulsion and run away.

"It's coming Lyle," ground out a voice from the object in my arms. It was no longer the voice of a woman but the voice of a beast. "One second Lyle. That's all you have. I can feel it coming." It was no longer a woman in my arms but the very definition of a monster from my childhood dreams. I watched as it smiled, revealing a set of rotten but very pointy teeth.

"HOW. DO. YOU. KNOW. MY. NAME?"

The thing in my arms laughed manically.

"Because it's in my head!"

And then I heard something I thought I would never hear again. The voice of my father. Only it was coming out of the monster's mouth.

"Do it Lyle! Please son, you can do it boy. Please, I need you to do it son. For me Lyle."

His voice was cut off by the monster's hiss.

"One second."

Then its eyes blazed gold.

One second.

My arm jolted without my command and the monster went limp in my arms.

I let go, and watched her crumple to the floor, then stared at my knife in shock, watching it drip crimson.

I let go of the knife and it fell to the floor. But I never heard the thud of it hitting the ground, as all of a sudden a wind, as strong as a tornado tore all around me, knocking me onto the ground.

The noise reminded me of some of the worse storms I'd sailed through. It howled and screamed around me. I tried to look where it was coming from, but it was whipping up the sand so I had to cover my face.

Then the noise started to change. It started as a low rumble and then grew into something animalistic. Like a growl. The rumble of the noise was so intense that I could feel its vibrations through my body.

I should have been scared. Hell, maybe I was scared, but everything happened so fast I struggled to register what was happening.

I sensed a movement nearby and peered out from between my fingers to see the monster come back to life. Or so I thought.

It stood. As straight as a soldier, then it threw open its arms, lifted its head to the sky, then emitted a high pitched scream that had me moving my hands from in front of my face, to over my ears.

I wanted to run but the wind was too strong.

The wind seemed to pick up momentum, yet it seemed to affect me less. I chanced another look and saw that the wind had focussed its attention onto the Siren and had formed a tight whirlwind around her.

And then I saw something that I would never forget. Spirits, or at least that's the name I used for them, leaving her body. One by one, ghostly shadows left her body and started floating up to the sky. I looked closer in fascination and began to see features on these shadows, like faded versions of the people they used to be. A man with a dark beard. A man with a hunched back. A woman with long flowing hair. A man with a large belly. They just kept coming, one after the other, floating up towards the clouds.

I don't know if I started looking for one particular face, but he was suddenly there, floating up, following the others.

"Dad!" I shouted after him, willing him to turn around.

I thought he mustn't have heard me, but then he turned his head, and smiled. A sight that made me both elated and devastated at the same time. And then he turned back round and drifted away with the rest of them. Tens of them. No, maybe hundreds of them. All that life wasted. Taken away by one being.

The noise started to fade, as the wind slowed down. I watched as the last spirit finally disappeared from view.

I turned to face the Siren. Was she dead? The souls leaving her body suggested she was, as did the deep red gash across her neck that must have been made by my knife, yet she was still standing, with her arms spread, looking up to the sky.

The wind abruptly stopped and an eerie silence settled over us. Then like something possessed, the Siren lowered her arms and turned to look at me. Her eyes were glowing red, like there was a fire burning deep within.

Then she opened her mouth and the fire shot out towards me.

And then it went black.