Chapter Text
Her job is endlessly draining, everyday she gets up far to early, dresses in uncomfortable garments for an extended period of time. Then has to put on a show, which is almost impossible for her to succeed in.
However, once the dusk hits and the moon rises, Lenore temporarily escapes her life for a few hours in blissful peace and harmony. By the Sea.
The water leaves a calm atmosphere, where she can bring a book or journal to enjoy her few moments of happiness. Or curiosity.
One thing that drove her to this particular location was the sightings. People of the town have believed in all different kinds of folklore and myths. Lenore thought it was all rubbish, until she saw it for herself one evening.
It was like any other night, the water was calm, the moon was lit, the breeze was nice and cool. Suddenly, she saw something in the waters, something out of the ordinary. The colors were mesmerizing, mixtures of purple and blue. She assumed it was a fish at a glance, but she swore she could see a human body attached at the top.
Lenore was under the impression that what she saw was none other than a mermaid. When she attempted to tell her brother, he thought she had made it up. To be fair it was at night, it could've been a fish, and Lenore had been reading a book about mermaids when she coincidentally saw it.
So she forgot about it, days past after that and she would tell that story to others to make people laugh. Sort of a funny story when you think about it, but this evening there would be no jokes, or laughter or enjoyment.
Somehow, Lenore had completely humiliated her father at some dinner party. All she did was recall a funny, yet reprehensible mistake he had done when Lenore was a child. It was a story she and her brother would laugh at and recall fondly.
Lenore's father didn't laugh, neither did the business associates he was attempting to impress either. So she left, feeling completely and utterly fearful of what would happen afterwards.
So she returned to her calm place, her space for peace. She had left a boat there for an evening swim if she wanted to ever try, but never got enough courage to do so, but tonight felt like she had to get away even farther than the shore of the water. Lenore had to go much deeper.
She had only brought a lantern and some matches, just so she could see through the moonless night. It was incredibly hard to see otherwise.
She pushed the boat into the water, and paddled far away into the sea. She wanted to be able to turn around and barely see the trees behind her. She wanted to leave it for just a moment.
Once she got far enough, she took a deep breath and took in the cold air. It was incredibly cold that night, but it was refreshing and a nice contrast to the hot rooms inside her house.
Once she was comfortable, she took a match and lit the lantern. Which revealed the dark blue waters even more. She placed the lantern down behind her and just stared into the water in front of her.
She thought about what would happen to her once she returned back to the shore, how angry her father would be to find out Lenore ran away into the water just to escape his annoyance.
Or how disappointed Theo would be. Not knowing where she went, he knows she rests by the shores when she wants to get away. But what will be his reaction when she isn't to be found sitting staring at the tides?
Just as she thought that, she hears her brother's voice in the distance.
“Lenore!?” Theo cries
“Blazes…” Lenore says to herself, she gets the paddles and goes farther into the water.
Not tonight, she doesn't want to deal with her father tonight. Even if that means having her brother be worried for a moment.
She paddles faster and more messier in the water, the boat shafts to shake from left to right and bobbles and bit but Lenore doesn't notice it.
It shakes beneath her, and when she realizes it's far too late. When she tries to get the boat to stay still suddenly, something from the water jumps out and pulls her into the water.
This is it, this is her death, she thinks.
The cold water feels like thousands of knives burning yet simultaneously freezing her skin. A hand is over her chest, dragging her deeper and deeper into the freezing water.
Whatever it is, it's clearly trying to kill her. So without hesitation she fights and kicks, punches the creature just so it can let go of her. She only has a few moments before she runs out of breath and every second counts to her survival.
When she swims back up to the surface, she notices the boat.. on fire. The black smoke goes into the air and she almost screams.
She swims over to a wood plank that had been spared from the flames and she stares at the fire, and thinks about what had just dragged her a few moments ago.
Was that a monster?
“Are you alright?” Says a voice behind Lenore, which she flinches at.
Lenore attempts to swim away from the creature. Her heart is racing in a panic.
“Wait! I didn't mean to! I forgot humans can't breathe in the water, I wasn't attempting to harm you!” Says the girl
Human…?...what?....What are you on about! What the devil are you anyway!” Lenore says through her intense breathing
“I'm a siren pet.” Says the Siren
Lenore states in surprise, a siren? But those don't exist. Those are just myths…right?
“What?! No! I gotta be hallucinating…” Lenore coughs up some water
“You are perfectly sane, you were about to catch fire…. I had to intervene, you understand..” Says the siren in a surprisingly gentle tone
“Uhm actually I don't understand! Why was I being watched by a siren!” Lenore yells
The siren's face turns into a guilty expression, showing a sense of remorse for almost killing Lenore. Which is a shock to her. She would've been convinced that sirens were creatures who kill without remorse, in tales sometimes they can be sadistic creatures.
“I had no malicious intentions! I was just…observing…” Says the Siren
Lenore's expression softens once she realizes that the siren won't brutally murder her. She recalls when she had convinced herself that she had seen something in the waters a few weeks ago, how she had thought she had gone crazy for thinking that.
“I knew I wasn't going mad…” Lenore mumbles to herself.
The Siren's expression turns into a smile
“Now whatever do you mean by that? I am real.” She says
“I kept seeing a person in the waters, or… I guess a siren now I suppose….” Lenore tells her
The siren's smile widens and she swims over to Lenore and softly entangles her tail around her, Lenore feels the scales which barely touch her skin.
“You've seen me! I was waiting for you to notice!” Says the Siren happily
Lenore looks out into the distance and notices how far away it is to land, as the rest of the boat burns up. She realized that she can take advantage of this situation to get back into land without her losing all of her energy and potentially drowning.
“You know, it's quite cold here. I'll tell you all you wanna know if you can get me to shore.” She says to the Siren
The Siren doesn't respond with words instead she grabs Lenore's hand and quickly swims her over to the shore, it so fast Lenore gets butterflies from the movement… or perhaps from some other course considering the butterflies remained even after she got onto land.
Once she gets on land, the cold air hits her soaked clothes and she takes in how numb she was in the water. She takes in a deep breath of relief to at least know she's in safe, stable, not liquid land.
“So about, the whole seeing me…” Says the siren
Well, there's not much to tell… I saw you, and I kept seeing you… when I told someone about it, they thought I was mad.” Lenore says, it's true anyway. She only saw the siren for a miniscule moment before she left.
“Most people refuse to believe in our existence… it's expected” The Siren says
Lenore thinks about the stories the town folks have told her about sirens, and their alluring beautiful voices. The voices that can tell you secrets and if you survive you might be able to live to tell the tale, how enchanting their voice can be is a curiosity of Lenore's.
“Can you sing?” Lenore asks
“Yes… but you would be forced to go into a permanent madness which would lead to your premature death.” Says the Siren in a macabre way
Lenore nods her head, she should've expected that. Siren's are infamous for their voices killing sailors, it makes them mad and drives them to their deaths. Lenore wonders what can drive a person to that state of insanity.
“I should've expected that..” Lenore tells her
“What is your name?” the siren asks curiously. Which makes Lenore remember the fact that she doesn't even know this sirens name
“Lenore.” She says
“I'm Annabel.” Says Annabel
Lenore is surprised that a siren would have a more human like name, but she's not complaining. Anyway, she should be more focused on her beautiful scales which have such amazing colors that drag Lenore's eyes in, even in the dark they stand out.
“Well Annabel, how about we meet here tomorrow evening? That's if I don't get caught first.” Lenore says, remembering what will lay ahead of her once she leaves. The questions she will be asked due to her clothes being soaked.
“Are you a criminal?” Annabel asks
“No, I'm just not supposed to be out at this hour…” Lenore revels
“Tomorrow evening, I can tell you all you would like to know about siren's.” Annabel says
“In exchange for?” Lenore questions
“There's no price, consider it an apology for almost drowning you.” Annabel jokes
“I'll take it…” Lenore smiles
Lenore gets up and takes off her soaked blazer, it was one of her favorites and how it would probably smell of sea water for ages.
Once she walks a few feet away she turns around to see if Annabel was still there. She wasn't. She has gone and left like the moon did.
It almost made Lenore consider that Annabel wasn't real. That Lenore had truly did go mad, and that she was making things
up. But if that was the case then how could she have been saved from the burning boat in the distance? Perhaps that's a question for another day.
She walks back to her house and awaits her father's curses.