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He knew he wasn’t supposed to be out here this late. He knew the rumors. He chose to ignore them.
The bottle of wine he was clutching was almost empty, he was swaying a little as he walked down the dark beach. It wasn’t silent, the wind, the waves, the animals, it was a symphony all its own. There was another noise as well but it must have just been the wind whistling oddly, almost familiar. There were no more lanterns out this far either but it wasn’t dark. The full moon and spattering of constellations lit the way across the abandoned sands.
This part of the coast you could see the ruins of old docks washed up on shore and further out where they stuck out in high stakes. The light reflected oddly off the ruins, something not quite right. He could swear there was movement maybe, a slithering, a walking. There were all the rumors making it seem all the worse. What had dragged the docks out to sea to destroy them. The people dragged out with them. The few people who came back to never be the same again, a constant sick look, a dark humming, and a wandering towards dangerous tides which forced them to be locked away for their own safety.
His mother had walked out to sea earlier that week. She had been left unwatched for merely an hour and by then she had drowned and washed up. He hadn’t meant for it to happen. He just needed to fetch something from the docks, something his mother had asked for. He only realized it was most likely one of her fictive mutterings after he wasted time looking for what she asked for. To find a girl waiting there for her, something about a gift from her. It was insanity, they had no family left and not many other connections. Being sailors, fate had not treated them kindly. But his mom seemed nearly desperate to find this woman, so off he went.
When he returned, the neighbors said she had wandered out of the house mumbling about what she had sent him to look for so no one thought to stop her. So, she drowned.
Now he was inclined she did find who she was looking for. He heard her voice as well. After the funeral he had come to this same beach to rest in privacy, see where his mother had lost her mind. Just to reflect. Then he heard the voice, soft, asking him to come meet her. Questioning if he’d like to join his mother.
He had left then in a flurry. Feeling he had escaped the haunting voice. Voices? It was getting harder to tell. The nightmares haunted him. His mother’s funeral passed as he gently hummed a tune he only recognized after it was all done. The same tune his mother had hummed for years on end. He wanted it to stop.
So, he drank, and it made him weak. Here he was back on the beach. Feeling delusional and as crazy as he thought his mother must have been.
Then it got worse. Because a woman appeared, and he felt the voices in his head settle on one, one which matched her lips. He laughed, a desperate tinge.
She leaned down to caress his cheek where he sitting on the beach. Her beautiful long blonde hair, wet, draped across her shoulder and fell around his face. He thought it looked nearly like a halo.
“Let me end your suffering.” She whispered softly in his ear and it sounded like multiple voices again echoing in his head. But he believed her, completely.
He stood up then and took her hand. She gently led him into the ocean, walking towards the ruins. He noticed as they got closer the weird reflections of light and movement got more obvious, happened more frequently. And that damn tune. Someone was really singing a song now, and he hummed along.
By the time they were shoulder deep in water, they were fully sounded by ruins, and flashes of color. He turned away from the woman leading him to look around and spin. The colors were dizzying, the song was louder, his head felt empty.
When he finally made a full circle back to where his guide had been, everything seemed to suddenly disappear.
A flash of golden hair and teeth were all he saw before his scream was cut off and he was dragged under.
~
Jokaste had liked the most recent snack. He had been cute and failingly loyal to his mother that they had corrupted with their song all those years ago.
She was just doing her job, helping her husband, using her unique siren song. They had to teach the humans a lesson, scare them away. She thought drowning a few and driving some mad every few years was working quiet effectively. Destroying the whole dock had been a foolish move on Kastor’s part but it was done, and it made the perfect hunting ground.
Some humans she felt bad for, they were weak, too easily swayed, destined to lose themselves.
Others she felt a sick satisfaction in riding the walking world of. Men taking women on their beach to hurt them. Men here to destroy more of the reefs, trying to rebuild. Sometimes a painful end at the hands of creatures no one believed were real was best for the cruel.
She finished picking her teeth with a loose broken sharpened bone and flicked it away. Time to find the next snack.