Chapter Text
Ryland’s alarm goes off, he groans awake and smacks his phone a few times before the music he sets as his ringtone finally stops.
He buries his face into the quilt and rolls over.
The alarm resumes its noises, as he had set a second pen to prevent him from rolling back asleep.
Ryland smacks that one off as well before slowly setting up with a groan, fumbling his hand on the edge of his bed, reaching for his glasses. His fingers grip along the rims and carefully push them on his face before sliding his legs off the bed to stand up.
His morning is boring and usual, brushing teeth, peeing, changing clothes, cooking a poptart. Nothing about Ryland or his routines typically screamed excitement, especially not on a random November Saturday. His shoes slipped on as his poptarts clicked out of the toaster, walking across his small apartment kitchen to grab them, burning his hand slightly as he tossed them on a paper towel. His thumb scrolled through Instagram as he chewed on his breakfast in relative silence, seeing if any interesting news had happened to his coworkers this week. He frowned as his finger hovered over a photo posted by a nearby Mer-Center, something about getting a new resident in for the time being, so they’d be closing a few sections off from the public. “That’s gonna be fun,” he mumbled to himself, mouth full of strawberry jam and sugary pastry. The post confused Ryland a bit. Usually, when the center took in a new creature, they posted a picture of said siren. This time, it was just a closed sign blocking off a few hallways. The description wasn’t much help either; to be fair, it didn’t say what kind of siren, or when it’d be available for the public to see. The post mainly just left Ryland confused and a little concerned, but that wasn’t something uncommon.
He was often confused.
The sound of Ryland’s apartment door’s lock being jostled and pushed made him look away from his phone and shove the last of his breakfast in his mouth. Ryland was quickly greeted by the pounding footsteps of his best friend, and said best friend’s hand grabbed and yanked him by his arm, pulling him quickly towards the door.
“ROCKY,” He yelped, his feet trying desperately to keep up with the rocketing pace. Rocky didn’t respond; his hands were busy grabbing and pulling on Ryland’s shirt, giving him no time to sign a response. “We’re not going to be late. What is with you today?” Ryland asked as he was pushed towards the stairwell, Rocky finally releasing him.
‘Was calling you,” Rocky signed, “Much excitement at the center’. Grace hummed in acknowledgement as he stumbled down the old stairs, the floor creaking loudly beneath him.
“I heard, didn’t get much information off the post though,” Ryland responded, shaking his head, “Does Adrian have any more info, or are we all in the dark?” He asked. Rocky shook his head as they headed towards the exit, the city street’s noises leaking through the building’s walls as they got closer to the door.
‘Adrian was called in early, no idea what to expect,’ Rocky admitted, pushing the door open and holding it as Grace slipped past onto the sidewalk. He yawned as sunlight hit his eyes, tired from doing nothing all morning but more so from grading his classes’ tests late into the evening the previous night. Rocky bolted over to his old pickup parked illegally in front of the Grace’s building. He pushed himself up into the driver's seat and leaned over to push open the passenger door for Grace.
Rocky LOVED this pickup; it was a gift from Adrian when they’d first started dating. It was old back then and has only gotten worse. Rocky could very well get a new one, or fix this one up a bit at least, but he refused, not wanting to tamper with the gift more than he had to. Grace certainly wasn’t complaining; it beat his bike, plus they’d used it to help Grace move his things into the apartment he was in now. Grace pushed himself up into the passenger seat, quickly closing the door so they could take off before they were ticketed.
“You don’t even work today,” Grace wondered aloud. Rocky shrugged in response. Rocky usually wasn’t volunteering at the center on Saturdays, which was usually his cleaning day back at his and Adrian’s place. Grace had met Rocky at the center while they were both volunteering; they’d hit it off fast from there, much to Rocky’s partner’s dismay at some points. Grace had begun volunteering there as an excuse to get out of the house, and Rocky just came along since his partner worked there.
The drive was a silent 15ish minutes. Rocky was banned from signing while driving, so it’s not like they could have a conversation. Plus, Grace wasn’t talking as much, still trying to figure out what was happening, what to expect when they’d arrive.
Something big? Probably, sirens typically run long. Something mean? Not uncommon. Maybe it’d bite someone? Couldn’t argue that it could be a likely possibility. Ate someone? Okay, that was unlikely; man-eaters weren’t typically allowed to live long, let alone get sent to a rehab center.
Grace was jolted out of his thoughts at the feeling of Rocky’s parking job jolting him forward. Grace glared at the tanned man, who was giggling as he hopped down from the truck. Grace followed suit quickly after, walking around the truck to follow Rocky towards the large building. The walk was quick and silent, both men very excited to see what all the fuss was about, so this was a rare occasion where the two weren’t chatting wildly.
They didn’t have to wait long to find out, slipping inside the employee entrance and padding down the hall. The post Grace had seen revealed its location, so that was their target goal. They knew the center by heart by now, and they knew that tank was in the far back, four years of work paying off for this moment.
They pushed open a door, peeking into the main hallway. The center wasn’t open yet, so no guests had crowded the space yet. Grace leads the two-man parade towards a large black curtain, blocking off the habitat. He and Rocky stared at it for a moment, Grace tapping his foot.
Rocky finally got too impatient and pushed past Grace, slipping past the curtain, Grace following behind him by a few steps. The curtain revealed a few other employees and volunteers standing and gawking at the glass tank walls.
Grace’s questions were answered very quickly about why they hadn’t posted anything about their new addition.
The siren was big, the biggest Grace had ever seen. Dull blood-red scales from its tail almost filled the tank as it twisted and moved.
Something Big? Yes.
The beast’s hand was pressed against the glass, unmoving as its clawed fingers were tapped against the glass.
Something mean? It sure looked like it.
Grace’s eyes never left the strange creature, taking in its tail marking and traveling up the body, examining scars and ripped flesh. An entire arm was missing from the siren before them.
Bite someone? Grace wouldn’t doubt it for a second.
Ryland’s feet took a step back, air pushed from his lungs as his eyes moved to stare at the siren’s face. Teeth. So many teeth, too many teeth, you could say. They jutted out from the side of the creature’s cheek, as if flesh had been ripped from it to reveal those instruments. But somehow that felt more comfortable than its eyes. One a deep, rich brown, the other a sickly pale pink.
Both eyes were trained on Grace, unblinking and full of an emotion Grace couldn’t place.
Has this Siren eaten someone? Grace was sure he was going to find an example.