A splash. Little rocks being thrown into the moonlit sea. Silhouettes dancing over the walls. Eyes glazed with curiosity and mischief apparent. Feet splattering water around. Another splash. A sudden high-pitched scream, a body engulfed by the depths. I can't swim. Bubbles popping up on the surface, my breathing laboured.
"Daphne, please hold on! Daphne, no please, no! I'll go get help!"
It was all she could do. After some minutes, my cries disintegrated within my watery grave. My eyes felt heavier as each moment passed, as I pray to any deity to assist me. The pressure's thick on my mortal lungs. I say my last goodbyes, and I love yours to my most cherished ones, I ought to be submerged soon enough. Abruptly, a melody pierces through my ears. It's haunting hymn clear.
"Come down with us, where you will see
All of what you wish to be,
The tides are changing, time is short,
By dawn in three,
That’s where we’ll be”.
I wake up, in a white setting, in a white gown. "Am I in heaven?" I feel my heart speed up, and panic flood my thoughts. I get up briskly, and fall to the ground equally fast. I groan furiously, as I try to stand, and I end up splattered on the floor again. "Just what I needed."
After the "mermaid events" transpired, she soon became an outcast. She had developed an
atypical obsession with all-things-mermaid. The poor girl would fall asleep only to be woken up by "visions" as she called them, of siren-like creatures. Her lover's affair being exposed only days ago, her heart broken. She went to the only place that could offer her solace: Maco island. She arrived soon enough. She opened her laptop, absorbed in her research until she heard footsteps.
"So, this is where you ran off to, huh? I always knew you were a freak, but to see you go this far is even surprising to me."
"What do you want?"
"You can't just leave me."
"I already did."
"No! You don't get to choose, if you break up with me, I'll cause you big problems."
"Oh your scanty ego is damaged?
Soon enough, a wicked grin spread over his face. Malice visible.
"If you like your stupid mermaids so much, you might as well end with them!"
She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, but before she could process, she was thrown into the water.
He soon left, leaving her to attend her darkling fate once again. It seemed all too familiar. Bubbles popping up, the sea surge deafening upon my ears. Eyes drained from life, the light
barely visible. Poseidon's embrace, cold and stern upon my form, my resistance futile. My descend, unhurried, glazed with zen.
I suppose we all meet our end eventually, it's a shame mine was to be met this way. As my eyes close, a distant shriek is heard. The feeling of robust hands upon my form, their fin pressing and dashing towards the surface. My eyes snapped open, shock overtaking my body, oxygen flooding into my lungs, a figure settles in front of me. A woman-like fish, a siren!
As I rise to the surface, quotations are repeated within my mind.
"A siren's song is made from the tears of heartbroken lovers. That is why the lustful and the
wicked are drawn to her call. Her voice echoes the pain and the sadness that their blackened
souls yearn for."
"Hear the call of the siren singing despair. Echoing remorse. Dance to her melancholy lullaby as you sink to the depths and drown in the sweetest darkness."
I spoke to them all night. They taught me of vengeance and hurt, of fallen lovers, sorrow and
melancholy, but among those edges, hope was embroidered. They aided me in my vulnerable state, and I chose to aid them. I was painfully aware they might not listen to me, but I still spoke. I told them of the natural human state: happiness. Love. Good. Forgiveness. Strength.
The sirens listened, hoping a panacea would spill down my lips.
I cannot provide that.
I suppose at the end, we are all the same. They say the higher your potential for good, the higher your potential for evil. Monster and human are not opposites, but one and the same.
It is up to us, to balance our monster and our human part.
Selma Maksumić,
II2, Druga gimnazija Mostar