The Siren (17 page)

I shook it off. I straightened my hair and my dress, took a few steadying breaths and opened the door.

Not what I expected.

Julie, Ben, and Akinli were there, but so were two other guys and a girl I didn’t know. Our expressions as we took one another in must have been something. Ben laughed as I quickly shook my head. But Akinli was quick to make me calm.

“Hey there, Prom Queen! Glad you woke up. Come meet some of our friends.”

I walked out timidly. Julie and the new girl were huddled together around a magazine on the loveseat. The girl was watching me walk out with her jaw open. Ben and new guy number one were on the couch. Ben was an average-sized person, but his friend was pretty large. They took up the three-body space easily. New guy number two was in the lone chair. Akinli was sitting on the floor with his back against the sofa, so that’s where I went. I sat close enough to him that he put his hand on mine. I guess he felt my nerves. He would have thought it was because of the strangers, and he was partly right. I was trying to get out of here and soon. It was bad enough Akinli, his only family, and the little old lady across the street knew about me. Here were three more witnesses.

“Okay, up there by Julie is Kristen.” Kristen smiled and waved. Her eyes wandered my body with envy. She seemed a little more interested in my dress than me. I couldn’t blame her.

“This is Kristen’s boyfriend, John.” The guy on the couch mumbled a “whatup,” all one word. Why was that popular? I’d heard it before.

“And then, that guy is Evan.” The guy in the chair merely lifted his chin. Evan was big, too. He was as big as John but firmer. He had a beer in his hand. That made me look around. John, Ben, and Kristen all had beers, too.

Quietly, so no one else would know, Akinli whispered, “Are you doing okay?”

I smiled and nodded. I wanted his last thoughts of me to be warm ones. I was all too good at putting on my brave face.

“So you’re tha girl that’s taking ma room?” Evan asked, his speech slurred a bit. I just shrugged in response.

“These are the guys that work on the boat with us. On Fridays we hang out, watch a game, and drink a few beers. Evan likes to stay here so he doesn’t have to drive home. He lives just outside of town.” Akinli explained quietly. His face was close enough to mine that I could smell the alcohol on his breath. But he didn’t have a drink in his hand. I learned two things in that quick second: Akinli was at least twenty-one, and he knew when to cut himself off.

“You don’t talk?” Evan asked.

I shrugged again.

“Wha the hell does tha mean?” he asked, popping open another beer.

I didn’t like Evan. That’s all it took. I got up and went to the kitchen. On the countertop were my ravaged sheets of paper, covered in halves of questions and scratched out lines. I took it and my pen with me back to the living room. I wrote a note and passed it to Akinli who laughed.

“She says, ‘If I thought you were sober enough to read, I’d try to explain. As it is, I’ll just be pleased if you manage not to puke on me.’”

Everyone snorted or giggled. Except for Evan. He glared at me. I had meant it as a little bit darker than a joke, but I honestly didn’t know if he’d be able to understand it. Count on a drunk to miss everything you say save your insults. I’d obviously offended him in front of his friends, and now he disliked me as much as I disliked him. Except for Aisling, I don’t think I’d ever made an enemy that fast. But that was good. When I left, he’d be the one saying it was better I was gone. I could count on him for that.

A few minutes later, all the attention went back to the TV. Within an hour, Evan was passed out on the chair. I tugged on Akinli’s sleeve to get his attention. I motioned towards the kitchen. When I stood, he followed. He really was easy to communicate with, all things considered. In the kitchen, I sat at the table and started writing. Before I could finish, he spoke.

“Are you hungry?”

I shook my head no and then thought better of it. I probably should be hungry. I just didn’t feel like bothering with eating. I passed him my note.

I think I should go. Like with the police. I’m interfering here, and I don’t want that. You can’t babysit me all day while you wait for someone to show up looking for me. I’m sure the officers would be fine with coming to take me. And I really don’t mind.

I had thought this was the best idea. This way, he would think I was being looked after and feel absolutely no guilt at my disappearance. I didn’t think I had it in me to vanish on his watch. He looked a little bothered by my note.

“So you heard that was an option, huh?”

Oops. Forgot I shouldn’t have heard that. I nodded my head ruefully and pulled the paper back.

I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me. You’ve all been so kind. But I can’t just stay here. I should probably go where I can be at the source if anyone comes for me.

He didn’t speak for a minute. He kept running his hand through his hair, thinking of what to say. The motion was hypnotizing. It took me a moment to remember what we were talking about.

“Kahlen, I’m not your warden. I can’t stop you if that’s what you really want to do. But… well, I’d like it better if you stayed. At least for one more day. How about that? If we don’t have any answers by tomorrow, then you can go, and I won’t get in your way.” He looked uneasy. “Sorry if I sound overprotective or something. I just… I don’t like the thought of you in a jail cell remembering something like you did today and then being all alone trying to deal with it. I know I don’t really know you, but I like having you around. You’re already a friend to me. And when you go, I’ll worry.”

I didn’t want to hear that. Akinli wanting me to stay only made it harder to leave. And here he was asking for something perfectly reasonable: one more day. That couldn’t be so bad, could it?

I thought through my options. I could do what
he
wanted: stay one more day and then leave. I could do what
I
wanted: go ahead and call the cops to take me away. Or I could do what
She
would want: wait for everyone to sleep and disappear in the night, the sooner the better.

I wasn’t really concerned with what the Ocean wanted right now. She could suffer and wonder for ages longer as far as I was concerned. I didn’t think my idea of leaving now would be so bad; Evan would have his bed back. It suddenly disgusted me that I slept where he did. But Akinli’s eyes were pleading. He wouldn’t force it on me, but he’d try to will it into being. How was I supposed to refuse him? I picked up the pen.

One more day.

He smiled.

The night passed on and John and Kristen said their goodnights. Evan was still passed out, so the guys hoisted him onto the couch. It was a squeeze with how long he was, but they managed to place him on his side with a glass of water and a garbage can nearby, just in case. Ben had made his way upstairs, but Akinli and Julie lingered for a minute.

“I hope you can sleep a little after your long nap there,” Julie said with a shy smile.

I smiled back. She was trying to be warm to me. I couldn’t imagine how uneasy my presence in her home made her, but she was attempting to be kind all the same. I appreciated it so much. She gave a timid wave and disappeared up the stairs.

Akinli and I were alone. Well, almost alone. Evan snored through his unconsciousness. It was a little loud. Akinli laughed.

“Good luck trying to sleep through that. You probably aren’t tired at all, huh? I can stay up with you for a while if you want.”

Of course that’s what I wanted. More time. Any time. But it would just make it worse. And he had skipped work on the boat today to be with me already. The guys had a rotation which my arrival had thrown off. He had to work tomorrow, and I couldn’t make him stay up with me. I gave a little shooing motion, telling him to get upstairs. He smiled, but waited.

“Okay, okay. Well, I think Julie’s going to stay here in the morning, but I’ll be home a little after noon. We’ll hang out then,” he promised.

I nodded.

We both stood there a little awkwardly. What was the right way to say goodnight? If Elizabeth had been in my place she would have kissed him, but I wasn’t quite that brazen. A hug felt right, but I couldn’t bear to initiate it. So what I got was a pat on the arm and a “Goodnight there, Sparkles.” I wondered if he’d run out of references to this dress. I hoped he’d keep trying until he did; I was so amused. That boy wore his tie all day. He grabbed it just then and mock pulled himself up the stairs by it, turning off the lights as he went.

I didn’t bother trying to sleep. I put on the shirt and boxers Akinli gave me yesterday, but only for the sake of the show. After being around him all day, I noticed Akinli had a smell. There was a little of it on his clothes, and it was strangely comforting.

I sat for hours staring out at the Ocean.
One more day
, I thought to myself. I couldn’t drag this out any longer. It had been an exciting little field trip, but after whatever we did tomorrow— and once no one showed up looking for me again— I’d calmly go with the police. From there I’d make my getaway.

As I was debating my options, I heard muffled movements. Something fell with a thud. There was some more shuffling and a loud crack. I heard Evan cussing under his breath. He must have run into the coffee table in his quest for the bathroom.

I was only slightly off.

I was taken back a bit when Evan opened the door. A surprise registered on his face, too.

“Oh yeah, I forgot
you
were here.” He was glaring at me, standing on slightly unsteady feet. The only light was the moon coming through the bay window. It was full and bright enough to light us both. Evan’s clothes were disheveled, and he held the glass of water in his hand. He gave me a once over, and I thought that would be the end of it, but he kept coming toward me. “You know, it’s a good thing you can’t talk, because you’d get yourself in a lot of trouble around here.”

He said all this slowly, threateningly. He’d crossed the floor with the same measured pace of his speech. Suddenly, he reached across the bed and squeezed my face in his free, massive hand.

“You mess with me again, I’ll break your little fingers, too. Got it?”

The look on my face must not have seemed contrite enough, because he released my cheeks, pulled that hand back, and slapped me across the face. It didn’t hurt me, but the action resulted in two quick events.

First, I realized that after all these years, I had come to think of myself not just as something deadly, but something special. You didn’t hit a siren. We were something to be respected. Who did this guy think he was daring to put his hands on me? And, for that matter, siren or not, he didn’t have the right to do that to
anyone
. I thought I had been angry at the Ocean when She took my parents; I thought I had been angry with Her when She took Jillian. This guy thought he was going to take
me
? I’d happily die trying to take him out.

The second reaction tied into the first, because I couldn’t help the tiny yelp that escaped when he hit me. It just happened. In the next second, he had poured his glass of water on his face, trying to breathe it in. The sound was short and the water was limited, so it only resulted in a few choking coughs before his head cleared. He was embarrassed by the unexplainable event and looked prepared to take it out on me. But my revelation had made me prepared to fight.

Evan threw the glass on the floor where it exploded into tiny shards. He went to pin me on the bed, straddling me. I was just about to scream— yell words he deserved to hear— and watch contentedly as this pathetic excuse for a man would shatter the window and run into the Ocean to his death. Good riddance. But I started to doubt that plan.

What if Akinli heard? Or Julie? Or Ben? Or even the sweet old lady across the street? I had never tried to use my voice to defend myself. Was a light whisper all I needed? If it failed, he would certainly try to keep me quiet after that. And if he was still alive after I tried to fight him off without being able to use my voice, would he tell Akinli I had been lying to him all this time? That I could speak all along? In the moments I was trying to figure out what was best, he had painlessly slapped me again, and now had me lifted off the bed by my shirt. The look in his face shifted. It looked evil enough when he came in the room, but now I saw a different monster coming to the surface.

“Well,” he thought aloud, “if you’re not going to scream…” He ripped my shirt, Akinli’s shirt, open. If he thought he was getting any farther than that he was wrong.

Dead wrong.

I inhaled to speak, sing, scream if I had to. Evan wasn’t going to hurt me. I would have to kill him. God forgive me, it was all I could do. My lips trembled as I prepared to speak.

Arms flew over Evan’s back pulling him to the floor. He released my torn shirt to fight back, and I moved quickly to cover myself. The room was still dark, and I was a little too shocked to be sure of what was happening. I sat up and saw we were no longer alone. I didn’t need lights to make out Akinli’s features. He had Evan straddled on the ground, punching him repeatedly in the face. There were muffled groans and cuss words as Evan fought back. A few punches later, the light flipped on.