Eunice’s story-Siren’s Desire

*This story is underneath my folder titled “Siren’s Desire”. Gacha Club character designs are under this forum: https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=116005&start=1305. Enjoy!*

Eunice held tight to the helm as she sailed throughout the ocean. It was a calm, tranquil night, the waves not at all choppy, but something inside her had told her that everything was more than what it seemed, that she had to be extra careful.

It was a few months ago, but it felt like a few hundred months ago since she had slipped out of her bedroom window and set sail on one of the ships. It was work, but no different from sailing on the canoe with her father and fishing. She just had to steer a big wheel. It wasn’t that hard.

The hardest part was leaving. Eunice loved her parents and knew that they loved her too, but they didn’t understand her. They didn’t understand that she needed to leave and see the world for herself, that she wanted more than the beachside town she called home.

Eunice had seen many towns, took much of their gold and jewelry, but still, she could not yet go home. She had to see more. She had to take more. She would come back dazzling with riches!

Her knuckles grew whiter as she sailed on. She had just had to find a port to dock her ship, then she’d sleep. She had not eaten in hours, but she wasn’t going to look for food in a nearby town. She’d wait until morning. The night felt strangely lonely and vast, the moon looked too bright and round. She didn’t trust the world that night.

She could hear the waves move softly and swiftly, like a gentle lullaby…a voice…but it couldn’t be…perhaps it was the wind…

Eunice listened closely, heart beating rapidly as she tried to decipher what she was hearing. It sounded like something gentle, but warped and distorted. It was a beautiful chime, but too beautiful to exist. How did it exist? Where did it come from? What did…how did…

The farther she sailed, the more she could hear it. It sounded like a boy’s voice merged with the clinking of bells, mourning for something…lost…calling out for something…Eunice was lost…so terribly lost…but home was so far…and the voice was so close…

“So long I’ve been all alone

This heart of mine is all bone

But a bone heart still beats

A barren heart still loves

In the void of the ocean

I wait by my lonesome

Won’t a fair maiden heed my call?

And lie here with me, side by side?

There’s more to life

Than fearing how you’ll die

Love waits for no one but the right

No one but the ready

And I’ve been more than ready

For your sweet kiss”

Eunice had promised herself that she would not come back empty-handed, but the voice…the voice wanted something…no, someone…it wouldn’t hurt to take a look, right? To see for herself where the voice was coming from? It’d only be a few minutes.

She steered the helm towards the sound of the singing, but it was echoing all her and seemed to get farther the more she got closer. Still, she was determined to find the source of such a divine melody. After all, if she heard it, then she deserved to see it. She was destined to see it.

But where was it? There was no end to the ocean, no end to the song. Eunice always found a place to take from, so it stood to reason that she’d find what was calling to her heart. It had to be her heart if she felt like it was destiny. She wasn’t crazy. She wasn’t. She’d find the enchanting swish-swish singing. The singing would save her. The singing would quell any hidden anxieties. The singing was-

Something in the moonlight caught her eye. It was the tip of a silver-blue fish tail, so quick that it seemed to blend in with the waves. It couldn’t have been an animal. It was too fast and too slight to be one. The only way Eunice would be able to find out was if she took another look.

She absentmindedly rubbed at the sleep in her eyes, for she may have felt tired, but the song was getting closer. It wasn’t drifting away, it was enveloping itself all around her, begging her…begging her for what? What would it need? Warmth? The ocean was so, so cold. It felt colder for anyone who was alone. That was why she needed to find the voice-the person. Because it was a person singing! A person who needed her!

And from out of the depths, a form rose! The moonlight, rippled by the water, cast such an ethereal glow over the vision that watched her with murky swap green eyes! It’s-his-lips were open in song, his voice articulated in a ribbon-like-sway just for her.

The creature that lurked was a boy who looked no more than sixteen. His skin was as white as the sea foam, his hair as silver as the moon. His arms were extended towards her, open and inviting. Just like his mouth, singing his song.

Eunice’s fingers slipped from the helm. Her legs walked slowly towards the boy, following the rhythm of his voice. What was it that she was so afraid of earlier? He was looking at her so sweetly, in a way that she had never been looked at before. Her home was not the ship. She had taken the ship from someone else’s port. The ocean was a constant friend.

She stood at the edge of the boat. His lips fell silent. His eyes stared up at her earnestly. He had silver eyelashes with drops of water clinging to them, sprinkles of rainbows trapped with the crystal liquid. She would jump and then she would take him home. He was lonely. She was lonely. They’d make a good life together. Her parents would like him. He was perfect.

Eunice did not spend time thinking about it. If she learned anything on her journey, it was that adventure waited for no one. She had to follow her heart before her chance was taken from her. There may have been no one who would ever want her again.

She jumped. The water splashed around her, weighing her down and yet weighing nothing at all. For a mere seconds, she was floating. Then she felt arms wrap around her body, graceful arms with pointed nails tangling in her blond hair. She saw a face, his face, an angel’s face. His eyes were wide and forgiving, as though he believed she was better than what she was. She wasn’t a bad person, but she wasn’t good either. She was just…there. He wasn’t like that. His presence meant something. His presence had saved her. It was just the two of them, drifting in the ocean together. His bare chest was cold, his tail, wrapped around her legs, was cold. It would have blended with the ocean if it weren’t for the scales that she could see, that she could feel. He may have been cold, but the coldness felt so soft, so butterfly-winged, that she leaned closer to him.

He smiled, placing an elegant hand under her chin and bringing her face closer to his, his salty-sea breath mere inches from her mouth…her mouth…was he…would he…

His lips pressed close to her, dry and bitter and demanding, rough against her own. His nails were digging into her skin, she thought that she could feel them touching her bone. Eunice could hear the rumbling thrum of her heart through the closeness and coldness of it all, caught in a strange limbo of wanting to get out and too tired to get away. He was hurting her, he was taking from her, but he was just getting what he wanted, right? She had no one and he had no one. It was only fair that they end up together.

He kept kissing and kissing her, not allowing one moment for her to breathe and swim to the surface, until it was no longer his lips that kissed, but his teeth that bit, drawing blood and taking chunks of her flesh with it, dizzying and monstrous and hungry. A sudden burst of fright overcame her as she realized that he would never let her go. That she could not fight him no matter how hard she tried. The surface was blurred with darkness, blurred with her own blood, and he was starting to eat more than her lips. She was not coming home.

He would be her home, there was nowhere else to go.