The Siren’s Song

The Siren’s Song is a retelling of The Little Mermaid.

At this time, it’s release is pending.

Description

This retelling of Beauty and the Beast is rewritten with elements true to the original story written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Villeneuve. When Belle’s father is unable to pay his debts, Belle is taken by a cruel lord. Desperate to free here, Belle’s lover, James, sets out to rob an abandoned castle rumored to be plagued with treasure and ghosts. Instead of treasure, James unlocks a spell that transforms him. Locked in the castle with an evil magic, Belle escapes her master and sets of to find James, unaware of the fate that has befallen him.

Word Count: 10,000 words

Genre: Horror>Dark Fantasy

 

Enjoy this excerpt

 

The ship’s hull cut through the water, casting a somber black shadow on the sea floor. Mara gazed up at the hull. As always before, the nets would enter the water. The Sea would send its waves, and the men would turn to the water for aid. There, Mara and her sisters would greet them.
The look was always the same: Enamored ecstasy followed by empty bliss that ended with blood and screams drowned out by the sea and their lack of pity.
She had done a run like this for as long as she cold remember. Long before the ships were galleons. Long before the ships were little more than rafts. Sirens don’t die. It’s one of the gifts granted by the Sea. They don’t die, they don’t age, and they don’t breed. The number of sirens gazing up at that hull were the same this day as the first day. The Sea did well to keep and guard his sirens and Man can’t hunt what they don’t know. There never were survivors. Once a siren had decided to kill, the sailor was as good as dead.

Above, the surface settled. The Stage was set. Mara began her song and swam to the surface. One at a time, and bathed in moonlight. That was how each run began. Their skin touched by moonlight did much to plague the mind of the sailor. Like gems it glistened, catching any drunken eye. Her hair as smooth and clear as silver, harbored harpoons and barbs like that of the tentacles of a jelly fish when touched by unsuspecting hands. Mara’s skin seeped venom. Her hair hid barbs, but her song was a drug that seduced, sedated, and lured the strongest of men. The Sea’s maidens were created for one purpose, and one alone and Mara was good at it. The best in fact.
Mara broke the surface. Moonlight spilled across the stilled ocean surface, casting a pale light upon the black. The ship was close. A row boat could reach her too soon. She began her song, low and soft as it teased and taunted. No words, just an endless strong of lulls that encompassed the sailor’s imagination. The seduced sailor would hear whatever lies they wished most for. Her song was tailored for each.

On deck, they called to each other. They scrambled. Mara projected her song and watched each in turn run about on deck, each eager to catch a glimpse of her enchantment. They called to each other and she sang.
How many times had she done this? How many times had she passed through the motions. This night, Mara craved something different. Still singing her tune, she swam to the ship, pausing now and then to weave her spell. As predicted a ladder was lowered. As predicated, the sailors beckoned her.
Still lulling them into submission, Mara took hold of the ladder and, with the Sea’s consent, shifted her tail. It succumbed to a set of legs that obeyed her will. Still singing, she climbed the ladder and pulled herself on deck.

On legs, Mara stood dressed only in moonlight and skin that seeped with hidden venom. Enslaved by her spell, the sailors watched, too enamored to feel the shift in weather or the change in winds until Mara’s song came to an end and she smiled.
The urge to strike emerged, but Mara held back still smiling as the captain shouted his orders. As if fighting through the daze of a drug, the sailors fought Mara’s spell and attempted to climb to the sheets. Too late, the wind had beat the sails into rags. Panic and fear changed their words and Mara opened her voice and sang. The captain calmed. The sailors abandoned their duties as the winds picked up, throwing the galleon about, and Mara gazed upon each sailor.
Old. Broken. Young. Mara named each face. She sang on, naming each sailor as she went. Foolish. Simple. Hopeful. Mara paused and dropped her song. Truth gazed back at her from the eyes of a sailor who stood healthy, strong and wise…oh, so very wise. As if her song had not worked, he stared hard back at her with hate as if to say, ‘I know what you’re doing here.’ The hardness in his eyes dared her to keep singing.
Oh, and if she had…
The look in his eyes warned her.
“Do you like my song?” she wished to ask. But Truth’s eyes already answered her.
“I hate it,” she was certain he would say. “And I hate you.”
Mara lost her song. Unsure of what to sing, she gazed silently back into Truth’s eyes.
The winds picked up. The ship rocked, and one of the sailors leapt on Mara, hungry for her touch and still possessed by her song. His body entangled with hers and together, they fell to the deck. The venom in her skin seeped into his and he unleashed a scream as her hair, cascading around his body, encompassed him in a curtain of barbs buried within her silver locks. His screams ended her spell allowing the full terror of the storm to descend on sailors.
Truth lunged, pulling the sailor off of Mara as a wave struck the deck casting Mara back to the Sea.
Her tail returned as sailors followed Mara, willingly into the sea. Her sisters went to work. Sailors opened their mouths to scream, while others, still enslaved by Mara’s song desperately clung to the sirens who embraced them, welcoming their death with open arms.
Above, the winds and rain battered the ship throwing more sailors to the sea. One by one, the sirens selected their sailor. Arms became entangled in silver hair that fired harpoons into their limbs spilling their blood into the sea. Their drug-induced state kept them unaware of their fate as they hungrily clawed at the sirens for more. Holding the venom skin to theirs, kissing the poison on their lips, Mara watched as she had so many times before, the sailors happily rip their bodies apart with euphoria as a siren carried them down to their deaths. A trail of blood followed each sailor to the ocean floor with his mermaid, too dead to appreciate his fate. Still, all around her, the sailors leapt to the waters, eager to find their siren who waited and accepted them with open arms.
Again, Mara counted off the faces. Old. Broken. Young…Foolish. Simple. Hopeful. A sick crept into Mara’s heart. Where was Truth? Forgetting her song, Mara whipped around and studied each face. She had seen each one of her sisters. None had claimed Truth yet nor was he in the water.
Mara swam, racing to the surface. Her head broke the surface as before. The ship still clung to the waters. The sheets were shredded into remnants. It was only a matter of time, the ship would sink. There, hanging to the ship’s gunwale, clung Truth.
Her mind raced. Could she climb? Could she sing? As she battled her choices, a wave crashed onto the deck taking down the main mast with it. The mast and the wave struck the gunwale and washed into the Sea, taking Truth and the gunwale with it. Mara dove under the water and started sorting through the debris. Her sisters had taken the last of the sailors.
A single sailor, Foolish, hungrily kissed her sister, oblivious to the venom burns that covered his skin or the barbs impaling his body. His only thought was of more. The Siren gently, lovingly carried him into the black depths leaving behind the trail of blood as he clawed her closer for more.
Mara turned back and there, she found Truth sinking alone and unconsciousness to the ocean floor. Without thought, Mara dove, throwing all her strength into reaching him in time. As she touched him, her venom responded ans swelled, leaving a burn on his skin.
“No, please,” she said, willing the poisons in her body back as she raced for the surface.
The eyes, she thought, his hateful eyes. How much she longed to understand. So much she had to ask.
Together, they broke surface, and, amid the storm, the waves, and debris, Mara swam with Truth in tow.