Sirens and Scales

by Kellie McAllen

  I’m shaking, though I don’t know if it’s out of fear or rage. Maybe both. I shake my head, unable to cope with one more thing.

  Someone walks behind the wall of guys, opening the locker, and freeing the kid I was trying to help in the first place. The rescuer disappears, and due to my lack of height, I don’t see who it is. But knowing the kid is free, I dash between two of the guys laughing at me and make a beeline for the door.

  Fresh air surrounding me is a sweet escape from the musty, sweaty stench of school. I make it to the sidewalk and head for my car so I can get to the library.

  I beat all the kids who come after school to “study” and the kids who actually are studying and am relieved there’s still an empty table. I set my backpack on the desk with the single chair beside it, tucked back in the corner, away from the windows and books. I lay out my homework and force myself to walk slowly to the section containing the book I’ve pined after all weekend.

  When I reach the shelf I need, an odd and squeak escapes me. Where that little pamphlet should be is nothing. Only an empty space.

  It feels like I’ve been sucker punched. All breath from my lungs gone, my heartbeat a rapid pounding. Panic. I walk as fast as I can without breaking into a run toward the counter. The cranky woman from Saturday is the only one sitting up there, glasses perched, lips pursed, and making herself look extremely busy on the computer.

  Unfortunately for her, I can see the reflection in her glasses, and all she’s doing is playing solitaire. “Hi, I don’t know if you remember me from Saturday. I was looking for books on dragons? Anyway, I found one called something like Scales in the Sea and Sky or something like that and I just went to get it, but it’s gone. Do you know if it was checked out or just misplaced?”

  The woman quirks her brow up. “What was the title again?” she asks slowly.

  “I want to say it’s Scales of Sea and Sky.”

  She does some quick typing. “I’m sorry, nothing is coming up under that. Are you sure of the title?”

  “Yes. Maybe could you look up books on dragons and mermaids?” I ask, desperate to find the book. How could it not be in the system? It was here on Saturday.

  She does some more typing. “I’m sorry. What section did you find this in?”

  “Over there.” I point to the left corner. “It was with the books on mythology.”

  “The only thing I’m finding in this search are books on fairy tales and fairy tales themselves. Which are over there.” She points to the fantasy section. “Is there something else I can help you with?” Her nasally voice is infuriating. Along with her attitude.

  “No, thanks.” I head for the folklore and fairytale research books. There wasn’t much in mythology. Maybe I’ll have more luck here. I pull out one book after another until I have so many I can barely carry them all and return to my table.

  I manage to get almost all of the books actually on the table, but only barely. My hands are still shaking from what happened at school. I watch as one book slips off the edge and tumbles across the floor, bending the pages when it comes to a stop. I snatch it up and stand, turning and bumping into someone.

  “I am so sorry! I didn—” I stop, looking into those warm chocolate eyes. “Max? What are you doing here?”

  “I came looking for you. I tried to catch you after school, but you were dashing between people too fast for me to catch up. What was the rush, anyway?” He grabs the book out of my hand, reading the title.

  I’m not sure I want to tell him what happened. And I know I don’t want him to know what people are saying about me online. Especially because of our agreement not to discuss dragons in any capacity. I try to shrug it off. To come up with an excuse.

  I don’t have one. At least not one he’ll be okay with.

  We both stand there in awkward silence because neither one knows what to say. I think about what excuse to use, how to keep the topic away dragons, but it seems unavoidable.

  “I found a book on Saturday that I didn’t realize I needed. I wanted to get here and check it out, but it looks like it’s gone.” I look at the floor, avoiding eye contact with him because I really don’t want to tell him it’s about dragons.

  “You never texted me yesterday. I just wanted to make sure we were okay. I feel like there’s a rift between us, and I need to fix it before it becomes unfixable.”

  “We’re fine, Max. I just have to figure some things out with my life. And study.” I shrug, trying to play it off as no big deal.

  “Can I study with you?” he asks.

  I open my mouth to argue, but he stops me. “I won’t say a word about what you’re reading. I just want to sit in the quiet with you. Especially if it’s all the time I get before you turn me down again.”

  I nod. “Yeah. You’re right. I’m sorry.” I agree. And I do feel bad. I don’t want to fight with him. I love him. I take his hand and squeeze it. “I miss you. I’m sorry.”

  He sighs with what I assume is relief. “I’ve missed you too.”

  We sit down across from one another and work in silent content, agreeing to disagree.

  I grab the first book on the stack. If I thought the mythology books were useless, these are even more so. They’re all about the original fairy tales like Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, and so on. Not what I was looking for at all.

  I set the book aside and move on.

  After two hours of this, Max starts bouncing his knee, only occasionally staring at his homework, not really working on it anymore. My head is spinning from how dark and gruesome some of the stories are, and I still haven’t found answers to anything dragon related.

  “Want to get some food?” I ask, knowing the library is getting ready to close anyway.

  Max perks up. “You know I’m always down for getting food.” He smiles, looking all too pleased.

  “Did you drive?” I stand up and begin putting my books in my bag and stacking the others in two piles, one to check out and go home with me and one to return to the shelves.

  “Yeah. I assume you walked?”

  “Yep.”

  “No worries. Where do you want to eat?”

  “I’m craving tacos, but I also really want fries. And not the fake fries that a bunch of taco places makes, but like, delicious salty fries. Why must I make these kinds of decisions? You know?” It’s a real dilemma.

  “I don’t know. You’re right, they should. But I don’t think it’s an issue today.” Max slings his own backpack over his shoulder.

  “Oh? How is that not an issue? I mean, you’re asking me to choose!” I throw my arms up in a sarcastic dramatized fashion.

  “Because.” He steps up beside me, taking my hand in his, scooping up the stack of books I need to check out in his other arm. “First we’re going to go get fries, and you can eat them while they’re hot, considering everyone eats those first anyway, and then we’ll go get tacos.”

  My heart pitter-patters a little bit. “My hero!” I swoon, though it’s ruined when I trip over my own two feet as we approach the desk.

  “I like the sound of that.” He grins mischievously.

  “Find what you were looking for?” The old librarian asks with an air of judgement in her tone.

  “Not quite. But this will do for now.” I don’t bother with niceties. She was less than helpful, and quite rude. I wish Cheryl was here simply so I wouldn’t have to deal with this old fart.

  “Library card?” She doesn’t even look at me as I pull it out and hand it to her. “Have a good day.” She returns the card and the bag of books to me.

  Max takes the bag for me, and we walk away while I’m stuffing the card in its slot in my wallet.

  “She didn’t seem very happy to see you. Something happen?” Max asks, getting the door for me.

  “Well, I came here on Saturday and she was upset about a book or something.” I shrug. “It’s not a big deal. I guess my questions annoyed her.”

  “I’m sorry. Nice of you to chalk it up to her having
a bad day. I’d report her for how rude she was. Incredibly unprofessional.” He opens the car door for me.

  I wait for him to get in before responding. Once he’s buckled and we’re on the road, he takes my hand. Which seems a little awkward, but I go with it because I don’t want to make the situation between us worse.

  “Anyway, it’s really not a big deal with the librarian. She doesn’t get in the way of my research. And I’ll just find the book online. I’d rather not buy it because it’s just for temporary use, but really, if ordering it is the only way to get a copy, I’ll take it.”

  Neither of us really knows what to say after that, which is difficult to comprehend considering we’ve been friends or so long, but this new development has changed everything.

  “How’s your back?” he asks quietly.

  “The same as last night. It’s going to take time to heal. There’s nothing I can do for it but give it time. But it isn’t so tender to the touch, which is progress. I just have to keep from hitting it against anything.”

  “Given your history, I recommend a bubble-wrap suit.” Max gives me a side glance.

  “Oh? Why would you say that?” I stare him down.

  “Hmm … let’s see … in the two days I’ve known about it, you hit it against a coffee table, and didn’t forewarn your boyfriend about it which means he put pressure on it while making out with you.”

  “Touché.”

  After our late-afternoon snack and convincing Max that I actually need to study and no, he can’t come home with me, I go to my room and return to my reading. I don’t care about homework. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not important. Not when there is a dragon out there counting on me to fix the wrong that’s been done and to save him.

  I lay out all the research I began a year ago and what I’ve gathered just in the past couple of days. Europe saw dragons as a beast to be defeated. A monster to overcome. Whether that was literal or metaphorical, I’m not sure, but given the knowledge I have, I’m going with literal.

  I grab a blank sheet of paper and draw an oval in the middle that says “dragons.” Then I draw a line away from it, and at the end of it another oval that reads “Europe.” From that another line, an oval, and the word “monster.”

  I move the start of my flowchart to the side of the desk and pull out the next book. It’s larger than the last three combined, and all about Chinese and Asian mythology and fables.

  I’m intrigued from the very first page. Beautiful illustrations show the Chinese dragon, or at least what it’s perceived to look like. Until I meet one, I have no idea if they differ so greatly.

  According to one of the books earlier, Yackros is what’s known to be a European dragon. Four legs, or two legs and two arms, but still walk on all fours, two wings, and horns. Which is completely different from the Chinese dragon, which can have wings, but rarely do, and no appendages such as arms or legs.

  A rare breed of Chinese Dragons has tiny wings far too small to carry their long snake-like bodies, but more often than not, they do not have such useless flaps, for they fly by the majestic nature of their magic and not by a physical attribute.

  I grab my pen again and add Chinese dragons to my flowchart, and the information I’ve gathered on them, only adding things I believe could be true. I’ll ask Yackros tomorrow for confirmation and create a second flowchart depicting only the truth.

  13

  My dreams are pure bliss. I’m soaring high over the mountains, through the clouds, brushing my head on the tops of trees as we go by. I cling to Yackros as he turns and twists, yet somehow always making sure I’m safe from falling off. We are free. Not only from King Ruxsiu, but the world. Humans, other dragons. No one stands in our way. No one has blocked our path. The world knows his kind exists, and it doesn’t matter.

  The annoying alarm blares, forcing me to wake me up from that dream, unfortunately. And forces me to get up and dressed. School seems like such a waste of time. It can’t help me in this fight. But only because Yackros told me to go, do I attend, rather than skipping out and going to the library alone to read more.

  Not that there are any books left that I haven’t already read cover to cover regarding dragons. I look at the flowchart sitting on my desk and stuff it into my backpack on my way out the door. If Max can’t believe the proof I present him with today, I’ll know I’m wasting my time even trying to make him understand.

  I push the hair away from my eyes and get in my car, grateful to have one rather than needing to take the bus. That was always the worst, especially with it almost always running behind because of things like cheer, sports, swimming, drama, and music.

  It’s beginning to dawn on me just how much of a regular teenager’s life I’ve missed out on while hidden away in the forest, with Yackros, in a place where other humans couldn’t get into even if they wanted to, or knew it was there.

  I haven’t attended a single school dance, football game, or any other sports event. No extracurricular activities. My life has revolved around Yackros for so long, it’s like I’m lost now that I can’t be with him. The only real friend I have is Max. Even Hanna gave up on me and moved on with her new group of friends.

  Not that I blame her for that. She has every right to find new friends when the old ones stop existing in the same dimension. I think back, trying to remember a time when I didn’t eat lunch alone on the stairs leading to the basement or outside on the bench big enough for one. But now, I hardly know anyone’s names.

  I’m not sure how I feel about this. Did I lose a part of myself when I found that hidden forest so long ago? Did I give up a life for something I can’t have? Am I truly missing anything?

  Shaking my head, I force myself out of those thoughts and keep my eyes on the road. The drive is faster than if I took the bus and far less bumpy, which is nice. I blast the radio and try not to think about anything. It’s getting too overwhelming.

  I back into the parking spot right beside the exit so I can make a quick escape as soon as school is out. When I’m halfway to the door, Max appears beside me out of nowhere. “Hey, you okay?” He bumps into me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder as he leads me inside the school.

  I nod. “Yeah, everything’s great.” I wipe at my eyes, making sure there are no tears escaping, and break away from Max with a small smile as I head to my class in the opposite direction of his first period.

  I dump the books I won’t need into my locker. My shoulders ache from carrying around extra weight lately. Especially when there is still bruising from the night Ruxsiu threatened my life, though the marks are barely visible anymore, and it feels like a lifetime since it happened.

  Slamming my locker shut, I turn the lock and tug, making sure it’s secure.

  “Hey!” Max says, appearing beside me before leaning in and giving me a kiss.

  I’m relieved to see it’s Max, and not a stranger jumping beside me. I’ve been hearing every insult involving dragons all day. I had hoped that the online campaign from my question in class would die down. Instead, it seems to have only gained traction. “Hi.”

  His arms wrap around me, his fingers pressing into my sides, the only place I’m ticklish. I giggle, a little taken aback by his playful mood.

  It feels like everything has been strained between us since I told him about the dragon incident.

  He kisses me again before smiling at me, and I’m lost in his enchanting green eyes. “What are your plans for the rest of the day?” he asks.

  “Well, I—” Loud ringing interrupts me.

  Max looks sheepish as he pulls his phone from his pocket and answers it. “Hello?”

  There’s talking on the other end of the line, but I can’t make out what’s being said. Only a muffled noise. I watch Max, curious who is calling him.

  He looks crestfallen for a moment and sighs, resigned to whatever he’s hearing. “Okay,” he says a second later. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “What was that about?” I ask as he ha
ngs up and shoves the phone in his pocket.

  “I’m needed at home. I’m so sorry. Do—”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I assure him before he can finish his thought, whatever it was going to be.

  “Are you sure? I feel like a terrible boyfriend.” He looks so torn, anxious to leave, not wanting to at the same time.

  “Yes.” I nod to reaffirm my words. “Seriously, Max, it’s fine. I’m just going to be doing boring homework.” I smile to reassure him. “Go. Clearly you’re needed. Don’t keep them waiting.” I lightly nudge him toward the doors.

  “Well, at least let me walk you to your car.” He wraps his arm around my shoulders.

  “I can live with that compromise.” I smile. As much as I’ve been annoyed with him, I do miss hanging out with him constantly. That used to be all I did. Now it’s like I never see him unless he sits quietly in the school library with me, judging my belief in supposed mythical creatures.

  When we arrive, he leans in, letting this kiss linger before saying goodbye and getting in Nick’s car before driving away.

  I throw my bag in the passenger seat and peel out of the parking lot, hurrying to the library before all the good spots are taken again. Luckily, what I’ve come to deem as “my table” is still available.

  Hours later, I bury my face in my hands, tired of reading the same books over and over, digging through the same information. My homework is spread across the table alongside all my notes regarding dragons.

  I’m deciding which to work on next, having just finished the Irish Tales of Madness book mostly on leprechauns, though there was a mention of dragons stealing their gold.

  “Ahem.” Someone clears their throat.

  “Yes?” I say before looking up, shocked to see the evil librarian who has made it clear she doesn’t like me. “Oh, hi. Sorry. Can I help you?” I mutter the last part awkwardly, realizing I’m not sure why I asked that other than for a lack of something better to say.

  “Is that your boyfriend?” she asks sounding irritated.