Surface

by Jody Morse

  “Does anyone else here have wings? Why don’t I have them? I thought we all had the same song, so shouldn’t we look alike while we’re luring, too?” I asked. At least, I didn’t think I had wings. When I had lured that guy, the first person I had killed, I hadn’t felt any feathers. Then again, everything was so foggy that I wasn’t sure if I would have felt them, anyway.

  Angelica’s glossy lips twisted into a smile, and she laughed. “No, none of you have wings. In order to be granted wings, a siren must visit the ancient sirens, which live on the island Sirenum scopuli."

  When I stared back at her, completely clueless, again, she asked exasperatedly, “How much do you know about sirens from Greek mythology?”

  “Not much,” I replied quietly. ‘Not much’ was probably an over-exaggeration; I knew absolutely nothing. I’d thought about doing research since I had learned I was one, but it just didn’t work out. There isn’t much information about sirens on the internet, and I hadn’t had time to go to a library.

  “Sirens were given their wings by Demeter, the goddess of harvest, who needed their help in finding her daughter, Persephone, who was kidnapped by Hades.” She paused, as though she were trying to remember the story correctly. “You see, ancient sirens had the ability to see both the past and future, so it only seemed logical that they would be able to help Demeter find her daughter. So, she gave the ancient sirens wings, under the assumption that they would help them travel quicker than they would be able to on foot or in water.

  “Something interesting to note, however, is that one part of Greek mythology involving our wings is inaccurate. It is believed that sirens had bird legs and that our wings are like that of a sparrow. Neither of these things are true,” Angelica explained. “The wings that we receive are based on the bird that the ancient sirens believe we most connect with. It can also change over time.”

  I frowned in confusion. “Why do the ancient sirens give young sirens wings? Why doesn’t Demeter do that?”

  “When Persephone was found, Demeter no longer wanted to help the sirens. She wanted to have us all killed, claiming that we were a danger to the world, but the spell that she used to give us our wings prevented her from being able to do that.” Angelica laughed bitterly. “Besides, Demeter isn’t a bad goddess. She wouldn’t hurt a fly. She was just all talk. Since she couldn’t kill the sirens she created, she banished them to an island far out in the middle of the ocean where they wouldn’t be able to hurt many people again. Every now and then, a boat might pass by, but they don’t kill the way they did before.”

  “If she banished the sirens to an island, why aren’t we there, too?” I asked.

  “The spell only banished the sirens that she persuaded to come to the island at that time,” Angelica explained. “There were several sirens that were not present, and one of them was able to break free before the curse took effect. Since then, those sirens have created new sirens . . . and many of those sirens have gone on to reproduce.”

  “Reproduce? You mean, we can get pregnant?” I asked, totally surprised. For some reason, I didn’t think it was possible for sirens to have babies, but I’d probably only been assuming that because Angelica didn’t have any children . . . or at least, not any biological children that I knew of.

  Jasmine was the first to answer. “Yeah, unfortunately. So, if you go messing around with that boy Angelica saw you with last night, make sure you use protection, please.”

  “Oh, um, he’s just a friend,” I muttered. “It’s not like that.”

  “Maybe not for you,” Jasmine snapped at me. She rolled her eyes before climbing out of the pool and stomping inside.

  “I’m sorry Jasmine hasn’t warmed up to you yet,” Gabby apologized once Jasmine was in the house. “I’m sure she will soon. I’m going to go see if she’s okay right now.” She offered me an apologetic glance before climbing out of the pool and following after Jasmine.

  Scarlett glanced over at me. “I need to go do something on the computer really quick. I’ll be back soon.”

  I tried not to hide my disappointment—or my nervousness—that they had all left me in the pool alone with Angelica. It wasn’t that she made me uncomfortable . . . per se. It just felt like I was in for some sort of lecture, probably because I knew now, for sure, that she had seen me on the beach with Jackson.

  Once Scarlett had slipped inside the house, Angelica turned to me. “The main reason we invited you over tonight is because I wanted you to meet George. Now, he doesn’t know that we’re sirens, so you’re going to have to pass it off as you’re one of my cousins. He thinks Scarlett and Gabby are my sisters, and he thinks Jasmine was one of my old college roommates.”

  “Who’s George?” I’d never heard any of them mention him before.

  “George is my boyfriend. We have been together for a few years, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to be popping the question soon,” Angelica explained. I noticed that she didn’t sound overly excited when she mentioned that she thought he was going to propose to her; if anything, it sounded like she was annoyed. “It’s important to me that you meet him.”

  “Okay, but I’m confused. You said we’re not allowed to fall in love, but you’re getting married? That doesn’t really make any sense.”

  “Did you hear me say that I’m in love with George?” Angelica snapped.

  I shook my head. “No, but. . . .” I trailed off. I wanted to say that I had heard her mention seducing Phorcys earlier. Whether or not she loved George, it didn’t seem fair for her to cheat on him with someone who she used to love. Bringing it up would let her know that I had been eavesdropping, though, and I definitely didn’t want that.

  “But nothing. I didn’t say I was in love with him because I’m not. And, before you ask, he’s not the first man I’ve dated in recent times,” Angelica replied. She pulled a tire-shaped tube over her head and leaned against it as she continued talking to me. “I’m only marrying George because he has the most to offer.”

  “What does he have to offer?” I asked, only because I knew that she was waiting for me to question it. It almost felt like she wanted to brag about what her future husband brought to the table.

  “Have you seen my Porsche yet?” Angelica questioned.

  “No, I haven’t, actually,” I replied, unsure how I had missed it. Maybe it had been in the garage every time I’d come over.

  “George bought it for me,” Angelica explained. “He also pays for us to go to Hawaii about seven times a year. And get this. On our two year anniversary, he paid off the mortgage to the house, so it’s officially mine.” She flashed me a devious grin. “Those are just some of the things he’s done for me. He promised that once we get married, he’ll also will all of his money to me, being that he has no relatives. Both of his parents died a year ago, and he has no siblings. He owns several successful businesses.”

  “So, basically, what you’re saying is that you’re marrying him for his money?” I asked.

  “Well, think about it, Felicia,” Angelica said quietly. “George is thirty-seven right now. Say he lives the longest life a human can live, so we’ll put him at one hundred years old. That would mean I’d only need to put up with him for seventy three more years. However, he probably won’t live until he’s one hundred. He’ll probably die when he’s, say, seventy or eighty—which means I’ll only need to deal with him for thirty, maybe forty, more years. And then, my future will be taken care of until I marry someone else.”

  I gaped at her. Was this woman serious? She was really going to marry George just so that she could inherit money once he died? It made me sick to think that she could be so cruel as to use her immortality against someone in that way.

  “You could do it, too, you know,” Angelica said, meeting my eyes. “Men will be very attracted to you. And none of them think with their heads. All they care about is sex. As long as a guy is attracted to you and you’re willing to sacrifice your body whenever they want you to, you can have anything you want. Do you kn
ow how many guys have just handed their wallets over to me just because they were charmed by my looks? It’s that easy.”

  I just stared back at Angelica blankly. “I could never do that to anyone, or to myself. It’s horrible!”

  Angelica laughed bitterly. “You say that now, but when you’ve lived as long as me, you’ll feel differently. You’ll watch all of the people you once loved die, and you’ll still be here. It makes you not want to love. That’s why I say, eventually, in maybe fifty or sixty years, you’ll be able to date. Just not right now. You’re still too young and inexperienced. And you still care too much about humans. Once the reality sets in, and you come to understand that you’re not a human, it will be easy for you to just stop caring about them and their feelings.”

  I wanted to scream at her, to tell her that could never happen to me. But, what if she was right? What if, one day, I was able to stop caring? The idea, that I might be capable of acting like her one day, sickened me.

  “How did you become a siren?” I asked casually, realizing, for the first time, that I didn’t actually know.

  Angelica’s lips twisted into a tight smile. “I was a teenager. Nineteen, to be exact. I was courting a boy, but we had just gotten into a horrible argument, so I went outside for a breath of fresh air. And that’s when I heard it—this song, it was sweet and beautiful and it just drew me to it.

  “When I got there, I found this beautiful woman standing there, completely naked, in the middle of the ocean. Words can’t even begin to describe how beautiful she was. Homosexuality was frowned upon back then, but I could have fallen in love with this woman if she would have let me.” Angelica blew a piece of hair away from her eyes, which had a wistful look in them. “As I got closer to her, I realized that I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t the only one who had been drawn to her beautiful singing. My papa was also there, swimming into the water towards this woman. So, I followed him.”

  A cold look glazed over her eyes, as though she were remembering something she didn’t want to think about. “I watched as this beautiful woman drug my father under the water with her. Moments passed, and I saw bubbles in the ocean. When she came back up, my father’s body laid there limp and lifeless, his skin pale. As I got closer to him, he had this sickening expression on his face—he was smiling.” She shook her head. “I wanted to swim away from her. I wanted to go back home and pretend that I’d never seen it happen. I thought it was a nightmare at first. But then, the woman reached for my hand. And I swam to her.

  “Even though I had just watched my father drown, the woman seemed kind, and she had this funny look in her eyes. But mostly, it was her voice, which continued to sing during the whole ordeal, that drew me to her. It was as sweet as a lullaby. But before I knew it, the woman was pulling me under the water, too.” Angelica paused before meeting my eyes again. “I don’t remember much about what happened while I was under the water. I just know that when I woke up, I was lying on the beach. Days later, the woman—her name was Lorelei—came to tell me what had happened . . . or what I was, I should say. I never heard from her again.”

  “Wow,” I murmured. I began to feel a twinge of sympathy for Angelica. I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to face this all by myself. Having Scarlett and Gabby and Angelica—and sometimes even Jasmine—made it so much easier. But to deal with it all alone? I don’t know if I would have been able to.

  “That’s why I think it’s so important for you to stick together with us, Felicia,” Angelica said as though she were reading my mind. “I want you to always know that, even though you won’t have a human family anymore, you’ll always have a siren family to come home to.” She ducked her head under the water. “I won’t pressure you to move in with us just yet, but eventually, I’m confident you will on your own.”

  I nodded. “I will.” There was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to live here with my sister. It was nice to know that I was able to make up for lost time when it came to Scarlett. I just worried about what would happen with Gram, but I had time to figure that out later, since I wasn’t being rushed to move in yet.

  “Good.” Angelica smiled sweetly at me. She inched closer to me and, wrapping one arm around me in a small embrace, she ran her fingers through my hair, and I winced at her touch. Her hands were cold—almost too cold. “I’ve always wanted to have another daughter,” she whispered into my ear.

  “Ahem.” Someone cleared their throat from behind us, and Angelica quickly let go of me and whirled around.

  A man, who appeared to be in his mid-thirties and wore a black suit, stood behind us. His hair was balding, and his face was round, but his hazel eyes twinkled at the sight of Angelica.

  “Hi, George!” Angelica trilled, her voice rising to a level that I was unaware it could reach. It was the happiest I had heard her since the first time we’d met. It was like the sound came from a completely different person.

  “Hey, baby,” George replied. He handed her a bouquet of roses when she climbed out of the pool. “I picked these up on the way over. They reminded me of you. And look at the one in the center.”

  “A gold-dipped rose?” Angelica squealed.

  George nodded. “My love for you will last for as long as the last rose in this bouquet lasts.” I rolled my eyes at his words; I’d heard a cheesy quote like that many times before. It definitely sounded like he had been rehearsing this for a while.

  George got down on one knee. I wanted to tell him to stop, that this was the biggest mistake of his life, that Angelica didn’t love him. But, instead, I said nothing at all. “I would be honored if you would make me the happiest man in the world by agreeing to spend the rest of your life with me.”

  His marriage proposal made me want to vomit. Even if Angelica agreed to marry him, her acceptance of his proposal would be under false pretenses; there was no way she could spend the rest of her life with him.

  “Of course I will, George! I’d love to!” Angelica squealed, jumping up and down in excitement. She turned to me. “I am going to be the future Mrs. Carrington! Doesn’t that sound just lovely?”

  Before I could answer, the back door opened, and Gabby and Scarlett came running over to them.

  “We watched the proposal from the window,” Scarlett explained. “You’re getting married!”

  Angelica nodded, and for a moment, I thought I noticed genuine excitement on her face. She was probably just looking forward to throwing some sort of lavish wedding—and being able to collect her inheritance once George died.

  “We’re so excited for you!” Gabby exclaimed, throwing her arms around George’s neck. “Welcome to the family.”

  I climbed out of the pool and just stood there, frozen, as I watched everything that was happening. I noticed that Jasmine hadn’t come out of the house, and I wondered if it was because she still didn’t want to be around me or if it was because she didn’t like the idea of George and Angelica getting married, either.

  “I’m so fortunate to be getting not just one awesome sister-in-law, but two awesome sister-in-laws,” George said to Scarlett and Gabby. I gritted my teeth. The fact that Scarlett passed herself off as Angelica’s sister really annoyed me.

  “And an awesome cousin-in-law,” Angelica said. She turned to me, an amused look in her silvery eyes. I wondered how George didn’t notice that they weren’t even human-like. “George Carrington, I want you to meet my cousin, Felicia Parks.”

  “It’s good to meet you, Felicia. I’ve heard so much about you. From our very first date, Angelica talked my ear off about you,” George said, extending his hand to me.

  As I gave him the weakest, flimsiest handshake I had ever given anyone, I stared at Scarlett questioningly. I knew that Angelica had been expecting that I might be living with them one day, but it still seemed odd for her to bring me up to George years before I had been turned into a siren. Nevertheless, I said, “Angelica and I have been out of touch for a while, so I can’t say that I’ve heard very much about you. But welcome to ou
r family!”

  “You’ve just moved back to Ocean Grove, I understand?” George asked, a genuine look of interest in his eyes. There was also a look of something else, too . . . lust, maybe? The idea that Angelica’s much older fiancé could be attracted to me made me feel uneasy, even though I knew that it was only normal for guys to be attracted to me now.

  “Something like that,” I mumbled. “I need to get going. I’ll see all of you soon.”

  As I walked around the side of the house, I realized that there was one thing that Angelica hadn’t mentioned about her seemingly grand scheme to marry George Carrington and inherit all of his money. What was she going to do in twenty years from now when George began to notice that she hadn’t aged a bit?

  Chapter 25

  On Saturday morning, Gram knocked on my door loudly. “Felicia? Time to get ready!”

  I glanced at my alarm clock and groaned at how early it was. I was about to protest and tell my grandmother that I didn’t need to be at work until later in the afternoon today, but then I remembered the reason she was waking me up at this hour.

  My stomach twisted in knots.

  I wasn’t ready to see my mother yet. I knew I’d told Gram that I would see her today, but I’d been expecting it to fall through. It made no sense why now, all of a sudden, the woman who completely disowned me and had ignored my existence for all these years, wanted to see me.

  Reluctantly, I climbed out of bed and glanced in my closet. What was someone supposed to wear when they were seeing their mother for the first time in seven years?

  I decided on a pair of denim shorts and a pink ruffled shirt. Running a brush through my hair, I glanced at myself in the mirror. Did I look like the same person my mother remembered? Sighing, I knew that I would find out soon.

  The drive to the mental health facility was long and awkward. I think Gram and I were both wondering what was going to happen today. Would Mom be mentally stable enough to stop blaming me for what had happened, or was seeing me going to bring up bad memories for her?