Chapter 4: Return

Somewhere deep in the ocean a very steep seamount had stood up from the sea floor like some ugly malicious ghost disturbing the pleasing beautiful aquatic life. It's summit was about fifty feet under the water. one could not see the base of seamount from above. It's like the seamount had slowly blended with the pitch black darkness of ocean after a certain depth, creating a endless abyss underneath.

It was night time. The ocean was dark and cold. And this particular seamount was like a territory of all kind of evil, converging in one point. It's natural black colour made it invisible in the black ocean. But if one looked carefully they would find a dim light source floating in this part of the ocean. To be exact the light source was coming from a cave of the seamount which can't differentiated from the night. Inside the cave were many big fist sized luminescent pearls, lighting the narrow stone passageway. After crossing the passageway there was a astonishingly broad chamber. The chamber was decorated with many high quality jewels and crystals. In the middle of chamber there was a throne curved with some unknown crystals. Seated there was a extremely beautiful woman. But she was not a human. Her upper half was of a normal woman's but from her waist instead of legs there was a long ash coloured fish tail. On her head, in place of ears there was a pair of protruded fish fins. There were some fish scales on her whitish hands like a scar. Her five fingers were joined by thin membrane.

Instead of all these unusual characteristics, this half human half fish woman had breathtakingly charming and seductive pair of eyes. Her untied long black hair was chaotically dancing with the gentle waves of ocean. Her blood red soft lips were as if asking to be kissed. Her upper half which were barely clothed with thin fabric was oozing with sexual appeal. She was like a seductive demoness.

At this moment she was glaring at two similar half human half fish women in front of her. The two non-human women was also charming but not as much as her. They silently lowered their heads at her glare. At the left side of the throne there was a human male floating inside a bubble. From his even breath it could be concluded that he was either sleeping or unconscious. If Ethan was here, he would have instantly recognised this man. He was the black haired guard who helped him, finding a job.

The woman at the throne screamed with a shrill voice," You brought such a low quality human for your Queen?" Her voice shattered her beautiful image at once.

The other two half human trembled. Then one of them said," Queen, we had no other way. After investigation, only he was a little bit handsome among the town people."

The other one spoke," Yes Queen, we kidnapped another two before but they were even worse than him."

The so called Queen broke a handle of the throne in anger. She grinded her teeth and said, " Go to the neighbouring town then. This time find me a handsome man."

The two women hesitated for a moment and then finally said," But the mermaids prohibited our entrance into the human civilization...."

The Queen violently moved her long tail with a 'whoosh' and smashed the two heavily on the cave wall, leaving a clear streamline.

"You dare mention those mermaids in front of me? Where is your proud as a siren go?! And their princess just died a few days ago. Hmph! They must be attending her funeral now. Where would they get the time to notice a few people's disappearance in such a small town.....And you have already broken the mermaid queen's boundary around the town quite a few times now. Did those ingrates notice anything?...I am warning you if this time you again failed my expectations... remember only death will be awaiting you."

" And my future child will be your new siren queen. I want her to be the most beautiful. So find me a handsome..... beautiful man if possible." The siren queen looked disdainfully at the black haired man in the bubble and said," Kill him. He is of no use to me now....."

The two sirens who were hit, balanced themselves against the sea water and nodded. Blood was oozing out from the scales of their tails but they didn't dare make a sound in pain. They were about to leave when another siren rushed there. She was too excited.

"Pardon this siren for sudden intrusion but I have brought a great news for my queen today!!"

The siren queen casually waved her hand and granted her permission to speak. That siren excitedly said, " My Queen, today when I entered the town in human form, I spotted a beautiful man. So beautiful that I thought he was a girl. No man...and even the beautiful mermaids can't be compared to him. And that man also knows this guard whom we caught... kidnapping him will be no problem at all."

The queen raised her eyebrows," Oh, so beautiful.....hmm.... fine then..." She smiled seductively and looked at the sleeping black haired man," Well, now even you have some use....."

The siren queen waved her hand and said," Go and don't come back if you don't catch him...."

The three sirens dispersed with the black hair man almost immediately.

.........

......

Ethan was sitting in the innermost living room of Richard's house and watched the scene, unfolding in front of speechlessly. Tera was binding his husband tightly against a thick pole. After binding once with a thick rope, she naturally wasn't satisfied and bound him again for a second time. Even then she was unsatisfied and was just about to bind him for a third time. Ethan looked at Richard's crying face, asking for help. Ethan couldn't help but say," Umm... sister if you bind him so tightly he will die of impaired blood flow even before the sirens come."

Tera looked at him as if he was an idiot and said smilingly ," Brother... but I was thinking of binding you even more tightly..... You are just too beautiful. You have to be more careful."

Ethan was terrified. He took a step back unconsciously, then said," Sister, why are you binding us when the sirens are coming. Shouldn't we fight them?...And another thing I don't understand.... brother said, your town is blessed by the mermaid queen then why are the sirens attacking it. Aren't they from the same species?"

Richard, Tera and even little Fin looked at him very strangely. Little Fin said," Uncle, are you stupid?"

Moon who was sleeping soundly in Ethan's embrace, moved a little in reaction and sleep talked while waving her little hand, "Not stupid...". Shielding her dad had already become a unconscious act to Moon that even sleeping her unconscious brain didn't forget to obey it. Ethan felt warm in his heart.

Tera sighed," Your daughter is really so adorable. Fin, learn from her. look how much she loves her dad and you...well anyway brother where have you come from? The difference between siren and mermaid, even the children know it."

Ethan hurriedly avoided the question with,".....veeeeeeeeery far away from here."

Tera and Richard were simple honest people so they didn't doubt anymore. Tera said in a slightly lowered tone as if not to let even the walls hear, " You see, It is said that many years ago when the sea goddess made the ocean, she created many big and small creatures in it. But like the land goddess she also wanted to create a intelligent life form like humans in the vast ocean. So she created the seaman. Among the seaman the males are called merman and the females are called mermaid. The seaman are all honest and pure creatures. Contrary to humans, their hearts are always free of any kind of evil thoughts. Thus the balance between good and evil began to deviate greatly in ocean. If there is good, there have to be equal amount of evil. Otherwise the world will collapse. But in the ocean there is only purity and good. So in her hastiness the goddess created a creature with jealousy, envy, hate, the sirens. And where there is this three emotions there will be evil. Like every human has a certain amount of evil in their heart. But she forgot to create the males in the sirens. So the goddess gave them permission to mate with the humans above.

Like the seaman they don't have any colour in there scales. Although they are very beautiful, they are equally very dangerous. The sirens would mesmerize the males of the human kind with their songs and drag them into the ocean. After using them they would kill them mercilessly. Legend says that many decades ago the sirens didn't kill the human males. But once a human male cheated with a siren. And the sirens are epitope of jealousy. So after that time the sirens didn't bother to go through the process of falling in love anymore. They just catch their favourite human male and mate with them, then killed them afterwards. For they thought it beneath their pride to let the human mate with any other woman....now that I have explained everything, come brother, let me tie you up nicely."

Ethan smiled wryly, " Sister, what about the boundary around the town then? Brother said no one with malicious thought can enter the town. How could the sirens enter? Do you have to bind me?"

Tera smiled helplessly," Brother, the mermaid queen indeed created a boundary for us many many decades ago when the relationship between the human and the Seaman were still stable. But then the relationship worsened for some human's immense greed. The mermaid queen withdrew most of her energy from the boundary at that time. It was just a few years ago when the mermaid princess again repaired the broken relationship and married the king of our empire. That was when the mermaid princess reconstructed our town boundary with her energy. But unfortunately, five days ago our beloved queen, the mermaid princess died due to child birth. With her gone, our boundary weakened by a great amount. The sirens can easily break it. Remaining in the safety environment for years, most of us almost forgot about the danger...sigh.."

Richard who was tightly bound to the pole also sighed heavily sighed," Yeah....I still can't believe Dan is gone just like that. We just walked together home with Ethan this evening. Why that bastard had to go to the lake at a time like this?"

Ethan was surprised," The other guard brother is named Dan?!!"

Richard remembered that Ethan didn't know Dan's name back then.

Ethan was so surprised that he couldn't say anything for a while. He was about to speak when he heard a certain knock on the door. Everyone in the room froze. Then they heard the voice of whom they thought, would never hear in their entire life time...It was exactly Dan!

A miserable voice could be heard from outside," Richard, hurry open the door. I escaped from the sirens with very difficultly. Your house is near so I came here. Hurry open..."

Richard and Tera looked at each other but didn't dare to make a noise. Could someone really escape from the sirens?

"Hurry, open Richard! Aren't we brothers?...."

"Richard, I am heavily injured. Please open the door..."

"Richard, please..."

"Please, I am dying, please...."

Dan's cry continued to echo through the night. Richard's eyes became red. Ethan was silent. He held his daughter more tightly. Moon woke up from the commotion. She couldn't understand why they are not opening the door? Richard looked at Tera and said," Wife, just let me have a peek..."

Tera immediately refused," No...I am going. You stay here. Don't you dare to come out no matter what. And you too brother and please look after Fin."

Richard shouted," No..."

But he was stopped by Tera in midway," Listen, the sirens can't do anything to a woman and don't you know they are weak in land?.."

Tera didn't let him argue anymore and directly went out of the room. Dan's cry had not stopped yet when they heard the opening of the door. Then a moment of silence. It was like their heart had stopped in this few seconds. Suddenly to their horror, they heard the scream of Tera. Then everything again emerged into a frightening silence.

Richard shouted," Ethan, hurry, untie me. Tera...she is in trouble." As he said his eyes flooded with tears.

Ethan had already stood up. He looked at the messy knots and shook his head.

' Forget it. This type of messy knot will take life time to untie.'

He was about to go himself when he felt a light tug on his t- shirt. He looked down only to meet the tearful eyes of his daughter. Although Moon was sleeping previously, she knew the current situation was dangerous. At that time in town square she had also heard about the sirens. And Tera mentioned them again. So she didn't want her dad to go.

Ethan caressed her soft head and said, " Dad will come back in just a few seconds. Don't worry."

Moon looked at him," promise?"

Ethan smiled," Super promise captain."

Moon was uneasy but still nodded,"okay"

Ethan hurriedly went out of the room. He looked at the silent dark night outside the door. He reached the door but didn't see anybody. As soon as he stepped outside, he heard a beautiful soul jerking song. Ethan was amused. Was it the infamous song of a siren? It was beautiful indeed. But that was it. He thought that the songs of many beautiful artists at the modern time were even more beautiful. Ethan was not impressed at all. So he just ignored it. After a while he spotted Tera in her home garden lying motionlessly.

Ethan hurriedly checked her breath and was relieved to know that she was breathing steadily. He was just about to carry her when a heavy object hit him from behind. Ethan held his head and looked behind. It was Dan but his eyes were lifeless. Ethan could feel that his strength was leaving him slowly. Dan covered his mouth. Then he was dragged out of the house. His consciousness was leaving him. But he tried his best to struggle but all in vain. He thought of his only daughter, Moon.

' What will happen to Moon if I die? Who will look after her?'

'No I must survive....My Moon....'

' Moon has none besides me. I must....'

Everything began to drown into haze. After a while Ethan heard the sound of waves nearby. ' Must have reached the lake....No...I don't want to die.... please... someone....'

In midst of half illusion and half reality he heard some voices.

' You may go now...'

'You are letting this ugly human go?'

' Why not? We didn't mate with him anyway. And He is ugly. '

' But this beautiful human is strange.'

'He was not mesmerized by our songs.'

' Yes, how strange.'

' Anyway let's go. The Queen will reward us if we take him to her quickly. Hurry.'

'Freya, you touch him so that he can breathe underwater.'

'Alright..'

Ethan was frightened. 'They are taking me inside water. Moon I am sorry....Dad couldn't fulfill your promise.'

He struggled to open his eyes. Ethan didn't know if it was hallucination or not but he suddenly heard Moon's voice. With very difficulty he looked up and saw Moon's hazy figure running towards him. In the dark only her golden hair was visible. But he knew she was crying from her voice.

'Daaaaaad!!!!'

' No, don't come...' he wanted to say but couldn't speak. Then he saw another tall, very familiar figure running towards him with a horrifying speed. This one also had shining golden hair like his daughter. Ethan subconsciously reached out his hand. Then water splashed and everything went dark. Ethan couldn't breathe. The water was cold and dark, without any warmth.

' Why can't the human breathe? I am supplying him enough air. The previous humans were okay like this.'

' Freya, are you doing it right? Give me the human.... Strange he still can't breathe'

'see I told you....'

The sound in the surrounding slowly began to fade. Ethan could understand he was dying. He slowly closed his tired eyes. But before that he saw a mass of golden hair again, much longer than his Moon. Then a intense white light covered his entire being.

........

...

When Ethan opened his eyes again, he was standing in the shopping mall, where everything began. People was going past him shopping here and there. At some point He thought everything was a dream. He stood there for a whole minute. Then suddenly a thought occurred to him.

' Where is Moon? '

Ethan searched frantically everywhere but there was no sign of Moon. He returned back to her school. But the teacher who was about to go home, looked at him strangely," Haven't you just taken her from here?"

Ethan ran to his house. Again there was no one. Ethan's head as if had exploded like a balloon in immense stress. He heard buzzing noises around him. At last like a helpless victim he sat down on his bed and sobbed," Moon, where are you?"