Siren's Call

Being awake at two in the morning on a Saturday meant one of two things. Outrageously depressed and spiraling on life or outrageously drunk at a beach holding back a vomit. Ergo was the second one. He buried his face in his arms on the railing. That last buzz ball did it for him. He could feel his stomach churning and screaming at him for doing it. His eyes began to water, and snot dripped down to his lip. He wanted to apologize. To whom? Himself? He did it, he made those choices. He drew a sharp breath, it was blocked by the burning liquid coming up. Ergo had less than a second to think. “Move my legs, don’t throw up on the shoes. Bend over far enough not to get anything on my clothes. Aim for the sand. What could be coming up? The tacos from earlier? I think I’m good, nope—” chunky red liquid shot out of his mouth. Dry heave, then again. He fell back onto the pier head spinning. The stars turned halfway and reset back and began to turn again. It wasn’t tacos, it was the bacon wrapped hotdog. He could smell the bacon on his breath.

His friends laughed at him and stumbled into each other walking towards him. “Bro actually threw up” one of them said while laughing. They helped him up, their laughs echoed in Ergo’s head. While they laughed he took the bottom of one of their shirts and wiped his mouth on it. “Bro, disgusting!” He said pulling away. They continued to laugh as the guy took off his shirt. They cheered, for him “Take it off, take it all off.”

“Ergo just ruined my shirt.” Brian balled up the shirt and threw it at him. “This asshole”

“It’s like that meme—what was it—bro can I get a napkin. And he rips the dudes shirt” They started laughing again. Ergo joined in, just glad the attention was off of him. He tuned them out as Brian argued with him. In the distance he saw a woman walk out of the water. Her hair was drenched black and covered her face. Her clothes stuck to her like a second skin.

“Yo, look, you see that?” Ergo tapped one of them to get their attention.

“What’s wrong with her. She looks…I don’t know.”

The boys watched her for a moment to see if she would move from the shore line. No one else was around, just them, and the silence of the air between them. Brian took a hit of his vape, attached to it was a money clip with a fifty dollar bill clipped in. He slid it out, pressed it against Ergo’s chest and said “Fifty bucks, you go talk to her. Matter of fact.” He pulled out another fifty. “A hundred if you talk to her and ask her to, hold up what time is it?” He checked his watch, “A hundred if you ask her to cook breakfast for you too.”

Someone added a twenty, another a ten. Brian went around collected the money and presented it to Ergo. “A total of one hundred, seventy three dollars, ten cents, two sticks of gum and a amazon gift card. How much is on here?” The guy shrugged. “An unknown amount of money on this amazon gift card. Now I don’t know about you but I always pay attention when I’m at target. This gift cards go from fifty bucks to five hundred” Brian knelt down and placed a firm hand on Ergo’s shoulder. He leaned in close, Ergo could smell the beer. “Now I don’t know about you but I’m a man of faith. Are you a faithful man?” Brian’s eyes locked with Ergo’s “I have faith that there’s five hundred dollars on this amazon card. I guarantee you, it’s more than a hundred. Now if my math is correct, it usually isn’t but, you could get a total of—” Brian counted on his fingers for a moment, “five, plus. Six hundred dollars and I’ll round up to six seventy five.”

Ergo grabbed the money but Brian wouldn’t let go. “Money first” Ergo said.

“Smart man.” Brian let go.

They cheered him on as Ergo got up and stuffed the money in his pocket. He walked down the pier stairs, took off his shoes and socks and carried them over to her. Brian leaned over and asked “You really don’t know how much is on the card?” the guy looked at him with a smile and said “I redeemed it already.” They both let out a bellowing laugh and continued with the cheering.

Ergo approached the woman slowly, “Hello, scuse me.” He hunched over to try and see through her hair. “Hello?” She raised her head and her hair parted around her lips, they were a purplish grey color and plump. “Going fishing?” He said taking a few steps closer. “I was wondering if you catch anything, you could cook me some breakfast. At your place maybe.” He took another step. She staggered towards him and he stepped back. Then he took a step closer, each step he took, she jaggedly took a step towards him until they were inches away. “What’s your name? My name’s Ergo.” Her lips pressed against his. She tasted salty and slimy as if he was kissing the skin of a fish. He leaned into it but she pulled away. The cheers in the background went up. A plan formed in his head. He could take her home, she could sit in the uber on Brian’s shirt. She could stay the night. He has condoms. His room is mostly clean, she won’t mind would she?

She pulled in further in the water, he was already waist deep. How did he get there. She kissed him again; her tongue flapped around in his mouth like a dying fish on land. She pulled him under. The waves crashed against him. He closed his eyes. Held on to her. Not wanting to let go but couldn’t. Her grip was stronger. He was underwater, but didn’t know where, was it just a wave? He opened his eyes again, wet, darkness, light fading above him. His heart thumped in his throat.

There was a sudden stop. He held his breath. He was deep under water. A few small lantern lights lit the room. The walls were steel and covered in rust. The woman was there, her hair floated in the water, several other women were around her. Ergo was seated at a table with the items floating around him. He gripped the table to hold him there; the plates began to rise with the candle holder and candles. He searched for a door or something to escape. But he didn’t know how far down he was in the ocean. The women placed a dead fish on his plate and stabbed it, pinning it to the table. They opened their mouths, bubbles flowed out, the word “eat” echoed in his head. He choked. He needed air, a few air bubbles slipped out. Ergo had less than a minute left to live. They spoke again “eat.” One of them placed a fork in his hand. Automatically he took it then threw it away from him. There wasn’t a door, just a cracked window. He let go of the table and pushed himself towards the exit. His eyes caught a glimpse of the bodies of men floating above him at the ceiling. The woman that brought him there tried to kiss him again, but he kicked her away.

“They always leave.” She said. “Always.”

“Sister, this is why we don’t bring dirt men to our homes. They cannot live here.” One of them wearing pearls swam around and gripped his face and forced him to look up. “He’ll be like them soon. I want his watch.”

Ergo let out a few more bubbles. His body screamed for air. The instinct for it took over, he flailed his arms and tried to swim to the window. But it was too late. Two of the sisters grabbed him. He swung. Hit something. Kept swinging. A grip loosened. He pushed through the window. The moonlight above was just a speck in the darkness around him. He tried to swim up, clawing, and kicking at the nothingness around him. In his last seconds he cried out to anything. She swam around him, cupped his face and kissed him one last time. He had no energy to fight, water had filled his lungs already. Her solid black eyes matched the darkness he was around.

He opened his eyes, the water rushed past his ears and the sand stuck to him. The sun was rising, and the light warmed his body as the water retracted. Ergo sat up on his elbows, in the distance he could see her head bobbing in the ocean. A wave washed over, she was gone. He turned on his side to get ready to push himself up. Next to him in the sand was the fish with the knife impaled in it.