Mars woke up from the short nap she elected to take after the boys left her apartment. They invited her to grab food, an invitation she declined. She told them that she would meet them at Benji’s after she got some rest. When Paul had been around, performances were exhausting, with him gone, shows wore Mars down considerably.

By The Coast performed at Benji’s every Friday and every other Saturday. Other bands came through occasionally in the summer, equally small and unknown as By The Coast. But not this Saturday, this Saturday Mars was up again.

She pulled out her phone to check the time. The gesture triggered the memory of her dream.

She dreamt of the girl on the beach.

Curious, Mars unlocked her phone and searched up ‘siren’, unsure as to why the word came to mind. As she scrolled through her findings, she saw that her memory hadn’t failed her. In modern media, sirens were commonly depicted as mermaids. Traditionally, in the original mythology, they were pictured as bird women.

You’re an idiot… Mars rolled her eyes at herself and locked her phone. She didn’t turn into a fucking bird, she probably walked into the building before you turned the corner.

She considered taking up coffee again.

Mars opened the backdoor to Benji’s with the tap of her electronic key. She waited a second for the lock mechanism to zip open, before pulling it towards her. She went down a short corridor and rounded a corner. Just about dropped her guitar case when she spotted the young woman from the beach jotting something down over next to the piano.

Backtracking, she made for the other side of the corner.

What is she doing here?

She snuck past the stage curtain and hightailed it to the employee’s lounge. There she found Koda, Noa, and Salem speaking to Benji about video games.

“Hey Mars,” the venue owner waves. “How’s it going?”

“Benji, who’s that girl in the back?” She had meant to sound curious, only it came out as defensive.

“Oh? She’s a nice lass, her name is Devi, she’s your new opener.” He turned to the rest of the band, “She has a voice unlike any other, I think she has a lot of potential.”

“Yeah, I think I heard a bit when I came in, she’s great. Cute too. Where’d you find her?” Noa inquired.

“She actually found me, she walked right in this morning and talked me into it. Tia said she caught your show last night, so I expected her to be an overly ambitious fan girl, but from what I’ve heard this morning, she’s the real deal.”

“She was here last night?” Mars tuned out of their conversation, it couldn’t be a coincidence… Was the young lady following her? Who was she? What was she? Something in her gut didn’t give her a good feeling. Mars left the group and made her way backstage again.

The girl hadn’t noticed her, engrossed in whatever she was doing.

“Who are you?” Mars meant to ease into the topic, but she didn’t know how much longer they would be alone together.

This startled Devi, who clutched her notes defensively. Mars felt bad about scaring her but pressed on, “You’re the girl from the beach, aren't you?”