IT ISN’T LONG BEFORE I push Aven into the living room and warn him to stay away from us until we finish the conversation. The man merely rolls his eyes and flops onto the couch, stretching his long, slender legs on the coffee table. 

Victor stares at me and back at Aven carefully with prying eyes that opt to guage every hidden detail about our twisted relationship. Fearing that he might sense something off about us I push the men into the kitchen.  I set up the fire and placed the pan over it to boil the water. I look around for the powdered coffee I had brought the last time I stepped out for grocery shopping, which I think must be before Cameron’s disappearance.

“It should be around here…” I mutter to myself. 

“What?”

“The powdered coffee.” I pause. I throw back a look at Bastian. “You want coffee right?”

“Of course I do!” came Bastian’s enthusiastic answer. 

I sigh. Pushing my hair off my forehead I turn to turn off the water that is boiling now. “I’m sorry I can’t remember where I put it.” 

“Ah that’s fine,” Bastian says with an awkward smile, the one he has when he does something opposite to what his heart says. Victor steps forward and reaches for the glass cupboard that he has been eyeing for a while. With surety in his movements, he pulls the door open and picks up the tin I use for putting coffee from the topmost shelf. I blink and groan. 

Aven…

“Why would you put it there when you can’t even reach it by yourself?” Bastian asks unable to help himself. I gulp. “It’s not me. It’s Aven.”

I watch as both the men’s faces twist into something ugly. “Again with that guy? Just who is he to you Clara?” It’s Bastian who speaks again. Frowning in fear I snatch the tin from Victor’s hand and fetch the glasses. 

“Spill it. Why are you two here?”

Victor and Bastian exchange a glance. The two men awkwardly stand there looking down at their feet. Bastian’s demeanour appeared to speak for himself. He was annoyed and confused. Victor however did nothing to appease his emotions. 

Finally, the man sighs. He approaches me with his heavy steps. He places his hands over my stiff shoulders and pushes me to the dining table.  “You might want to get seated for this.”

Confused, I glanced at Bastian, as he had a face that betrayed most of his emotions, but he had not yet lifted it.

Victor pulls behind the chair for me. “What’s with the dramatics?” I laugh nervously. Looking at Bastian I ask, “Did you finally get yourself a girl?”

Bastian finally looks up. “What-no that’s not it.”

I smile. “Then what is it?”

Bastian looks at Victor for reassurance, the other man, however, is staring at me. I drop the smiling facade and let my unease appear on my face. “Seriously? What is it?”

“Clara…”

Victor sighs and gently pats my head. I turn to look at him, but he grips my chin, forcing me to face forward. I’m about to ask him why he’s doing this when his words stop me, freezing me in place and sending my mind into the frozen paradise I've been trapped in for so long.

“They’ve found Cameron.”

The world around me turned dim until it stopped existing in my vision.

No thoughts run through my mind except for one. Cameron.

No face appears in my eyes except for one. Cameron. 

No voice lingers in my ears except for one. Cameron. 

I feel hands on my face and voices ringing loudly, calling me to wake me out of this trance. 

Clara. 

My head snaps up and my eyes blurred with tears meet the cold alluring gaze of the predator. Aven. 

“Clara, can you hear me?” I hear Victor asking me calmly. Bastian is pacing around inside the kitchen mumbling something. As if a bulb lit up above his head he picks up a glass and fills it up with water up to the brim and hands it over to me. 

Bastian's smile is awkward and unsure, like a child who doesn't know how to react to someone's tears. Victor, on the other hand, had the furrows between his eyebrows deepen. His grip tightened on the chair. “Clara.”

“Ha…?”

“While it is relieving that there is information about Cameron…we… cannot be sure if it is indeed Cameron.”

My head felt heavy on my shoulders. I felt the wave of dizziness wash over me. “Eh?”

Bastian pulls the chair next to me and sits on it. He gulps and I watch as his expression transforms into something foreign."We received a report from the police this morning. It appears that the fishermen who went out to sea last night encountered something unusual. They believe they saw a man in the middle of the ocean, and according to their accounts, he attempted to harm them."

“While it sounds fantastical, it seems true for they identified their perpetrator from the pictures glued on the station’s walls. To be precise, Cameron’s faded-out photo.” 

“However,” Victor starts stepping away from my chair,” We do not know if their information is reliable.” a dry smile appears on his face. “Bloody drunkards.”

Bastian brushes the imaginary dust settled over his exposed arms. The veins bulge in his movements and I stared at them, picturing Cameron staring at them mesmerised in hopes of imprinting the elegant waves of his nerves in his mind. 

I sigh. A thought suddenly flickers in my mind and I jump from my seat. I claw into Victor’s arms and ask him with frantic eyes and an uneasy smile playing on my lips. 

“Where can I meet them?” My gaze shifted back and forth between Victor and Bastian. 

“Please say something. Anything!” 

“Clara…we are not sure if it is Cameron-”

“Oh to hell with it!” I snap. My voice, rough and disarray with anger, echoes in the room like a foreboding sign. “I finally got one clue about my brother and you guys are preventing me from going to him?” I laugh. “Unbelievable.”

Bastian opens his mouth as if to speak something. However, Victor stops him just in time. “We understand your desperation Clara but-” he pauses and then sighs. He meets my icy glare with his soft pleading eyes and turns away as a sign of defeat. 

“I see. We will take you to them.”

My frown dissipates at the same time as Bastian shouts in protest. Victor raises his hand to silence him and earns himself a slap on the same hand. “Don’t you dare order me around! What do you think you are doing taking her to that place?”

“I know what I am doing. Besides, Clara wants to see them so why should we stop her?” Bastian bites back his words. Victor approaches me, this time, however, the air around him is stubborn and eerie. 

“I am not done, Clara. In return for taking you there, you will tell us who this man is and his relationship with you.”

My smile freezes in its place. How am I to explain my relationship with Aven to them? Just then, a familiar voice filled the corners of my mind, overpowering my own little voice. 'Play along.' He told me.

“What is there to explain? I told you, we are in a relationship. Isn’t that right Clara?”

I gulped. Forcing myself to act, I laugh and agree. “Yes.” I rub my hands together. “Sorry, I didn’t tell you guys. It’s just- Aven was the voice of comfort during those times apart from you.”

“You agreed that at last.”

'Don’t overdo it.' I warn him in my head. 

'I would not dare sweetheart.'

“I explained my relationship with him. Now, are we good to go?”

There is a brief pause. Aven leans on the door observing us. Victor’s eyes have not left the siren just like how Bastian’s glazy ones refuse to leave mine. But I stand firm in my request and do not let them unravel me further. 

Victor pushes his spectacle up past the bridge of his nose so that it is nestled securely between his eyebrows.  “We will meet each other at the wake of the dawn.” He nods at me. “You know the time.” He takes note of Aven. “Bring him with you, though I don’t think it is necessary.”

“That is quite unfortunate. I want to join.”

If he is annoyed by the answer, Victor doesn’t let it show in his face. “I see. We will be leaving now.”

Bastian simply sighs in response. He regards Aven with another one of his subtle glares and then promptly leaves the room. I walk behind them to bid them goodbye but by the time I reach the door, they have already started their bike and left. I sigh not knowing what to do. 

The excitement of knowing something about Cameron rushes through my veins sending me into an almost trance-like state. However, the dread of not knowing just what they had witnessed brought me back to earth and the worst-case scenarios that I had never dared prepare for. 

“You might want to watch over Mr. Glasses.” Aven’s voice trudges past my dizzying thoughts. 

I voice out my concern and all I receive in response is a half smirk and shrug. “Remember when I said we sirens can sense emotions? Let’s say I read the duo’s emotions and while they both were uninviting of my presence in your life, Mr. Glasses was particularly distressed about everything.” 

“As in?”

A frown made its way on his face replacing his smile. Blue eyes narrowed at me asing me a silent question. Are you stupid?

“Excuse me?”

Aven brushes back his golden locks that settle back in their destined place- over his eyes- and sighs. “You are denser than you appear.” he pauses and then gazes at me in a way that makes me think he sees through me. 

“What is it?”

He narrows his eyes at me. “It will be pointless,” he mutters under his breath. 

“You are confusing me.”

Aven flicks my forehead and I yelp in pain. “That’s some real hard head you got there.”

“You-”

“I will join you tomorrow. “ he tilts his head as he peers down at me. Eyes clearer than the ocean under the heated rays of the sun bore into mine and I momentarily forgot how to breathe. A peculiar glint sweeps in his eyes and he is now reaching to cradle my face in his slender hands. He leans down near my neck and breathes.”Your brother’s case has me intrigued.”

I gasp under the sensation of his breath touching the skin of my nape but do not make any attempt to push him away. My feet remain bound to the ground just like how my body is now bound to his words and his desires. 

He places a kiss on the place where his lips touched upon speaking and shuffles away. There is an easygoing smile playing on his lips as he eases away from me. The place where his lips lingered tingles and I feel my face heat up in response. A low rumble of laughter escapes his throat and I stare at him dumbfounded. 

“Red looks good on you sweetheart.”