CAMERON’S FONDNESS TOWARDS the daisies was a subject I couldn’t wrap my head around. Its scent was enough for me to make the boy take away the flower pot from my room’s window. But he still kept it, placed it beside the windows of his room and took care of it as if it were his child- sometimes scolding it for wilting, sometimes complaining to it about me; the list varied but the conclusion was the same: he adored the flower. When I inquired to him about it on one summer night before our grandma’s passing, all he had to say was:

They remind me of you. 

I do not understand why those stinking flowers remind him of me but I let it pass since I was quite fond of my brother more than that flower. 

Now, on a summer night, precisely a month after his disappearance, I sit inside his room, next to the windows, watching the moon in its glory and thinking about the boy while cradling the sulking pair of daisies. My breath slows down, and my eyes droop in dismay. The lingering scent of the sea and the daisies makes my stomach churn, but I try to withstand it for a little longer. Next to it, in my grasp is a neatly folded piece of paper.

The shirt he used to wear has long lost its scent, and the room has lost its spark even when I didn’t touch a paper piece abandoned on top of it. It is as though the charm has left the room along with its owner. 

The sky is turning lighter and bluer leaving the cradle of the night. The sun is not yet to be seen but the sea birds have started to scram around in the sky as if they are preaching the wake of a new day. 

I should feel nervous, even terrified. Thinking of countless possibilities and an upcoming series of disappointments should make one feel emotions. Yet as I sit in this room alone, with no one to throw their arm around my neck from behind or complain about waking him up early in the morning from his bed, I realise that I am oddly calm. 

A little too calm. As though the concept of emotion has left my being altogether. I take a wisp of the daisy’s scent. Just as I thought….

“How unpleasant,” I say and place the flower back on my lap. If it were my room, the wind would’ve picked up traces of salt into it. However, Cameron’s room is situated on the east unlike mine which is on the west, facing the cliff. 

“You reek of grief.” Aven’s voice helpfully states. He leans over the window sill wearing another one of Cameron’s shirts that hung to his figure quite pitifully. Cameron was more built- he was lean and tall just like Victor. Aven on the other hand was thin but fit. His legs were particularly graceful but not as much as his pale slender hands. 

I say nothing but observe him. Aven sighs in an amused way. “How come there is not a single thought inside your head now?”

I look away. “Look at me, Clara.”

I gaze at him through vacant eyes. “You look quite pitiful like this, " He observes. He tilts his head, and his blue eyes, beautiful yet mean, gleam in the darkness. “What do you think you’ll hear from the fishermen?”

“I don’t know.” I voice out. “As long as I get any trace that leads me to him, I’m fine with it.”

“Hm..” He steals a glance at the sea and the sky and hums a familiar melody- the one that he sang before on our first meeting. “It’s time to go.” He sighs and lifts himself off the sill. He frowns at the daises before wrinkling his nose at the smell. “You might want to wash your hands before stepping out. It is…kind of a weird scent.”

Oh, so he hates it as well. “All right.”

Aven pauses for a moment. His face morphs into that of confusion. “Just like that?”

I stand up from my seat. The daisy sitting on my lap falls down on the floor at the motion and I blankly stare at it. “Even if I refuse, you can just make me do it so why bother trying?”

There is a moment of silence between us that is then broken by his low dry chuckle. “I am not that mean Clara.”

I do not bother responding to it. Aven steps away from the window and watches me as I walk away from him in silence. 

It is by midnight that Victor remembers to mention the details regarding the place. He asks me to join him at the main harbour before the sun rises as it is the time when the fishermen return after their venture into the sea. I thought it was appropriate as it might be difficult to get a hold of fishermen after they return as things are prone to get hectic for them once they enter the harbour. 

Not all fishermen go into the sea, some take turns staying behind. We might be in luck if one of them is in the harbour by the time we reach there.

Aven observes the surroundings, taking in every detail. He seems particularly fascinated by the people more than the scenery. He squints his eyes at some while watching young children at the colony with an unfathomable emotion in his eyes. He recovers quicker than a human but frowns at himself for the unfamiliarity of his actions. 

It should be amusing but I find myself unable to bring myself to project such emotions. All I can think of is my brother. My Cameron. 

If those fishermen dare be mistaken, what would be the consequences? I freeze in my place as a bizarre thought enters my mind. Are you even…alive?

He could be dead.  A voice whispers in my head. After all, he didn’t come back nor his body has been found. 

He could be decaying in a part of the sea now for all you know. 

I grasp my head, bewildered by my thoughts. I feel Aven’s gaze on me but I am unable to respond to it. My heart rams wild against my chest and my body shivers as if the cold waters have swept me in them. The image of his decaying body is enough to make me feel dizzy. 

Think of something else. Clara, please!

I feel the tears threatening to fall before they do. No sobs escaped my throat. It’s silent. Too silent. 

“Clara! Over here!” 

“Oh, won’t you look at that? It’s Mr. Glasses.”

I look up just in time to see both Victor and Bastian trudging towards us. Bastian’s merriness and Victor’s usual indifference flicker the moment their eyes fall on mine. Both the men glared daggers at the siren beside me who simply sighed. 

“One of these days they are going to punch me. I can feel it.”

The duo, especially Bastian, looked furious enough to push away the fishermen in his path hard to make one fall. The men, old enough to be our grandparents, screamed profanities at him who didn’t even flinch. 

He grabbed Aven by the collar of his shirt and asked coldly, “Did you do this?” Aven raised a brow before shrugging. “Not my fault that she got emotional on the path here. You people should find a way for her to stop overthinking if possible.”

Bastian didn’t move an inch. If anything he tightened his hold on the collar. Victor stepped in between the duo. He placed a hand on Bastian’s shoulder and squeezed to bring him back to his senses.

“Let go of his collar,” he said calmly. “People are watching.” 

Bastian seems like he is against it but then he lets go. Aven smirks and dusts off the place where Bastian’s hands lingered. This earned him a sneer.Bastian takes a moment to calm down and when he does, he exhales sharply and quietly leads us to the deck. 

The sky is changing its colours. What once was a shade darker than blue but lighter to be black now started growing closer to its timid self. The wind is cold with a hint of warmth from the land that makes it comfortable to stand on the shore. 

Bastian and Victor look around, searching for someone. There is movement all around us. People are coming and going: diving into the sea with their lonely boats with others, a strong sense of hope gleaming in their eyes and some emerging from the blues with a merry light on their faces.

Apart from them, there are several others- all dressed casually. I recognise a few faces: they are from the market and are either wholesalers or retailers in the area. In an instant Bastian rushed towards one of the approaching boats and simply stood there, waiting. When the occupants of the boat separated to grab their earnings, a few walked away and one of them was his prey. 

With a polite yet charming smile on his face, Bastian addresses one of the men and the man in response, speaks loudly with all smiles and laughs. The man called out for another one of his men and the other walked over slowly until he saw Bastian. They talked for a while and then Bastian pointed his finger at us.

Both their gazes rest on me and a strange expression settles over their faces before they cover it up with another one of their laughs. However, they are not mocking. 

Bastian turns around and invites us over. Aven sighs and meets my gaze. There are no words exchanged between us but somehow his eyes calm me albeit his eyes are frosty.

“Hello dear.” the first man greets me. His eyes fix themselves on Victor and then on Aven. There is a flicker of something in his gaze but then he shakes it off, as if he was amused by his own reactions. “You might have waited for quite some time.”

“Oh no it’s no issue-”

“Tell me about my brother.” I gaze at him, my voice monotone as I speak. “Please.”

The previously merry atmosphere is gone the moment those words leave my mouth. The men look confused. Bastian immediately jumps to my rescue. “She is talking about the…man whose face you saw among the police station’s missing posters.”

There is a moment of complete stillness. And then-

“That monster is her brother?”

The world around me stops entirely. The slow brushing of the wind nor the soft falling of the tides wakes me up from the trance I was stuck in. “What do you mean?” I manage to ask.

The fisherman who stayed silent until now wiped off the seawater lingering on his arms and legs using a mould-covered towel and spoke. “It seems like it. She does resemble that thing from the sea.”I grow confused. My tearstained skin strains under my facial movements and I desperately grab the slim wrist of the person next to me unconsciously in an attempt to distract myself. 

“What do you mean? I-I don’t understand.”

They exchange a look.  “You see dear, we had gone to the sea for our usual rounds. It was a bleary evening with all the storm clouds and all. That was when it came, the song.” 

Neither did I see the frustrated yet resigned expression on Victor and Bastian’s faces nor did I feel the subtle change in the air around me. They continue speaking yet I donot register any of it. 

All I have is a resurfaced old memory. A much simpler time when everyone was still around and the air was warm. Twelve years ago when Cameron was only eight, still having his soft chubby cheeks and a height shorter than mine. 

People make grandmothers tell them a nighttime story when having trouble falling asleep. I too did the same. I had problems sleeping alone after my father left so grandma used her experience as a sailor to make me fall asleep. It did work in my favour for I never had any interest in the sea after seeing it for so long. I craved for the land. 

Cameron, however, was different from me. He made grandma tell him stories to stay awake and know more about the world far from his reach. He craved a taste of the sea world and would go to any length to achieve his dream. 

“Grandma, is the sea as mysterious as Cameron claims it to be?”

She chuckled and combed my hair, carefully removing the knots in my waves and straightening them. “I know you like the land far more than the sea my child. But the pull of the sea beckoning us is undeniable. You never felt it but the boy did.” She sighed. “The sea is a vast place, my dear. No part of it is fully discovered. You just know it exists. But trust me when I say this, my dear, there are facts about the sea that are unexplainable and that doesn’t make them non-existent.”

“What are you even talking about?”

She chuckled, the sound light and floaty. “You will know when you grow up my child, though I do not wish for that time to come.”

I have a hunch what they suggested my brother to be. My heart plummets to the ground and I feel my breath go silent. I feel my hand being gripped tightly by my side. I look up and see Aven staring at the duo unfazed, yet his hand tells another story. 

At a distance, a seagull flies and the sky grows bluer. The bird cries and reaches above our heads. The first golden rays of the sun escape into the sky basking the whole blueness in its golden hue. The darkness of Aven’s eyes melts when met with the lonely ray directed towards us and a chilling tone of blue replaces it. With surprise, I meet the gaze of the two fishermen. 

“Siren.” I mutter. 

My brother has turned into a siren.