MY WHITE DRESS FLOATS in the water like a halo upon the blue skies. The very instance where my heart plummeted to my feet at the realisation that everything had indeed gone wrong, I felt it- the faint but sure growing of something from the deeper part of my chest. It grows and grows, until it tears me apart, until it wrecks my soul. 

I feel the surge of anger in my veins, followed by the feeling of anguish, and I stay frozen in the water unable to do anything. 

Aven brushes a stray hair fallen across my nose and pushes it behind my ear. His touch is cold from staying with me in the bathroom all drenched from head to toe. He gently pushes my chin up and regards me with an unfathomable glint in his eyes. I can hear no sound, not even the faint beating of my heart. 

He then smiles. "Well," he traces the scales forming on my collar bones, which now appear prominent, almost as if they are replacing my skin. "It seems as though you are really upset. Your heartbeat has mellowed down and your thoughts are spiralling that I cannot even hear them." His hand traces my skin, trailing a path to my neck and above to reach my face. He cradles me gently enough that I am tempted to pour my frustrations on him. But no. My subconscious warned me not to.

But that didn't mean my body obeyed. It urges my breath to spike up, my body feels warm despite the surrounding coldness, and I lean the side of my face on his palm.

I feel his thumb slowly drawing circles on my cheeks and that action unintentionally calms me down. 

I peer up at him through my lashes, and for a moment, I feel his actions halt. I am livid by the turn of events. Not only am I tangled in a web of chaos arranged by a siren, but my brother, too, has apparently been converted into one by some twisted play of our fate. 

If Cameron really has turned into a siren, shouldn't he be doing everything he can to return back to me safe and sound? Why aren't you back yet?

I am brought back to reality by the slow sensual movements of his fingers grazing my jawline. I flinch. The fingers drag themselves to my lips where they leave their mark with forceful and lingering touches. 

I gulp.

Aven is staring down at me with the previously engraved blank expression but something has changed. I feel something ominous dawning upon me but cannot figure it out. I should push him away. Get away from him. 

I don't. 

Somehow, this push and pull - this foreboding feeling I get being near to him is addictive like a slow, sweet poison. It destroys my thoughts, eases my fears and makes me feel things I have never before. 

Before I know it, I am leaning towards him while he watches. Time slows down, I feel a tide of emotions crashing down on me, drowning me, taking me inside the swirls.

Cold lips meet warmth like they have never before. They graze each other with tenderness at first that soon changes into a ferocious battle of pushing the other into submission. Aven takes charge, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me onto his body until we are merged into one. The golden locks, wet and dark, fall on my face, and somehow, it appears a hundred times more attractive than when he gasped against my lips. 

When I open my eyes for a moment, I see his eyes boring into mine and I am startled, not by their intensity but by their colour. His eyes were brown. 

Eyes wide, I stop kissing him and pull away from his grasp only to fall back into the bathtub. A range of emotions course through me and I cannot decipher any of them. All I can recognise is one emotion and that was repulsion. 

Towards myself. 

My whole body feels like it is set aflame. My mind is in chaos. 

Startled, I glance down and see the scales spreading and appearing more prominent than before. One could easily spot them from a distance. 

 I grip my hair tight as if it could ease any of these problems. What have I done?

Without looking at him, I jump out of the tub and rush to my room, not caring about the dishevelled look that I possess. Water drops down my hair and my clothes like a fountain creating its art. 

I slam the door shut and lock myself inside the room. My drenched self makes an outline of my body on the wall that I am leaning against. 

I absent-mindedly trace my lips, feeling it burning under my touch like never before. Why did I do that? What on earth made me kiss him?

I groan and yank my hair. What is wrong with me?

Cameron would be so disappointed in his sister. I realise bitterly. I laugh at myself. “God I am a mess. Why the hell did I kiss that thing?” And that too willingly?

Something is wrong with me. Yeah. It has to be. 

The next day arrived like another tide on the beach- expected but with surprises. I, along with Aven, am cleaning the shop. The cluster of webs formed in the ceiling by my absentmindedness is wiped clean by Aven. I did notice it before, but Aven is particularly good at taking care of household chores as if it were his second nature. 

He is so focused on his job that he doesn't see me staring at him, no, perhaps he feels me watching him but isn't bothering to tease me. For some reason, I do not wish to interact with the siren either. I never did but the feeling of denial was particularly strong this time. 

“Clara,” I hear him speak. Surprised, I blink out of my trance to see him staring at me. “How long are you planning to stare at me for?” 

There is a hostile edge to his words that startles me but I do not let him see it. I, in return, show my resistance to him through hostile words. “You are imagining things. I have more things to do than stare at you.” To prove my point I go back into searching through Cameron’s stuff. There is a brief moment of silence inside the room. As much as I refuse to admit it, the prolonged silence is enough for my heart to start beating erratically as if it were waiting for all the odd things to happen.

Aven sighs before stepping into my space. He carefully examines the box in my hand and the stuff I have left scattered on the table, all of them being my brother’s belongings. He taps a random rhythm on the table surface. Aven then pulls up something from inside the box that sits on my lap and examines it. The outer surface of it is washed out white that shimmers in the light.

Oh. that’s a photograph. 

Not bothering to take it back, I go back to searching for something that should turn out to be useful. Something regarding his last visit or the purpose of his visit. Anything at all. 

Aven speaks, this time softly. “Is this you?”

I tilt my head towards him and see him holding the photograph properly to let me see it. Inside the photograph lingers my memory that takes me back in time- a time when things were much easier and happier. I am holding a stick of icecream in my grasp all while wearing a short white floral printed dress, sitting on the balcony of this house with a very much younger Cameron beside me, holding up his icecream stick towards me so that I could take a bite; the little devil even keeps his free hand underneath the stick so it won’t spill any melted cream on my dress.

Unknowingly it brings a smile to my face and I grab it from his grasp to keep it and shield it within my hold. “Yes, it is me.”

“The little one is Cameron I assume.”

I chuckle. “Yes, he is.”

I look up at Aven hunched by my shoulder, quietly examining the photograph with keen eyes. The proximity somehow brings warmth to my cheeks and the light brush of his chest on my shoulder and the sound of his heavy breath doesn’t help lighten it. 

I shift slightly in my seat and it makes the siren still in his position. Then he is leaning away. I am about to heave a breath of relief when two slender hands place themselves on the side of my table. He leans on me from behind and breathes near my neck and up to my ear. I shiver slightly and inhale sharply. I feel his body shake from behind me before I hear the sound of his low laughs. “Sensitive and conscious.” he gently moves the stands of my hair hiding my nape, “That’s so you.”

I am completely frozen in my place when I feel a feathery touch of something soft on my now-exposed nape. It is cold but lovely that I jump in my seat. Red as pomegranate seeds I stare incredulously at the man who has me as his captive. There is a slight smile playing on his lips that if not observed enough would be missed. His eyes, playful and blue cast themselves down at the box and the smile, gentle and light,  drops.

He is then diving his hand inside the box, still in my lap, but he is not playing around. He then pulls up something- a blue rock with a shade similar to his eyes and stares at it. I remember it. I glance down at my wrist where a similar stone is engraved as a chain. It is all going well until Aven drops the stone as if he were burned. 

I watch it all in surprise. Aven moves farther away from the stone and I stand up from my seat to approach him. I extend my hand towards him but Aven is not looking at me. He is looking at the stone. “Aven.” he doesn’t hear me. I approach him cautiously and place a hand gently on his shoulder. His breathing is frantic. His eyes are wide in shock and they are glowing. “Aven, can you hear me?”

He slowly shifts his attention to me and little by little, the glowing fades away. His eyes are back to their normal blueness. 

“What’s wrong?”

Aven puts a hand on his head and clutches it before faltering in his steps. I am immediately by his side, holding him. “Aven!”

His eyes are bleary and his breathing is slowing down. “Hey, hey! Look at me. I'm telling you to look at me!” I grab his jaw by force and turn his head to observe him. Aven's hand, once pale now starting to be tanned, grabbed mine albeit gently. “Stop shouting,” he orders. “ My head’s killing me.”

I am at a loss not knowing what to do. If it were Cameron or Victor or Bastian for all matters I would have done something. But it is Aven who is not a human but a siren by all means. What on earth was I supposed to do?

Just hold me like this for a while.  He answers in my head and lets his body lean on mine for support. His free arm wraps around my waist like he would do with his tail every time we go out for a swim. I gulp. His hold is warm and comforting- everything they should not be. But it is undeniable- this feeling of comfort and trust which should be non-existent between us as we are people who should be the reason for the other’s pain and sorrow; a thought comes into my mind- he could be behind my brother’s disappearance for all I know. 

But with one look at the siren struggling to keep himself up and then at the stone, I find myself pulling him closer if that was humanly possible, and hugging him back with my head resting on his shoulder. I glance down at the similar stone on my hand and cover it with my fingers so it will not touch Aven. It was only after that I realised I was holding my breath and that my heartbeat was similar to his own. If there was a mirror somewhere near us and I could see my reflection, I would’ve known that my eyes were similarly bleary and glowing.