Not a lot of people believe in fairy tales. They think that it’s just stories read to you as a kid. Snow White, Ariel, Rapuzel, Merida… it’s all the same. The princess falls has something tragic happen, then is saved.

This one though, this one is different. This one is mine. And I’m the villain. The villain who sings people to their sweet death, drowning in the vast sea.

This wasn’t how I always was, though. Just how I came to be, after one day on the beach…

It was early in the morning; the sun not up yet. I was walking down the beach, on my way home from my friends house, after a party.

I saw a spire shell washed up on the sand. I picked it up. It was beautiful. It was splattered with browns and blacks and grays.

There were footsteps in the sand, leading to the ocean. They weren’t washed away by the tide yet, and I wondered if someone was surfing or kayaking. This early in the morning? They must have gone out recently.

A sweet noise arose from beyond, in the ocean, far out. A head rose out of the water, looking directly at me.

I walked towards it, a hum overtaking my body. I wasn’t aware of what I was doing, just that I was being pulled deeper and deeper into the ocean. I couldn’t stop moving, not even as the water grew to my torso.

The figure moved towards me, pulling me towards them. My throat closed up as I was submerged in the water. The humming stopped.

Before me, was a young woman. I looked around with my eyes, still unable to move my body. Then I noticed something odd. She didn’t have legs. She had fins. Like the mermaid tales that you see in fairy tales. Her didn’t look like that, though. Hers was black, moving back and forth in the water victoriously. Two fins poked out of her sides, moving with the tail.

I felt my body loosen, and I gasped. I chocked on water, trying to swim up towards the surface. A hand enclosed around my ankle, pulling me down. I heard a hissing noise. I didn’t look, afraid of what I would find.

Something cut into my ankle, drawing blood. I looked down. She’d bitten my ankle. She seemed to sniff in the blood.

My head grew light, I felt dizzy. Was I going to drown? Was this where I died? My eyes fluttered open and closed, losing sense of what was up and what was down. My head spun, and I felt movements in the water around me. Then, my eyes closed, and all I could see was black.

It had been a month since the incident. I still wasn’t sure if it’d really happened, but I had a scar on my ankle shaped like a bite mark.

This is why, when my friend asked I wanted to go to a bonfire on the beach tonight, I’d said no.

But yet, here I was. Walking down the beach holding a basket of marshmallows and chocolate and crackers. I wasn’t sure why I was in charge of bringing the snacks, since I hadn’t planned on going.

“Hey, Monica, over here!” Shouted one of the people crowded around the campfire. I realized that I didn’t know more than half of them. I waved, none the less.

I looked towards the ocean, out of habit. My head throbbed. I winced. I’d been having bad headaches for the last couple weeks, and medicine didn’t seem to help.

I had my bathing suit underneath my shirt and shorts, but I wasn’t sure if I’d have the courage to get in the water.

As I approached the fire, I heard mumbling. “She actually brought snacks? Doesn’t she know we’re just out here to smoke and get high?” and “Ugh, why’d Jason even invite her?” and “Isn’t that your ex’s friend?”

I scoffed. It’s like I wasn’t even here. I set the basket down, glaring at them as I did. They rolled their eyes, turning back towards the fire.

“Hey, glad you could make it, I wasn’t sure that you would be able to come.” Jason said, chuckling.

I smiled at him. “Yeah, sorry, I had homework, but I got it done,” I glanced around. “I’m glad I could come. Thanks for inviting me.”

He grinned. “Yeah, no problem!”

I lasted fifteen minutes before the smoke overwhelmed me, and I decided to take a walk down the beach.

The waves were crashing into each other smoothly, back and forth. It was calming. My heart began to race. It sang to me, drawing me near. No one would notice if I was gone for just a moment. I slipped off my clothes, letting the air touch my shoulders and legs.

I walked in, until I was below the surface. My heart was pounding, my throat closing, but I didn’t want to move. Didn’t want to swim up, towards the surface.

My legs felt sticky, pulling themselves towards each other. They seemed to wrap around each other, making a spiral. The sides of my throat bulged away from the skin, then ripped. I lifted my hand up to notice that I had webbing in between my fingers. I gasped, instinctively. I didn’t choke on water.

What was happening?

I breathed in. Bubbles floated out of my mouth. I tried again. I still didn’t choke. I was sinking towards the bottom and my legs started to touch the sand.

I tried to move them to stay floating. It didn’t work. I looked down. I didn’t have legs anymore. They were replaced with a long… mermaid tail.

Black fins were at my side and where my toes would have been, flowing with the water.

I reached to touch my neck again. I felt three tears in my neck on either side. Gills. I moved up, and stopped when I felt my ears. They weren’t round anymore, they were pointed with webbing along the side.

I heard a giggle from behind me. I turned, or tried to, and failed, just turning my head. A figure moved in front of me. It was the girl from earlier.

“You look confused. Have you never heard of a siren before?”

A siren? That’s what… I was turning into? I swallowed. If she could talk, then so could I. I tried. “W… what’s happening?”

She moved so she was in front of me. “Your a siren now. Y’know, like the creatures that sing to men and kill them.” She chuckled.

“So… your like an evil mermaid.”

She scoffed. “Ugh, no. Mermaids are the evil ones. They just get all of the prasie because of their beauty. But they can’t walk on land, like we can.” She grinned, watching me.

“Ok,” I said, processing it. “But why am I like this? Why is this happening to me—if it’s even real and I’m not hallucinating…” I raised my arms, noticing that I had a fin extending from my elbow.

She sighed. “Cause I bit you, how else? You get turned into a siren by blood being shared, or taken by another siren. And this is real.”

“But why me?”

She shrugged, looking away. “I saw you, and was bored.”

I stared at her. “You made me into a siren… because you were bored?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

I clenched my hands. Really? “And you didn’t have anything better to do?”

“Nope, sorry.” She shrugged, starting to swim away. “C’mon, I have to escort you to the city.”

The city? Of what, sirens? I tried to follow, but flipped in a circle instead. I made a frustrated noise. Clearly physics wasn’t going to be good for anything.

She chuckled again. “Need help?”

My ears burned. “Yes…” I didn’t know her name. “What’s your name?”

She came to me, helping me stay still. “Tay. Yours?”

“Monica.”

She sighed. “It’s been a while since I’ve explained to someone how to… move.” Tay moved back, giving me space. “Ok, imagine you still have your legs. Squish them so they would be side my side, touching. The move them at the same time.”

I tried, and failed. I tried again, and I flipped a circle.

Tay sighed. “This is going to take a while.”

After I’d learned how to move forward, turn, and stop, we started to make our way towards the… city. Which, Tay said, was a city of sirens.

I wondered how long I’d been down here. If wondered if Jason was worried. She’d said that we could walk on land, so I wasn’t trapped here.

We’d already been swimming for what felt like an hour. “How much farther?” My legs… fins were starting to get tired.

“Not long, maybe ten minutes.”

“How long have we been down here?”

“Two hours, I think. I’ve been down here longer than you, though.” She grinned to herself.

She suddenly stopped, then dove down. She hadn’t taught me how to dive.

I thought abt what she’d told me. I imagined my legs stuck together, moving at the same time. I moved forwards, towards the drop off and tipped my body downwards. I moved my fin back and forth, propelling me through the water. I couldn’t see anything. It was pitch black.

“Your a black fin. You can see in the dark. Just imagine the space around you body lighting up.” Tay said, from somewhere ahead.

I closed my eyes, imagined seeing myself in the water, and light eliminating around me.

“Open your eyes.”

I did, noticing that we were at the bottom of a ravine. Tay was in front of me, and her fins and webbing were glowing a soft gray. I looked down; mine were too.

“All… black fins can do that?”

“Yeah. The fin color represents what you need to most when you turn, and it gives you that power.”

That made sense, I guess. Had I needed light? Maybe it represented life or something like it. “How many different colors are there?”

“Nine. Warms, Cools, and Neutrals.”

“And each has different power?” I asked as she moved forward, towards the soft light coming through stacked rocks at the entrance of a cave.

“Yep.” She said, turning her head as we both moved forward, into the cave. It wasn’t as dark as I’d expected it to be—even with the glowing… power, thing.

She came to a stop, turning towards me. The cave ended, and I swam to the edge before it went dropped off.

It gasped. It was the city. It was beautiful.

“Welcome to Siren city, Monica.”