The Fate of The Sirens

Chapter 12

"Nate, don't forget you have to tell me about you being in a gang," Aurora smiles.
"Oh. Ugh, okay," he scratches his head.
"You don't have to if-"
"No. You should know," Nathan interrupts.
He pauses for a moment then speaks, "I'm not who you think I am. I've hurt people, bad. All because I wanted to end bullying."
"So you hurt bad people? Isn't that good?" Aurora adds.
"No. It's not. It's never good to harm people ten times worse than what they did to you. It's not solving the problem. It's inhumane." He pauses. "It's rare for one person to be just completely 2 dimensional. If anything, I'm the bad guy in many people's stories. My reckless actions have hurt the people I love the most."
"But I've realized. The inhumanity in all of our actions down here is from us becoming sirens."
"I didn't realize that. This is stripping us of our humanity." Aurora says. "Why did you want to stop bad people so bad down here?"

Nathan exhales. He shifts his body closer to Aurora.

"I used to be bullied as a child. My life at home was another hell for me. I couldn't escape the pain at school or home."

—

13 years ago. Nathan was five years old. Around this time, he had a little brother who had just been born four months ago.
He was in the arms of his mother in the evening. Everything was just perfect as always, but then his father bursted into the home.

"Where were you this morning? I told you to tell me where you were at all times!" The father yelled.

His mother told him to run up to his room but he lingered, hiding behind the walls leading to the stairway.

"You are my wife!"
"You don't own me-!" The mother retorted.

Nathan's father slapped her across the face. Nathan reached out to help but fell back out of fear. This was the first time he had seen his father lay hands on his mother, and it would only get worse as time went on.
Everything was bearable for a couple more years, but the violence gradually increased. After the continuous physical battles her and her husband went through, things got worse for Nathan's mother. Normally, she would always have a drink but around the time Nathan was ten years old, she started to become addicted. She'd drink dangerous amounts of alcohol multiple days in a week. She'd be drunk all the time and didn't seem like she was ever in her right mind.
Nathan and his little brother, Noah, were sitting at the dinner table. The mom was preparing the food and turned around to give it to them. Her face was blank and she seemed to have no emotion. She looked like a mindless robot. Separating herself from reality. She was no longer here for her kids and Nathan was left to take care of his little brother.
And school, Nathan would get bullied despite his good looks. He would get teased for being the quiet kid. He would see other kids being bullied and would be too scared to stick up for them.
Three years later, Nathan was 16 and his brother was 10. Nathan had started working out to deal with the absence of his parents. Nathan and Noah went out to the cliff near the enchanted lake. Nathan was wearing a red hoodie and baggy jeans with red sneakers. Noah was wearing a light pink shirt with jeans and white sneakers. It was getting dark and they had set out a campfire. They were roasting marshmallows over the fire. Suddenly, while they were eating the marshmallow's they roasted, a blue light showed up behind Nathan. It pulled him closer to the edge of the cliff.

"Nathan!" Noah cried out. He started to approach Nathan to try and help.

Nathan was distraught and couldn't comprehend what was happening. He stood up trying to get out of the magic hand's grip. Unfortunately, his foot slipped and he officially knew that there was nothing he could do.

"Noah..! Run!"
"Nathan! What's happening!" Noah screamed.
"Run! Now!" Nathan yelled, as he got pulled down to the bottom of the lake.

Noah ran as fast as he could, with tears in his eyes. The blue hands tried to grab him but he crossed the barrier, where the hands couldn't reach. He ran towards a tree, and fell against it. He was looking at the cliff ahead of him, that his brother fell from. He just cried and cried until he couldn't anymore. He had to walk himself home.
Nathan had been drowned by another siren. He was trying to push the siren off of him but her grip was so strong he physically couldn't. The woman looked like she was in her mid 20s. She had blonde hair and a green tail. He was holding his breath but he had been in the water for too long and eventually ended up drowning.
His red hoodie was soaked and his jeans and sneakers were floating off to the side as he now has a dark blue tail. He screamed in disbelief, looking at his tail. He decided to hide in the bushes and had to make sense of what had happened.