Blue

Blood is Thicker

The water seemed thinner somehow, as they made their way to the surface. Adam had no idea where they were, but the sirens had no difficulty maneuvering through the waves. Blue led the pack, the flicks of her tail steady. The sirens had hold of the Ensigns, one siren per arm, and they carried the Ensigns through the water. Curtis was the most relaxed with this, even more so than Adam. He was trying to speak to the siren to his right, Adam realized, but Adam could tell by the frustration on his face that he was having a lot of difficulty. It wasn't as though lip reading had really gotten any easier for Adam the more he practiced, but it was certainly easier than the first time he had tried. He understood that blush of anger starting to take over Curtis' face. Myles was having the worst time. His body was stiff, a rigid board in the hands of the sirens, and his teeth were clenched in his mouth, the muscles surrounding his jaw like rubber bands pulled until they were close to snapping. It was surprising, as Adam had always considered Myles to be a particularly calm person, but perhaps Myles was just slightly more afraid than Adam had realized. Adam understood. The feeling of the talons holding gently onto his arms was awful. It was Samara who had volunteered to take hold of him, which felt strange in itself, but the siren he didn't know, with her clear dark eyes and spiraling dark hair, who was holding him so gently and offered him a polite smile when they first began to travel, was almost worse, somehow. He didn't understand. He knew who they were, inside. These were victims of the silver haired man, women like Blue. He knew that. So why couldn't he get over this uncomfortable, shaky feeling that bubbled up inside him and made him want to slash his sword wildly through the air so they would stay far away from him?

The longer it took, the more he thought about the talons digging into his arms, even though they were barely touching him. The more he thought about the talons, the more he wished that he had not volunteered to help Blue.

What a horrible thought.

He shook his head lightly, trying to focus on something else. He focused on Blue's tail, silver and mesmerizing in the way it caught the light. The light was much stronger at the surface and it was playing games with her tail, knocking into it and causing shimmering beads of sunshine to bounce off the hard scales. It was pretty. This tail would keep her in the water forever.

Blue halted, lifting an arm up to stop the rest of the sirens. She turned.

"Are you ready?" she asked Adam. The hands holding him relinquished him and he rubbed his arms. Still attached. Still his own. There wasn't even a mark on them. He beckoned the other Ensigns, and they moved forward in the direction that Blue pointed, towards the beach. He could see the waves churning and swirling in the distance; the movement of the water was so different towards the shore, so tumultuous and round. He couldn't help it. He froze. His head was about to break the surface, to return him back to the open air of the beach he had grown up on.

Was it that he was worried he was going to explode or die, as Rose had said? Somehow, he didn't think that was quite it. He cast a worried look over his shoulder at the sirens, who were waiting expectantly, and then to his Ensigns. Myles and Curtis were looking at him, their eyes wide. They were waiting for him to make the first move. Rose was looking up at the surface, her face perfectly still, not even a ripple of emotion disturbing the placid expression. He couldn't tell what she was thinking.

He didn't want to break the surface. He didn't want to go back. This was his town, his beach, where Blue had died and he had followed soon after. He didn't know what to do.

Rose turned back to face them.

'Ladies first?' she said, and then she was moving forward, her head breaking the surface without hesitation. Myles looked up at her with a conflicted expression for only a few seconds before following her, and then Curtis was moving up and away, headed towards the shore with the others and Adam was all alone.