Siren

Prologue

14 years ago~

A young crewmember of a, for lack of a better word, pirate ship,  plops down in a bar near the docks where his captain anchored them for the next few days. Most of the crew is from around here so there wasn’t much complaint except from him. However, being newest and youngest on the ship didn’t warrant much say in decisions. He has been taking crap from everyone for the past month and it is getting on his nerves. Even some of the guys' whores are giving him shit. He's sick of it. He's at the bottom of the food chain and he  is ready for an upgrade. Just as the thought finishes, he catches the tail end of a conversation a few other bar patrons are having a few feet away.

"…the trick is you have to bring a sacrifice to the entrance so you can get the treasure."

"Yea, Henry said the beasts just moved over for his ship," the slurred words of the drunk men piqued the young man's interest. The third man was skeptical and voiced his opinion.
"Ya mean to tell me, to get 'nto the Red Waters, the place where hundreds of people disappear into, I would have to give some magical god, what? A hanky me mum gave me?" The group laughed at the third drunks words so hard that they drew the attention of some other patrons.

The first man spoke up when he and his group got their laughter under control, " no ya fool. Ya can't just give anything. Ya gotta give a human sacrifice. Gotta be a child too."

The group and one's listening look around horrified. Who would sacrifice an innocent child? The first man's buddy jumped in at this point, "Henry found a stowaway boy on his ship hiding in a barrel setting fires to wood for no good reason. Crew was tryin' to catch 'em when the boy pulled away from one of the men and went over. After the waters were calm and they passed right by." 

At hearing this, the owner of the bar has heard enough and ordered them to shut up or have their conversation and drinks somewhere else. The group merely laughed and went on about talking about their wives or whatever they happen to fancy but the young man wasn't listening anymore. He was thinking of how bringing this information would make his captain and crew proud. This could be his chance to finally have a place among the men that's above servant.

Later on, after telling his captain this news and reminding him about the treasures that can be found in The Red Waters, the young man found himself wandering around the town looking for a child to sacrifice. It should have been easy but the beggar children were smarter than he anticipated. They knew better than to follow a strange man, even though he did offer food and they were starving. Damned kids.

Just when he was about to give up the young man heard a small voice calling for their mum and dad. The smile that stretched across his face was so sly and wolfish he had to wipe it off before turning to where he heard the voice. There on the ground of the dirty damp street was a small girl that looked no older than 5. she was tiny even for a child but not in a sickly, starved way that the beggar children were. Just small for her age. The girl was wearing a light pink and blue dress with her dark hair in high pigtails that reached her little shoulders. She was cradling her knee that he could see was scratched and bleeding . As the girl was calling out and looking around with tears in her eyes, he looked around too for the parents.

He expected to see a frantic couple, attempting to see over the crowd of passersby, but instead just saw people going on their way. Minding their own business. Judging by the girls nice dress and properly combed hair, she was well taken care of so the idea of her parents not looking for her or not caring to look for her didn’t fit. So that must mean her parents were no where near here. It was at that moment that the young man decided that she would be the one he takes. This small, naïve, and unsupervised child. With a smirk on his face and a swagger in his walk, he made his way over to the girl.

********

Little Audra was so happy to get to go the candy shop with Mum and Da . They promised her whatever candy she wanted because of her upcoming birthday and she was goin to take full advantage of that. Mum had done up her hair in her favorite style of pigtails and Audra had picked out her most favorite dress for their special outing. She felt so pretty in her attire that when Miss Pearl, a neighbor and friend of her Mama's, had come out of her shop she had let go of Da's hand to go say hi. Only when she was walking she heard a small boy whimpering and asking for help. As curious as any young 5 year old, she wandered towards the sounds.

There, she saw a boy about a few years older than her standing on a garbage can and cowering away from a dog that would only come up to her hip. Which was completely adorable considering that she was barely 3 feet.
"What's wrong," she asked the boy when she got about five feet away and he still had yet to look at her. Or anything really, with his hand and arms covering his face like he was shielding it from something. "Go back! The dog will get you," he whisper-yelled, as if the small dog was a sleeping beast that he didn’t want to disturb in fear that it would attack. Audra looked at the tiny pup and it tilted its head at her and let its tongue loll out.

"It's not gunna do anything. Looks its so small I'm bigger than it ,silly," she reassured, but he just shook his head tried to curl himself into a smaller ball. Audra's Mum always taught her to help others when they needed so she sat next to the boy. "It's alright. Look it’s a nice dog." At this the boy twitched at and shook his head.
" There are no nice dogs. A dog went after my big brother and he is way bigger. Bit him then came to bite me! After that he told me dogs were dangerous. "

Audra frowned hard and pinched the boy on his arm. "Ow! That wasn't nice," the boy yelled and raised his head to glare at her.

"What's not nice is to just say all doggies aren't nice, just 'cuz one dog wasn’t nice! What if a bigger boy was mean? Does that mean all boys are mean? Is your big brother mean?"

The boy took a moment to seriously think about what this small girl was saying. After a moment he decided that this tiny girl was smart and Mama always said to listen to people that are smarter than you. Even if she was younger. Nodding to himself that this was a good idea he asked her ,"So does that mean that this dog is nice?"

Audra took a moment to think while looking at the dog that had lied down during their conversation. "I think this one is ok. My mum taught me a trick to see though. Stick your hand out let him smell it and if he licks it, he's ok." When the boy did as she said, the dog quickly came over to lick his hand and bump his hand for some petting.

"See! He's a nice doggy." With that she got up and made her way out the ally and back into the bustle of sidewalks She looked up and down the streets for her Mum and Da but couldn’t see over all the tall people. While attempting to get to a place where she can see properly, Audra gets swept away by the fast walking people that are too busy with their lives to realize they are pushing around a tiny human.

In all the chaos, Audra falls down scraping her knee. She cries out and then after sitting and realizing her Mum and Da were not anywhere near and no one would help he she crawls through the crowd and sits herself on the curb. With tears in her eyes and pain in her knee she begins to call out for her parents.

After a while of calling, her throat hurts and tears are running down her face. When thoughts of giving up begin to come to her head, a young man approaches her with a smirk and crouched down in front of her. Wary of the stranger, Audra moves back and away from the young man. Mum always said stay away from strangers. She said they could be bad men and dangerous.

Just like the dog?

This thought gave Audra pause. Is she doing the same thing the boy did with the dog? Was she labeling this man as bad without even giving him the chance like that poor dog?

"Hello."

The man's breath smelled bad and he was missing a tooth in the top corner.

But does that mean that he's bad? If he looks like that and doesn’t know how to brush his teeth so it doesn’t smell, he must not have many friends. Oh no! what if he just wants a friend!

With this thought in mind Audra's eyes widen. "Do you need a friend?"
The man takes on a look of shock but after a moment, smiles again and nods." I do. I'm so lonely. Will you be my friend?"
Nodding, Audra is happy that she solved that problem. She still had to find her parents, but at least she has a new friend.

"Can you help me find my Mum?"

"Only if you play with me first"

"I can do that."

Smiling now, Audra gets up from the curb and goes off to play with the strange man.

*******

"Come see my ship. We can play there with the rest of my crew"

Audra frowns. I thought he didn’t have friends

As if reading her mind, the young man continues, " they aren't always nice and they only recently start being my friend but they are my crew."

As they made their way to the ship, Audra felt uneasy. She had never been on a ship before and even though she had her new friend it still felt wrong to go. "Maybe I should go find my Mum and Da then we can all play together?"
Apparently not hearing her, the young man continues walking toward the ship that is nearly upon them.

Audra tries to jerk her hand out of the man's grip but due to her small frame, he obviously has more strength than she could ever muster. She begins to panic and starts to call for help. The young man takes this as queue to drop the kind act and picks her up quickly, cradling her close while effectively covering her mouth. If any of the others on the street, that is now behind them, look over they would only see a father holding his bratty little girl.

Audra begins to thrash around to get the stranger to lose his grip but with his superior strength he wraps his big arm around her arms and a big hand around her legs. Now it would seem that a father is merely hold his sleeping little girl.

Finally on the ship, the young man throws her to the floor, twisting her ankle and wrist on impact. The crew gathers around quickly, in astonishment that he was able to do it.

The captain finds his way out too and loudly bellows, " Hoist anchor! We'll be setting course for the Red Waters immediately!" the captain grins at little Audra. Showing all his yellow teeth and black gums. "You'll be out ticket to riches you little bitch."

With that the crew goes off to go do as their captain says with smiles and grins and merry attitudes, already deciding what they will they do with their cut of the riches. And at this point, as she sees the docks of her home get farther and further, Audra realizes that she won't be finding her parents at anytime soon.