Sirens

Hunt

She blinked and feral, cruel eyes appeared. Eerie scales rose to the surface of her skin and in that split second of change she pulled back her lips to reveal deadly needles where a perfect smile had been.
Scrum recoiled and a stream of bubbles appeared, carrying a yell of surprise and fear. For the first time he felt the freezing wall of bitter cold around him and the fire aching in his throat from lack of air. She snatched his arms and tried to force him down, down to death.  A paddle came out of nowhere and blindly slammed into her no longer lovely face. She released her gripand Scrum clawed his way up to the boat, breaking the surface with a gasp. Hunting cries shredded the night air, tangling with the last shouts of victims. A siren srang from the water and snatched a sailor with her, dragging him deeper, down and down, darker and darker where no light could reach. Men desperately tried to stay in the boat while defending themselves with makeshift weapons, lurching violently with the movement of the boat. Hands suddenly scrabbled through new gaping holes in the frail hull. Panic raced through the crew. Several dived into the water, only to be immediately snatched and pulled down to drown.
Only a lucky few managed to evade the sirens’ grasp, spluttering and flopping onto shire loeike landed fish. The shrieking, ear splitting screams of gkee had faded, but were still loud in the survivors’ ears. The deceptively appealing honeyed voice, the flickering change between ravishing and ravenous, the paralysing slimy grip of a siren’s claws…. These would stay forever carved into memory, to remind the few of the dangers of beauty.
The bone chilling tales were true.