Terrence woke up in darkness. Coughing, he picked himself up and felt around for the wall. He was sore all over, but nothing was broken. He looked around. Chi-Chi was gone, and so were the guards. He had no idea if they’d fallen down here like he had, and he had no idea where ‘here’ was.

There was a dim light in the distance. Feeling his way around in the darkness, he stumbled towards it. The light had steadily grown brighter, and then it went out. “Terrence!” squealed a familiar voice. Sirena, the tip of her frill glowing like a neon sign, slithered towards him. “Hold on, this will only take a second!” she giggled.

Sirena screeched. Suddenly, Terrence realized just how much of a mercy it had been that Sirena’s voice had always been muted behind so much glass. Upon hearing it at its full strength, his thoughts fuzzed out and lost themselves in the noise. The monster paused and coiled back. “That’s not right,” she rasped, and Terrence started running. “Please don’t go!”

She began to sing, and Terrence slowed to catch the music. It was impossibly beautiful, impossible to ignore. It was like drowning in honey: he tried to pull himself out of it, but it was viscous and sticky and such a sweet way to drown…until Sirena screeched again.

Possibly, she shattered some glass. Terrence fell to his knees and covered his ringing ears. When he took his hands away, the palms were sticky with blood. A very large percentage of him was considering kneeling down and pleading for her to stop. “I’m sorry, I don’t think that’s right, either,” Sirena grimaced.

As she opened her mouth to sing another potentially lethal melody, Terrence pushed down every instinct to scream and instead clasped his hands together to shout, “You’re beautiful!”

Sirena stopped. “What?”

“Yes! You’re the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen!” Terrence gushed. “Gosh, I hope we can stay together forever!” He smiled stupidly and pushed down the urge to gag. He was very aware that his lie was thinner than crepe paper, and he doubted that even Sirena was incapable of seeing through it. Regardless, a Plan B hadn’t presented itself yet.

The monster looked thoughtful. “I guess that worked,” she decided. Then she smiled, revealing far too many teeth. “Hey Terrence?” she asked scratchily. “I know you have to do what I say because you’re under my spell, but could you please brush my frill?”

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“Of course!” he said cheerfully. The smile left his face the moment she turned around. It wasn’t too bad, he knew, and at least she wasn’t trying to kill him, but it was hard to be wasting time with such a lousy rouse. Still, if he tried to run, another round of shrieks was sure to follow.

Terrence finished in a few minutes. The bottoms of his sleeves were wet and covered in slime. Sirena was smiling sweetly. “Hey Terrence?” she cooed, the final word coming out hoarsely. “I’m glad you’re with me now. I’m glad we’re safe.” She coiled around him. “Will you tell me a story?”

“Of course.” He thought for a moment. “Well, there was this one time that I—”

“I don’t want to hear a true story,” she snapped. “Tell me a fantasy one!”

“Oh.” He thought again. “Once upon a time, there was a princess who was locked in a tower made of glass. She was sad, so every day—”

“Was the princess beautiful?” Sirena interrupted.

Terrence blinked. “Er, yes. She was, in a very fishy way. But every day, the princess would sing—”

“Ooooh! Would she sing like this?” Sirena’s voice was sweet this time, and Terrence found his mind going fuzzy. What was his story about, again? Why was he trying to leave Sirena?

“No!” Terrence shouted above the music. Sirena stopped. “No,” Terrence repeated, taking a deep breath and giving Sirena an innocent smile. “I mean, she sang very quietly, and all the birds for miles around would fly to the tower just to hear her music.” Sirena looked at him quizzically, but she didn’t interrupt.

“One day, the princess was so sad as she watched those birds that she started to cry. A single tear fell onto her shoe, and it began to shimmer. Before her very eyes, the princess was transforming. Her arms turned into wings and her dress became feathers. She perched on the window and sang with such joy, for at last, she could fly out and be free. But suddenly, the tower window closed. It knew that as soon as the princess flew out of it, she would never come back, and the tower would be alone.”

Terrence breathed in and looked at Sirena. The monster was thoroughly transfixed. “Does this story have a happy ending?” she asked in a small voice.

Terrence didn’t answer the question. “The princess stopped singing. The tower grew sad, too, so sad that it began to crack. It realized that it had to let the princess go, because even though that would break its heart, keeping her sad was even worse. And so it let the princess go, and as she flew away, leaving her prison behind, they both felt happy. The end.”

Sirena watched Terrence, frowning. “That was a weird story,” she finally decided. “Weird, but nice.” Sirena was quiet for a long time.

When she finally fell asleep, Terrence carefully stepped out of her coils and crept away. He almost felt sorry for leaving her alone in a building full of monsters. Almost, but not really.