Her brother’s body lay before her, frozen in a state of eternal sleep. She never expected him to die, at least not like this. Death for him was always a temporary condition, a way to relieve any excess stress from the day. Even if he was going to die on his own terms, he would leave a contingency plan, a method by which he could be raised from the dead if need be. Now she was not so sure of her brother’s cunning. Not even he would have been able to predict a death like this. To him there were two types of death; death of the body and death of the soul. One was temporary, the other permanent, both were avoidable. Yet this, this was different. Death here would not happen instantly. For someone to be wiped from existence, death would have to occur on all fronts simultaneously. The death of body, soul, and the death of the mind. Bethyinine looked out at all of the lights around her, all of the souls of those who had come before. She looked out towards the ivory tower in the distance and then at the eternal eclipse hanging in the sky.
“You’ll be alone, and that terrifies me. I wanted you to stay with me. I do not want to be alone, I want to be with you, and now you’re gone.” Bethyinine told herself, almost on the verge of tears.
Bethyinine looked down at her brother’s corpse, and she began to cry, knowing that she could not save him. The very thought that James was so calculated as to kill off his own mind terrified her. The mind, to both herself and her family, was the only place safe from death. The mind, and the power of memory were the means by which one could come back from the dead, but only if enough people remembered you. She went out to touch him, one last time, to beg for him to come back to her. Yet deep down she knew that it was too late. His mind could not process the threat quickly enough, he was too slow. Death was just too fast, even for someone like him, a man who could plan for every possible attempt on his life.
Her claws brushed against his cheeks, which were now cold to the touch. She looked at him and his eyes were open, staring out into the endless abyss. Bethyinine summoned the small portion of her brothers soul and looked at it. It pulsed with a faint blue light once, twice, three times. James’ soul was just barely holding on, but even then it too would die. She looked at her brothers soul and a voice inside of her responded. “James?” It said, almost on the verge of tears. There was a certain stillness in a death such as this, a quiet that could not be replicated anywhere else. Perhaps it was the fact that all the life was sucked out of him, perhaps it was the position that he lay in, either way he looked rather peaceful. She smiled to herself and struggled to lift his corpse up into her arms.
“Damnit James, why did you have to make your bones out of metal?” She yelled, gasping for breath
Bethyinine quickly dropped her brother’s corpse, and collapsed onto the floor, exhausted. She knew that lifting it was out of the question, but she couldn’t just leave him there. The only reasonable answer would be to take him home with her. So she began to sing her old lullaby, Chopin’s famous funeral march, only it was in reverse. She hated the very idea of death as a child, so her mother would often sing this particular version of the song backwards. Bethyinine remembered the words which her mother had said as she put her daughter to rest.
“Be still, my dear, tomorrow is a new dawn. We will march away from the grave together, you and I.” She would say
Water rose around them as the ocean air filled her lungs, then the water came crashing down on top of them. She had returned to the small island that she called home. Fish darted in between patches of coral as Bethyinine dragged her brother’s corpse along the sea floor. Once the two of them had made it onto solid land, she let go of James’ body. Bethyinine stared out into the sea, which expanded out in front of her, reaching far beyond even the setting sun on the horizon.
She looked at her brother’s corpse, it was still in the same position as when he had passed on. Rigor mortis really was one hell of a drug. She smiled, sharpened her claws, and began to dig a hole so as to put him to rest. The digging took only a few minutes, the only thing left for her to do now was to mark the burial site. So she decided on the sword that James had given her as a wedding gift, and firmly planted the blade in the sand.
“What am I to do now that James is gone? Normally, I would go out hunting for the first half of the week, then I’d spend the rest of my time with James, entertaining myself with him. If I remember correctly, he liked it when I killed him using a particular sequence, though I cannot recall which one it was.” Bethyinine muttered to herself.
She just wanted to sit there and mourn his death, and yet she knew that was not an option. She needed to hunt, she needed to keep herself occupied. Better to preoccupy her time than to sit there and do nothing. So Bethyinine sat down and began to sing, hoping that someone would be enthralled by her song. After all, she wanted someone to talk to, someone to help her ease the pain she felt. The last time she had done this was close to a century ago, so it would probably take a while for her to catch someone. Though knowing how sailors work, she wouldn’t have to sing for long.
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“How exactly am I going to enjoy myself tonight? Should I leave this one alive for as long as possible? Persuade him to do the job himself? Or just end his life before he even sets foot on this island?” Bethyinine laughed, it had been a while since she had done something like that, and she was enjoying herself.
Bethyinine then stopped for a moment and fixed her gaze on the horizon. She crossed her legs and took a breath, trying to relax and refocus her thoughts.
”No, better to just talk to him, get to know my prey. Tell him about my worries, my fears, my life. I’m not doing this for food, or pleasure, just to keep myself from being overwhelmed.” She reminded herself.
A few minutes passed by before she heard the sound of boots wading through the water. Bethyinine opened her eyes and looked at her prey, smiling. The man before her was a fisherman with short brown hair and a beard. His eyes seemed to shine like emeralds against the setting sun. The fisherman stared at her, and she could see the fear in his eyes.
“Siren! Witch! Leave me be, I beg of you!” He screamed.
”Hush now dear, and I would like it if you referred to me by what I am, an apex predator.” Bethyinine cooed as she sharpened her claws.
She smiled, took a breath, and brushed the sand from her scales.
“I do not want to harm you, I only want someone to talk to. I’ve been lonely for quite some time now.” Bethyinine declared, hoping to keep her prey at ease.
The fisherman looked at the creature before him. Its shape was that of a dragon. Only this one appeared to be more human-like in terms of its posture. The creature’s scales were mostly a deep blue, with the ones on its chest being a bright yellow in color. He sat down and watched as the predator mirrored his movements and sat down as well.
“I really wouldn’t mind if this was the last thing that I saw, it’s honestly kind of adorable” he thought to himself.
“Aww.. thank you for that darling.” Bethyinine responded.
The fisherman panicked and looked at the creature. He didn’t need to open his mouth to speak. The creature just looked at him and nodded as if to answer the question that he was going to ask. What exactly would a creature such as this want with him other than food? He got up and attempted to leave, but the creature anticipated his actions and pounced on him.
“Sorry darling, but I can’t let you leave, not just yet.” Bethyinine said, laughing.
”What are you going to do to me? Kill me and devour my corpse?” The fisherman asked.
“No, that would be… boring.” She responded.
”So, you’re not even going to give me a proper burial either I take it?” Her prey inquired.
”No, I will, and I’ll be paying for your funeral expenses as well.” Bethyinine replied.
”Your logic is inconsistent, you treat me like I’m beneath you, and yet you have enough decency to give me a proper burial.” The fisherman stated.
”True, but either I kill you, or I lose control of myself and kill 50 more people.” Beth hissed.
“Still doesn’t justify your actions.” The fisherman muttered as he looked down at the sand.
”I could say the same for your worship of me.” Beth growled.
”I beg your pardon?” The fisherman sputtered.
”Don’t play dumb with me, darling. You worship me, send me fish as offerings, and yet I refuse them.” She declared.
”No, frankly I have too little time on my hands for such things. Honestly, that very much sounds like something the common folk would do.” The fisherman responded.
”Doesn’t matter, you’re all the same, throwing away precious resources that you need. All in “service” of something that doesn’t care. All I want is to have someone to talk to, someone that understands me! Not people throwing themselves on a pyre for me!” Beth sobbed.
“Then why kill me? Why bother with this? If all you want is someone to talk to, then why are you going to kill me?” Her prey asked.
Beth simply didn’t answer and began to whistle. The fisherman waited for a moment before looking back up at the creature. Its form looked much more like that of an animal than it had before. He saw its long tail swaying back and forth. His eyes began to focus on it, and he slowly began to lose consciousness. Bethyinine looked down at her prey and smiled. The only thing for her to do now was to make sure that this man no longer had a pulse. While the fisherman could no longer think, see, or feel anything physical, he could still sense temperature.
The last thing he would sense before his life was taken from him would be warmth, followed by unending heat. Bethyinine smiled and lied down on the sand, letting it flow between her scales. She gazed out towards the horizon as the water turned to blood, the corpses of her previous prey drifted to the surface covering the ocean for miles, and once again she began to sing, the voices of the dead joined her.
“Beware, beware, the Daughter of the Sea..” Bethyinine sang as she drifted off to sleep. Tomorrow, she thought to herself, tomorrow I will go out hunting. And perhaps I will pay mankind a little visit as well. There are bound to be some that miss my presence.