Kira’s Desire (Part Five)

     Three hours after the group had set off in the WN Echo of Salem , Kira found herself alone on the submarine’s bridge, staring out at the seemingly-endless sea she once called home. She found it kind of funny–she hasn’t seen these waters in over twenty-five-hundred years, yet everything appears exactly as it was when she left. Vibrant corals dominating the sea floor, groves of golden kelp rising up to the surface, neon anemones dancing in the current and fish swimming everywhere as far as the eye can see. A scene straight out of Blue Planet .

     “ Beautiful. ” When she feels this comfortable, Kira likes to speak in her native tongue–a more guttural version of Ancient Greek. “ I had almost forgotten what an unpolluted sea looked like. ” She put her hand on the acrylic window. The water made it cold to the touch; a pleasant feeling for the nostalgic predator. “ I almost want to go out there and swim… ”

     Although the temptation was great, the siren accepted that it was in her best interest to stay aboard the ship. She knew better than anyone that this idyllic landscape wasn’t safe in the slightest, especially for a lone, pregnant mermaid. Every crevice, every tunnel in the rocks and coral could be home to a vicious predator lying in wait. Like the old siren proverb says: “ don’t go swimming alone unless you’re fucking stupid. ”

     “ Soon we’ll be back home safe and sound. ” Romulus spoke in a motherly tone while caressing her belly. “ I cannot believe I didn’t think of this idea sooner! Centuries of failure to keep a single egg had weighed heavily on me by the time I first met the witches. Heck, that’s why I adopted Tiberius…” The siren let out a soft sniffle. “ I wish you could’ve met him. He would’ve been a great big brother for you. Damn witches and their stupid rules– ”

     “ Hello, Kira. ”

     The Sytherosan almost jumped right out of her skin hearing the cold, monotone voice of Abigail Williams pop out of nowhere. Curse the witches and their eerie methods of entry!

     “What is the matter with you?!” Romulus’s heavy breathing emphasized the fear she felt in the moment. “What are you trying to do? Give me a heart attack?!”

     “Possibly,” the witch cackled. “I overheard you speaking Sytherosan and it made me uncomfortable, so I thought I’d return the favor.”

     “Me speaking my native language made you uncomfortable?” Kira wasn’t sure if she should be offended or amused. “It’s just Ancient Greek–”

     “It made me uncomfortable because I didn’t know what you were talking about,” Abigail clarified. “For all I know you could’ve been telling your little egg that you were going to betray us all and stay here on Sytheros with the sub all to yourself!”

     “... That’s what you default to? Really ?” Romulus sighed. “You really need to see a therapist, Abigail. Seriously, think about it: when have I ever done anything that made you doubt my loyalty to your coven?”

     “Well, for starters, you’re a man-eating beast from another world hellbent on gobbling up humans like me to temporarily sate your unending lust .” Williams had enough venom in her voice to put even the mightiest elephant down. “Hell, I know you’re thinking of eating me right here, right now.”

     “That’s absurd,” argued the offended Kira. “I’d never–”

     “ Even if you could get away with it? ” Abigail summoned a cigar with her fingers, placed it in her mouth and lit it with a simple fire charm. She took a big pull and exhaled a thick cloud of smoke right in front of the siren like a mob boss, making the latter uncomfortable. “Right now it’s just you and me here. The others are all watching the Highball game. Val’s likely yelling about the Thunderbirds’ performance, Libby’s probably stuffing her face with one of her greasy burgers, and Mercy’s listening to swing on her Walkman. They’d never hear us fighting, my agonizing screams or your unholy moans of pleasure.” The witch puffed a bit more smoke out. “It’d be the perfect crime.”

     Romulus shook her head in severe disappointment. “Like I said earlier…go to therapy! Seriously, call Dr. O’Reilly at Junhaven and make an appointment! The sooner you deal with your immense backlog of issues–” Williams interrupted the woman by letting out another smokescreen. Kira coughed and hacked several times, and the particles made her eyes water a bit.

“I’ll only say this once,” the witch began. “Someone like me can never know peace. As a result of being the Grand Priestess I have a target the size of a landing pad on my back. Every succubus, siren and nymph wants to eat me, even those who aren’t directly working with one of the ‘main’ groups. My house is tricked out with every sort of magical defense you can imagine and yet still every fucking week there’s at least one girl who tries her luck! Even when they lose an arm or are bleeding profusely they’ll still push themselves forward in an attempt to get me.”

     “I–what does that have to do with–”

     “ I’m not finished .” The witch tapped her cigar, knocking ash off the tip. “This doesn’t just affect me, either. My family suffers, too. I’ve lost my Aunt Liz, my cousin Susanna and dozens of Betty’s kids to our enemies. There was even one time where one of the monsters left a note for me atop the regurgitated shirt of Betty’s daughter Tina: ‘ she cried for her Aunt Abbie. ’” The witch took a deep breath. “And then there’s all the friends I’ve lost. Not just witches, mind you– normal humans , too. I make friends with the coffee shop barista? Her half-digested apron shows up on my doorstep the next week. I get along with Shadow’s vet? His name tag is left in my mailbox. I decide to go on a date with a cute boy? A polaroid picture of his hypnotized face gets slid under my door.”

     Kira wasn’t sure what to say here. Normally, she wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about a person who lost so many loved ones to sirens like her. “That’s just the food chain,” she’d say to them before sending them into her dark, damp chamber. She’d laugh and laugh as she’d feel her victim depart for the ferryman, as is siren tradition. But she didn’t feel that way with Abigail. Although the witch tried to hide it by smoking that cigar, Romulus could easily see that there were cracks in her stoic stance. The human’s left eye twitched, and her right hand trembled slightly when she was finishing her remarks. She attempted to hide the latter by quickly ducking her hand behind her back, but Kira saw enough. Clearly the witch’s troubles are deeper than simple paranoia.

Survivor’s guilt , the siren thought to herself. Survivor’s guilt mixed in with general anxiety, chronic depression and extreme paranoia. This girl’s a cocktail of problems. No wonder Tenderfoot says she’s held together by a single, fragile thread…

“Ahem.” Williams recomposed herself and stood tall. “My point, siren , is that my behavior is completely justified given what’s at stake. Ergo, I am completely… normal .” Romulus could tell by the enchantress’s speech that she wasn’t confident in her words. “I’ll leave the therapists to attend to girls who actually need help.”

“ If you say so… ”

Something outside grabbed Abigail’s attention. She couldn’t make it out fully from her current position, but from what she could tell it appeared as though there was a humanoid figure swimming around. To get a better look she started walking toward the window, bypassing her pregnant cohort along the way.

“What’re you doing?” Romulus turned around, herself curious as to what the witch saw. “Did you– oh !”

Williams stopped about two feet away from the magically-reinforced acrylic. Now that she was close, she was able to positively identify the figure as a mermaid–one of two natural forms of the siren species, and the more common variation. The girl had dark blue skin that resembled that of a common dolphin; slick but durable. Her tail was also like that of a dolphin, complete with a thick fluke designed for maximum speed and power. Instead of hair the mermaid had large scutes on her head and upper back that appeared to have been carefully grinded down to give her a special ‘style’; as strange as it sounds it almost looked like she had medium length hair! And although they were only seen for a brief moment Abigail was able to tell that the woman had light blue eyes; they shone in the afternoon sun, even this far below the surface.

“I–I haven’t seen one of my own like this in a long time…” Kira was astonished. “Come to think of it, I haven’t transformed in centuries, damn.” When she got a better look at the woman’s features, she gasped. “ Ooh she’s so pretty! ” A few moments later, two more mermaids appeared from behind the starboard side of the Echo . These two greatly resembled the original one, albeit smaller and with different “hairstyles”. “Awwwww, she’s a mom,” Romulus happily deduced. “I wonder if I could ask her for parental advice. Abigail, could you–”

“ FORWARD PLASMA CANNONS ONLINE. ”

Hearing that Irish-accented AI’s announcement alarmed Kira. She hadn’t noticed that Williams had been performing nonverbal magic on the nearby weapons console with her left hand, arming the guns for an attack!

“ What’re you doing?! ” Romulus rushed over to the console and tried to stop what she knew was coming. “ They’re a family! You can’t– ”

“Oh please ,” Williams coldly retorted. “That’s rich coming from you. Your people literally eat entire families on a regular basis! ”

“I do that to survive,” the predator argued. “You’re doing this for sport and spite!”

“Bull. Shit.” Abigail rolled her eyes. “We both know you can survive off sex by draining people of their life force. And even if that wasn’t necessarily true, you CAN eat one person a week and be fine! But your gluttonous ass just can’t help itself, can it? You WANT to stuff your face with the entire clan!” The witch motioned her hand to pull a lever down on the console. “What I’m doing here is preventing that from happening. It’s justice!”

“You are such a hypocrite,” barked Kira. “I know you eat people at a rate comparable to me, even when you only need one person every few months at most to keep you going! You’re no savior– you’re just eliminating the competition! ”

“Heh.” Abigail’s crazed smile made her teeth appear sharper than normal. “Perhaps. Regardless, you’re too late. These cannons are gonna wipe them off the face of existence and there’s nothing you can do about it. Shame.”

Romulus ran to the window and started banging on it, trying to get the family’s attention. None of them heard her; they just kept swimming in front of the Echo while prowling around for food. She tried beating on the acrylic even harder, but again, this yielded no response. Her eyes started to water, and her heart beat like a bat out of hell. “ I can’t watch ,” she sobbed as she closed her eyes. “ How could you do this… ”

“ Easily ,” laughed the demented Williams as she pressed the big red button. “Another day, another victory for the Sisters of–”

     “ ERROR! FORWARD CANNONS UNABLE TO FIRE! ERROR! FORWARD CANNONS UNABLE TO FIRE! ”

     “... what? ” Abigail’s disappointment was immeasurable and her day instantly ruined. “What do you mean there’s an error?!”

     Kira breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Yes! Phorcys be praised!”

     “ The hell is wrong with this stupid thing?! ” The witch ran over to the console to inspect it. From what she could see the cannons should have fired. A screen on the left side stated that the superheated plasma was fully loaded and ready to go, while the main targeting display showed the cannons were aimed right at the siren mother. But the warning lights on the console were flashing, indicating a malfunction–what was going on?

     “ Blasted piece of futuristic scrap! ” Abigail reached out her hand and summoned her axe out of thin air. “ If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself! ”

     “ Wait! ” Romulus ran up to the witch and grasped the human’s arms. “ Please! Don’t kill them! ” Williams responded by walking right past the girl. “ Hey! I’m talking to you! ”

     “Hmm.” Williams ignored the woman’s pleas once again. “Do I kill them all, or do I just kill the mom and make the brats fend for themselves?”

     Something inside Kira snapped at that moment. Her eyes went from fearful to fury, burning with an intensity that the human had never seen before. Her fingernails grew out several inches and became significantly thicker, turning into claws. And her teeth became more conical in shape, making it look like her mouth was full of nothing but canines.

     “Uh…” Abigail had looked over her shoulder just in time to see the predator’s new look. She felt slightly nervous, though she’d never admit it. “Are you–”

     “ HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST ORPHANING A SIREN! ” Romulus’s voice became significantly deeper, almost demonic. “ IF YOU SO MUCH AS AIM THAT AXE AT HER I WILL SHRED EVERY LAST PIECE OF MEAT OFF YOUR BONES BIT-BY-BIT! I’LL LEAVE YOUR VITAL ORGANS FOR LAST AND MAKE YOU WATCH AS I SLOWLY EAT YOUR BODY AROUND YOU, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?! ”

     Williams wasn’t sure how to respond. In all the years she’s known Kira, she’s never once seen this side of her. Sure she’s pissed the predator off before–multiple times, actually–but the Sytherosan would always just huff and leave or whine to Betty or Valérie to get Abigail to back off. This visceral reaction was quite unexpected–and it made the enchantress wonder: is there more to this?

     “ Okay, okay ,” the witch said as she backed off. “I’ll spare them.”

     Romulus slowly started to calm down. Her nails/claws receded, and her teeth returned to their humanoid shape. She maintained a scowl, however, and didn’t let Williams off the hook so easily. “ You better ,” she ominously said. “Or else we’ll have a much uglier conversation. Capice?”

     Abigail remained intimidated. Where the hell has this Kira been? Have any of the other witches ever seen this side of her before? “ Whatever .” The witch took the cigar out of her mouth and tapped more ash off the tip.

     Knock-knock.

     Upon hearing that noise both girls quickly turned their attention to the window. All three sirens had swam up to the Echo and were now inspecting the mechanical marvel up-close, their tails flapping at a speed that allowed them to safely keep pace with the submarine.

     “ What is this thing, mother ,” asked the younger-looking of the two kids. “ Is it a black whale? I don’t remember you saying they felt so…rock-y? ”

     “ Maybe it’s infected ,” the elder sibling suggested. “ Some kind of disease that makes it look different? ”

     “ This, my young fry, is a submarine, ” answered the mother in a caring tone. “ Humans use them to explore Earth’s oceans. I wonder how this got here? I know the portals sometimes let human objects through–like that television set I showed you girls last week–but this is much too big! Perhaps Erato wasn’t lying when she said she found a ‘Model T’ automobile nestled in some brush… ”

     “I have no idea what any of them are saying,” said the ignorant Abigail. “All I hear is ‘kill me, kill me before I eat you.’”

     “They can see us,” Kira replied with a great deal of concern. “They know we’re in a submarine, which tells me that the cloaking device isn’t working…”

     Understanding the seriousness of the situation, Williams went over to the console responsible for monitoring the ship’s hull to see if any additional errors were present. But all it said was that the cloaking system is one-hundred percent functional. “Impossible,” the witch declared. “If they can see us then it must be busted–why is this screen lying?!” She then noticed another incorrect reading. “And it says that the electromagnetic field is operational! If it is, then how the hell were they able to get close to the ship?! ”

     “Is anything else off,” asked Romulus. “I have a theory, but the only way to confirm it is to check the other systems.”

     Wasting no time, both Abigail and Kira ran around inspecting everything. They pressed all sorts of buttons, pulled many levers and used built-in mice & keyboards to examine every single console. From what they saw none of the other systems seemed to be malfunctioning–the engines were running, power was clearly being distributed throughout the ship, the air was breathable, etc. Only the weapons and defense systems were giving false readings. This meant only one thing:

     “ Sabotage ,” concluded Williams. “Someone messed with the ships’ defenses!” She ran back to the forward weapons’ console and started pressing random buttons. “How do you fix this thing?!”

     “Not like that ,” scolded Romulus. “You’d need to look at the computer’s files to see if there’s a virus corrupting the program, or at least inspect the case to see if anything’s plugged in that shouldn’t be.”

     “...what?” Abigail appeared completely clueless. “I thought a ‘ programme ’ was what the English called TV shows.”

     “Not like that. The programs I am referring to are things you can run on a computer. Like games, software…”

     “Soft…wares? Like textiles? Is there cloth inside a computer? Do we need to knit a new one?”

     Kira had a bemused expression on her face. Part of her wanted to laugh, but this wasn’t the time. “You don’t know anything about computers, do you,” she asked her dumbfounded shipmate.

     “I…do not,” admitted Williams. “Next to no one in our coven does. We’ve been trying to get more ‘tech-savvy’ girls to join us as of late for this precise reason.”

     “I’m going to take a guess and assume that Libby and Mercy are also technologically ignorant? I know Valérie is.”

     “You are sadly correct,” moaned Abigail. “We grabbed a defective ship that literally none of us know how to fix.” The despondent witch slumped over the weapons console. “Great. Just. Great. ”

     “...I mean, I know computers,” revealed the upbeat Kira. “Eating a lot of sweaty, foul-smelling nerds over the years has given me a strong understanding as to how they work. I bet I can locate the problem and get them debugged in no time.”

     “Forgive me if I don’t trust you,” replied the disgruntled Williams.

     “You can try to fix this if you want to,” the unapologetic Romulus began. “Or you can let go of your paranoia and drop the aggressive attitude so that I can work faster.” Kira walked over to the weapons console and started trying to solve the problem. First she tested if she could use the mouse and keyboard to access the various menus and other items related to the forward weapons, including diagnostic reports and detailed readings on the status. Everything worked as it should from what she could tell–she was able to access the “ReadMe” file for the program. And it turned out that the saboteur left a hidden message for the Sisters:

     “ G reetings and thank you for viewing the README file for the forward weapons console! E verything you could possibly want to know about the forward weapons console is listed in this document. T o look for a specific part of the program, please use the ‘CTRL+F’ function and search. A ll items of interest should be here–if you do not see something listed here please contact your system administrator. T his guide will also include relevant information that can be referenced if looking for something amiss with the other weapons aboard the ship. E ven a dumb witch like yourself should understand how helpful that is! ”

     “ Heh ,” chortled Kira. “Nice.”

     “What’re you laughing about,” inquired Abigail. “All I see is a lazy, dragged-out insult.”

“I’ll tell you later. I will say this though: the virus appears to be a cleverly-disguised replica of the program that monitors the plasma cannons. It’s on an auto-run script that overrides the original so that no one is the wiser. Quite advanced stuff–simply turning it off and on again won’t solve the problem. We may need to go into the command prompt and–”

     “You know what? Go nuts.” Williams had zero interest in trying to understand anything the geek was saying. “Do whatever you want to that computer–I’m going to go check on our uninvited guests and–hang on. Where’d that green one come from?”

    

     At some point during the pair’s investigation a fourth siren joined the three inquisitive mermaids. Like Abigail had said, the newcomer was green with noticeable countershading; she was lighter at the front versus the back. Her scutes were shorter around her head but became ‘puffy’ around her neck, making it look like she had the siren version of a mullet. A strange look compared to those of her blue counterparts.

     “ [...] and once we have the ship, I’ll turn it into a safe haven for sirens! ” The emerald mermaid’s lofty goals caused the younger sirens to gaze at her with awe. “ You ever see those on Earth, Kora? Well, this’ll be better because it’ll also protect us from the horrors of Sytheros! We’d be able to swim in safety…at least until we can find portals to Earth, of course. ”

     “ That does sound nice, Metope ,” the mother replied. “ But I’m concerned with the idea of fighting witches. I’ve never personally dealt with one before, but my sister has and she’s told me that while their meat is exquisite they’re not exactly golden swimmers. ” She pulled her children close. “ I don’t want to leave them to fend for themselves. They’re so close to being all-grown up… ”

     “ Relax, Kora ,” said the confident Metope. “ We have about fifty others who’d love the chance at devouring one of those power-hungry fools! Menippe was also able to coax some harpy friends of hers to assist us–they’re flying above us right now waiting to strike! With our superior numbers there’s no way we’re gonna lose! ”

     “ Well…when you put it that way … okay! I’ll help you. ”

     “ Can we help, mother ,” asked the younger sibling. “ I want my first human to be a witch! ”

     “ That’d be so cool ,” agreed the older girl. “ Pleeeeeease? ”

     “ Absolutely not ,” said Kora, generating loud, disappointed groans. “ This is way too dangerous for young fry like you! No, you two will go back to the cove to your Aunt Lyla. Understood? ”

     “ Yes, mother ,” the pair replied in sync.

     “ Good. And tell her to take you to the estuary tomorrow–you’re going to learn how to hunt green shimmerscales! ”

     “Hey, Kira,” said Abigail. “Can you come over here and translate what these mermaids are saying? I feel like they’re up to something…”

     Romulus promptly joined the witch. Rather than have the predator listen in on the present conversation Williams instead gently tapped her head and pulled out an ethereal string. This light blue strand undulated and hovered in front of both women, as if it were made of dyed air. Tapping the strand with her fingers caused it to reveal the full audio conversation between Metope and Kora perfectly, as if it were happening right then and there.

     “They’re planning to attack us.” Kira’s words didn’t surprise Williams, who had surmised that the natives were planning something. “There’re mobs of sirens behind and above us all waiting to attack the Echo . Mermaids and harpies.”

     “Harpies, too?” That last detail surprised Abigail. “Damn. How many are out there? Ten? Twenty?”

     “Somewhere between fifty and sixty,” answered Romulus. “That green one, Metope, wants to use the Echo as a mobile refuge while traveling across Sytheros’s deadly seas, and she’s using you all as an incentive to get the others like Kora to help her. ‘Help us get the ship, and you can eat a witch’, is more-or-less what she’s saying.”

     “That complicates things,” murmured Williams. “It’s one thing to go up against a horde of young, inexperienced sirens. We’d mop the floor with them. It’s a different story when they know how to fight us. And with your estimate we’d be at a severe disadvantage given our present situation.”

     “I know,” lamented Kira. “Which is why I’m prepared to offer you a deal.”

     “Oh?” Abigail took the cigar out of her mouth, giving her perceived foe her full attention. She could tell by the siren’s cautious body language that whatever she was about to say would be interesting. “I’m listening.”

     “As you said the odds are heavily skewed in their favor. Even if they weren’t all capable fighters you’d all likely perish in the fight. Which is why…” The predator made a nervous gulp. “Which is why I’m prepared to just go it alone from this point forward.”

“...seriously?” The witch wasn’t sure if she should believe the Sytherosan’s words, regardless of how genuine she sounded. “You’d just…leave? Swim to that island by yourself? Risk getting eaten by whatever is out there in the deep while we all go home?”

“Correct,” the Mediterranean affirmed. “You can all use those stones you brought and head back to Earth. I’ll sneak out the top and swim away before anyone notices.”

Williams could see that the woman was obviously hesitant to execute this plan, as she was unable to look the witch in the eye the entire time she spoke. “You’d throw all this away so that we may live?”

“Yes,” the siren grimly replied. “As difficult as it may be for you to understand, I care about all four of you. I’d rather risk it out there on my own than watch any of you get eaten alive. One life lost is better than four, after all. And in the event that which ate my mother ends up getting me too…” Kira’s eyes teared up. “Just know that I…that I truly enjoyed the time I’ve spent with your coven. These past two-hundred years have been the best of my life.” A few drops trickled down her face, falling to the floor with quiet ‘plips’. “And I wouldn’t trade them for anything else.”

Abigail almost pinched herself. A big smile stretched across her face, and her eyes sparkled like something out of a nineties anime. Finally she’d be free of this unwanted blight on her coven! How will she die–bit in half? Swallowed whole? Grinded into paste? Who cares?! Romulus will be out of the enchantress’s hair, and that’s all that matters! Now she can go home, pour herself a nice glass of rosé and relax in her favorite lounge chair by her fireplace. The only way this could be better was if she were able to deport the other “allied” shadow-walkers to this hellscape, like Lien or that plant-bending hippie chick who her cousin Betty is friends with. Wouldn’t be hard to trick them–all she’d need to do is ask them if they’d like to go to a remote paradise for a fun getaway or something.

Yet despite her eagerness to leave, the enchantress found herself unable to take more than a few steps toward the door. She saw the exit door clearly, and she knew that her fellow witches weren’t that far away. It’d be a short walk, followed by an even shorter conversation with the girls. Sure, there’d be some hesitance from Libby and Valérie–but the witch was confident she could get them to “see reason”. So why couldn’t she move?

Come on, Abigail , she told herself internally. Get a move on! Leave the martyr to her fate. But the witch still hesitated. What’s wrong with you?! She’s a fucking siren . They all deserve to burn for what they’ve done to us! Why, why can I not follow through?! She could only think of one potential answer, but it didn’t make any sense. Conscience? You’ve been on my side for centuries! Why just last week you laughed with me when we shoved that succubus into the tiger pit at the San Diego Zoo! Did you finally decide to do your job and make me…make me…oh no . No. No. NO! It’s impossible!

Unfortunately for Williams, there was no other answer. Her conscience was indeed trying to get her to do the morally right thing–something it has never once done for a shadow walker. Granted there hasn’t really ever been a situation where Abigail had the choice of helping a friendly shadow-walker in a time of extreme peril.

Still, the voice refused to be silenced–it grew louder and louder with each passing thought in the witch’s brain. Eventually, she had no choice: “ Gah !” The enchantress angrily stomped her foot as she let out that pained groan. “ Fine ,” she whispered to herself before turning back toward the predator. “Si– Kira . I…I…” Abigail appeared physically in pain as she tried to get the words out. “I… we , will stay to–to he- help you…”

Kira’s head perked up. Having assumed Williams would abandon ship, the siren had reverted herself to her native form in preparation for being thrust into the cold, unforgiving ocean. Her skin had gone from a medium tan to a rich green, almost matching her eyes. Her breasts had completely vanished, their fat having been redistributed around her body. Her legs had fused together to form a strong tail, with her feet combining into a fluke. And her hair had receded into scutes that resembled a medium-length ‘cut’ around the siren’s head.

“ Really ,” she said like an awestruck child. “You’d stay here…and help me ? Willingly ?”

“ Apparently so .” Abigail wanted to release her lunch’s bones all over Romulus’s face as violently as possible. “Give yourself your legs back, but keep that siren look. I…I have an idea.”

“ Metope .” Even with dozens of her fellow sirens around her the youngest of the three sisters still had her doubts over what the eldest had planned. “ I really don’t want to do this… ”

“ Too bad, you’re doing it ,” Metope unsympathetically replied. “ I promised mother that I’d keep you under my watchful eye until we got to Earth. And unless those witches’ magic somehow transported us there without us realizing it, you’re gonna stay with me. Unless you want to insult our mother’s dying wish? Be kind of sad, considering– ”

“ I–I would never! ” Daphnae clutched her left upper arm and appeared shaken at the accusation. “ I just…you remember all the stories she used to tell us? About what they can do? I barely know how to fight creatures that live here and– ”

“ Daphnae .” The older sister wrapped her arm around the youngest’s lime green shoulders and pulled her uncomfortably close. “ Do you know why I recruited all these girls to help us? ”

“ Because there’s strength in numbers? ”

“ Yes. ” Metope quickly glanced around to make sure no one was nearby. Once she confirmed the coast was clear, she resumed speaking to her sister in a low whisper. “ And those ‘numbers’ will bear the brunt of the witches’ attacks while we reap the rewards. ”

“ You–you’re using them as fodder?! ” Daphnae’s shouting forced her sister to swiftly cover her mouth. “ Whmmph? ”

“ Keep quiet ,” muttered the aggressive Metope, who then looked around to make sure no one overheard her sister’s outburst. “ Do you want to ruin everything we’ve worked for? The chance for the most gourmet meal imaginable? ”

“ Unnnnhhhh… ” Daphnae wasn’t sure how to respond to that question. Although she’s completely terrified at the prospect of fighting a fully-trained witch, a small part of her did want to see what all the fuss was about regarding how good they tasted. Her mother had told her many stories of fighting witches–including a few instances where she managed to snag one for dinner. She was quite the fighter in her prime; the same couldn’t be said of the cowardly Daphnae. Heck, it couldn’t even be said for the lazy Metope or headstrong Menippe, either. Which makes this whole operation even more mind-boggling for the young siren.

“ As long as you keep your mouth shut, we’ll be fine .” The eldest sibling removed her hand from her sister’s loose lips. “ We’ll ditch the ship as soon as we find a portal to Earth. Once there we’ll go our separate ways and– ”

“ ‘Separate’? ” That single word sent chills down Daphnae’s spine. “ As in like–split up?! ”

“ Yep .” Metope continued to speak without any ounce of empathy in her voice. “ I promised mother that I’d watch you and Menippe on Sytheros . Once we’re on Earth that deal is done. You’ll get to live your own life and do whatever you want! ”

“ But what I want is to be with you and Menippe… ” The poor girl’s heart had been ripped in two. “ We’re sisters! ”

“ We can stay in contact through those, uh, posed-cards or whatever they’re called ,” the older girl replied with a shrug. “ I’m sure you’ll do fiiine… ”

Loud cheers coming from nearby reminded Metope of what they were here to do. Turning around, she saw a rainbow of sirens waiting for her to give the order. Small, tall, hefty, skinny, scarred, bare–no two mermaids looked exactly alike.

“ Ladies! ” Metope “stood” proudly for her audience, doing her best Caesar orator voice to captivate them. “ Thank you all for joining my sisters and I on this rare and rewarding endeavor! Inside that giant metal tube is the greatest treat any siren could ever sink their teeth into: WITCHES! ” The cheers from the audience grew louder–it seemed the emerald mermaid said the magic word. “ They came here to our world thinking they own the place! That they can just go wherever they want and not get eaten?! The absolute AUDACITY! ” Cheers became roars as the crowd grew rowdier and rowdier. “ Sytheros is OUR home! These witches want to be here so badly? Well, they can stay here–forever, as silt! ”

Metope swam back to Daphnae as the others hyped each other up. “ See? Everything’s going to be okay, Daph. Just stick with me and Menippe, and you’ll be okay .”

“ If you say so ,” said the cautious creature.

Back aboard the ship the four witches had gathered together to discuss Abigail’s plan. Predictably, Mercy was entirely against it. She repeatedly told Williams that their best course of action was, to put it simply, GTFO–which the redhead ignored entirely. Equally unsurprising were Libby and Valérie voting to stay and fight. Proctor because she wanted to continue studying Sytheros and learning all her secrets; and McLaren because for her, killing sirens was fun and cathartic.

“Sooooooo, let me get this straight.” Lewis clasped her hands together and spoke in a very sarcastic demeanor. “You, Abigail Amanda Williams, want us to fight…what was it, Libs?”

“Seventy-three sirens.”

“ Seventy-three sirens ,” Mercy dramatically repeated. “ Tell me, Abigail: what did I do to deserve this?”

“Well, according to many of our Sisters: slander, libel, betrayal, pot-stirring…” The head witch had her hand out and counted each crime with her fingers. “And those are just the ones off the top of my head. I’m confident I can find more if you give me time.”

“This wouldn’t be so much of a problem if you didn’t recruit so many fucking babies into the coven.” Annoyed groans came out from the mouths of the brunettes. “Crying about their families dying, their husbands leaving them or because they had a shitty childhood! Give me a fucking break.”

“I would’ve thought someone like you would be more understanding when it came to trauma,” lamented Valérie. “Considering that your entire family was slaughtered by the time you were, what, thirteen?”

“Eh,” shrugged Lewis. “It was the sixteen-hundreds, everyone’s family died when they were a young age. Half the time you’d join them, too! Once I recognized that I got over it. And now I’m a-okay!”

“Ah, yes, the old tried-and-true method of ‘just ignore it’,” Dr. McLaren remarked. “The go-to suggestion for ignorant fools since the days of Hippocrates.” The freckled woman sounded very tired. “This is why Powhatan said you’d never be a good healer.”

“ Pfffffffft, ” said Mercy, her hand making a nonchalant ‘nah’ motion. “Whatever, like I’d listen to the opinion of some stupid Scottish cu–”

BANG!

“The fu–” Libby turned her head to where she thought she heard the noise. “Was that a–”

BANG! BANG!

“Jesus Tapdancing Christ!” Those two knocks came from the wall right next to the smartmouthed-blonde.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

“ They’re trying to break in! ”

Valérie’s words were barely audible among all the noise. The hull of the Echo shook with every hit, the sounds reverberating off the bulkheads to create an almost-seamless chorus. That is, until the loud, Cork-accented artificial intelligence alerted the girls of a concerning development:

“ WARNING: HULL BREACH IN SECTOR ELEVEN. ” His matter-of-fact robotic voice only made things more chaotic for the witches. “ WARNING: HULL BREACH IN SECTOR ELEVEN. WARNING: HULL BREACH IN SECTOR ELEVEN. WARNING: HULL BREACH IN SECTOR SEVEN. WARNING: HULL BREACH IN–WARNING: HULL BREACH IN SECTOR THIRTEEN! WARNING: HULL BREACH IN SECTOR THIRTEEN! WARNING–WARNING HULL–WARNING: HULL BREACH IN SEC–WARNING! ”

     All these alerts were followed by the inevitable–water started flooding into the corridor, emerging from the bottom of doors whose rooms had been broken into. The cold, salty fluid was up to the womens’ toes in seconds, alarming the girls.

Knowing that it was only going to get worse, Abigail rushed over to a nearby emergency panel, broke it open and pulled the lever inside. The slate floor beneath the girls’ feet shook violently, which was then followed by a loud “whirring” noise as the ship’s activated. Slowly the water ebbed away, providing a temporary reprieve. But the enchantresses knew this wouldn’t last forever–something had to be done, and quick!

“ Kira. ” Williams activated a nearby intercom. “ Raise the ship to the surface. These girls want a fight, we’ll give ‘em one. ”

“ Roger ,” the Latin woman responded. “ Surfacing in five. ”

“ ‘SURFACE’?! ” Lewis spared no time to voice her disapproval. “ Are you fucking kidding me?! This ship is going down–let’s fucking leave ! Kira can fend for her goddamn self! ”

“We are not leaving her.” Abigail’s simple response was met with approving nods by the rest of the party. “She’s our only chance of getting the ship fixed.”

“ Did you miss the part where I said we could just ditch this piece of crap?! If Bonny gets mad just give her a keg o’ the finest Guinness and she’ll be happy! ”

“The research we have collected here is invaluable. We have specimens that can help us combat the sirens more effectively–right, Libby?”

“Yep,” said the gleeful Proctor. “So many! Like this one plant that secretes a pheromone that specifically attracts them! We’re immune to it!”

“...I don’t recall bumping into such a thing along our journey,” recalled McLaren. “When did you…?” An awkward smile and rapid blinking answered the healer’s query. Disappointed, she softly expressed her disappointment: “ You snuck out last night, didn’t you? ”

“I had to,” replied the unapologetic explorer. “In the name of research! Do you realize that, until today, we didn’t have a single item from Sytheros in our collections?! All we’ve had were whispers and legends, most of which the sirens likely made up!” Libby’s original West Country accent came through as she spoke. “That plant I got proved that there are things on this planet that can aid us in our fight against one of our greatest enemies! Not picking it up would mean damning hundreds–no, thousands of innocent wiccan lives to them!” This was quite possibly the first time in over a century that Goody Proctor put her foot down. “Surely you can all see this?!”

Williams grabbed the rule breaker by her shoulders, scaring the latter into submission. Libby could already hear the lecture she was sure the redhead was about to deliver–the only question was whether or not it’d include some sort of severe punishment. Like being barred from leaving the ship, or forced to take point in the fight. Or worse, being banned from the Grand Library.

“Grab it.” Hearing those words relieved the nervous witch. “Grab it and anything else you acquired that might help us. We’re gonna need it.”

    

“ ALERT: SHIP SURFACE PROTOCOL INITIATED. PLEASE STAND BY. ”

    

     Kira gave herself a pat on the back as she left the Captain’s chair and returned to her previous post. Figuring out how to make a magical submarine go straight up was no easy feat, but somehow she managed it without needing to call one of the witches to the bridge. Now she can get back to doing a far more mind-numbing task: fixing the weapons console.

     “ This doesn’t make any sense .” Staring at that same false representation of the weapons’ status was starting to take a toll on her. “It has to be some sort of autorun program. I can’t minimize it or return to the main screen–is there any way to get rid of it?” She tried doing Alt+F4 but all it did was make the screen go black for a few seconds and then boot back up to the same thing. “Maybe that spy bricked it? That’d make sense, but if that’s true then we’re all in serious trouble…”

     Romulus took a second look at the case under the table. Earlier she had verified that there wasn’t anything plugged in, and that there wasn’t anything funky attached to the motherboard. “What could it be?” This was a case worthy of Sherlock Holmes. “ Wait. ” Kira noticed that there was one thing she hadn’t checked. “ I swear to Phorcys… ” She held her breath as she softly pressed the floppy disk’s drive’s ejection button. Sure enough the drive housed one such disk! But was it the culprit?

     Yes. Yes it was. The moment that drive was removed Kira was treated to a wonderful sight: the teal home screen of Windows NT 4.0. “ I can’t believe it… ” The siren smacked herself on the cheek. “That was it?! That’s how the sirens bugged the Echo ?! A fucking floppy disk?! ” Romulus slouched back and placed her head on the chair. “I suppose it’s rather clever in its simplicity,” she admitted. “Like Abigail said, the majority of the coven sucks with computers. They probably don’t even know what a floppy disk looks like, let alone what it does.”

     FWSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH. The force from the Echo ’s sudden breach nearly caused Kira to fall over. SPLSSSSSSSSSSSSSH! Millions of gallons of displaced water shot up into the air, creating quite the spectacle as the ship stabilized. Once things calmed down Romulus found herself treated to a cool split-view: half the curved window was above the water while the rest remained submerged. An interesting juxtaposition.

     “I bet there are more computers here with those floppy disks in them,” she surmised. “I should go check and– woah! ”

     Suddenly, dozens of her brethren swam straight up in front of her at top speed and launched themselves out of the water. Their trajectory took them over the bridge right onto the now fully-exposed top deck. Unfortunately in their haste the girls forgot two things: one, their tails made it impossible to stick any landing, and two, a metal surface isn’t exactly soft. Lots of whining and groaning followed, which greatly amused Kira.

     “Oh to be young and foolish,” she mused. “Now, let’s see about the other computers…”

    

     “ Owwwwwww! ” Daphnae clutched her right hip and curled slightly in pain. “ Metope! I thought you said we’d–augh–board the ship while it was still underwater! ”

     “ I said we’d force the ship to surface and then attack it . ” The older siren’s anger was amplified by her own pain from her similarly-rough landing. “ Seriously, do you ever fucking listen? ”

     “ I barely paid attention and even I knew that! ” Unlike her sisters, Menippe barely felt anything. Whether this was because she had thicker skin than the other two or was just showing off was debatable. The dark green mermaid was also ahead of her sisters in the transformation process, as she had already started splitting her tail into a pair of legs. “ This feels…weird. Uncomfortable-weird. ”

     “ Suck it up ,” urged Metope. “ We got witches to eat and a ship to steal! ”

     “ Oh-ho-ho! Look at all the mermaids flopping about! ”

     All three sisters muttered unpleasant phrases under their breath as aerial reinforcements joined them on deck. Although still sirens by blood, harpies look very different from their mermaid kin. Their long, hawk-like legs ended in sharp talons, perfect for disemboweling their prey. Instead of arms they have wings, capable of not only propelling them upwards but an additional one to two hundred pounds of meat, as well. But their most striking feature was their plumage; it was brighter than the mermaids’ skin, and some had even dyed their feathers using pigments found in plants and rocks.

     “ I can’t wait to hunt an actual witch! ” The lead harpy–the same one who had laughed at the girls’ misfortune–spoke in a shrieky voice. Her red, white and blue plumage resembled that of a famous woodpecker–fitting, really. “ It’s been too long since I’ve had fun like this! ”

     “ Glad to have you on board, Winona .” Her legs fully formed, Metope wobbled over to the bird and gave her a hug. “ How’s Charis? ”

     “ She’s waiting for me back at the estuary ,” replied Winona. “ I told her I’d bring her back a little bit of witch as a treat! ”

     “ Oh, she’ll love that! ”

     Now that they were on the deck, the other sirens began to explore for a way in. “ How’d they even get in this damn thing ,” asked one who was magenta-colored. “ Looks sealed up tight. ”

     “ There must be some kind of door at the front ,” said Metope. “ They walked right in! ”

     “ Does magic allow you to walk through walls ,” a teal mermaid inquired. “‘ Cause I see nothing . ”

     “ Maybe we gotta crack it open like an egg ,” a goldenrod girl suggested.

     “ Should be easy enough ,” claimed Kora. “ We’re in red bomber territory, right? Let’s grab a bunch of ‘em and chuck ‘em at the entrance! ”

     “ Great idea! ” Metope walked over to the edge of the deck, hung over the railing and yelled at some mermaids lurking nearby. “ OY! GET SOME BOMBERS AND BRING ‘EM UP HERE! ”

     “ Ew, no ,” replied a vermillion woman. “ Those things are icky! And that gunk smells for months . ”

     “ Yeah ,” agreed a chubby, pale mermaid. “ My baby sister got hit with one once–mother and I couldn’t even hunt without– ”

     “ Do you want to eat witches or not? ” The group’s leader had grown impatient. “ Yes? Then shut the fuck up, go down AND GET US THOSE FISH! ”

     “Alright, ladies.” Abigail paced around her three colleagues with her game face on. “Status check: beeswax.”

     “Check,” all three witches said in near-synchrony.

     “Lilac contacts?”

     “Check.”

     “Good. Remember: these sirens are going to throw everything at us. They may not be as skilled as d’Isle, Athena, Xenia or even Kira, but their determination makes them dangerous foes all the same. Do not let your guard down–assume that a siren is coming to kill you at any given moment and be prepared to counter whatever they throw at you.” The witch stopped in front of McLaren, who was at the front. She continued her speech without turning around. “I have the utmost confidence in our abilities. That said, should we become overwhelmed we shall retreat inside the Echo and resume fighting in close-quarters, where we’ll have the advantage.”

     “...couldn’t we just let them come in, then?” To no one’s shock, Mercy was the only one who didn’t fully buy into Abigail’s plan. “Spare us a lot of trouble? Plus it’d nullify the harpies’ abilities.”

     “We need to thin their numbers before attempting any sort of defense within these halls,” responded Williams. “Otherwise they’ll swarm us and we’ll be done for.” The witch immediately spun around to look at her troops directly. “Anything else?” The subsequent silence pleased her greatly. “Good. Let’s show these chickens how witches fight back!”

     On the other side of the conning tower the sirens set their own plan in motion. About twenty rotund red fish, each no bigger than a foot in diameter, had been carefully placed down in front of the door. Two hot pink girls–an extremely rare set of twins–stood by, ready to trigger the bomb.

     “ All set, Metope ,” said the one on the left.

     “ Excellent, Iota ,” replied Metope. “ I can practically taste those humans already. ”

     “ We sure we can’t just sing ‘em a song ,” asked a skeptical azure predator. “ All our voices together surely would subdue them. ”

     “ These are no ordinary humans, Ariana ,” the green siren explained. “ Witches have counters to our powers. Singing is too obvious of an attack for them to not have anticipated. No–fighting them is the best option. ”

     “ Yeah, but dwopping rocks ?” A yellow harpy with a speech impediment questioned her assigned task. “ Can’t they genewate shields? ”

     “ Precisely, Friza. You drop the rocks to weaken their shields, which in conjunction with our assault down here will hasten their downfall. ”

     “ Good, ” said Kora. “ I’d hate for them to be completely squished with their guts splattered everywhere. I promised my girls I’d bring them back a piece or two. ”

     “ Awwwww ,” remarked a tall orange woman. “ I should do that for my little one. Maybe a finger–she’s barely on yellow swimmers right now! ”

     “ I’d say, I’d say she’d be good for a hand, ” shouted a loudmouth white harpy. “ I told mine I’d bring her a finger and she has yet to stray far from our nest. ”

     “ Okay, okay .” Metope’s disinterested voice and rude hand waving led to everyone quieting down in an instant. “ Iota. Zeta. Piss those fishies off! It’s time. ”

     “ Fiiiiinallyyyyy ,” moaned Zeta, the other hot pink twin. “ I was beginning to think we were gonna let them choke on air… ”

    

     The twins rushed over to the fish, tickled a few of them and then ran as fast as they could in the opposite direction. Not even two seconds later the affected fish grew to twice their original size before blowing up in spectacular fashion. Their neighbors then followed in a chain reaction, like the grand finale on the Fourth of July. In their destructive wake they left behind a cloud of solid ash, and through cracks in the haze beams of artificial light shined through; the fish had broken through!

     “ LET’S GO ,” exclaimed Iota, who sprinted right into the cloud. “ MOMMA’S EATIN’ GOOD TONIGHT! ”

     “ DIBS ON THE ONE WHO SCREAMS THE LOUDEST ,” Zeta shouted with equal fervor.

     Four other sirens followed the twins in, some of them drooling as they passed through the gray barrier. Metope watched them depart with a smirk. Those six predators would surely be cut down by the witches within moments of being spotted. Would their deaths be quick? Brutal? The emerald siren didn’t care–just as long as they didn’t eat any of the humans.

     When the cloud dissipated, the crowd noticed that the Echo ’s lobby was completely empty. They could see the girls’ wet footprints leading toward the marble staircase, but whether or not they encountered the witches downstairs was unknown. Rather than follow, everyone independently came to the decision to hang back and wait.

     Minutes passed. Still no sign of Zeta, Iota, Phoebe, Ariel, Thais or Topaz. Likewise the witches had yet to make an appearance. What’s going on here?

     “ Don’t tell me they got them all ,” a cerulean girl whined.

     “ I’m starting to think that these witches are much weaker than I thought they were ,” a gray mermaid lamented. “ A pity. ”

     “ There’s no way ,” a white harpy said in denial. “ I’ve fought witches! Even recruits put up more of a fight than that! ”

     “ Perhaps they were silently executed ,” proposed a saffron woman. “ And the witches are playing the waiting game with us. ”

     “ That seems more plausible ,” agreed Winona. “ Stand on your guard. ”

     Another minute passed, and still nothing. Many of the girls began to feel antsy–did their comrades really just go in and eat the five witches? Surely the one siren who didn’t get a witch would have come up pouting by now? Unless they opted to rip the humans to shreds, which, why ?

     “ I’m going home ,” sighed a lavender mermaid eying the sea. “ This was a waste of my time. ”

     “ The flock’s not gonna believe how lame this was ,” a dejected golden bird remarked.

     “ Metope .” Even the bloodthirsty Menippe sounded disappointed. “ I think we screwed up… ”

     “ Maybe we’ll get the next one? ” Daphnae repeatedly said ‘Thank Phorcys’ in her head as she spoke.

     “ Ughhhhhhhhh! ” The oldest sibling was not amused. “ Mom was full of shit! Witches are– ”

     BLLLZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!

    

     Suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, a thunderbolt of white lightning struck Metope’s legs, sending her flying back several meters. “ Metope! ” Daphnae rushed to her sister to provide aid. BLZZZZZZT! BLZZZZZZT! Two more bolts came down upon the sirens, and like the one that hit the green predator, these, too, sent girls airborne.

     “ UP THERE !” Menippe pointed to the top of the conning tower. “ THEY’RE HERE! THE WITCHES–THEY’RE HERE! ”

     Indeed, the hungry Sytherosan’s claim was correct. Standing proudly in battle positions were Abigail, Libby, Mercy and Valérie–each now wearing standard coven battle dress uniforms consisting of black dress robes and matching skirts, tennis shoes, knee-high socks and t-shirts. Insignias on their shoulders denoted their rank; Abigail had seven stars surrounding a stylized black cat logo on a silver shield patch, identifying her as the Grand Priestess, while the other three only had five stars which signified them as coven branch leaders. Although this uniform might seem like a poor choice given the terrible humidity that the girls suffered earlier, the clothes allowed better movement and increased agility. A fair tradeoff.

     “ COME DOWN HERE AND BE MY DINNER! ”

     “ YEAH! MAKE THIS EASY ON YOURSELVES! ”

     “ I’LL MAKE IT PAINLESS! ”

     “ I SURE AS HELL WON’T! ”

     None of the humans reacted to a single word the hungry sirens were saying. Mainly because none of them were fluent in the Sytherosans’ tongue; even Proctor, the most knowledgeable of the four, struggled to make sense of what she was hearing. Still, they could recognize a threat even if it was made in a foreign language.

     “Go.”

     Williams’s command set the plan in motion. All four humans jumped down onto the deck like something out of an action movie; they even struck their landing poses! The sirens let out a battle cry, its shrill tone echoing across the waves. Several ran toward the interlopers, and the witches responded immediately. Mercy removed some seeds from a pouch, threw them up in the air and launched them with her staff at the closest three attackers. A snap of her fingers caused the seeds to instantly sprout into vine-y tendrils which, upon contact, wrapped themselves tightly around the predators. The three girls went down quickly; all they could do was squirm. Additional sirens likewise tried their luck via flanking Lewis, but the ex-druid saw them coming; they too suffered her wrath.

Two sirens tried their luck with Valérie, who was providing a magical boost to her fellow witches via an ancient Celtic spell. Surely the healer who was too busy making sure her friends had an easier time getting kills would herself be an easy kill? Wrong. As the two crept in on their quarry the witch threw her staff aside, cracked her knuckles and engaged the pair in a close quarters fist-fight. Although the locals had the superior tools, McLaren was the only one who knew how to actually fight. The overconfident mermaids kept making mistake after mistake, throwing sloppy punches that were easily blocked and constantly leaving themselves exposed for swift counter-hits. By the time they realized the error of their ways, it was too late. Valérie clean-clocked one right in the face with her left hand, then used her right leg to deliver a swift kick right in the other’s belly. Both girls tumbled, fell over the nearby railing and landed in the water with two loud splashes.

Libby decided that now was as good as ever to unleash her prized possession. She placed a shrunken-down venus flytrap onto the deck, then returned it to its normal size–about fifteen feet tall and ten feet wide. Upon recognizing the monstrous, four-mouthed plant nearby harpies fled, confusing their mermaid cohorts. Their ignorance led to their downfall, as the plant’s intoxicating pheromones easily took hold of their brains. Like humans under their own spell, these sirens lost all bodily control and zombie-walked right up to the plant, climbed up into one of four mouths and set off every single trigger hair to make sure the trap shut immediately, literally sealing their doom.

And then there was Abigail. Oh, Abigail . She was having the time of her damn life butchering sirens with her axe, humming “Do You Believe in Magic” by the Lovin’ Spoonful as she did so. Which was slightly ironic, as she didn’t enhance her weapon with magic; she just used the bare blade! Magic would cauterize the wound and thus make the victim’s agony minimal, something Williams could not stand! That’s why she made sure the sirens suffered by chopping off limbs or cutting them in half. Hearing them beg for mercy in a language she didn’t care to understand, and then seeing the light fade from their trembling eyes made her moist. Guess staying behind out of guilt to help Kira wasn’t such a bad thing after all!

“ I FEEL SO ALIVE! ”

Inside the Echo , things had taken a bizarre turn. Kira had successfully removed all corrupted floppy disks, but when she tried to reboot everything she encountered another problem. When the forward plasma cannons failed to fire it triggered a failsafe that sealed the plasma inside its battery housings, which are located in the engine room at the back of the sub. In order to get the ammunition flowing again, one needs to open up a series of valves along the pipelines connecting the batteries, heaters and infusers. An annoyance, to be sure, and one that led to Romulus running into six trespassers.

“ So, let me get this straight ,” said the skeptical Iota. “ The witches captured you, brought you aboard this ship and left you here? Without a single guard? ”

“ Yes! ” Centuries of theater made Kira a fantastic liar, but this was a tough case to make. Especially due to the fact that she was potentially making it against several other trained fibbers. “ They’re insane! I was just minding my own business in a little lagoon, tanning my skin and resting off a meal when they zapped me! Next thing I knew I was tied up in there–” She pointed to the bridge. “– and they kept asking me questions about who I was and where they could find our nurseries! ”

“ Dear Phorcys ,” gasped Zeta. “ They’re gonna poison the children! ”

“ EXACTLY, ” exclaimed Romulus. “ They’re mad at us eating them all on Earth and want payback! ”

“ So pathetic ,” sighed Thais, a purple siren. “ It’s not our fault the Gods made us their unnatural predators! ”

“ Agreed ,” remarked the malachite Phoebe. “ Those humans should just accept their place! Hell, they should be honored when someone as gorgeous as me eats them! ”

“ I fear they may be too much for us .” Kira was barely able to hold back her laughter. “ I think we should leave. Get out of here before they come back down and skin us all alive! ”

“ We must stand together ,” argued Zeta. “ The seven of us can easily take them down if we maintain the element of surprise! ”

“ Yeah ,” went Iota. “ Maybe we should split up? Me, Zeta, Ariel and Thais hide out in that room over there , while Kira, Topaz and Phoebe hide in this one? Then when they’re tired and retreat, we get ‘em! ”

“ Two of us are gonna be shit out of luck ,” said Ariel, a cream-colored native. “ There’s five witches and seven of us! ”

“ As the humans say: you snooze, you lose ,” replied Phoebe with a shrug. “ If I get one, fantastic. If I don’t…fuck all of you. ”

“ Ha-ha ,” cackled Zeta.

“ ...actually, I have a slightly different idea .” Romulus needed to make an adjustment so she could carry out her vital role. “ I feel like the witches are going to split up when they get back down here. The rooms you selected are too close. Plus if we box them in they might react more violently. But if they’re separated… ”

“ ...then they’d be easier to take down! ” Thais clapped her hands in approval. “ Good thinking, Kira! ”

“ Thank you .” Kira gave herself a mental pat on the back. “ Here’s what we should do– ”

“ H–h–help… ”

     The pained cry of a Sytherosan grabbed everyone by surprise. Standing at the base of the staircase hunched over and clutching her chest was none other than Kora–the dark blue siren whom Kira and Abigail saw Metope recruit earlier.

     “ P-please… ” Kora’s voice was extremely weak. Her breaths were rapid, and her legs shook violently as she struggled to stand–the telltale signs of severe blood loss. “ Help… ”

     Romulus immediately rushed over to the injured woman. She bent down, gently placed Kora on her back and carefully rose back up, carrying her fireman style. “ Can…can one of you lend me a hand? ” Even in a weakened state a siren’s denser muscles and bones meant they were still very heavy. And for a pregnant woman like Kira, it was murder on her back. “ Please? ”

     “ ...why? ” Iota’s brow was quizzically raised.

     “ So that we can save her life? If we get her to the medical bay I can treat her… ”

     “ Treat her? ” Zeta tried not to laugh. “ Look at her! She’s a dead woman walking! Thanatos is probably already on his way to meet her. ”

     “ We can still save her ,” huffed Romulus, who started carrying Kora away. In all this togetherness, Kira had almost forgotten that most sirens operate alone. Of course none of them wanted to help; one less predator meant less competition! “ I’m going to take her to the infirmary. Don’t worry, Kora, you’ll be ok… ”

     “ Wait…how do you know this ship has an infirmary ,” asked Topaz.

     “ The witches brought me there first thing after they almost murdered me .” Kira’s act seemingly remained intact as she continued heading down the corridor. “ Can’t interrogate someone if they’re dead–god damn, Kora, I’m pregnant and yet I’m fairly confident you’re heavier than me! ”

     “ Kora ,” said the suspicious Iota. “ How many witches were up top? ”

     “ F-f-f… ” Poor woman struggled to say a single word. “ F-four… ”

     “ Four, huh .” Zeta slowly put the pieces together. “ You know, Metope said there were five witches who boarded the ship… ”

     “ You can’t be serious. ” Deny, deny, deny. That’s all that was playing in Romulus’s head. “ I told you– they captured me! I was on the upper deck with them, because they forced me to point out where that nursery was under threat of murdering me, my unborn child and my two kids whom I left with my sister! ”

     A cold hand grabbed Kira’s arm and stopped her. She could feel the claws digging into her skin, each one sharper than a knife. “ Stop this at once ,” she demanded. “ I told you, I am a siren like you! ”

     “ Yeah, you’d want us to believe that, wouldn’t you… witch.” Ariel wasn’t going to let the good samaritan go that easily. “ Why don’t we make this easy? Put the girl down… ”

     Romulus took a deep breath. She could feel everyone’s eyes and teeth on her, ready to pounce. Lying clearly isn’t going to cut it anymore, so what was left? Intimidation! “ I am going to give you all one chance ,” she announced. “ Let me go, and I’ll convince the witches to spare you. Don’t…and you’ll be lucky if you die within an hour. ” The others didn’t take her seriously; they all let out a hearty laugh. “ Very well .” Kira removed Kora off her back and helped her lean against a nearby railing. “ I’ll just be a moment, dear… ”

     It only took one minute for Romulus to defeat all six of her opponents. Centuries of devouring some of the world’s best fighters gave her every bit of hand-to-hand combat knowledge one could ever hope to learn. First she flipped Ariel over her body and slammed her into the wet floor, knocking her out on impact. A swift kick to the belly sent Thais right into the metal wall, and when she fell to the floor reeling in pain Kira delivered a second kick right in her face. Topaz swung at her, but the pregnant woman dodged the attack and delivered a sucker punch of her own. As the tan girl’s unconscious body fell to the floor, Iota made her move. She wrapped her arms around Romulus’s neck to try and choke her into submission. Kira reached behind her head and ‘smacked’ Iota’s head with her hands, causing her opponent to let go and clutch her aching temples. Romulus followed up by taking hold of her and chucking her right at her twin, incapacitating them both. Leaving only poor Phoebe.

     “ I SURRENDER! ” The Sytherosan got on her knees and put her hands together like a Catholic at rock bottom. “ Please! ” She threw on some ‘puppy dog’ eyes. “ You’re totally a siren! I knew it all along, I swear! ”

     Kira took a long look at the pathetic woman. Part of her felt pity for Phoebe; the girl didn’t seem like the kind of siren who’d last long on her own. That said, she also knew a liar when she saw one.

     WHAM!

     One punch was all it took. With Phoebe down and out, Kira had achieved a 6-0 record on the day. “ That felt way too good ,” she said while cracking her knuckles, neck and back. “ I should do this more often! ” She returned to Kora, who was noticeably slumping. “ Sorry about that .” Romulus picked the injured woman up the same way as last time. “ It’s about ten doors down on the left. ”

     “ Urrrgh .” The dark blue siren gritted her teeth and struggled to even shuffle forward.

     “ It’s just down the hall ,” explained Kira. “ You’ll be okay. I won’t let anyone–siren or witch – hurt you . I promise .”

     “ W-witch… ” Kora tried her best to talk through the pain. “Witch…food…not friend…why…why do…why do you… ”

     “ It’s a long story ,” chuckled Kira. “ They helped me save my son, and I’ve found that I enjoy their company .”

     “ Huh? ”

BLZZZZT! GZZZZRTTTT! FWSSSSH! PSSSH–BOOM! Back up top, the witches continued defending themselves from the siren menace. They fired every spell in their arsenal, killing predators left and right. But despite the casualty count rising, it wasn’t enough. More and more sirens joined the fray, having been attracted to all the colorful explosions of magic and screeches. Some of them even came with “natural weapons”, so-to-speak. Four golden girls came aboard with yellow gar-like fish that shot acid when squeezed. Two firebirds dropped jumping cholla-like cacti on the enchantresses that blew up on impact; their thorns fired off in all directions, impaling human and siren alike, though the thicker skin of the latter protected them. One predator had even managed to tame a large, walrus-like creature and used its bulk as a battering ram against the Echo , inflicting further damage to the already-weak hull.

“ Why the fuck aren’t those cannons online?! ” Mercy was upset at the turrets’ lack of blasting. “ Is Kira having a spa date or something?! ”

“ She’ll get them working ,” assured the tense Abigail. “ We need to buy her more time .”

“ I don’t think we have time! ” Libby covered her face as yet another one of her acquired plants was destroyed by the enemy, its guts splashing about like Nickelodeon slime. “ What’s our backup plan?! ” Madame Proctor had a point. All this fighting was severely draining the humans of their magic; they were all starting to feel tired. Things could get really ugly if they didn’t take a break or recharge soon.

“ Retreat! ” Abigail motioned to the four to head inside. “ Mercy, plug the door! ”

     Lewis threw down a bunch of seeds and followed her sisters into the conning tower. Upon passing through the door frame the witch snapped her fingers, causing the seeds to instantly sprout upward to form a thick wall of stems that were each as strong as a steel beam.

The sirens tried to claw their way in to no avail; even shots from the acid spitters did nothing. “ FUCK! ” Metope furiously pounded against one of the stems. “ WE WERE SO CLOSE! ”

     “ There was a group of sawtooth seals not far from here ,” said a parakeet harpy. “ We can break their teeth off and cut through these things! ”

     Seven harpies flew off in search of the seals, leaving the others far behind. Metope, the most despondent, stared through a small crack in the wall. She could see the bodies of five sirens lying down on the floor, surrounded by puddles of dark pink blood. Like Kora, they too had suffered severe injuries and attempted to seek refuge in the ship, only they weren’t as lucky. Despite the gruesome nature of their deaths Metope didn’t shed a single tear; she still viewed them all as expendable fodder. What she did care about, though, were the six sirens who ran in earlier and who the woman knew were not among any of the dead.

     “ They’re gonna get them ,” she pouted. “ Those idiots are gonna get the witches! All of my hard work– wasted ! ”

     “ Well, there’s always next time .” Daphnae slowly backed up toward the ocean. “ Guess we’ll just have to abandon this pursuit and– ”

     “ Don’t even think about it! ” Metope reached out and grabbed her sister’s wrist. Her look of mild irritation made Daphnae stop dead in her tracks. “ We’re not going anywhere until I have visual conversation that all of those delicacies have been taken. ”

     “ Damn straight ,” went Menippe. Several nearby sirens murmured in agreement. “ Honestly, the reason the witches took so long was probably because they killed those idiots! ”

     “ This is why you’re my favorite sister, Menippe .” Daphnae sulked a little bit after hearing that come out of the emerald woman’s mouth. “ Always looking on the bright side of things! ” The fact that Metope didn’t apologize added salt into the lime green girl’s wound. Instead, she chose to address the crowd: “ Alright my fellow sirens, let’s tear down this wall! ”

    

     “ ... what the hell happened here?” Libby was the first to discover Romulus’s handiwork. She shook her head as the others exited the stairs behind her. “I didn’t even know any of them got past us!”

     “Blame McLaren,” asserted Mercy. “She kept throwing people every which way without a care in the world!”

     “Oh, sure , blame me ,” the healer retorted. “And not the skinny bitch who kept dodging attackers as they rushed at her, whom I then had to neutralize!”

     “I can’t help it that they want my body more than yours! Can’t say I blame them–I actually take care of mine. Ironic, isn’t it?”

     “ Fuck off! ”

     “ Shut up and listen ,” barked Abigail. “That plant wall isn’t going to hold them off forever. Assuming Kira’s still removing insects from the computers, we’ll need to protect her at all costs! You three will go to the bridge and defend the siren. I’ll head to the engine room to protect the fuel and ammunition.”

     “Wouldn’t it make more sense for someone to join you,” asked Proctor.

     “I mean no disrespect when I say this, but the three of you only barely match me in power.” No one tried to argue with Williams’s point. “I can handle myself alone. Just keep the preggo alive and we’ll make it out.”

     “You should at least eat someone before you go.” McLaren recognized that the Sytherosans lying in the water were all still alive. “Six souls here ripe for harvesting!”

     A lick of her lips signalled Abigail’s approval. “Excellent idea! Let’s eat!”

     Down the hall, Romulus had finally managed to stabilize Kora. Years of eating doctors and nurses taught her the basics of medical care, and reluctantly listening to Valérie’s various ramblings taught her how a wiccan healer does things. First thing she did was give Kora a knockout drink; no sense having her awake during the “operation”. She then used one salve to slow the bleeding, and another to disinfect the wound. A damp, thin sheet of gauze was used to cover the injury, and a paste applied on it afterward beckoned the start of soft tissue reconstruction. Kira was even able to start a blood transfusion thanks to the ship’s doctor’s collection of siren blood samples! An additional IV bag was also hooked up in order to help rehydrate the patient. And to make sure enough air was reaching the siren’s damaged lungs, Romulus secured an oxygen mask to Kora’s mouth and activated its connected O2 tank.

     “ That should do it. ” Even with her patient asleep, Kira opted to keep speaking in her original tongue. She found it soothing. “ Hope she pulls through. ”

FWISH! Romulus jumped upon hearing the medbay’s door open. At first she believed she was about to have to fight another wave of sirens; there was no point in trying to lie her way out of this . Fortunately that wasn’t the case, as the new arrival was none other than a certain hyper-lethal redhead. “Kira, what the hell are you doing back here?!” Abigail’s concern doubled upon seeing Kora. “Why is there an intruder in one of our beds?!”

     “I encountered her after removing all the corrupted floppy disks from the computers,” replied Romulus. “That’s how the Echo was compromised.”

     “... floppy disks?” Williams’s technological ignorance continued to impress the tech-savvy siren. “They make CDs that flop around like a fish out of water?”

     “...not quite.” Kira wasn’t sure whether to laugh or sigh. “Anyway, I brought Kora here because she was going to be left for dead by a bunch of hooligans. I know she attacked you all…but I couldn’t just let her die.”

     “...well, at least that explains who laid my dinner out for me.” Williams gave her belly a good ‘pat’. “Normally I prefer my fish to be battered and fried, but raw isn’t too bad. Especially when they wake up and start kickin’, heh-heh .”

     “You… ate them ?” Despite what they tried to do to her, the Sytherosan still felt pity for the victims. “I was going to lock them up in the brig after helping Kora…”

     “ BURRRRP! ” Williams immediately covered her mouth. “This is easier. For me. And therefore, also them!” The witch headed over to a nearby cabinet labelled “ HEALING TONICS ”, reached inside and grabbed a few blue potions. “Probably gonna need these for what’s coming.”

     “What’s that?”

     “I left Libby, Mercy and Val to defend the bridge,” explained Abigail. “I, meanwhile, am going to go protect the engines and fuel tanks. Figured that if even one siren is familiar with ships they’ll make an attempt to secure or destroy what’s back there. Not gonna let that happen.”

     “What about the armory,” asked Kira. “I was planning on going there after sedating Kora to get something to defend myself with.”

     “Checked it earlier, it’s empty. Guns must’ve been offloaded while the Echo was in drydock. Which, honestly, given how good sirens are at using guns, I’m gonna chalk that up as a good thing.”

     “Yes,” Romulus concurred. “Speaking of guns, the final step in getting them back up and running is to re-open the valves connecting them to the superheated plasma tanks.”

     “Now you’re talking sense,” replied Williams. “Let’s go–we can talk more about that one later. The sooner those guns are blasting sirens back to hell the sooner we can all relax.” She signalled to Kira to follow her. “I don’t know about you but I have an evening date at the spa!”

     “Let’s move!”

    

     It took the sirens fifteen minutes to cut through the vines. Upon entering the main corridor, the sirens fanned out to cover as much ground as possible. As they inspected the various rooms, though, many became sidetracked with what they found inside them. Since the majority of Sytherosans present had never been to Earth, everything they saw was new and strange to them. For instance, a harpy became obsessed with all the Beanie Babies she found in the Echo ’s helmswoman room; she found them quite cute and wanted to steal them all for her nest. A mermaid laid down on the Egyptian cotton of another crewmember’s room and refused to get up; she had never known comfort like this! Three women went into the galley, and fell in love with the soda and ice cream machines, chugging the fluid and cream to their hearts’ content. For them, the witches were now nothing more than a side quest.

     Metope, however, remained focused on the goal at-hand. She figured that the witches wouldn’t be hiding in a room with an unlocked door, but where were they? T hey have to be in the front, she mused to herself. That’s where the controls are, right ? She walked up to the door at the end of the hall, correctly deducing that this was the one to the bridge. When it didn’t open up right away like the others, she knew she hit paydirt. Ah-ha! But rather than alert the others of her discovery, Metope opted to glean for information via placing her ear hole next to the door and listening in:

     “ Mercy ,” said an irritated Valérie. “ For the last time, Kira did not ‘ditch’ us! ”

     “ Well then where the fuck is she ,” asked Lewis. “ Because unless she drank an invisibility potion and is hiding, she clearly isn’t here! ”

     “Perhaps she went to the bathroom?” Poor Libby sounded like she really didn’t want to be there. “Or the galley? You know how much she loves ice cream..”

     “ Poppycock ,” proclaimed Mercy. “ She snuck out and abandoned us! She’s probably telling the others all our secrets in exchange for safe passage to that stupid puddle! ”

     “ We were literally in front of the bloody exit door! ” The angrier she got, the more McLaren’s native Scottish voice came out. “ We would’ve seen her leave, ya daft tart! ”

     “ Maybe she’s with Abigail ?” Poor Proctor’s voice was completely ignored by the other two. “ Mercy? Val? ”

     “ Oh, I’M the daft one?! ” And now Mercy’s old English accent revealed itself. “ At least I don’t go frolicking about fucking succubi and befriending something like the the thing that ate me years ago like some sort of circus freak! ”

     “ I DO NOT FUCK SUCCUBI! AND EVEN IF I DID, IT’S BETTER THAN BEIN’ A RAGIN’ NARCISSIST WHO ONLY CARES ABOUT HERSELF! ”

     “ God, I hope the sirens find us soon ,” pleaded the exasperated Proctor.

     Metope analyzed the situation. Three distinct voices–she determined that they belonged to the two brunettes and blonde based on what she heard outside when they were all shouting spells. This meant that the redheaded woman wasn’t present, which disappointed her; she wanted her above the others. She must be the ‘Abigail’ that was mentioned. Moreover, the girls kept referring to a ‘Kira’ who was missing. Context clues indicated that this mysterious woman was the fifth person she and her sisters saw board the Echo earlier, who was absent from the fighting. Mercy’s mention of a ‘puddle’ intrigued her; what was that referring to?

     “ Hmm .” Metope’s brain slowly put the pieces together. “ That fifth girl looked pregnant. Puddle…pregnant woman… ” She audibly gasped. “ That girl’s a siren trying to give birth! And she’s recruited the witches to help her! ” The predator became disgusted at the mere thought. “ Working with witches…can one sink any lower than that? ”

     Regardless of how she felt about Romulus, Metope couldn’t let that distract her from her goal. Somewhere aboard this ship was a redhead with a curvaceous body begging to be turned into fat. Problem is, there were more than fifty rooms aboard the Echo , not counting private bathrooms or closets; that “bigger on the inside” spell made the interior as long as that of the Titanic . Most of those on the forward half of the ship have been explored, which implied that Williams was somewhere in the rear. “ Who’s hungry?! ” Not wanting too much competition for her prize, Metope needed to distract as much of the crowd as possible. “ Three of them are in this room! ”

     Over a dozen sirens reactively ran to the closed door, nearly trampling the announcer in the process. Metope quietly exited the area as more arrived and met up with her sisters to discuss their–or more precisely, her next move. “ That scrumptious redhead is somewhere back there , ” she explained, pointing to the opposite end of the corridor. “ I’m going to get her if it’s the last thing I do .”

     “ Not if I get her first ,” declared Menippe. “ My butt still hurts from being knocked away by her stupid spell! ”

     “ You two can go ahead ,” said Daphnae. “ I’m just going to sit here and– ”

     “ Nice try ,” interrupted Metope. “ You’re coming with us, Daph. ”

     “ Please no… ”

     “ Come on, it’ll be fun ,” argued Menippe. “ You can watch me eat that bitch! Hear her screams echo throughout this…uh, sub-mer-ee. ”

     “ Submarine ,” corrected Metope. “ But she’s right. About the witch screaming, not about her eating them. She’s mine . ”

     “ Over my dead body .”

     “ Mmm. We’ll see. Shall we? ”

    

     “I think that was the last one!” Abigail displayed a rare moment of happiness as she opened the final valve. “Do you know how long it’ll take for everything to finally come online?”

     “The one computer said ten minutes,” answered Kira.

     “Ugh.” Those words turned Williams’s joy to antipathy. “ Stupid ship… ”

     “When the interior security system comes online and gets ammunition…is it going to target me?” Romulus was understandably concerned, given her condition. “Please tell me it won’t do anything to Penelope!”

     “You’ll be fine.” The redhead pointed her axe at the green woman. “ Scutu corpus .” A small, gumball-sized bit of energy shot out of the conduit and hit the Sytherosan square in the chest. Her body glowed a dull gray for about five seconds, then returned to normal.

     “That felt…weird,” admitted Kira. “Like I had too much caffeine.”

     “You’re now safe from simple magical attacks,” explained Abigail. “I don’t believe the Echo ’s security system has anything more advanced than stunning spells. If I’m wrong…well, we can laugh about it later!”

     “Yes…laugh…”

     A commotion outside interrupted the pair’s conversation. “ THEY’RE IN HERE! ” Menippe’s excited voice was infectious. “ I CAN SMELL THEM! ” Hurried footsteps implied that there were at least ten others eager to join in.

     “They found us,” said Romulus.

     “You should hide,” suggested Williams. “This is going to get ugly.”

     “I can help you,” replied the siren. “I know how to fight.”

     “I know.” The witch kept her sharp eyes on the door. She ‘cocked’ her axe, causing the blade to turn a bright orange. “But I want them dead , Kira. If you value your life–and that of your egg–you’d best get back”

     Kira happily abided by the human’s wishes. She retreated behind one of the giant plasma tanks, the raw magenta fluid-like substance inside swishing around like crazy as it was gradually pumped into the pipes.

     “This is gonna be fun .” The orange glow of the axe made the witch’s dastardly smile sparkle. “ So much fun! ”

     CRASH!

     The second that door came tumbling down the sirens ran right in like rabid dogs, determined to get the curvy hors d'oeuvre. Common sense would suggest that rushing someone wielding an axe is a very stupid idea. It’d also tell you that rushing someone with a magical axe that can shoot at you is an even stupider idea.

     Unfortunately, none of these sirens had an ounce of sense in them. And they paid for it.

SWISH! SWISH! BZZZZZRRRRRTT! SWING! BZZZZZZZZ! SWING! SWING!

     One by one, Williams cut them down. Some she sliced up with her axe, while others she simply blasted with a random spell. Several died instantly, others lucked out with only grievous injuries. Nothing the Sytherosans did worked. Solo, tag-teaming, it didn’t matter; Abigail was on a completely different level to them.

     At first, Romulus watched the fight with intrigue; she had never actually seen the witch duke it out with so many enemies at once. But after seeing yet another mermaid get bisected, she had to turn away. While she recognized that the girls’ deaths were their own fault, it still pained her to see so many of her kind perish in such a gruesome fashion.

     “ Metope… ” When Daphnae entered and saw eight sirens dead on the ground she instinctively wanted to run. “ We need to– ”

     “ She’s mine! ” Menippe brushed right past her terrified sister. “ COME HERE, BITCH! I WANT TO FEEL YOUR FLESH MELT RIGHT OFF THE BONE! ”

     “ Go get her, girl! ” Winona acted like a cheerleader for her mermaid pal. “ You got this! ”

     To her credit, Menippe was a far better fighter than the others. Not only did she avoid two swings from Abigail’s axe, but she also was able to deliver a few punches against the witch–one in the boob, two in the stomach and one to the jaw. Agitated, Williams shoved the girl backward, then successively sweep kicked her onto the flooded floor. Down but not out, Menippe rolled to the side to avoid another swing of the human’s axe. This gave the siren an opening, so without hesitation she leapt up and tackled the witch.

     “ Agh! ” Having landed on her back, Abigail was forced to look up at the Sytherosan. Seeing the cocky expression stretched across Menippe’s face doubled her ire. “ Get off me! ” But just like how she couldn’t understand the natives, her opponent couldn’t understand a thing she said, either. Not that Menippe would’ve cared anyway.

     “ Mine! ” Feeling lucky, the green mermaid decided to go for the classic ‘shove-the-person’s-head-into-your-mouth-and-suffocate-them’ maneuver. She angled her body into the optimal position, opened wide, and dashed down for the kill, her tongue hanging out of her mouth ready for that first taste.

     KNOCK! “ OW! ” A swift headbutt from Abigail dashed Menippe’s dreams. “ YOU LITTLE– ” Before she could retaliate, the witch muttered something in Irish to make herself slippery. She slid out from beneath the predator like a bar of soap. “ HEY! NO FAIR! ” Menippe sat there for a second, trying to process what just happened. This gave Williams enough time to return her body to its rougher state and get right back up. She grabbed her axe and hoisted it up high, intending to use the additional leverage to deliver a crushing vertical blow against Menippe. Was this the end of the line for the Sytherosan?

SLASH!

     “ AIEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHH! ”

     Nope! Turns out Menippe had one last trick up her sleeve–her claws! Just as Abigail was about to swing her weapon down the predator spun around and delivered a savage swipe across the human’s face diagonally upward from her left cheek. Williams stumbled backward, dropped her axe and covered her face with her left hand. The cuts were deep; blood poured out from between the witch’s fingers. One of the claws had grazed her right above her right eyeball; if Abigail was one step closer she would’ve been a cyclops!

     “ Hahahahaha. ” Menippe reveled in the human’s pain. “ Suffer, wretch, and prepare yourself for– ”

     FWOOSH! A strong gust of wind blasted Menippe backwards. CRACK! Her body slammed into the steel wall, breaking several bones in an instant. She broke a few more upon landing on the ground. “ ARRRRRGHHH! ”

     “ Menippe! ” Daphnae wanted to help her but didn’t want to cross the bloodthirsty Abigail, so she stayed by Metope’s side.

     “ I kept telling her that her recklessness would get her into deep shit one day, ” the eldest sibling disdainfully said of the middle child. “ And I was right. I wonder–was it worth it? ”

     To address her injury, Williams took one of the healing tonics off her belt, poured some of it on her hand and aggressively rubbed her face, making an even bloodier mess of herself. The open wounds lit up light blue for a moment, then ‘sucked’ all the blood it could back into her body. The wounds then sealed back up, leaving no trace of their existence behind. She was good as new!

     When the witch turned to face Daphnae, Metope and the few others still standing, she looked angry. Very angry. Like “I’m going to fucking kill the shit out of you and display your heads above my fireplace” angry. Daphnae knew this and cowered, but Metope wasn’t intimidated. For she saw that Menippe’s assault had done something more than send the enchantress into a rage. It had cut open the contact that was protecting the witch’s left eye, revealing its natural green color and by extension, opening it up for a psychic connection.

     “ I’m going to turn you into tuna salad! ” Abigail had no idea what was coming. “ And make jello out of your bones! ”

     “ No. ” Metope’s eyes suddenly turned lilac, confusing the human; she thought her protection was still intact. By the time she realized it wasn’t, it was too late. “ You won’t. ” The siren entered her target’s mind in a fraction of a second. Williams tried to fight back using psychic spells, but failed, partly because she was out of practice. Her opponent saw everything in a matter of seconds–the witch’s dreams, memories, desires. All were right there in front of her like a massive photo album, going back all the way to sixteen seventy-two!

     “ DON’T YOU DARE! ” Abigail’s vision faded to black. She could still feel her arms and legs, but she could no longer feel anything around her–it was like she had fallen into the void. “ GET OUT OF MY HEAD! OR I SWEAR ON HEKATE’S HEART, I’LL GIVE YOU A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH! ”

     “Empty words, from a woman who’s about to lose everything.” Metope’s perfect English somewhat unnerved Williams. “Get comfortable, Abigail , for my voice shall be the last thing you ever hear...”

     Kira watched the situation unfold closely. She knew that the witch was in a precarious position. Williams was now stuck inside her own mind, and getting her out wouldn’t be easy. Metope had a firm grip on the enchantress, and if Romulus were to try and disrupt that connection by, say, murdering the siren, then it could irreparably damage Abigail’s mental state or trap her in her own mind forever. And it’s not like beating her green counterpart up would work, either; Metope could easily break her target rather than let her go, and there’d be nothing her assailant could do about it.

     “What do I do?!” Kira’s next thought was to grab Libby, Mercy and Valérie to see if they could fix things, but judging by the various blasts, zaps and explosions coming from down the hall the three of them were unavailable. She also ruled out trying to establish a multi-person connection, as that was even more dangerous and unpredictable. As much as she didn’t want to say it, Abigail was on her own. “She can do it…she’s dealt with worse,” she rationalized to herself.

     “ Hey, what are you doing? ” Out of the corner of her eye, Winona spotted the contemplative wiccan ally. “ Why are you hiding behind that thing ?”

     “ Uh… ” Romulus blanked. “ Just…observing how to invade someone’s mind! I, uh, have never done that before… ”

     “ Where did you come from ,” asked the orange siren. “ You didn’t come down here with us! ”

     Shit , thought Kira. “ I totally did! ”

     “ Then how come I didn’t see you ,” a harpy inquired. “I was at the back of the line. ”

     “ Because…uh… ” The other predators moved slowly toward Romulus, each sporting a hungry look about them. “ Ladies…you really don’t want to do this …”

     “ Aw, are you scared ,” taunted Winona. “ Poor little Glinda… ”

     “ I am not a witch! ” Kira’s words did not deter her kin. Nevertheless, she had to keep trying, for her and Penelope’s sake. “ My name is Kira, and I’m a siren like you! I’ll prove it! ” She wet her lips, stretched out her neck, closed her eyes, took a deep breath…and started to sing:

     “ Oooooooohhhhh… ” Starting with a low contralto, Romulus gradually increased her vocal pitch to show off her range. She wasn’t trying to sing any particular song, it was just a simple Gregorian chant; she felt this would be enough to get the point across. “ Ooooo oooooohhhhhhhh… ” She hit the mezzo-soprano hard, but she didn’t stop there. “ OoooooOOOOOOOHHHH! ” Entering soprano territory, the woman stretched her arms out and angled her head up to make the singing more impactful. “ OOOOOOOO OOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOO OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH! ” Even after passing the upper limit of Soprano C–the highest a human could ever hope to hit–the siren kept going. Thanks to the metal walls of the ship’s engine room, the song reverberated around the room, making it sound as though she had invisible backup singers. “ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH! ”

    

Upon opening her eyes back up, Kira found that she had impressed the unruly crowd. Her grand finale had stunned her fellow sirens; even the bloodthirstiest of the bunch gave their fellow predator an approving nod. That said, the singer was not off the hook.

“ Okay, you’re definitely a siren ,” concluded Winona. “ But since you clearly didn’t come down here with us, the only logical explanation is that you’re friends with food. ” Her voice had a hint of disgust at the end there. “ Which means I’m still going to have to kill you. Allying with witches is an unforgivable crime. ”

“ If you ask me, you’re all fools for not allying with the witches ,” Romulus opined. “ It’s thanks to them that I was able to return here safely–if they weren’t here I would’ve been a dinosaur’s lunch! ” An idea popped into her head; a hail mary of sorts. “ Tell you what: if you leave me alone and help me stop that girl , I’ll speak favorably on your behalf to the Sisters. They’ll spare you and– ”

“ I’d rather be a dinosaur’s excrement than be seen prancing around with witches, ” barked a corvid-like harpy. “ There’s dignity in that! ”

“ You can’t actually be serious. ” Kira had heard of death before dishonor, but that was ridiculous. “ Seriously, they’re not that bad! They –”

“ I think we’ve heard enough ,” Winona interrupted. “ It’s clear that you’re too far gone. Any rehabilitation efforts would be a waste of time. So as I mentioned earlier, and for the sake of all sirens on Sytheros, I’m going to end your life . ”

“ Ah, fuck …”

     Things were not going well for Abigail, either. Despite her best efforts to resist, Metope managed to access the enchantress’s memories and dreams, and boy was there a lot to sift through. Not a problem, as evolution had granted sirens the ability to browse and absorb the data quicker than a person could blink. It only took the Sytherosan a minute to learn all about the first twenty years of the human’s life; after three, she reached age seventy.

     “ Get out of my head! ” Although locked in, Williams was still able to articulate her own thoughts. “ I’m warning you! ”

     “You…are quite the interesting person, Abigail.” Multitasking was another thing sirens are good at. This meant that Metope could speak with the witch in the present while also learning everything about their past. “Much more so than that British sailor I found on the shore a few months ago, let’s see if you’re just as fun…”

     “ What’re you… ” The girl looked around frantically in an attempt to pinpoint where that voice was coming from. When she completed a full three-hundred and sixty degree circle, she found that a familiar scene now filled the empty space. Tall oak trees stood proudly over a light grassy plain, with bushes as tall as a small child lurking beneath the canopy. A male bird’s mating call briefly interrupted a light breeze, and in the distance the witch could hear a squirrel scurrying up a trunk.

     “This…this was my home…” Williams was in awe at the picture-perfect representation of her family’s land as it appeared in sixteen eighty-two. Turning back, she saw an equally-accurate depiction of her house–a simple, cozy-looking log cabin that could reasonably fit a family of five or so. Seeing all the fixtures and features, from the white wooden window covers to the big cobblestone chimney left the witch in a sense of wonder.

     Chop! Chop! Chop! The sound of wood being cut into pieces grabbed the girl’s attention. Standing there inside a small woodshed was a tall, red-haired man dressed in clothes fit for the average commoner; a red button-up shirt with brown breaches, dirty white socks and black shoes with big brass buckles. His face was dripping with sweat, and his brown eyes appeared somewhat tired.

     Abigail approached the man cautiously. “ D–dad? ” Her eyes lit up as she got closer; she couldn’t remember the last time she had thought of her dad, let alone seen him in a dream. “ Is that… ” But the witch remembered this was no ordinary dream. She stopped dead in her tracks and tried to walk away. “No, this isn’t real–”

     “Of course it’s real, my little fire jester!” Williams froze. Her father had given her that nickname when she was four, and she hadn’t heard him call her that since…since… oh no. Of course Metope would choose that memory.

     “ SIREN! ” Abigail’s shout lacked the same echo effect as her oppressor’s. “ I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING! CEASE THESE GAMES AT ONCE! ” She puffed up her chest to help her sound more intimidating. “ WE BOTH KNOW HOW THIS’LL END–IF YOU QUIT NOW, I’LL MAKE YOUR DEATH PAINLESS! ”

     “Come now, Abbie.” A Liverpudlian female voice brought Williams back. Standing next to her father Patrick was the image of her mother, Amanda, who was heavily pregnant. Like her husband she too wore simple clothes in the form of a green dress and a white bonnet that hid her dirty-blonde hair well. Her green eyes and face were just like those of the witch, which makes sense. “Is that any way to treat your new friend Metope?”

     “ M-m-mom… ” Williams’s heart sank, but she knew she had to remain strong. Focus on the mind invader, and you can stave off their assault. “ So, your name’s Metope, huh? Good, I love it when my food has a name! It enhances the experience! ”

     “Oh, give it a rest, Abbie,” said Patrick. “She’s just trying to show you a good time. We all are!”

     “I know exactly what she’s going to show me,” replied the upset witch. “And it’s not gonna be a ‘good time’, ‘ dad ’.”

     “Oh.” Amanda’s seemingly-innocuous remark had a slight malevolent undertone to it. “You mean when you killed your father?”

     “ I did not ‘kill’ my father! ” Williams was offended at the accusation. “ If anyone did, it was you , ‘mother’. ”

     “But it was you who asked your father to grab you something for you,” ‘Mrs. Williams’ continued. “And being the good man he was, he went to go get it…and never came back out.” Metope had the apparition of the witch’s mom display an unnaturally-large smile, complete with teeth showing. “Isn’t that right, dear?”

     “Quite right, Mandy,” agreed Patrick. “Tragic, that.”

     BOOOOOM! Suddenly and without warning, the witch’s home blew up in a violent explosion! The force of the blast sent Abigail flying backward, the human only coming to a rest when she hit a tree. CRACK! “ AGH! ” During the original event the then-fourteen-year-old Abigail had suffered a broken arm, ribs and a sprained ankle. Naturally, the siren took those injuries and amplified them for her own amusement. “ FUCK! ” Poor Williams could barely get up. “ MOTHERFUCKER! ”

     When the dust settled, the witch saw that her house, as well as the apparitions of her parents were gone. The woodshed had partially survived, albeit without its roof and with its paint heavily scorched. Where the well had one stood lay only a hole, and the barn that housed the Williams family’s horse had completely collapsed, killing the poor creature and any doves in the loft in the process.

     “ Fuck you, Metope . ” Abigail struggled to get herself up. . “ I…I won’t let you win! I’m not some…not some drunkard who just got thrown out of the bar! ”

     “You’re not,” the predator chortled. “You’re much better, Grand Priestess! I’m going to enjoy breaking you down.”

     “ You think that this scares me?! I’ve been through HELL and lived to tell the tale! Nothing you can do will break… me?” Williams became frightened at who Metope brought out next. Having popped out of nowhere and who was now standing just in front of the witch was a five-foot tall woman who appeared to be a mixture of the witch’s mother and her cousin Betty Parris. She was another figure whom the enchantress hadn’t seen in centuries: her aunt, Elizabeth Parris, Sr.

     “ Why, Abbie ?” The Liverpudlian woman spoke in a very melancholic manner. “ Why did you leave me?! We were stronger together… ” All of a sudden the woman began to melt. First went her hair, skin and clothes, each dripping down her body like thick molasses. “ ... but you left me… ” Her muscles soon followed. “ ...deep in succubus territory… ” Then went her eyes, which boiled out of their sockets. “ ...ALONE! ” Mrs. Parris barely got that last word out in time before her skull and jaw came loose, each falling into the puddle that was once the witch’s body. Over time the rest of her skeleton joined them, the bones landing into the pool with a loud ‘plop’ before they were sizzled out of existence.

     “ Oh my god! ” Williams forced herself to get up and tried to get as far away from her aunt’s remains as possible. A pair of tears formed in her eyes as she ran; she still remembered how kind Elizabeth was to her after her parents died. Taking her in and raising her alongside her own children, making sure she had the best chance at life given what had occurred. And of course, arranging for Abigail to be trained in the wiccan arts by Gliten, Powhatan and Tituba. Just as she and Amanda had.

     After running for about thirty seconds, the witch spotted some large tree roots poking out of the ground ahead of her. She tried to jump over them, but her injured leg wouldn’t let her. Unable to stop herself the woman’s foot got caught, resulting in her falling flat on her face onto the hard ground below. “ AHHHH! ” Williams’s pain came roaring back with a vengeance. And not just the physical kind:

“ Abbie ?” The enchantress’s heart stopped upon recognizing Susannah Parris–Betty’s younger sister and another long-deceased member of the family. “ Why did you send me to New York by myself? ” Rather than face the apparition, Abigail clinched her teeth and started to crawl away. But Susannah followed her, anyway. “ You said I was among the best of the best; that I could handle anything thrown at me. ” Parris planted her foot onto Williams’s calf, causing the latter to let out a painful cry as she was forced to stop. “ Betty said she thought I needed backup, but you refused to give me any… ”

“ Susie …” Abigail refused to look the woman in the eye. “ I’m…I’m sorry…I didn’t think Hannah would be there! I swear! ” The woman responded by adding additional pressure onto the human’s leg. “ AIIIIIIEEEEEE! ”

“ You LIE! ” Without warning, Parris grabbed Williams, picked her up and spun her around, forcing her to bear witness to her mangled, partially-digested body. Her seventeenth-century blue dress was in a severe state of decay, as were her socks and she was missing a shoe. Her skin was only visible in a few small ‘clumps’ here and there; most of her visible body was damaged muscle, with some areas completely exposed to bone. She had only a few strands of dirty-blonde hair, and her eyes were entirely black. Her hands and feet all were missing a few digits, and she also had lost an ear. “ LOOK AT ME ,” she demonically said to Abigail. “ LOOK AT WHAT YOU WROUGHT, YOU FUCKING COWARD! ”

     The human’s heart rate increased ten-fold. Abigail wanted to look away, but Metope’s meddling made her unable to turn her head. Likewise she was unable to close her eyes, as ‘Susannah’ kept them open with her ice-cold fingers. How could things possibly get worse?

     “ You’re a disgrace, ” the spectre said to the witch. “ You will pay for what you did to me–what you did to us .” Parris followed her cryptic warning by heaving the witch backward. But instead of hitting a tree or crash landing onto the ground like she had earlier, Williams somehow landed in a pool filled with an unknown liquid. SPLASH! Completely submerged, the enchantress began to feel a strong burning sensation all over her body, particularly where she had been hurt. Panicking, Abigail gathered what little strength she had left and swam up to the surface. Upon breaching the surface she saw that she was no longer in the woods outside Salem, Massachusetts, but inside the belly of a siren judging by the purple color of the stomach walls.

     BLORRRRRRP! GLIP! GLIP! BRRRRRT! The witch covered her ears to try and silence the overwhelming noise generated by the organ to no avail. As the acid’s might started to become unbearable, Williams gritted her teeth and tried to paddle away. She didn’t get far when she felt something grab her ankle. “ NO ,” she screamed. “ LET ME GO! ” The witch kept paddling and paddling in place, determined to get to the edge of the gut where she’d be safer. But the hand wouldn’t let go, and eventually Abigail ran out of energy. She stopped swimming with a whimper and a whine, expecting to be dragged under the surface and drown. Instead, the hand let her go.

     “ W-w-what? ” Williams was now bordering on hysterical. She kept darting around, expecting something to pop out and attack her. Her fears were confirmed when, one by one, the many deceased children of Betty Parris came up from below. The flying ace Elizabeth ‘Junior’ Baron; the intrepid Molly MacCann; the curious inventor Rachel Parker; even the lazy Mavis O’Donovan was here. And it wasn’t just the witches: several of Betty’s sons were also here, having all been gurgled by succubi and sirens, save for Johnny Davidson, who got coiled up in a nymph’s golden hair one summer’s morn.

     “ OH–OH GOD! ” Abigail tried to swim backwards, but the hand from earlier grabbed her again! “ STOP! PLEASE! ” The apparitions of who were basically her many nieces and nephews crept closer. “ Join us, Aunt Abbie ,” they said in near-unison. “ Join us… ”

     Of course, Metope saved the best for last. Once Betty’s children were within about five feet of the witch, the identity of the person holding the witch back revealed herself. She was a pale human with medium-length brown hair, blue eyes and a frown that shook Williams to her core. “ G…G…Gwyn?! ”

     “I thought you were the best to ever live.” Abigail’s heart stopped. Her entire form shook as the Swansea girl spoke, completely unprepared for Metope’s magnum opus. “When you saved me from that succubus, took me in and raised me like I was your own kid, there was nothing–and I mean nothing I wanted more than to be just like you. And for a while, things were good. You taught me everything you knew, even encouraged me to grow beyond you. But when I needed you most, you refused to help me! ” Gwyn’s eyes turned a bright yellow. “ It’s because of you I betrayed the coven! It’s because of you I embraced the Dark Arts and lost myself! ” The brunette’s face gradually became more devilish as she spoke. She grew a pair of horns, her canines became enlarged and her skin became a deep red. By the end of the transformation, fire erupted out from her mouth like a dragon. “ IT’S BECAUSE OF YOU THAT. I. DIED! ”

     That did it. Williams couldn’t take it anymore. Seeing her parents, aunt, cousin and Betty’s kids was one thing. But to see the closest thing she had to a daughter appear and remind her of how things ended between them? Her only true regret in life? That broke her. The powerful, indomitable Abigail Williams was gone, replaced with a shaken, blubbering mess of a human who no longer wanted to live. Metope had won.

    

     Outside, Kira, too, had lost her fight. She had managed to bring down three of the sirens, but Winona, Friza and a somewhat-recovered Menippe were able to defeat her. Now on her knees, all the wiccan ally could do was make threats: “ You’ll all pay for this . You. Will. PAY. ”

     “ It’s cute that you think that ,” said the cocky Menippe. “ My sister is about to swallow your friend whole, and after we make you watch, we’re gonna take turns biting chunks out of you ! ” She licked her lips. “ Gotta say, I’m looking forward to it! Never thought to try eating another siren–hope you taste as good as you look! ”

     “ M-maybe we should let her go .” Daphnae, the only Sytherosan who made no effort to try and fight Romulus, was also the only one who took her words seriously. “ I haven’t heard anything from down the hall in a while–those other three girls could be here any minute! ”

     “ Oh for fuck’s sake, Daphnae,” the girl’s older sister groaned. “ Why do you always have to be such a buzzkill?! Look around you: we won! ”

     “ I just…I just have a really bad feeling about this ,” the lime green girl admitted.

     “ It’s fine, Daph, ” assured Winona. “ Look, if it’ll make you feel better we can kill Kira now. ”

     “ Can we ,” asked the corvid harpy. “ I’m starving ! And as someone who once fed on the corpse of one of our own, I can confirm: they are indeed delicious! ”

     “ Dibs on her egg ,” said Friza. “ I love ‘em when they’re raw… ”

     “ You stay the hell away from my egg , ” shouted Romulus.“ You sandsucking brute! ”

“ Wow ,” remarked the harpy, feigning offense. “ How rude! If my great-great-great-great-great-grandmother were here, she’d slap you so hard you wouldn’t be able to eat anything bigger than a guppy! ”

Menippe gave her captive’s belly a good pat. “ By killing you, we’re doing this one a favor! Imagine being the daughter of a witchkisser. She’d be a social outcast–a loser when everyone finds out! Just like her mother ! ”

That derisive comment incensed Romulus. She tried to buck herself up and throw her captors off–intent on beating them all to a pulp–but she couldn’t get up. Her struggles amused the others, save for Daphnae, who continued to believe something bad was about to happen.

Having secured her prize, Metope began the next step of her plan: eating Williams. Tears, snot and sweat had all dripped down the woman’s face onto her clothes, but the siren didn’t care; she treated those fluids like condiments on a burger. And with nothing stopping her, Metope gently wrapped her hands around the back of Abigail’s head, and gently pushed the human into her wide-open maw.

“ Mmmm mmmmmm! ” Williams’s taste was incredible! Metope had never experienced such rich flavor before; it was like tasting the most perfect, well-cooked steak one could ever hope to order! “ Mmmmmhhhhhhhmmmmhh! ” Saliva poured out from the sides of her mouth, joining the witch’s bodily fluids in drenching her BDU. “ MMMM! ”

“ Oh fuck you, Metope ,” grunted Menippe. “ She’ll never let me hear the end of this… ”

Gulp. Having successfully tasted as much of Abigail’s head as she could, Menippe started to swallow the girl down, creating a shapely bulge in her extendable throat. “ Mmmmgghhhhh… ” At this time she decided that she didn’t want to miss a single square inch of flavor, so she began to strip the witch down. But as she started to tear the enchantress’s dress, something unexpected occurred. “ Mmmmhh? ” Williams’s body started to convulse, and her arms, previously limp, were now swaying about. At first, Metope thought it was the human ‘twitching’, but when Abigail grabbed her shoulders that thought disappeared. “ MMMPH! ” The siren tried to maintain control by holding her catch in place, but her inexperience restraining large prey doomed her, and Williams pulled herself out of the gullet.

“ Bleh! Hoooock! Cough! Blech! ” Abigail coughed out enough saliva to fill a shot glass. “ Ehhgghhh… ”

“ What. THE. FUCK?! ” Metope couldn’t believe it. “ HOW?! FUCKING HOW DID YOU BREAK FREE?! ”

“Blech!” Another hack got the last bit out of Williams’s lungs. She took a moment to get her bearings; the siren was too shocked to react. “You…you are a bug,” Abigail finally spoke. “An insignificant little insect who utilized the only bit of relevance she’d ever get by choosing to attack the only one here who could fight back.” She stretched her arms out at Metope, her hands now glowing white. “And you know what? You almost pulled it off. But you forgot one thing, Metope.”

“ And what might that be? ”

“I’m not just better than a sailor– I’m better than you .” ZZZZZZZZZZZPPPP! A pair of white lightning bolts shot out of the witch’s left hand, making contact with her target in under a second. Initially, Metope felt fine; did the witch mess up? Then she noticed that the nearby storage tank seemed to be getting bigger–in fact, the entire room appeared to be expanding! Including Abigail, who after only five seconds now towered over the green woman.

“ W-w-what?! ” Metope cowered at the sight of the giant hand approaching her. “ GET AWAY FROM ME! ” The appendage ignored her cry and picked her up like a Barbie doll. “ PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT YOU HAIRLESS APE! ”

Williams opted to let her mouth do the talking. She tilted her head back, opened her maw up as wide as she could, and lowered the mermaid down. Once Metope was about two inches above her maw, the witch let go. The siren’s hydrodynamic body caused her to slip down Abigail’s tongue with ease, only stopping when she reached the back of the human’s throat.

“ No! ” Two-thirds of Metope’s body was now being extensively coated with saliva, and with little wiggle room the girl had no choice but to accept it. She began to panic when she felt Williams’s tongue start moving around, and shrieked when it licked her genital slit and belly. “ C-c-cut it out! ” Her words failed to have any effect. “ You can’t swallow me, I’m too big! ” She started to claw the human’s lips in a bid for freedom. “ I’m too big! ”

GULP. In a single, terrifying motion Abigail’s muscles pulled Metope’s legs into her throat; they dangled helplessly while the rest of her body–head included–became trapped inside the now-closed mouth. “ YOU-YOU CAN’T! ” The woman’s words were only met by her devourer’s tongue giving her face a good licking. “ THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING! ” GULP. Down went her torso. The feeling of weightlessness she was experiencing in this precarious position sent her into an attack that rivalled the one she inflicted upon Williams. “ NO! NO! NO! STOP! LET ME GO! I’LL DO WHATEVER YOU– ”

GULP! Little did she know that by becoming Abigail’s food Metope already was doing what the witch wanted! And every wiggle of her shrunken body increased the enchantress’s pleasure. The siren slipped past the human’s heart in a second, its deafening beats drowning out the squelching of the esophagus. Soon, she reached the cardia. “ NO-NO-NO-NO! ” The former predator knew she was about to pass the point of no return. She tried to dig her claws into the fleshy walls squeezing her in for one last bid for safety, but failed. “ NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMPH– ”

Plop! The former predator landed in a shallow pool of acid and chyme. Below her she could feel the now-dead bodies of three of the girls who had run in earlier, plus three half-digested humans; the lack of light inside the stomach made it impossible to tell who was who. Regardless, the combined overwhelming stench emanating from the decaying corpses proved too much for Metope, who kept reflexively coughing and gagged.

“ LET ME OUT! ” The siren resisted her body’s urge to vomit whatever was left of her breakfast long enough to get that request out. “ DAPHNAE! ME- COUGH -MENIPPE! HELBLBLBLBLBRHGH!! ”

Slish! Slosh! Slish! Slosh! Abigail’s stomach began to move. BLORT! The undulating stomach walls pressed themselves up against Metope, causing the acidic mixture to rise up to her shoulders. When they released, the siren had to right herself immediately, lest she find herself in a position to drown.

“ STO-O-OP! ” Now Metope was the one crying. “ PL-E-EASE! AB-A-GAIL! ”

Williams heard everything the siren was saying. She briefly contemplated what to say in response; something clever? Sassy? Smart? “ BWUUUUUUUUURP! ” Perfect! “ Ahhhh, that hit the spot… ”

Daphnae, Menippe, Winona and all the other conscious sirens were stricken with horror. Abigail’s actions made what she and her fellow witches had done earlier look like simple parlor tricks; how do you fight being shrunken down?! At least with living plants and bolts you have a chance of dodging those. You can plug up your senses to avoid pheromones, close your eyes to dodge hypnosis. But shrinking?! There’s no defense for that!

Slap. Slap. “Mmmmmehhhhh…” Williams licked her chops and eyed her meal’s sisters. “ Who’s next? I’m still hungry! ”

None of the girls decided to take the enchantress up on her offer; they all got up and ran out of the engine room as fast as their legs could carry them.

“Damn, Abigail.” Now free from her captors, Kira was able to get back up. “I’ve seen some of the girls swallow, but she was as big as a doll!” She walked over to the witch to celebrate. “Did you modify your throat? I thought you outlawed that.”

“Years of practice.” Williams’s cheeky tone told Romulus everything. “Shame this one will never get to know what that’s like.” She patted her belly again, generating another soft belch. “Anyway, I’m gonna go get that take out. Want anything?”

“I cannot eat another siren,” the predator plainly admitted. “It’s just not in me. Besides, someone needs to do a final check to make sure everything’s rebooting properly.”

“Suit yourself.” Abigail picked her axe up off the floor, activated it and smiled. “ Oh, I’m gonna enjoy this… ”

The sirens made it about a hundred feet down the hall before they reached an impasse. One of the Echo ’s big bulkheads had slammed shut, cutting them off from the exit. Four of the girls–including Menippe and Daphnae–attempted to turn the big wheel on the door to unlock it, but it just wouldn’t budge.

“ Come onnnnnnn! ” Daphnae was putting in every ounce of strength she had. “ Why won’t it open?! ”

“ Hurry up ,” begged Winona. “ The sooner I’m back at my nest, the better! Fuck witches! Why the hell did I let you convince me to come here, Menippe?! ”

“ Oh go fuck yourself, Winona ,” the mermaid muttered. “ Don’t act like you weren’t going to barf out bits of witch to feed your stupid kid! ”

“ I’m never going near a witch ever again ,” declared a short mermaid. “ When I get back to Earth, I’m only ever gonna go after desperate men at clubs! ”

“ WE NEED MORE HANDS, HERE, ” an albino siren pleaded to the others.

     Winona, Friza and the corvid harpy answered the girl’s call. Crowded around the two foot-wide wheel, the women all grabbed a handle and either pushed or pulled depending on their position. The combined strength of seven Sytherosans would win any tug-of-war competition, but this was one victory that wouldn’t come easy.

     “ I can feel it moving! ” Feeling the wheel give that centimeter up boosted Daphnae’s morale. “ We can do this! ”

     ZZZRRRTTT—ZZZTT! All of a sudden the floor lights beneath the girls turned off. “ What’s going on ,” asked one of the non-door sirens. “ I don’t know ,” said another. “ But I don’t like it. ” “ Neither do I ,” another concurred.

     “ Hey, ” said one of the injured girls. “ Do y’all hear that? ”

     Splish. Splish. Splish. Spish. Splish. Splish. Splish. Splish. Splish. Splish. Splish. Everyone froze when they recognized the distinct sound of someone slowly trudging through the flooded corridor. The footsteps stopped about ten feet away, but thanks to the darkness no one could see who they belonged to. PSSSSH! Until the bright red glow of an axe revealed the obvious answer.

     “ OH FUCK– ”

     That poor, injured mermaid could barely get those words out before Abigail sliced her head clean off her body. A harpy attempted to claw the witch with her talons, but Williams was quick to deliver a fatal shot right at the girl’s heart. Two mermaids tried to run at the witch, believing they stood a chance together. Abigail snorted at their foolishlessness, and punished them by ripping off two large chunks of wall and slamming them into the pair, turning them into a siren sandwich.

     “ HELP US! ” Winona’s high-pitched voice reached some sirens who were mucking about in the galley on the other side of the door. “ IT’S JAMMED! ”

     Five Sytherosans immediately ran to the door to assist their comrades. With twelve sirens now on the door, progress went by faster. Inch by inch the wheel turned, but even this wasn’t enough to save everyone.

     “ NO! NO PLEASE–ACK! ” The short siren’s body was cut clean in half by the witch’s blade, her lower torso and legs falling down not seven feet from the door. Another siren raised her hands up to surrender, but peace was no longer an option for Abigail. She used the force to throw the girl right into the ceiling, killing her on impact and leaving her body to dangle like a cheesy Halloween decoration.

     Having been analyzing Williams’s attack from the beginning, Winona noticed something odd. While the enchantress was killing the Sytherosans with her axe in her left hand, her right hand appeared as though it were gripping an invisible doorknob. That’s when it hit her: Abigail was holding the door back with magic! And as long as the human maintained control, there was no hope that any of them would escape.

     “ Menippe ,” the harpy said with urgency. “ My chick will be at the Golden Estuary waiting for me. I need you to promise me that you’ll take care of her from here on out. ”

     “ What? ” Menippe sounded a mixture of irritated, confused and disinterested.

     “ Promise me! ”

     “ Okay, okay ,” the woman grumbled.

     “ And…please tell her that I…that I love her. ” A small, singular tear left Winona’s eye as she got into a ready position, her wings held up behind her back.

     “ What’re you…? ”

     FWOOSH! Menippe and the others all felt the strong backdraft from the harpy’s wings as she propelled herself right at the witch in the blink of an eye. Abigail had no time to react as she was tackled by Winona, landing on the ground with a splash! Before she could retaliate, the harpy bit her right arm as hard as she could. “ ARGH! ”

     CREEEEEEAK! Winona’s plan worked! With Abigail’s concentration broken, the door finally swung open, granting the sirens their escape route. Most of the mermaids and harpies sprinted out of the area the moment they could. All except Daphnae, who stayed behind. “ Come on, Winona ,” she said to the woman. “ Let’s go, let’s go! ” Menippe, who realized her sister wasn’t right behind her, turned around and yelled to her, “ Daphnae you idiot! She’s dead already! ” The younger sister ignored her sibling’s words and foolishly started to head toward the family friend, until Winona looked directly at her and quoted a certain gray wizard: “ fly you fool! ”

     SLICE! Daphnae watched in shock as Abigail’s axe forced its way through the harpy’s chest, splattering blood everywhere. Winona repeatedly gasped for air and instinctively placed her wings on her chest to try and keep things together, but there was nothing she could do. She was now nothing more than a meat puppet, and her master was already bored of her. CRACK! Williams forcibly pulled her axe right out of the siren, exposing a large cavity where the predator’s lungs, heart and stomach once were. The light in the harpy’s eyes faded, and her body unceremoniously fell forward onto the floor with a quiet ‘thud’. On cue, the floor lights came back on, just in time to show the green mermaid the full extent of Abigail’s savagery.

     Accepting that there was nothing she could do, the young siren turned tail and ran away to join her sister.

     “ Pfffft! ” Williams spat out a small amount of dark pink blood that got in her mouth. “ Bleh–so salty! Why is it so damn salty?! ” She got up and wiped additional fluid off of her face. “Ah!” A stinging sensation reminded the witch she had an untreated wound on her arm. To remedy it, she grabbed a healing potion off her belt and carefully dripped it around the bite mark. “ Fucking harpies .” The medicine worked fast–first repairing damaged muscle tissue and nerves, then patching up the girl’s skin. A few seconds later and the scars also vanished; it was like the attack had never happened!

Once she was all better, Abigail decided to have a little fun with her belly’s occupant. “Sorry, Metope,” she said while patting her belly. “Your family reunion’s gonna have to wait.”

     “ THAT’S NOT FUNNY! ” The human’s meal was still very-much alive, and trying desperately to avoid being churned up by the active stomach. “ LET ME OUT! ”

     “ BWORRRRP! ” Williams giggled at her immature response. She giggled again when she came up with an even worse one: “Don’t worry, I’ll let you out in the morning! It’ll be great .”

     “‘Morning’?!” Metope was confused at first, until she realized what the witch meant. “ PHORCYS, NO! ”

     Williams gave her belly another satisfied set of pats. She could feel every one of the girl’s punches and kicks; it was like an internal ‘tickle’ pleasuring her. “God I hope you last long,” the witch moaned. “Long into the night…”

     “Having fun over there?” Kira’s silent footsteps hid her arrival well. “Did you give Metope some company?”

     “Unfortunately, no,” the witch sighed. “I was going to–” Abigail paused upon noticing something different about the siren. “You…switched back to your human form?” She hadn’t expected that. “Why?”

     “Felt like it was time, now that the threat’s abated,” the naked Mediterranean woman answered. “Besides, I love the way my human body looks when I’m pregnant!” She cut her jubilation short to address a more important matter. “Have you heard from the others? I’m worried about them…”

     Abigail made a swishing motion with her left hand, leaving behind a ‘screen’ of white particles in its wake. This view gave her x-ray vision, allowing her to see everything in front of her. In the distance she spotted three familiar figures standing proudly above an unruly huddle. “They’re alright,” she remarked. “And it looks like they have some prisoners tied up…”

     “Excellent,” replied Romulus. “And no one else is around?”

     “Nope,” answered Williams. “Looks like another victory for the Sisters of–” She cut herself off upon looking up. “ Ah, there’s two in the conning tower .” The witch swished her spell away with her hand. “I’ll take care of them. I promised I’d give Metope some company, after all, right Metope ?”

     “ AHHHHHHHHHHH ,” was the only response the siren could muster.

     “ What do you mean you’re not gonna help her?! ” Daphnae was furious at her sister, who had given a contradictory statement to her. “ You promised her mother! YOUR FRIEND! ”

     “ She was my friend ,” Menippe coldly replied. “ And I said what I knew would make her happy in the moment. But let’s be honest, Daph: that chick’s gonna die whether she goes under my care or not. ”

     “ Mother told us to look after each other ,” the younger sibling angrily continued. “ She said that’s the only way you survive Sytheros! ”

     “ And look what that got her. Getting ripped in half by an azure dragon just to save someone who can’t survive on her own! ”

     “ She saved ME! ”

     “ Exactly! ” And just like that, Menippe ripped her sister’s heart in half. “ I saw the look of regret in Metope’s eyes whenever she had to stop you from getting yourself killed. She wanted to leave you for dead, but she couldn’t let dear, dead mother down, now could she? ” The siren took several steps forward, stopping short of the door while keeping her eyes on her sister. “ Well, I’m not going to make the same mistake she did. You’re on your own, Daph. You wanna go help that fledgling? Be my guest. As for me, I’m gonna find a portal, go to Earth, and live my life in sin, just as Phorycs intended! ”

     Having been engrossed in her tirade–and her sister equally occupied listening to it–neither Menippe nor Daphnae were aware of something going on outside. The various aquatic and avian scavengers who had been feasting upon the many dead sirens outside all got up and left, as if something had spooked them. What manner of creature could scare away large birds and sharks like that?

     THUD! The answer was something many humans were familiar with. A large Welsh Dragon, easily fifty feet tall with a tail nearly as long, had arrived to partake in this unusual banquet. She must’ve smelled the decaying flesh from several miles away; she must’ve been famished at the rate she gobbled up entire sirens.

     Seeing that big, reptilian head with those golden eyes and sharp white teeth freaked Daphnae out. “ What ?” Menippe had no idea what was behind her. She figured that Daphnae’s shaking and finger pointing was aimed at her. “ Aw, what is it? You gonna curse me like one of those demented freaks?! Hahaha! ” The ignorant predator resumed walking out, still keeping her eyes on her sister. “ Goodbye, Daphnae! ” Slowly, she turned her head around, thinking that she’d see only the setting Sytheros sun. “ Enjoy your life alone! ” By the time she saw the wide-open mouth rapidly approaching her, it was too late. CRONCH!

     Daphnae covered her mouth and ran backward as fast as she could to get away. The dragon had taken most of Menippe’s body in a single bite, with the ends of her legs and her right arm poking out from between its teeth. It swung its head around from side to side to incapacitate its prey, then hoisted its head up and swallowed the woman whole. Menippe’s muscled body bulged out from the beast’s neck, disappearing when it went deeper into the dragon’s guts. Her screams, however, remained as loud as ever. “ AIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEAHHHHHHHHH! ”

     Scared beyond belief, the younger sister curled up into the fetal position. All she could do was panic when the dragon spotted her, too. “ No…no, no, no, no, no! ” Not wanting to miss out on dessert, the monster grabbed the underside of the busted door with her paws and heaved as hard as she could! GROOOOOOOOOOAN! Daphnae sat there terrified beyond belief, unable to do anything as she saw the metal slowly begin to give. Menippe was right; the girl really was going to die alone.

     BLAM! One of the Echo ’s topside cannons had finally come to life! BLAM! BLAM! Each shot nailed the beast right in its soft underbelly, wounding her further with every hit. BLAM! BLAM! Knowing that losing her life wasn’t worth one little siren, the dragon spread out its pterodactyl-like wings and lifted off. BLAM! BLAM! Two more shots hit her as she soared away, and once the dragon was out of range the gun slowly started to turn back to its resting position.

     Now safe to exit the ship, Daphnae got up off the floor and gradually made her way to the front of the ship. To say she was traumatized would be putting it mildly. All these deaths, including several of individuals whom she was close to or at least acquainted with, had taken a massive toll on her. Why did Metope have to think of this stupid plan? Why couldn’t they just have resumed their hunt for rainbow lobsters and left the witches alone? She could’ve been peacefully lying on her back atop a rock somewhere feeling the delicious creatures succumbing to her stomach’s might. Instead, the only things her gut was filled with were regret and despair.

     “ Guess I’m alone now ,” she softly wept. “ Maybe I can find a way to Earth and– ” Thomp. Thomp. Thomp. Daphnae froze when she heard those familiar bootsteps stop just short of where she stood. She had gotten so close to freedom, but with Abigail right behind her she knew there was no chance at escape. But rather than panic or beg for mercy, the siren opted to simply look out at the Sytheros sunset. Seeing the rainbow of beautiful colors that the sky morphed into whenever the sun began its final descent was something she had loved ever since she was a young fry. All the turquoise, pink, purple, orange, together with the white fluffy clouds and calm waves made for a truly picturesque view. One that Daphnae wouldn’t trade for the world.

     It was perfect.

     ZAP!