“Please, don’t do this! Please…I beg you. I ha-have a family an-and please jus-just let me go” Her voice was hoarse and raspy. The men leered at her, their collective frosty gaze making her shiver. 

“Storm’s commin’ now” said the burly captain. She could make out streaks of pity in his eyes, flecks of compassion. He wasn’t like the rest of them…but that didn’t stop him. Having a woman onboard is bad luck after all, what choice did he have. 

“Told yer father a ship ain’t no place for a girl. Told him to find another vessel, told him to just keep ya home. But did he listen? Don’t you look at me with disgust. If you want someone to blame, miss, blame him.”

“The ocean is cold and cruel. There ain’t no way she’s going to let us pass without a payment.”

The captains’ salty hair swivelled around his face as he nodded towards one of the crewmen.  The crewman stepped forward and jabbed her in the ribs with an oar. She cried out, screamed and cursed the way a lady of her standing is never meant to do. She wanted to curse them all to a painful, slow death, just like the one two hundred feet below her. 

She tried to wriggle her way out of the bruising ropes that bound her, screamed and scratched, but to no avail. The crewman jabbed at her again, this time harder. She let out a blood curdling cry. White spots clouded her vision, making it harder to stay on the plank. “Just let me go, I swear I won’t do any harm please I-I want to see my fa-“  The oar struck her face this time, flaring her supple cheeks, struck her so hard her body was contorted all the way around. Before she knew it, the bitterly cold water encapsulated her, swallowing her whole. The captain was right, the sea was cold. Colder than any hell she’d imagined before. Her lungs filled with ice, every vein slowly frosting, every bone turning a bitter blue. 

The water tossed her like a plastic bag until she felt her skull crack against the hull of the ship. The world around her slowly faded away into utter darkness. She remembered the sea through the void, filling her up slowly. 

She felt the water lifting her up, cradling and caressing her like a mother would to her child. 

I have salt water and sea in my blood, Captain. I will show you how cold these waters can be. The sea used its nimble fingers to carefully strip her dress away; one seam at a time…healing her along the way.  When it was over, she was bare, but felt no shame. She felt herself become something more than a single spot of death in a pool of life. She ran her hand over the iridescent scales that glistened under the dim moonlight. 

Sister of the sea, she thought to herself, mystical, undiscovered. Siren. The captain was right; a ship is no place for a woman. This is the place for a woman. The raw, unharnessed power of the sea and its endless possibilities, all in the palm of my hand.

She smiled slyly, and began to swim after the ship, fading into the moonlit horizon.