ZEITGEIST - VOL. 5

p.14
A LITERARY MAGAZINE Thursday, May 16, 2019
STORIES
Her Voice Could Kill
CHAPTER 3:
“What would you like me to sing?”, I asked while playing with the sand, afraid to meet his eyes and
nervous because I haven’t sung for anybody in a while. “What’s your favorite song?”, he asked grabbing my
chin gently, pulling it upwards to look him in the eyes. I searched my mind. Suddenly, Mateo brightened up
and rummaged through his leather satchel until he took out a parchment. The parchment was a light blue, it
looked old and very familiar. Everything about Mateo felt familiar. “How about singing this?”, Mateo said while
opening the parchment. The inside of the parchment held drawings of fish like women in a cave near a
beach. It all felt so familiar it was making me dizzy. The lyrics read:
“Odysseus, Odysseus
Forget where you’re going
Forget what you’re doing,
And come to us.
Odysseus, Odysseus
Come live with us
Our island has everything
Every wish, every dream
Waits for you
They’ll all come true
You hear our song, you feel us calling
You hear our voices, rising, falling
It’s so hypnotic
As we all sing for you
Just for you
Only you
Odysseus
You’ll come to us,
Odysseus
No man can resist
Once his ears have been kissed
By the siren’s song”
I stopped there, I hadn’t realized I was singing the song. I look up at Mateo and notice he isn’t looking at
me but at the sea, as if expecting something to come out of it. Nothing did, and Mateo looked back at me with
a glazed, happy look in his eyes. He grabbed my hand and walked me over to the sea. He looked at me and
said, “You are one of them, you are part of me.” Strangely, I didn’t feel weird about this situation, I felt at ease,
as if I were home. His piercing, a trident, glowed, and he disappeared. I saw the earing fall into the water and
sink into the deep, blue ocean. With the next wave came a six-feet tall trident. I instinctively grabbed it, drawn
to it. The second I touched it, I saw them. The half-fish, half-human beings were playing in the water until they
noticed me and started to talk with each other. I could understand them, even though they spoke a foreign
language. A woman, who looked just like my mother but with a teal fish tail, swam towards me. I walked
halfway towards her. A tear dropped from her eye and she hugged me and grabbed the trident from my hand.
I hadn’t realized I was also crying. She said “μεταλλάσσω” and my legs turned into a green tail. “It has been
too long, I am so happy we could reunite.” She said, her voice so familiar to my ears. It had been too long
since I last heard it. I threw my arms around her and smiled. She smiled back and handed me the trident. She
grabbed my hand and led me farther into the sea.
- Ariana Viera (10)