The high pitched wailing could be heard from everywhere inside town. A sound similar to an emergency siren, except smooth and alive instead of mechanical. The way the wails crest and fall is reminiscent of the waves in the bay, and Hallen thinks that it is a perfect sound for the sirens to make.

To bad he only got to hear it in his last hours of life.

The sirens had always been talked about in Bennel Harbor, beach towns tend to have legends of mermaid saviors as well as evil sirens that lure you to a watery grave. It was nothing new here until they really did show up, not really how anyone anticipated. They appeared onto a fishing boat, a representative of their people having pulled themselves up and over the railing. They started speaking to the captain who had run out to see what fish has made it onto the boat.

Definitely not a fish he was expecting to see. Sirens were a grayish in color, hairless, and had large dark eyes with sharp teeth and claws. Webbed fingers and a strong tail with a find on the back. A predator through and through. The siren started speaking English, though with an accent that the captain hadn’t ever heard of. They spoke of a big creature coming from deep below in the sea, that it was time for its hibernation to end and it would be coming up even into shallow waters soon. They said that it was very dangerous and that their people have had stories passed down for centuries of when it will rise again, and have seen the warning signs that it’s happening now.

Hallen knows all of this because the captain that they spoke to is his uncle Jerry, who spilled like a can of beans cracked open. He told everyone, starting with the police and then the mayor. They all laughed it off saying he must have been drinking, even though Jerry had been sober for 25 years.

Then the sirens started showing up on the beaches, trying to warn people to leave. But they couldn’t find speak on land, like some twisted version of the little mermaid. That’s when people realized that it was not a joke or a delusion, that the sirens were real. Yet they still didn’t believe that this mystery creature was real, as though the sea creatures wouldn’t know what they’re talking about.

Now the sirens have still stayed to give us a last warning, before they migrate across the ocean. After all humans have done to destroy their home, they still tried to warn us, and warn us again. They will be able to make it away in a few hours, unlike us. They definitely gave us enough warning, a month at least, but it didn’t matter.

Hallen sits on the edge of his uncle’s dock, staring out at the hundreds of sirens poking up out of the water and singing. They’re a few hundred feet away from shore, but still insanely audible. He thinks about how much he wished he could learn more about them, instead of seeing them for a first and last time.

He should have gone away with Jerry, who took off after the town wasn’t listening. But how could he leave when he was waiting for a chance to see one? Now he has, and as he drinks his beer watching them, he thinks maybe it was worth it.

Until the sirens stop singing and go back underwater, a few glimpses of tails flipping out of the waterline as they swim below.