Lights of a Siren

A layer of sweat glued Andrew’s shirt to the skin on his back. There was no light to be found in the room he sat in, only cold, stale air. The man shuddered, muttering a “Hello” into the darkness, trying to mask any fear creeping inside him. He lifted his arms for the tenth time in vain, hoping somehow time had changed the result, but the leather straps around his wrists tugged his arms back into place against the metal. A piercing ring echoed in Andrew’s ears and miniature green orbs stung his eyes. He squeezed them shut as if the orbs could be expelled like lemon seeds. Fear filled his veins, swimming into his heart and triggering palpitations.The orbs receded to darkness while the ringing turned into a smooth, eerily magical voice, “Andrzej”.

Andrew woke up thrashing in his covers. He gasped at the deep thud sound his phone made when it flung from his comforter onto the floor. Another creepy dream. I gotta stop taking a shot of Trago before bed, Andrew thought to himself. He blotted the beads of sweat collecting on his forehead and looked around his dorm, relieved to find his roommate’s bed empty. The 20 year old groaned, stretching for his fallen phone from the bed he refused to leave. He fell back onto his pillows, looking for the time. 11:05AM, I still have a couple hours. I could hit the gym before Geology, just in case I see her.

Andrew walked into the nearly full auditorium, scanning the rows for an empty seat and a specific person. Although he always sought out a row to sit alone in Geology, he still spent every class looking for Lorelei, who swam in the sea of tired student faces. Before Andrew could find her, the TA’s voice fell on his shoulder.

“Can I speak to you after class?” Lorelei asked softly, placing a finger at the point where his collarbone and arm met. Andrew’s ear closest to the girl tingled as if stroked with a feather. He looked into her eyes and nodded, his mouth protesting any movement.

“Yeah um,” he cleared his throat,”I can -- stay back for a few.” Oh God, oh God, oh God. Andrew spent the last 30 minutes of class preparing himself to speak with the teacher’s assistant. What could she want? He interrogated himself. My grades are okay, I mean, I’m not failing. I know stuff about rocks. Will she quiz me? Should I go over my notes? I know the tectonic plates. Oh my God she’s gonna tell me to stop staring at her. No, I don’t stare at you. She knows I think about her naked. Oh God. No, I’ve never thought about you naked in my life. Andrew was waist-deep in torment, missing the end-of-class attendance check. Students around him began shuffling and making their way towards the exits while Andrew struggled to break free from his thoughts.

“Meet me outside when you’re ready, Andrew. It’s so stuffy here!” Lorelei’s voice sang across the room, and she was out the door. Oh God, oh God, oh God.

Andrew walked through the door and sunlight rained on him. Blinded by the light, he stood incapacitated until his eyes adjusted. The light split open to present the view like curtains on a stage: Lorelei sat on the stone edge of a raised garden. Against the backdrop of blush roses and white peonies, Andrew saw Eve in the garden of Eden. His knees weakened. She looked up only long enough to smile at him before returning her gaze back to the papers shuffling in her hands.

“Hello,” her smile grew, “I just wanted to speak to you about a prefectship -- you do quite well in class…” as Lorelei spoke to the student, her words became soft sweeps of velvet caressing Andrew’s ears. He stared stupidly, losing his way in her features. Her eyes were like the night sky, dark and intimidating, but impossible to not admire. They hid behind curled lashes, peeking through to catch a glimpse of his soul. Her full lips were permanently turned slightly up, like she always had a sweet secret sitting on her smile. She had black straight hair that fell below her shoulders and framed her olive face. He wandered through her beauty like a maze, without realizing her mouth had ceased all movement many seconds beforehand. She finally let out a soft, “Are you okay, Andrew?”

He gave an awkward grin, “In all honesty, you’re so gorgeous it’s distracting to me,” he raised his arm to the back of his head. Lorelei chuckled, still staring into Andrew’s eyes. She moved the tip of her tongue along her teeth.

“I wonder why,” the girl hummed. Andrew felt like she knew exactly what she was doing. He knew exactly what she was doing, and still couldn’t help but fall for everything she did. “Well. If you want to be distracted a little more we should meet outside of class. We can get some drinks and walk around downtown looking at the Christmas lights.”

I just scored a date with quite possibly the most beautiful girl I’ll ever see in my life, and I didn’t have to do anything. Andrew congratulated himself as he walked back to his dorm. He opened the door to his building and felt as if he entered another realm. His vision tunneled, and every wave of sound he once heard evaporated into the air.

He stumbled into the community bathroom. “I can’t see,” he whimpered, hanging over the sink, every blink birthed blurry specs of darkness. He looked into the mirror to see his face censored by a growing black cloud, like an inkblot at the therapist’s. He rubbed his eyes until stars appeared on his lids. He opened them to the clouds of darkness still obstructing his face in the mirror, but the stars he saw with his eyes closed had come to life as well. Fluorescent green orbs floating amongst the black clouds. What the fuck is going on, Andrew’s breathing got heavier and his chest tightened. I’m drunk. I need to sleep this off, he thought comforting himself, even though he hadn’t touched any alcohol that day. With his arms stretched in front of him, Andrew felt his way to the bathroom exit and then down the hallway, dragging his hand along the cement wall until reaching his dorm at the very end.

Andrew woke up five minutes to 7 P.M., only twenty minutes before he was supposed to meet Lorelei. He was groggy and could barely make out what happened before he fell asleep, or how he ended up in his bed. I might need to go see a doctor, Andrew waved the thought off almost immediately after thinking it, as he rushed to get changed for his date with the girl of his dreams.

They strolled through the city streets under Christmas lights that twinkled like candy stars. Nights like these made falling in love effortless. Every time Andrew glanced down at Lorelei, she reminded him of the dreamy wonderland the holidays brought when he was a kid. The reflection of the lights danced happily in her dark eyes, and her smile lit up brighter than any tree draped in decorations. She marveled at the holiday magic around her, while Andrew felt all of the magic that night standing at his side. After hours of walking through the downtown with arms linked like a Christmas card, Andrew and Lorelei arrived at the young woman’s apartment building.

“I have never felt so warm in twenty degree weather,” Lorelei looked up through her eye lashes, leaning into Andrew’s strong chest. Andrew wrapped his arms around Lorelei and pulled her off the asphalt. He hovered over her lips, unwilling to lose the kiss that hadn’t happened yet without feeling every second he could steal. Lorelei tilted her head and embraced Andrew’s bottom lip with a soft kiss to end their night. He set her down as his heart sped up, pumping liters of delirious love.

Andrew’s smile opened before his eyes the next morning. Not only did he not have a dark dream for the first time in at least a week, but the only images playing in Andrew’s head were from the night before, and Andrew was sure he had just opened an important chapter in his life. He checked his phone for the time, but ignored everything on the screen once he saw her name. My place for dinner? XO. The love drunk student giggled, only 9 hours until dinner!

The sound of the apartment’s buzzer sent a shiver down Andrew’s spine as he stood in the cold, waiting for Lorelei to unlock her door. He buried his hands deeper in his coat pockets until he heard the click of the door in front of him unlocking. As Andrew walked into Lorelei’s apartment hall, the buzzer sound vibrated through Andrew’s ear canals once more, before lessening into a low hum. He took four more steps and the technical hum in his ears grew into the piercing ring from his dream. His arms moved into a sound barrier, flung over his ears, but the scream was inside his head. The room around him dimmed into nothingness as his consciousness faded.

Andrew groaned, rolling his neck to clear the low buzz in his head. Lorelei crept around Andrew tied to his chair. Trailing her fingers from the leather that restrained him, up to the crease of his elbow, and caressing his thick bicep.

“So strong,” she whispered in his ear, dragging the last word into a song. He felt her breath flick his neck, as cold and harsh as wind in the snowy weather. The piercing sound flooded his ear drums once more, causing his body to cringe and hands clench the metal they were tied to. Lorelei slid her tongue out from its home like a snake searching for its next meal. The girl’s tongue met his neck, which stretched against Andrew’s will, submitting to Lorelei.

“What have you done to me,” Andrew struggled.

Lorelei wrapped her hand around his neck, digging her pointed nails into either side. “I’ve come here to collect bodies,” her sweet lips dragged against his jaw, curled into that smile, “My mother’s people are falling, our planet can no longer support the life that lives on it. I was chosen to hunt and gather, and this earth has such rich resources.”

“You can’t --,” Lorelei’s grip tightened, cutting off Andrew’s next words. Fluorescent green orbs filled the room, surrounding the couple.

“Oh, but I can.” the girl sang, “It’s not like I played with my food.” The technical hum masked the sounds of struggle, and then crushing.

Lorelei stood at the front of the Geology class, calling students’ up in alphabetical order to collect their most recent assignments. “Nick Polito,” she sang sweetly. A tall, brown-skinned man approached in a USO Wrestling t-shirt. Lorelei smiled and handed him his paper, then announced she would leave the rest of the assignments on the desk for anyone who didn’t hear their name called. She entered the backroom and stood in front of a mirror. Her hair curled into short wild hair, her eyes shifted to a light green. She pressed the corners of her lips into a full pout and smiled. Grabbing a backpack, Lorelei walked through the door and up the steps of the auditorium. In the top row, she shuffled past students to an empty seat in the very middle. Turning to introduce herself, she gazed into the eyes of the brown-skinned wrestler, who looked at her and smiled.