Day Three.
“I swear, there was a body hanging right there!” Lulu pointed up into the branches. “She was headless, like in the stories of Caliope Black - and look, her name is on that tomb stone beneath the tree!”
Ali stared at the spot for a long time. Lulu knew he was just trying to find a polite way to tell her that she was crazy.
“You saw her too, didn’t you?”
The teenagers jumped. Behind them stood a woman in a habit. It was different from the Mother Superior’s, with a white frock over the traditional black tunic. She could only have been a few years older than Lulu herself.
“You’ve seen Caliope’s ghost, Sister?”
“I’m not a nun yet. Call me Maria,” she said, “and yes, she also appeared the night the King passed.”
Ali looked between them. “Are you trying to tell us that the King died because of that stupid story grown-ups use to scare kids into telling the truth?”
The three fell into silence. For a long time they just stood there, staring up into the tree, as if by sheer willpower they could get the image of Caliope Black to appear once more.
“We should go to the square. It’s almost time to light the lamps.” Ali’s voice sounded distant, as if he wasn’t talking to anyone in particular. He turned around, hands in his pockets, and walked away.
“So the boy doesn’t believe in Caliope, but he believes in the ritual?”
“Seeing our father again is the only thing that keeps him going.”
“And what about you?”
Lulu shook her head. She was more grounded in reality than the rest of this island, she knew that. And daring to speak the words aloud would just be admitting that her father was never coming home. If she did not say them then they had no weight. It was just a fragment of an idea as long as it stayed in her head. So she kept silent.
She blinked away the tears and approached the statue of the sea monster once more. She took it’s stone hands in hers, staring up into it’s vicious eyes. According to legend, Caliope Black fell in love with a monster who looked just like this. People didn’t believe it. They said she had gone crazy, tied to that rock in the middle of the Libyan Ocean. Lulu rose onto her tip toes and caressed the creature’s cold face.
“Thelxiepeia.”
The air grew cold around them. That voice — that wasn’t Maria’s voice. Or Ali’s. She looked back over her shoulder. Maria’s eyes had rolled back in her head until only the whites were visible. Her arms spread wide and her body levitated a few inches above the ground.
“Ca—Caliope?”
“The sailors have awoken the siren.” The voice rasped, as if she hadn’t heard Lulu’s question. “And she knows what they have done.”
“What have they d—done?”
Maria dropped to the ground. Lulu darted over to her, her fingers going straight for the nun’s neck. There was no pulse. Her skin wasn’t even warm, as if she wasn’t just speaking moments ago.
Lulu broke into a run, dodging tombstones and jumping overgrown roots. The streets were so empty she almost didn’t realise she had left the cemetery and returned back to the realm of the living. Then she reached the town square — and it was empty.
“Lulu.” She turned to see a man sat on the bench, leant forward heavily on a crutch. She recognised him, but didn’t know him well. But she’d heard that he had recently broken his leg after almost falling to his death. Some say it wasn’t an accident. “Ali told me you’d be coming. Hurry now, down to the beach.”
“What’s happening, Aaron?”
“They are burying King Khaled. Now what’re you waiting for, girl? Help me get to the funeral.”
He stood heavily, putting all of his weight on one leg. Lulu offered him her arm. They walked slowly, too slowly, and she almost felt bad for wanting to abandon him here so that she could move faster.
Ahead of them a large bonfire blazed. A casket sat on the edge of the water, the waves lapping against it’s wooden sides. Purple flowers had been lain on top. Aaron leaves her, walking toward it alone.
“Over here, Lulu!”
“Shhhh!” Half the islanders hush him in response.
Lulu joins him on the other side of the bonfire.
“You missed the strangest thing,” she whispered.
“What?”
“Shhhh!”
One of the islanders launched into a speech, but Lulu wasn’t listening. Her eyes were fixed on the casket. Three teenagers around her age were pushing it out to sea. Would they, like Maria, also become victims of Thelxiepeia? Would she?
When the man stopped speaking a silence washed over the beach. Lulu closed her eyes, and instead of praying for their King to find his way to the afterlife she instead wished for the safety of their island.
A woman screams. Lulu’s eyes snap open. Aaron lay on the ground, blood spurting from a gaping wound on his neck.
Nobody had moved.
Jacob was killed. He was Maria the Trainee Sister (Townie):
Tina said:
Dolby was killed. He was Aaron the Broken Soldier (1-Shot Vigilante):
Tina said:
Day three will end Tuesday March 27th (NA) at 4pm PDT/7pm EDT and Wednesday March 28th (EU/AUS) at 12am BST/10am AEDT.
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