THE SIREN’S CALL BY KAREN MICHELLE NUTT Captain Le Sage took to the sea expecting to find fame and fortune but instead, a storm claimed his ship and left him the sole survivor. Ashamed, he did not return home immediately to his wife but took comfort in another woman’s arms. However, peace did not come to him. He craved his wife’s embrace and knew he must beg her forgiveness. Upon his return, the villagers informed him his wife had taken her own life. She’d mourned his death, believing he’d perished alongside his men and had flung herself into the ocean in hopes of joining him in a watery grave. Heartbroken, day after day, he roamed the shore, and his given name was soon forgotten. The villagers would leave him food as if they pitied him and soon they referred to him as the hermit, and rightly so. His long graying hair and beard certainly played the part, and his scrawled writings began to resemble a madman’s prose. However, his prayers remained as dedicated as a monk’s. He craved death so he could join his wife and no less would satisfy his aching heart. The nights proved the worst form of torture when his guilt, his constant companion, reminded him he still drew breath. When a storm threatened the village, like the one he faced at sea with his men, he hurried to the beach and prayed it would finally claim him. He burst through the trees as lightning streaked the sky. His feet wandered closer to the shore, where a strange mist met the water and the waves rose ever higher. Fear, he could not explain, threatened to choke him and yet he stayed rooted where he stood. The ocean grew suddenly calm, and the waves receded, leaving a ghostly figure of a woman in its wake. Her long golden brown hair flowed gently behind her as if the wind caressed the locks with gentle hands. She reminded him of his wife in every way, except for the eyes. They were blue like his wife’s, but the shade so intense, the night could not hide the brightness in the shadows. Her gaze locked onto him and her hand lifted, not in greeting but keenly beckoning him. Her lips curved sweetly, and yet her beguiling charms did not reach those strange colored eyes. When the first raindrops fell on the sand, the ghostly woman turned suddenly and shot like a star toward the
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