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From NYC I ran back to Alex’s apartment in Boston where I found him eating a sandwich at the kitchen counter. At the same time, he was typing away on his laptop. It was still around what humans would consider dinnertime. Eating food had become so strange to me in such a short time. As Serena, I hadn't been able to go without a snack for more than three hours. Now I spent my days with people who at most ate two pieces of chocolate a month.
“How’s your sandwich?” I asked.
“Oh, hey!” He placed it on the plate and got up to give me a hug and kissed me on my mouth. Although his breath tasted of salami, I could get used to this kind of welcome. I smiled.
“Good. I’d offer you a bite, but I don’t want to kill you,” he said. “Don’t you miss eating? I mean, mhhh, butter.” He took a big bite off the bread. “It’s so smooth and makes the salami taste so much better. Don’t you want to rip it out of my hands right now?” He licked his lips.
“With meat, it’s okay. There are enough substitutes in human adrenaline and therefore, that isn’t tempting at all. However, if you teased me like this with ice cream, you’d be really mean.” I poked him in the stomach.
He shuddered. “Yeah, I’m not sure I want to know what it’s like when you are very hungry because that still freaks me out a little.” He took a sip from his glass.
“Trust me, that’s by far not the most extraordinary thing about this unknown world. You won’t believe what happened to me today.”
“Try me. Since I've met you, I'd believe almost anything.”
I sat on the stool next to him and told him about how I was invisible. Then I told him all about the ancient books at The Library.
“Holy moly, I wish I could go there.” Alex gaped.
I detected a shimmer of excitement in his eyes that mirrored how I was feeling. “I’m so glad I can finally talk to someone about this who is still on the same level of knowledge as I am,” I said. “For Melissa and Luke, everything special has become too normal to understand how discovering all this makes me feel.”
“Tell me anything about the magical world and I will suck it up like a sponge. If I were you, I’d go back to that closet and pass through the wall again and again.” Alex laughed.
“My nerves are still quivering over whether I might be insane after all.” I shivered as if to shake off that feeling. “I also learned that the magical world has its own problems and there have been countless battles over the centuries. They probably even participated in the First and Second World Wars.” My shoulders sagged. “If magic isn’t here to bring good to this world, then what is it here for at all?”
“You cannot just assume the good in something. That’s why it’s important that we ensure the good side is stronger,” Alex said earnestly.
“But how can you be so sure that creating male Sirens is a good thing?” I frowned.
He shrugged. “You are a good person, and I’d say that I’m not so bad myself. If it will lead to a disaster, I think we’ll realize that before it happens.”
“Mhh. I still think running away with you would be the better solution.” I smiled weakly.
“While running for you means that you could be in the Caribbean in five minutes, I would need an airplane to get there and even then, it would take me hours.”
I swallowed. “If you figure out how to create male Sirens, would you become one as well?”
“I think so,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I take that chance if I got it?”
“I’d love for you to be one as well, but I don’t think you understand what you have to give up.” I took a breath. “For example, you wouldn’t be eating a sandwich now either. It’s not possible to be half human and half Siren. You’d be someone new afterward. Eternally.”
“But you get to be invisible, run around the world, and be part of something you only dreamed about as a kid.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “It does have its tempting sides.”
“And wouldn’t it be good if I could be equal to you?” he asked.
“It would make things easier but it’s not a necessity,” I responded. “Besides, your heartbeat is the most attractive one I have ever heard. It would be a shame to not be able to listen to it anymore.”
Later, I lay in Alex’s arms as he was falling asleep. It was very comforting how my head rose and sank with his chest. I stayed like that for hours, listening to his heartbeat and sometimes watching his face twitch. Then, I wondered what he was dreaming about.
At some point, I got up and turned on the laptop to look for Dr. Palmer. It proved to be a lot more difficult to find him than I'd anticipated. He was everywhere on the media and on the Internet. But where in the world was he? A few of the earlier entries stated that they had been to his presentations in London, so perhaps that was where I could still find him today. It would be best if I could talk to Claire, Melissa’s creator, who lived in Ireland, and have her go to England to enquire about Dr. Palmer. But to get in touch with Claire, it would make sense to go through Melissa, so I decided to pay Melissa and Luke a visit. When I entered their living room, a very unusual sight caught my eye. Cathy and Luke sat at the kitchen table engrossed in a discussion about magical creatures and their sex. Cathy, who up to now hadn't been able to stand being around Luke. She had always been jealous of Luke because her boyfriend died and hadn't become a Siren as well.
Melissa sat on the couch, loudly turning the page of a magazine.
“Have they been here a long time?” I asked her.
“A few hours. They already arrived together. Apparently, Luke had such an important thought that he had to go tell Cathy right away. And suddenly, it seems like they go together like peas and carrots.” She shook her head in bewilderment.
“What did he find out?” I wanted to know.
“They are only brainstorming all the different species with their different sexes.” She turned her head to face me. “But I think Roisin was right. We can’t do this. We can’t play God and create something just because it’s possible. It would throw the balance of the population of Sirens out of joint.”
“So, what do you want to do?” I asked.
“We have to go out on the field and figure out who we are up against.” Melissa had a determined look in her eyes. “But Luke is the detective. He's the one who’d know best how we should proceed in finding a criminal.”
“That’s actually what I came to talk to you about. The only leads to Dr. Palmer point me to London. Can we skype Claire and then perhaps she can find out whether he is there?”
Melissa furrowed her brows. “Sure. We have to let her in on the mission though and she needs to know that he could be our worst nightmare.”
“Do you trust her?” I asked her.
“Of course. That’s not my concern. But I don’t want to endanger her.”
I took a deep breath. “Me neither, but it would make it easier to have someone there who might know other people in the area.”
“Yes. Let’s go online and see whether we can catch her.” Melissa got up and returned with a laptop. Claire’s icon was on green and soon we heard the connecting sound and Claire’s redhead appeared on the screen.
“Hey, I didn’t expect to see the two of you.” Claire sounded a bit hollow through the speakers.
“A lot has happened since we spoke a week ago,” Melissa said.
“Oh, is everything all right?” Claire asked.
“Yes, yes, but we could use your help,” Melissa replied, and then we told Claire about the Orbiters’ wish for us to create male Sirens, so that we could fight the people who spread hostility against magical creatures. Claire’s eyebrows wandered higher and higher and she interrupted us a few times to clarify whether she had understood correctly.
“Phew, do you even know how to start?” Claire puffed her cheeks.
“We are a team of very different characters, everybody with their own qualities. Luke, Cathy, and Alex are working on the transformation. Melissa and I want to find Dr. Palmer,” I said.
One of Claire’s dogs barked in the background and she turned around to tell Pixie to be quiet.
“The crazy guy from the news?” she asked when she faced her camera again.
“Yes, he is our only lead,” I said. “I read that he might be living in London but because we don’t know for sure, I hoped that you could help us find out whether this information is true.”
Claire ran her hand through her hair and left it in a mess. After some consideration, she agreed. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do, but I won’t talk to him. He and his group kill the likes of us.”
“We know. That’s why we must do something. If you find him, that would be a huge relief. Afterward, I would come and get in touch with him,” I said.
“Okay. I hope this doesn’t prove too difficult,” she said. “I’ll keep you updated.”
“Great, thank you, Claire.” Melissa smiled.
“Sure. Say hello to Luke and Roisin from me,” she said.
“You can say hello yourself. They are right in front of us,” I said and lifted the laptop, so that the camera was pointing to the table with Luke and Cathy. Only then they seemed to notice that we had been chatting with somebody this whole time. Luke and Cathy waved and Claire said hello. After we had disconnected, Melissa sighed.
“I’d never have seen myself being involved in such an investigation,” Melissa said.
“Me neither. So, now is the question how we approach Dr. Palmer, in case she does find him.”
Melissa frowned and leaned back. I didn’t think that I’d have a flash of inspiration in this crowded room either.
“I’m going for a walk,” I said and stepped out into the fresh night. I could see some stars twinkling down on me between a few dark clouds. The only noise I heard was the sound of the waves of the Atlantic Ocean right behind the house. To get some positive energy back into my system, I did what I loved most about my life as a Siren; I went running.