Page 12 of Cursed By a Siren's Kiss

"Captain Kipp," she croaked, her voice like dry leaves skittering across stone. "I've been expecting you."

I lowered my blade slowly, eyeing her warily. "You know who I am?"

A smile twisted her weathered lips. "I know many things, cursed one. The Fates whisper their secrets to me."

She beckoned me inside with a gnarled hand. I hesitated only a moment before following. The interior of the cottage was quaint but cozy.

“You’ll excuse the mess. My sisters are out, but they will return soon,” she said softly.

I glanced around the cottage seeing nothing amiss, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right, as if it was hiding in my peripheral. As if what I saw wasn't reality. Like a veil covering my eyes. I shook my head and took a deep breath, dispelling the thought. I needed something and then I’d be on my way.

“You cannot look to the beyond, dear child. Not yet. But you will one day.” The lady moved around the room with surprising swiftness for a crone of her age. She lifted a velvet pouch. “Ah, here it is.” She stepped forward placing it gently in my palm. “Now off you go. Time is almost up.”

“I need your help. My actions lately, they are not me.” There was an edge of desperation in my voice. No, I felt it. The fear oflosing myself, of losing hold of what little humanity I had left as I became fully consumed by whatever dark evil remained inside of me.

I stared at the old woman, my mind reeling from her cryptic words. The velvet pouch felt heavy in my palm, as if weighted with the fate of my very soul. I knew time was running out, the darkness within me growing stronger each day. I couldn't leave, not without answers.

"Please," I said, my voice rough with desperation. "I need your help. This curse is consuming me, changing me in ways I don't even recognize anymore."

The crone tilted her head, studying me with those ancient, knowing eyes. "The path ahead is perilous, child. It will test you in ways you cannot imagine. But the key to your salvation lies with a siren."

"A siren?" I scoffed. "You mean those wretched creatures who lure men to their doom? How could one of them possibly help break my curse?"

"Fate works in mysterious ways," she replied with an enigmatic smile. "This siren is special. Her destiny is intertwined with yours. Together, you may find the strength to overcome the darkness that plagues you both."

I shook my head, frustration building inside me. "I don't understand. How will I even find this siren? And what am I supposed to do once I do?"

The old woman reached out, placing a wizened hand on my arm. Her touch sent a jolt through me, like an electric current straight to my core. Images flashed through my mind - a secluded cove, moonlight glinting off the waves, a hauntingly beautiful song carried on the breeze.

"Trust your instincts," she murmured as the vision faded. "The object in the pouch will guide you to her when the time is right."

I looked down at the velvet bag, my fingers tightening around it. "But how do I know I can trust her? How do I know this isn't some kind of trap?"

"You don't," the crone said simply. "That's what makes it a leap of faith. But I sense a change in you already, Captain. The choices you've made recently, sparing that boy, seeking answers instead of just destruction—those aren't the actions of a man consumed by darkness."

I felt a flicker of something deep inside me at her words. Belief, perhaps? It had been so long since I'd felt anything like it. Now, it flickered within me. A weak flame. Just enough for me to believe for a moment that I could overcome this. Then the doubts came rushing back, insidious whispers in my mind.

"Sometimes I can't even tell what my own thoughts and decisions are anymore," I confessed, my voice low and haunted. "It's like the darkness has seeped into every part of me, until I don't know where it ends and I begin. I'm terrified that one day I'll wake up and there will be nothing left of the man I once was."

The old woman's gaze softened with compassion. "You are stronger than you know, child. Why else would the Fates have led you here? Trust in their plan. Trust in yourself."

I opened my mouth to speak, but she shook her head as she pushed me toward the door. “Just use it, it will give you what you truly desire.”

“Will it break my curse?” I demanded as I stepped over the threshold into the night.

“It will take you to your destiny. But breaking your curse, well, that’s entirely up to you.” I stood on the threshold of the door as the old woman stared up at me, flashing a gummy grin with one tooth.

“I’ll give you one word of advice, boy.” She smacked her gums. “Though it’s not allowed, I find that I like you. Bind her to you at the moment that she’s most vulnerable.”

“Who?” I demanded.

She popped me on the head with surprising strength. “Listen, you bone head, the siren.”

“But to bind a creature like that to me, wouldn’t it last forever?”

“You want to break your curse?” she demanded.

I nodded.

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