Sweet Silence
By Amanda Alberson
© 2013 By Amanda Alberson
Aiden looked over at his friend again and rolled his eyes. Jared sat on the edge of his seat wrapped in childlike excitement.
This is so lame! Aiden thought as he looked around the outdated bar, aptly named, The Boondocks. They’d driven for what seemed like hours into the endless Louisiana swamps before finding the clap board shack.
He reached out and poked Jared in the shoulder to get his attention then signed, “She better be A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.” He spelled the last word slowly with grand gestures to get his point across.
Jared laughed and replied, “Dude she will be, trust me.”
Shaking his head Aiden took another drink of his beer. He’d known Jared his whole life and trusted him in almost every way. Although being dragged to the middle of nowhere to watch some hot chick sing, even though he couldn’t hear her, had him doubting his own sanity as well as Jared’s.
The crowd was small, filled mostly with college guys just like Aiden and Jared. The shack felt larger on the inside than it looked from the parking lot. The dimly lit tables were nestled up against the stage as if they too were eager fans. The only other person aside from the lusty eyed patrons was a tall, steel eyes bartender who hadn’t spoken when Jared ordered their beers, only nodded gruffly and slid them across the bar.
The lights dimmed and Aiden’s eyes fell on the stage as the red velvet curtain began to part. A long leg slid from the darkness. From the folds of the curtains stepped a tall womanly girl with deep burgundy red hair. An aqua sequenced dress clung to her curvy figure. She looked like a 50’s pin up girl with her large innocent eyes and her thick, curvy body.
Aiden’s stare slid down her, over her hips, to her milk white legs that found home in the long split in her dress. She stood on stage drinking them in, her bare feet and perfectly manicured aqua toe nails peeked from beneath the long hem. His eyes traveled back up, enjoying every inch of her sensuous body. Her round emerald eyes sat on a plain but pretty face. She wasn’t a Hollywood bombshell but there was something alluring about her. Jared was practically clawing at the stage in a vain attempt to pull her closer.
Esilee scanned the small crowd. There was a collective sigh as she slowly slid her tongue across her crimson lips. She looked ravenously down at the young man gripping the stage and smiled. The young ones were always so eager, never any challenge with them. She took a slow, long breath and began to sing. The room fell deathly silent except for the soft murmuring of her voice.
Aiden looked over to give Jared a thumb up but his friend was too enthralled with the woman on stage to pay him any attention.
Finishing the last of his beer he grabbed his bottle as well as Jared’s and headed towards the bar. The bartender eyed him suspiciously as Aiden set the empties down and motioned for two more.
“What’s the matter don’t like girls?” The man asked. In the dim lights it was hard for Aiden to follow his lips and he was afraid he’d read them wrong.
Speaking to strangers always embarrassed him. He knew the look and the million questions that followed every time he spoke to someone new, so instead he just shrugged.
Esilee watched him stand at the bar, his back arrogantly turned to her. Fire blazed in her emerald green eyes as she sang louder. No one had ever ignored her before, no man could have, would have ever ignored the sound of her voice. The room let out a moan as she crooned even louder, her throaty voice growling the words. As her smoky song filled the room the men at the tables swayed along.
Aiden felt a slight change in the air around him, a light rumble in the bar where his hand lay and then it was gone. He continued counting out ones for the beers.
Esilee lowered her voice again to a soft lullaby and smiled as she heard heads falling on tables. She stepped from the stage, moving fluidly through the sleeping crowd, when Aiden turned she was standing in his path glaring at him.
“You don’t like my songs?” She asked. He could tell by her tense stance and the way she bit at the words she as angry.
He sighed; he had no choice but to answer her.
“If your voice is as beautiful as you are I’m sure no man on earth could resist it, but I can’t hear it, I’ve been deaf since birth.” He looked down at his feet, not wanting to see the pity or the surprise on her face.
Esilee felt the warm heat slide across her cheeks. He’d called her beautiful, without even hearing her voice. He wasn’t entranced by her siren song, he wasn’t waiting endlessly for the next notes to come from her, and yet he’d called her beautiful.
“Really?” She asked, not noticing he wasn’t looking at her anymore. She slid a finger beneath his chin and tilted his head up so she could meet his eyes. They were such a deep blue; they almost looked like home to Esilee. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d swam in the deep fathoms of the ocean. Certainly not since the giant storm had swirled her up and carried her to this wooded swamp. The waters were deep enough in places but too shallow in others. The creatures here were both familiar and different, but she found what she needed so she remained. Always lonely and often homesick, she craved something she did not understand until she saw Aiden. Something she’d never known in all her lifetimes nor in all the years she’d been here living off the locals and the college frat boys that came seeking the Siren of the Swamp. Esilee craved true love.
“Really?” She asked again, “You think I’m beautiful?”
Aiden smiled at her. Her features softened into those of a young girl, eager to be adored but too shy to seek the attention.
“Of course I do. I wish I could hear you sing, but there is something fairly close to it.” It was his turn to blush, he couldn’t believe what he was about to ask her.
“If I could put my hand here,” he reached forward tentatively and places his hand just above her breasts.
“If I put my hand here while you sing, I can feel your voice.” He smiled at her shyly.
She clasped her hand over his and began a low, deep ballad of lost ships and men buried in the sea. Her chest swelled and rumbled beneath his hand. He felt so much more than just the vibrations from her voice; he felt the emotions the song brought out of her. Sorrow and pain flowed from her and into his heart. They looked at each other, tears brimming in both their eyes.
It was then Aiden noticed the other men, dead eyed and swaying in their seats, awoken by her newest song.
“What are you?” He asked.
Esilee looked away, ashamed for the first time in her life for what she was.
“I’m a siren. I survive off the souls and flesh of men that are lured here and entranced by my voice.” She dropped her hand from his, waiting for the shriek of terror, for the utter rejection.
“Well you caught me.” Aiden replied.
She smiled at him through her tears.
“But I don’t want you.”
“Too small a catch?” He smiled back, winking at her.
Caught off guard by his innuendo she laughed out loud, causing the men in the room to laugh along with her.
“No, I could never destroy you, you found beauty in me without magic or tricks, and how could I ever destroy that?”
“Are you going to kill all of these men? Do you know them? One of them is my best friend; I’ll beg you for his life if it would help.” He slowly slides one finger across her collarbone then up to her chin, bringing her eyes to his.
“I only need one; I would never take your friend from you.”
“How do you decide?” He looked out over the crowd. How did one choose which life was less valuable than another? Nothing about any of the men there stood out. None looked like bad men that would deserve a good soul eating.
“I don’t think about it really. I sing and at the end of the night I call to one of them to stay, one that came alone, or looks like he’s at the end of his rope. Sometimes old crab boat captains and alligator hunters wander in from the swamp. No one t
hinks anything of it if they go missing, it’s a hazardous job fishing these swamps, and sometimes men disappear.”
“That must be horrible for you. Surviving off the souls of others.”
She smiled at his concern, and without thinking she leaned forward and covered his lips with her own. A shock ran through him. His entire body began to hum as her tongue tickled his.
“I must be drunk.” He replied when she pulled away.
“How else could I explain being in a bar in the middle of a swamp being kissed by a soul eating siren? I’m drunk, maybe I passed out at the table and Jared is driving us home right now.” He began looking around the bar, realization settled into his blue eyes bringing fear with it.
Her heartbeat tripled, stopped and then pounded inside of her chest. She felt like she was dying. Never in her long life had Esilee ever felt this way. She’d desired men before but only for their flesh and their soul. This one made her want things she didn’t understand. Right then what she wanted most was for him to stop looking at her like she was a soul devouring monster, even though she was.
The panic began to build in Aiden’s chest as he looked past her, searching the sea of glazed eyes for Jared. When he looked back at her tears welled in her green eyes threatening to drag her smoky eye liner down her cheeks.
“I am sorry, please do not cry.” He signed at her without thinking. Esilee took his hands into hers.
“That was beautiful, what was it?”
“I said, I’m sorry and I don’t want you to cry.”
She was astonished there could be so much power and feeling in words that were not spoken aloud. All her life the power of her voice had been everything, now this man, this mortal man was breaking her heart with the wave of his hand.
Aiden couldn’t look at her with tears in her eyes. Frightened and confused as he was, her vulnerability moved him. She couldn’t possibly be a heartless monster, if that was true they would all be dead by now.
“Say something else, with your hands.” She whispered.
Aiden smiled and signed to her, speaking softly as he did.
“Hi, my name is Aiden.”
She watched intensely as his hands moved.
“Aiden,” she said, tasting his name on her lips.
“I’m Esilee.”
The bartender grumbled pulling their attention towards him; he nodded towards the stage, where the men were stirring from their stupor
“I have to eat Aiden.” She paused, tears returning to her eyes as she kissed him softly.
“Get your friend and leave, go back towards town and don’t ever come into the swamp again.”
He watched as her beautiful face contorted as if in pain. Ruby red lips quivered as he read them. He shook his head desperately signing at her as quickly as he could.
“No. I will not leave you here alone. I want to stay. I want to hold you and talk to you. I want to get to know you. Dammit Esilee I want to love you.” He plunged his hands into the red sea of hair framing her shocked face and kissed her. Their passion consumed them. Her body melted against his as he held her tighter. Aiden’s soft lips moved from her mouth to her neck and back as he lifted her from the ground and set her on the barstool. Esilee wrapped her silky legs around his waist and sighed against his lips.
A hand pulled at Aiden’s shoulder. One of the men stood behind him anger and alcohol burned in his eyes.
“Hey asshole, how about you share some of that action?” The man reached lazily towards Esilee. Aiden placed himself between them shoving the man’s arm violently.
“Back off.” Aiden growled. Esilee’s heart swelled. No one ever tried to protect her, and even though Aiden had to know she could handle the guy on her own, he still stood protectively between them.
“What’d you say to me boy,” the man sneered, “bach off? What are you? Slow?”
Before he could utter another ignorant word Jared was swinging on him. His powerful right fist collided with the man’s already crooked nose. It reminded Aiden of when he first met Jared on the Kindergarten playground. Three bullies were pushing Aiden around between them calling him every name they could think of, when Jared rushed in swinging wildly at all of them. His tiny fists flailed endlessly until the boys ran away, all bleeding from either the nose or the mouth. Jared had turned and stuck his hand out to Aiden and shouted,
“My grandma don’t hear either!”
They’d been inseparable ever since.
Aiden reached down and pulled Jared off the man who had long since stopped resisting.
“Take that guy Esilee, although I’m not sure how much soul he actually has.” He whispered to her.
Esilee slid from the barstool and hummed softly in the man’s ear. He stood and followed her through a door next to the stage.
“Everybody out.” The bartender barked. Slowly the room emptied.
Aiden gripped Jared’s shoulder, “Thanks man.”
“Anytime, what the hell happened? One minute I’m drooling over that hot babe, the next I’m kicking some guys ass while you’re making out with her.”
Aiden blushed, “You know me man, I’m a lady killer.”
Jared laughed and moved toward the door.
“Come on, I’ve had enough fun for one night.”
“I’m gonna stay.”
Jared’s head whipped around.
“Stay?”
“Yeah, we’re getting to know each other.” Aiden smiled at him and wondered if his best friend would leave him alone in a swamp shack with a siren.
“Dude, I’m not leaving you in the middle of nowhere with some chick and Murder Magee over there.” Jared nodded towards the bartender who was busy washing out glasses and tossing empty beer bottles.
“Come back tomorrow and get me, or I’ll call you before then if I need a ride. I’m sure Esilee has a car she can bring me home.” He was practically pleading. He couldn’t leave, there’s was just something magical about Esilee, she was like a drug and he needed more, so much more.
She stepped next to them as if conjured by Aiden’s mere thought of her. Her snow white complexion glowed in the dim bar light and her eyes held a shine Aiden hadn’t seen in them earlier. He wondered if it was the man’s soul trapped inside of her.
Esilee looked at Jared, who was looking at his friend with such a pained concern it hurt her heart. Aiden must be an amazing man to have a friend who cared for him so very much. While the man eating siren in her enjoyed the rugged bravery Jared possessed, she was attracted more to the soft, passionate emotions that Aiden displayed with each move of his hands. She didn’t care that when he wasn’t speaking aloud she didn’t know what the movement meant. It wasn’t the actual words that moved her, it was the raw emotion she could feel coming from each gesture. She’d heard men speak for more lifetimes than she could account for. They spoke with anger and lust and mostly with lies, Aiden spoke with only his heart, and for that she instantly loved him.
Their eyes met and something stirred deep inside of her, she knew she couldn’t lose him.
“I promise to bring him back safe and sound.” She smiled at Jared, but he refused to budge.
“Sorry sister, no man left behind, he’s coming with me.” He reached for Aiden’s arm, but Aiden stepped away.
“Not tonight Jared. I’m staying.” Aiden wrapped his fingers between Esilee’s.
“Then I stay too.” Jared said as he sat down on the barstool next to him.
Esilee and Aiden looked at one another, unsure what to do next, both desperate to stay together, alone. She mouthed a word to Aiden and he nodded, looking away from his friend.
Softly, she began to sing a song about deep rivers and secrets beneath the rushing water. Jared swayed as if caught in the imaginary current, and drifted towards the door. Without looking back he left the shack, Aiden heard the truck start and pull away into the night.
“Will he make it home okay?” He asked.
“Yes, he’ll be fine, I promise. In a few da
ys he’ll remember you were both here, but he won’t remember leaving you here, or anything else about tonight.”
Aiden looked towards the door one last time as she led him towards the stage, towards the same dark portal she’d taken the man earlier, the man she’d devoured.
“Goodnight Rocco.” She called to the bartender. He only nodded and headed for the parking lot.
“Does he have any idea what goes on here?” Aiden asked.
“Not really, I keep him in a fog when he’s here. He knows he works here, he knows not to let the men get out of hand and he knows to go home. Once he’s home he’s normal until I see him again. It’s safer for him.”
She pushed open the large wood door and Aiden couldn’t help looking around anxiously. The room was large with natural wood walls and deep aqua marine decorations. A circular rug covered most of the floor. It was a deep blue with thin gold strands running through it. In the far corner sat a king sized canopy bed, a deep blue curtain hung all around it. In the corner across from the bed sat an antique chifforobe and a dressing curtain. Esilee stepped behind the curtain and Aiden waited patiently for her. With the curtain between them he couldn’t tell if she was saying anything. Often people forgot when talking to him that he had to be looking at their face to understand them.
Her dress appeared suddenly as she slung it over the curtain, followed by a sheer lace bra. The idea of her naked behind the thin sheet made him ache. He wanted to gaze endlessly at her flawless skin, to watch her move, to taste her lips. He’d never wanted anything more in his whole life.
Esilee peered around the curtain watching with amusement as he shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. There was something so pure and kind about Aiden. She let the white T-shirt she wore every night to bed fall over her head just before she stepped out into the room. The tiny sound of Aiden sucking in air made her smile.
“Teach me to speak with my hands.” She asked, walked seductively towards him.
The sight of her in just a shirt nearly floored him. He pulled her close, kissed her deeply before moving around behind her. He let his fingers traipse up her arms towards her hands. Slowly he moved her fingers, her hands, her arms fluidly, as if to music. Esilee lost herself in the rhythm of the unspoken words he guided her through. She could feel his heart beating against her, picking up pace as the gestures became more pronounced, as he added more flourish and feeling into them. She leaned back into him relishing the moment. Their bodies again melding together, he pulled their hands to her chest, held her against him, kissing the curve of her neck.
She turned wanting to see his eyes. They shined, as he continued to sign. A sweet silence enveloped the room around them.
“I want to try something.” She said. He nodded his hands falling silent at his sides.
Esilee stepped forward and kissed the soft skin behind his right ear, sucking gently, her tongue pressing against his flesh. She did the same on the other side, before stepping back and opening her mouth wider than he thought possible.
“AIDEN!” The power of her voice shook the tiny shack almost knocking him down.
“Oh my god. I … I think I actually heard you! Do it again.” He begged.
She began to sing, quietly at first, her voice rising like the tide.
“Come to me, oh come to me
All ye lost men at sea.
Follow the sound til your feet reach ground
And know you’re safe with me.
Oh come to me, oh come to me
All ye lost children at sea
Hold my hand and we’ll play awhile
Follow me I’ll set you free.” The words burrowed into his ears and rang inside of his head. His face lit up as the sweet sound of her voice filled him.
“Come to me, oh come to me
All ye lasses who’ve jumped in the sea
I’ll take you home in the briny foam
To become a witch of the sea.”
His eyes filled with tears as he clung to each note. It was surreal watching her lips move and actually hearing the sound that came from them.
“Say my name.” He asked.
“Aiden.”
“Say your name.”
“Esilee.”
He cried at the sound of her name.
“Esilee.” He repeated.
“I love you Aiden. Stay with me. Stay with me always.”
He nodded at her, signing yes repeatedly, too overwhelmed to speak.
“It won’t last Aiden, the hearing, I can’t make it stay but you’ll always hear me singing.”
“That’s all I’ll ever need.”
Aiden pulled her to him, kissing her roughly, his hands gripping her shirt tightly, threatening to never let go. She motioned towards the bed and he obliged by picking her up and carrying her there, his lips never leaving hers.
Aiden knew he would never leave the swamp.
Three days later Jared came through the door of the Boondock’s bar looking for his childhood friend. The bartender eyed him suspiciously. Jared stepped towards the stage just as Esilee was stepping from her room. She closed the door quickly behind her.
“Where is he?” Jared demanded.
“Who?” She asked innocently.
“You know damn well who, where’s Aiden? I’m not leaving here without him.” He planted his feet defiantly. Esilee felt a strong connection with him that Jared would never understand. They loved the same man, they both longed to protect him and do what was right by him. He made them both better people by knowing them and neither wanted to ever lose him.
“Look you lousy swamp witch, tell me where he is or I’m calling the police.”
Esilee looked at him sadly. Jared didn’t know how right he was. Before he could speak again her arm shot out and her fingers locked around his neck in a vice like grip. He was shocked at how strong she was.
She dragged his kicking body into the parking lot and around the back of the shack. When they reached the water she began to sing, Jared’s body became limp. She tossed him like a rag doll towards the water, where she watched him sink.
As she turned to go back inside Aiden turned the corner.
“What are you doing out here?” He asked.
“Where’s Jared I saw his truck out front.”
Esilee bit her lip, she never wanted to hurt Aiden; he was her one saving grace, her one good thing. So she did the only thing she knew, she sang, and her voice washed away his memories until all he knew was her.
And while it meant that he would belong to her forever, it also meant she would have to live never knowing if that’s the life he would have chosen on his own.
That night she drowned her sorrow in the souls of eleven men while Aiden slept soundly in their bed.
Esilee kept him, loved him, and sang to him well into his 90’s. When she could finally see death in his eyes she led him to the water and sang to him his favorite song. He followed her fire red hair down into the depths of the swamp. Her voice was the only sound he ever heard, and it was the last sound as well.
You Belong With Me
By: Kate Marie Robbins
© 2013 By Kate Marie Robbins