We've all heard of sirens. Evil women with beautiful voices who lured Greek sailors to their watery graves. Many believe these sirens are just myths, stories told to children to keep them from doing wrong.
Yet to the Greeks, they were real and they were feared.
Ghana has its own equivalent of a siren, Maame Water. A beautiful mermaid who lurks in the bowels of any waterbody. Many a time I have asked myself, how did the legend of sirens come to being? How did people of different civilizations come to fear fish-women? And finally, how was the dark siren born?
This is short story answers the final question.

APPRECIATION
I thank God for blessing me with enough creativity to write this story- no matter how short.
PART 1
I made my way through the forest in the dark of the night, careful not to trip on any of the tree roots that crossed the trail lest I fall and sprain my ankle. The forest was quiet as I made my way to the cave reminding me that even the animals eschewed my destination. I tried not to think about where I was going or how the flimsy spear that bore the royal mark offered me negligible protection from the danger I was about to face. I had no other weapons and I did not even carry any amour. In fact, I was bare-chested, with only the green-and-gold royal cloth folded around my waist. Father asked me to go to the cave with little protection so the being I was seeking will know that I meant her no harm. My people needed her help and hostility would only serve to anger her. Even without provocation, she has been known to kill. Men who have wandered this close to her cave have never returned. Fishermen whose canoes have drifted to the point at which her cave opens out to the sea were never seen again. She is the most feared creature in the whole of the land and the elders say her voice is as lovely as that of a bird’s and that when you hear her song, you are lost forever.
Yet tonight, I was going willingly to her cave.
She was the only person who could save my people from the warriors that came from the Sea. They had arrived last two days from beyond the sea line in great big canoes and had declared war on my people. Their skin was as white as bone and their warriors as numerous as the sands of the beach. They had stayed at sea and had sent a messenger to land to tell us that they were given us two weeks to surrender and become their slaves or they would slaughter our tribe’s men and rape their wives and daughters. They would steal all our riches and sell our sons as slaves. Two weeks and my tribe would either be decimated or enslaved. My father is a proud man.
He killed the messenger.
Now a week had passed and we were facing imminent destruction. We were desperate and that is why when I suggested that we seek aid from her, my father offered little resistance. He reluctantly sent his son on a doomed quest to seek assistance from the fish-queen. To seek help from Maame Water.
I stopped when the forest trail led me to a small clearing because at the end of the clearing was the cave. Her cave. As I stared at the cave whose opening resembled the mouth of a beast, my resolve dissolved. What was I doing here? Had I not heard the rumors about the fish-queen? Had I not paid attention to the stories that told of the tragic fates that befell all who tried to seek her? Did I not recall all the songs that were sung about her? In fact, the first part of one particular song had stuck with me since I started on my quest and now I heard it all around me, as if the forest itself were singing me a warning.
Young Warrior, Young Warrior You wish to go out to sea?
Have you not heard of the evil that lurks deep in its depths?
Have you not heard of the fish queen?-
Her countenance like an angel’s; And yet the blackness of her hair Reflects the darkness of her soul As the gore of her kill
Bathes the crimson of its tips Haha, the fish-queen shall get you! No doubt she will!
I shook my head to rid myself of the morbid tune and ignored the pounding of my heart. I had to do this; I had no choice. My people were counting on me. I took a deep breath and stepped into the cursed cave.
The interior of the cave was beautiful. The walls of the cave were a deep gray and crisscrossing them were deep green vines. Green moss lined the walls closest to the lagoon and the lagoon- oh the lagoon was a clear deep blue- the most beautiful blue I had ever laid my eyes on. Light from somewhere- I could not tell where- reflected off the lagoon and onto the walls of the cave, painting them with the deep blue of the lagoon thus giving the cave a certain ethereal quality. Above me were hundreds of beautiful insects whose light cast a red-and-orange glow on the walls of the cave, which in turn created the illusion of a beautiful and eternal sunset. At the center of the lagoon- at the center of all this beauty- swam a lone woman.
Fear gripped my heart as she swam towards me but the closer she got, the more at ease I felt. She reached the edge of the lagoon and when I saw her face in the light, my breath caught in my throat. Never had I seen someone so beautiful, so heavenly! Her skin was brown, not like the fair-brown of all the ‘pretty’ girls in my village but also not like the brown of my skin. Hers was a golden-brown; the brown of a goddess. Her hair was a deep black, blacker than a moonless sky, and when I looked into her eyes- oh her dazzling eyes- I saw that they were a bright red colour. They were…. dark scarlet. Deep in the recesses of my mind, a voice echoed:
And yet the blackness of her hair
Reflects the darkness of her soul
Before I could think about the voice, a beautiful sound filled the cave. It sounded like.. like singing. Women singing a song I neither knew nor understood but could not get enough of. The song filled me with happiness I had never felt before, with joy and passion, but more importantly, with wanting. I wanted to go to this beautiful woman with the scarlet eyes, I wanted to kiss her and obey her every word. My legs moved forward without much thinking on my part and I drew closer to the lagoon, spear clutched in my hand. Upon closer inspection, I saw that she wore a red and black crown on her head and that black seaweed covered only her breasts, leaving her flat stomach bare and vulnerable. I looked at her face again; she looked so young-like an 18-year-old. Surely this was not the woman my father asked me to fear. Surely this was not the woman who had murdered countless men. Surely nothing this beautiful could be capable of such evil?
I looked into her eyes- those eyes that threatened to drown me and asked, “Who are you?”
Her mouth worked itself into a small smile but she did not answer and so I tried again.
“You are very beautiful.”
“Am I?” she asked, clearly amused.
How angelic her voice was- addictive even- her every syllable wrapping around my heart and pulling me ever closer to her. I needed to hear it again.
“Yes you are.” I replied, “And so is that song. Where is it coming from?” I asked, looking around. “Who is singing it?”
She laughed and oh what a sound it was, like soft claps of thunder. It was delightful, much like the invisible women’s singing but not as delicate. Her laugh-like her voice- held power and drew me to her in the same way blood drew mosquitoes to itself.
“My sisters of course. They are beneath the surface. Would you like to see some of them?” she said in her sing-song voice. I nodded and as if on cue three women emerged from the lagoon. They were all beautiful with long flowing hair and brown skin, though none of them had the golden tint of their black haired sister and none were as beautiful. One had brown hair, the other, blue and the last, red. They had stopped singing when they surfaced but now, without warning, they started again. The song swept over me and fell to my knees, dropping my spear. Scarlet Eyes reached forward and touched her right hand to my face. I gasped; her fingers had sent sparks throughout my whole body. Her hand traced the length of my face, moving down to my lips but she never stopped looking into my eyes. Her left hand reached up and clutched my head, her fingers playing gently with my hair. She pulled me closer to her so that our faces touched, so that our lips were mere breaths away from each other. She brushed her lips against mine sending hot tingles flowing through my body and leaving me breathless. I wanted more but Scarlet Eyes was pulling away from me, going into the water. Impulsively, I leaned into the lagoon, cupped my hand around her chin and pulled her closer to me. Our lips met, and she kissed me, hesitantly at first- like she was teasing me- but in a few seconds she was no longer holding back. Neither was I. Each of her kisses sent new waves of heat surging through my being, filling me with passion and longing. The longer we kissed, the hungrier I got but I could not stop for I had never before known warmth like this. I felt that if I paused even a little, coldness would overwhelm me and darkness would overtake my soul. If I stopped, this sweet passion would end and I would die. Dimly I was aware that the three sisters had submerged and that Scarlet Eyes was pulling me deeper into the water but I did not care. If she wanted me to follow her underwater, I would. At this point I would even die for her. The voice echoed again:
Haha, the fish-queen shall get you!
No doubt she will!
I ignored the voice and focused on the sweetness of the kiss but… the sweetness, the passion…. they were gone. Panicking, I opened my eyes and saw that Scarlet Eyes had pulled away again.
“Why did you stop?” I gasped, but she was not looking at me. Her eyes were fixed on my spear, precisely, on the royal mark that it bore.
“Why have you come here…” she asked, finally settling her gaze on me. “…My Prince?”
With those two words, the spell shattered. I looked into the lagoon and saw her sisters. The image was a bit distorted but I saw them. They had transformed, their eyes- even the whites- had turned red. Their fingers had grown longer and were sharper at the ends, much like claws. Their teeth, still dazzling white, were bigger and now sharper than any sword- or spear for that matter. Strangely, in spite of all these frightening developments, they still looked beautiful. I heard a noise above me and looked up, and on the roof of the cave, I saw bats, hundreds of them resting upside down. And their eyes were…. red? No, No, those were the glowing insects. They flew so close to the bats that they looked like the bats' eyes. I tore my gaze from the roof and settled it on the woman in front of me. Her left hand was still on my head and her right hand-now in the lagoon- held a dagger to my throat. I looked into the water and when I saw them any doubt I had about who she was quickly evaporated. Her black tail covered with scarlet-outlined scales, moved in the water and the ends of her hair were a dark red colour... crimson.
As the gore of her kill
Bathes the crimson of its tips
Fear and realization gripped me and I tried to move away from her but I had no control over my body. She had trapped me! Maame Water had immobilized me! I would have been dead by now had she not seen the mark on my spear. She noticed the look on my face and smiled.
Cover Art- Beverly Decker
This is just part one!! Check my account next week for part two!!
