Siren's Calling [COMPLETED]

Chapter 4

- Cornelia Warner -

The stairs weren't that high, and the second floor wasn't any better than the one below. This one stank worse than the previous floor so I didn't waste any time in thinking of staying.

Suddenly, another thunderous growl sounded from above. It must be a huge thunderstorm, how would they find me if the weather is bad? My heart felt heavy with the weight of sadness.

I will surely find my way out, I am not that weak.

With heavy steps I started on my way up the stairs towards the third floor. My light pink denim skirt had dirt patches everywhere and the same with my shirt. Nothing could be saved.

The third floor, was surprisingly different from the other floors and had a large room in it. The room stood out like a metal container in the corner. The walls were metal and the door too, the rest of the place was in the same condition as the other two floors. The room ignited my curiosity.

What was in there? Whatever it was, had been guarded.

Slowly I took cautious steps towards it and reached the door. Raising my fist I knocked on it softly.

"Anyone there?" I asked softly. My voice sounded scratchy due to lack of water. I wondered if there was a person inside. Another loud thunder shook the entire building, I screamed and held onto the handle to steady myself. The building shook again with another growl, was it an earthquake?

What happened to the calm mother nature all of a sudden? But why did I feel like the sound came from inside the metal container?

Once again my body shook along with the building and this time it was so violent that the door I was holding onto flew open and I fell a few feet away from it. My elbow hit the floor and I cried in pain.

Suddenly it was quiet. Too quiet. I inspected my elbow that had a little bit of blood flowing from the wound now. I pouted and blew on it a few times. My breat sounded heavy to my ears, it couldn't be but I blamed it on the thunder. Maybe the thunder did something to my hearing ability.

But it was strange. I stopped blowing but the sound continued to ring in my ears. Like someone was breathing very heavily, then I remembered the doo. My eyes shot towards the room that was now open and I scrambled to my feet. It was dark inside as well, so I couldn't see anything clearly.

I could make out a  vague shadow of a person inside, I let out a breath of relief. So there was a person in here. Maybe they can help me get out?

I squinted my eyes to see their face but all my attempts were a big waste because I couldn't make out the face of the person. Then I remembered that I had a phone in my pocket and even if I can't make a call, I can use it to flash some light. 

I took out my phone and switched on the flash light. I didn't want to be rude and flash the light on their face so I went near and entered the room. I reduced the intensity of the light and slowly lifted my hand up.

My mouth dried and my mind blanked when I saw the person who was sitting on the chair. It was a man, a very handsome man and he wasn't just sitting on the chair bit bound to it.

Heavy metal chains were wrapped around him like a blanket from his neck to the ankles. All that was visible was his face and his toes. His eyes was closed and he looked in pain.

Of course he would be! He was tied up to a chair!

I couldn't move from my place, like I was frozen into the floor. The man groaned and his eyes slowly opened, his long hair fell over his eyes but I could see them clearly, obsidian pair of eyes.

He groaned and opened them fully, he spotted me and breathed heavily. I moistened my lips and tried to step back, he looked scary.

"U - ie." He whispered. I blinked back into reality.

"Huh?"

"Ti -e." He tried again but stopped and groaned in pain. His hair flopped over his face and he shook his head to get them out of the way. As a girl, I knew how irritating it can be to get hair on your face. So out of humanity I decided to help him. He had a long beard as well, how irritating would it be to have so much hair on your face?

My legs stumbled ahead towards him and when I was close enough, my hands stretched and touched the long strands of his hair, then tucked then away from his eyes.

All this time I was so focused on his hair that I didn't notice his watchful eyes following my every move. When my eyes met his, I stumbled back again from the amount of raw intensity it held.

"Ti -e."

"U - ie."

"Untie?" I gasped in realisation, he wanted me to untie him! I felt like smacking myself again. That was another level of stupidity I had shown, I had taken the effort to wipe the hair out of his face but didn't understand that he was hurting!

"I'm so sorry! I'll help you, wait!" I muttered and placed my backpack to the side. I wiggled my fingers and looked over the chains, they were thicker than my arm and looked deadly, but I cannot leave him alone in pain. I kneeled down to inspect.

After studying the situation I found the lock that tied the chain together, it was wrapped around one of the legs of the chair, a smile lit up on my face and I looked up at him happily.

"I found it!" I foolishly tried to pull it away and only after a few useless tried did I remember that I don't have any power. Watching other Sirens carrying weights like paper got into my head.

I searched around with the help of my phone flashlight and soon found a metal rod. It looked strong enough to break the lock so I picked it up and started beating the lock with it. The rod was damn heavy, but the dents on the lock gave me some hope.

I looked up once again, the man was staring at me with zero expression. Just watching me do silly things to get the lock to break. I smiled at him again, smile was the best way to give the other hope.

"Wait a little more. The lock is about to break." I encouraged him, by his facial expressions, which were barely there, it looked like he didn't believe me at all. I struck the lock twice and at last it came undone. I threw the lock away and took hold of one end of the chain.

"See! Told you!" Although he didn't reply, I knew he was happy too. He looked relieved.

I went around his chair in circles with the chain in hand. It started to get heavy with every layer I removed off of him and collected in my hand so I threw them on the floor and just dragged them along.

Soon it was just him on the chair, free and tired. His body was large and well built. Was he human? I wouldn't know, I've never been out before today and even if he was then why was he tied up here?

"Sir? Are you awake?" I asked when I noticed his head was dropped low. His chest was heaving and his hands were loose. Was he unconscious?

My suspicions was wrong as he looked up at me and opened his mouth to say something.

"Th -" he started to say but a fit of cough stopped his speech. I found my backpack and immediately searched for my water bottle. There was little water left in it so I offered it to him.

He took it and gulped it down, there wasn't much but it was enough for him to feel less horrible.

"Thank you." He said and gave me back my bottle. His deep voice caught me off guard and it took me a few seconds to recover from it.

"It's okay. You were hurt, this was the least I could do to help." I shrugged and placed the bottle back into my backpack.

He didn't say anything else and just looked at me, again with those obsidian eyes. I sat on the floor next to his chair and looked here and there. There was nothing else I could do. I wanted to ask him a list of questions, who locked him here? Why? And how long? Who was he?

But maybe he will be offended if I ask them, so I kept quiet.

"Why are you here?" He asked out of the blue. I looked at him surprised. He sounded fine now, very well actually. He didn't sound like a person who looked to be die from a coughing fit.

"Um, I got lost in the forest and found this place. What a coincidence that I found you."

He eyed me skeptically, "Lost, you say?"

Yup, he was definitely fine. Only a healthy man can give such a judgemental look, he looked downright scary!

"Yeah, I want to go back. My friends are probably searching for me everywhere. And it's about to rain I think." I mumbled looking down at the dirty floor. By now it was best that I give up on trying to save my clothes, they were beyond dirty and washing them will be a nightmare to the cleaning lady.

"I don't think so."

"What?"

"It's not going to rain."

I frowned and confidently said, "But there was thunder."

"It was not thunder." He replied with so much certainty that I almost believed him. He slowly stood up to full height and in front of me he looked like a giant. I craned my neck and looked up at him from my sitting position.

"Ooh?"

"You said you were lost."

"Yeah. Can you help me?" A volcano of hope erupted inside me when he outstretched his hand for me to stand.

"You are lost, this is the least I can do to help someone who helped me." He answered. I grinned and took his hand gratefully, trusting him to get me out of here safely.