Siren Hunter

by George Dismukes

Angie Holland thought she was through with Belize forever. But a TV news report about the mysterious disappearance of several scuba divers at the Great Blue Hole sent chills up her spine. As much as the tried to reject the idea, in her heart, she knew the job was not finished. She thought the siren was dead! She had followed the formula precisely to make sure that Maris had been dispatched. Every instruction, including use of the obsidian dagger, had been followed to the letter. Now, it seemed like a recurring bad dream, the bitch was back!

Or was she? There is no way that Maris could have survived. Several people, including Angie had seen her dissolve into a pile of ashes. Could this new havoc be brought on by her equally evil sister? There was only one way to find out, and only one person to do it. Angie picked up the phone and made reservations for the quickest flight to Belize.

Excerpt

Chapter One

Angie Holland stood at the railing of the expansive deck on her beach house in San Leon, Texas, staring at nothing in particular. It was early morning. The sun was just beginning to peek over the eastern horizon, revealing a clear blue June sky, and calm water in Dickinson Bay, only a hundred yards distant from Angie’s house. Angie had her coffee cup parked on the wide top board of the deck railing.

She brushed her long brown hair back with one hand, and picked up her coffee cup with the other, to take a sip of the hot brew. As she sat the cup down, she peered slightly to her left, to admire the flat water now reflecting the rising sun.

Just at that moment, she heard the patio doors behind her slide open for a moment, then slide closed. She heard the sound of house shoes shuffling across the deck boards toward her. Scott Carrington sidled up beside her with his coffee cup in hand.

“Whaz up?” he asked.

“Nothing. Just enjoying this beautiful, pastoral morning.”

“Oh... yeah,” Scott said, looking around, obviously still half asleep. Then, “I didn’t think you were much of a morning person. This time of day, I usually have to look way deep under the covers to find you.”

Angie didn’t respond. She was quiet for a very long moment before she said, “It’s not over, Scott.”

Scott smiled. “Well, I’m glad to hear that, because I plan on loving you forever!”

Angie straightened, turned, and placed her rump against the railing. “Not that! I mean…her. It. The siren thing... It’s not over.”

Scott, who had been taking a long sip of his coffee, slowly removed the cup from his lips so he could see Angie clearly. “The siren ‘thing’? You’re not serious? Goddammit, Angie! We all saw her turn into dust right in front of us. Well, anyway, you did. Dust, Angie. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust! She’s not coming back. Ding dong, the bitch is gone. The mean ol’ wicked bitch is dead!”

Angie looked around, staring at nothing in particular. “I know. I know. But something’s bugging me. Something way down, deep inside. I don’t know how to explain it. But my instinct tells me there is still a danger. Still, some kind of a threat... I can’t explain it.”

“You sure it isn’t your period?”

“Don’t be trite, Scott. No. It’s not my period! Why is it, every damned time a woman comes up against a problem, men think it’s ‘their period’? I think men should have a period. Then, every time they had their tail in a twist about something, a woman could say, ‘Is it your period!?’”

“Cheez! Alright. Don’t get so upset. I was just asking.” Scott eyed Angie for a moment, then turned back toward the patio doors. “Alright. I’m gonna give you your space. You want breakfast?”

“Maybe in a little while,” Angie replied.

“Fair enough,” Scott said over his shoulder. “I’m going to put biscuits in the oven, if I can figure out how to open that stupid tube without it exploding in my hand and scaring the crap out of me!”

“Courage, corazon mio!” Angie responded. “No guts, no glory! No biscuits, either!”

Angie turned back toward the railing, looked toward the azure blue bay and said softly to herself, “I feel lost. For the first time in my life, I don’t know where I am going or what the fuck I’m doing. All I know is something is there, waiting for me. I feel like something is happening to me, inside, and I am frightened that the next step I take will be into a giant, bottomless hole.”

It was at that moment that she realized the ‘hole’ was The Great Blue Hole of Belize.

* * *

The next morning, Scott Carrington expressed frustration as he drove Angie to the George Bush International Airport to catch a flight to Belize.

“So, if I understand this correctly, you don’t know why you’re going to Belize, all you know is, you’ve gotta go!”

“I’ve tried to explain it to you three times now, Scott. You’re welcome to come with me.”

“I can’t. I’ve got a photo shoot to do down by Kingsville, at the King Ranch.

“Wow! That sounds like an exciting assignment. Well, fly down when you get through with that.”

Scott stared straight ahead as he drove down the road, looking frustrated, jaw fixed. “Maybe. Let’s see what you’ve gotten yourself into by then.”

“I wish I knew,” Angie said.

“If you don’t know why you’re going there, then why go there? That’s the part I don’t understand.”

“Have you ever had a premonition, Scott? What about those bad dreams that you used to have? Weren’t those premonitions?”

Scott thought for a moment. “Yeah... I guess. Something like that.”

“You didn’t know what was waiting for you in the Great Blue Hole. You just knew that something was, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And the premonitions turned out to be right. It was that bitch from hell, siren.”

“Well, we all know how that turned out.”

“Okay. Now I know that something is waiting for me. Something without a face. I’ve got to put a face on it and find out what it is.”

“Something tells me I should be alarmed. I’ll be down there just as soon as I finish my shoot. Ya know, it sort of pisses me off that you are always right!”

“Sorry! I wish you were going with me now, but I know you have an obligation to fulfill.”

“Yep. Gotta keep the wolf away from the front door. He’s a hungry bastard!”

“Yes, he is. And now I have to fight with the insurance company because they say we’re just inside the hundred-year flood plain, and they want to go up on our insurance to the tune of five thousand dollars a year!”

“Whaaaaat?”

“Don’t worry,” Angie said as she narrowed her eyes. “I’ve got Larry the attorney working on it. When people try to screw me, I screw back.”

“I know that’s right!” Scott said with a half-smile.

Buy

EBOOKS
Amazon Kindle
Smashwords
Nook
Apple
Google Play
Kobo

PRINT
Amazon

Genres