Edmond stepped into the room the researchers had once taken sanctuary in. The entire room was a disaster. There was certainly a struggle. Blood dripped down the wall under the jagged, broken window. It wasn't a very clean exit for the men. Edmond could only imagine what was happening to them now. It was clear enough that the sirens would show them no amount of mercy.

Willas approached the window, looking out cautiously. "The fog isn't lifting." He observed. "I thought they would let us go after they took them."

"Hm." Edmond grumbled. He couldn't bring himself to tell Willas what the mother siren had told him. Should he? They had been sailing this whole time and never outran the sirens. Was it truly impossible? Were they doomed to sail forever into nothingness until the sirens got Willas?

Edmond felt a knot in his throat. He couldn't even find the words to express how deeply and badly that he wanted to go home. He was starving away to nothing. His clothes already hung on his frame loosely. He was cold. Not just your average cold. He was cold to the bone. He could feel the frost within his very soul. He wanted desperately to feel the sun on his face again.

He looked at Willas. The man looked just as awful as Edmond felt. Dark circles were under his eyes. His face was slenderer. His hair was a mess of dirt and blood. His once bright blue eyes looked dull and lifeless. He looked to be a shell of the man he once was. Maybe...

Maybe he would be better off not remembering this trip?

Maybe it would be a blessing if he were taken by the sirens?

Edmond felt horrible for even thinking it. Guilt ate away at his guts right along with the hunger pangs.

Willas was his best friend. His first mate. His right hand. All he had left.

So why did he envision throwing the man overboard?

"Can't you talk to them?" Willas asked. "You've reasoned with them before. Remind them of our exchange. Tell them to let us go." Poor Willas. He looked so hopeful. Grasping onto any idea that they could eventually return home.

How many days and nights had they been sailing already? It all blended together. Edmond couldn't even tell what day it was anymore. His mind was strained and exhausted. Was it day or night even now?

"They won't let us go." Edmond sighed. "Not yet."

"What more could they possibly want from us?" Willas threw up his hands, "They've taken everything! There's no one left but us!"

"Hm." Edmond eyed the man again. He was so tired and weak. Would he even be able to overpower Willas anymore?

"What?" Willas asked, giving his captain a strange look. After a moment, his eyes widened, "They want..." He paused in disbelief, "They want you, don't they? That creature that mimics Maryann. Or the one that takes the likeness of Emmalien." He shook his head. "They can't have you."

Willas approached Edmond and grabbed his shoulders, "I won't let them have you! Don't you worry! We'll get out of this, Captain! It's just us."

Willas embraced Edmond in a tight hug. Edmond felt even more guilty and sour within the embrace. He didn't deserve it. Willas was ready to fight for him while Edmond was struggling with the idea of sacrificing his best friend.

"It's just us." Edmond repeated, feeling cold and distant. He saw Maryann's face in his mind. He saw her holding a tiny bundle, waving at him in the harbor, the sun reflecting off her auburn hair. Her bright smile, excited to see her husband return. He was so close.

So very close.

All he had to do was...

He kicked himself again. How could he honestly be struggling with this. Willas would never consider such. But Willas had no wife or children. He couldn't understand how desperate Edmond was.

But while Edmond was desperate to return to his family, he realized that Willas fought so hard because Edmond... their men...Emmalien's Constellation was his family. They were all he had. That realization just twisted the knife in Edmond's heart further. How could he betray Willas now. How could he betray him ever?

"What do we do?" Willas asked, still looking to his captain for guidance and answers. As if Edmond needed even more reason to feel guilty.

"There is nothing we can do." Edmond grumbled. "Nothing. We are powerless." He felt utterly defeated, "They will take what they want. All we can do is wait."

"We will starve." Willas pointed out. "Until we can find land. Or another ship. They won't let us fish."

"No, they won't." Edmond agreed. He was having an impossible time finding any glimmer of hope.

"We could," Willas shrugged, hesitating to finish, "We have one of their bodies..."

"We aren't eating it." Edmond shot that down while Willas was still in the middle of delivering the sentence. "We will return her body to the sea. We have to."

"I don't get it." Willas looked so confused. "If they wanted us dead, why haven't they just killed us yet. It is as if they are toying with us. Like they want to drive us insane first. To starve us. Dwindle us down. Build up our fear."

"You sound like you are the one researching them." Edmond said with a very weak chuckle.

"I just don't understand them." Willas scoffed, "Why do they want you?"

Edmond froze. He didn't want to answer. To answer would mean either confessing the truth or building up some lie to throw him off. Willas deserved better than that. But apparently not enough to know the truth. Besides, wouldn't that just lead him to have unnecessary fear? He did have one thing correct. If the sirens wanted someone dead, they would be dead. They would come for Willas eventually. Edmond just had to withhold the warning. Was he doing his best friend a favor or a disservice?

Was it truly betrayal if there was nothing Edmond could do to stop it anyway?

"I don't know." Edmond shook his head, "I don't know what they want."

"Unless they lied." Willas offered the idea, "This whole thing was a game to them. They meant for us to go crazy before they finally climbed up here and killed us. Devourers of men. That's all they are. Perhaps we should have seen this coming."

Was that the case? Would they even let Edmond go after they took Willas? His Maryann wouldn't lie to him. Would she? He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of the thoughts. It wasn't even Maryann. Why did he keep getting them confused? It was a slimy creature of the ocean. Not his warm and loving wife.

"Looks like it is useless to barricade ourselves." Willas continued. "At this point, we simply aren't strong enough to stop them."

"Let's give their dead back to them." Edmond told him. "Maybe that is what they are waiting for." He pictured it in his mind. When they tossed her body over the side of the ship, what if Willas slipped and tumbled into the ocean himself? So trusting. He would never suspect that Edmond would...

Edmond rubbed his face hard. Why did these scenes keep coming to him? Was he in such a hurry to kill Willas. The man was practically his brother. All he had to do was wait. But how long?

"Let's do that." Willas agreed.

Together, they worked the slimy, wet, cold, and limp body of the siren onto a sheet. Touching it did nothing to their senses. Their powers stopped completely at death. So, maybe they weren't devils or demons. Just flesh and bone, like the researchers said.

They carried her above deck, careful to balance her between them. Edmond counted every step they took. Each step bringing them closer to the edge. Each step potentially bringing him closer to Maryann. If he had what it takes. Did he?

"Right here should be good." Willas came first to the edge.

"Yes." Edmond came to stand against the edge as well. He looked down at the choppy waters. Were the sirens just below? Swimming alongside them? Was Emmalien there? Would they know that they were returning this siren to them? Is that what they wanted anyway? Or was it seen as disrespectful to toss her off?

It was hardly the time to be thinking it over now.

They were right here.

It was time to toss her over.

Together, they lifted the beast up, realizing it was far heavier than they originally anticipated. The sheet came to rest on the edge now.

"On three." Edmond instructed. He looked to Willas, and the man nodded in return. On the count of three, Willas would shove his own body forward with enough momentum. It would only take a small push...

"One." Edmond steeled himself.

"Two." He eyed Willas' back.

"Three." He shoved forward with all his might.