Sirena

This is my writing dragon. I'll be writing here when I can't think of anything else.

Maya stood at the crossroads and took another step towards the sign. It was so jumbled and weathered she could hardly make out the little pictograms carved into the wood, but eventually she could reasonably estimate a sword on the arrow pointing left, so she turned to the mildly overgrown path and started her way forward.

"Hello?" Maya called into the darkness. Her own voice echoed back at her. She peered into the curtain of dust, trying to make out the shape of a living creature other than herself. A few dust mites glittered in the light from her lantern. The darkness refused to be penetrated. Maya shrugged and stepped further in. As a rule she wasn't much of an explorer, but this was the last place Cheya had been seen, and Maya was determined to find her friend. She moved carefully across the room, looking for any sign of her friend. Suddenly she sneezed, the sound penetrating the darkness and crackling sharply into the unknown. Maya froze. No response except the eerie creaking of the wood house settling in the harsh wind. That was odd. The weather had been so mild when she'd walked down the overgrown hill, but now she could clearly hear gusts of wind buffeting the walls loudly, howling through the upstairs windows. Maya shivered from odd noise and kept moving. The old wood creaked even louder as she made her way through toward the doorway at the end of the hall. She stopped a few more times to sneeze from the dust, and, emboldened by the continued lack of response, she began walking faster.
The front door a slammed shut and Maya jumped. Her head whipped around to stare at the still empty hall, the wind outside now howling against the broken window panes. Maya took a deep breath to steady herself. She thought of Chechya's golden brown hair, her laugh whenever she heard any kind of joke, her am around Maya's shoulders, and turned her mind back to the task at hand.
She walked into the next room and gasped. The dilapidated kitchen was filled with bugs. Spiderwebs dotted the walls like streamers as roaches crawled all over. Maya groaned out loud at the sight. The furniture was old and the back door was completely gone, allowing the elements to have their way with the room. Maya clenched her fists and screwed up her courage before stepping further into the room. She picked her away across the floor littered with dry husks, crickets and ants, and finally reached the stairwell.
"Hello?" she called again into the damp air above the cellar. The stench of human and animal waste wafted up from the basement and Maya clapped a hand over her nose. Squatters had definitely come through this way. What if they were still there? What if she went down there and was attacked from the dark by some feral human lying in wait? Maya stared anxiously at the retreating steps, mind racing with worst-case scenarios and middle school warnings.
She decided to check the basement last. After all, Chechya was meticulously clean. No way she would willingly enter a room that smelled like that.
The stairs groaned loudly beneath her weight as she headed to the second floor. There were dead insects everywhere, almost blending in to the molding carpeting, and Maya's eyes watered from the effort of trying not to sneeze. The wind was louder up here, shaking the old shutters and making her squirm. Maya crept past three open doors, each leading to similarly dirty rooms with scant furniture. The stained wallpaper almost felt like it was watching her as she approached the only closed door at the end of the hall. The rattling of the shutters echoed in her ears. Maya reached slowly for the door handle, the metal cold in her hand, and carefully pulled the door open.
Something shrieked in Maya's ear and grabbed her from behind. She screamed as loud as she could, dropping her lantern. Strong hands shoved her forward and Maya fell against the door, slamming it shut with a bang! Maya scrambled back gasping for breath, as her attacker burst into laughter. It sounded like...
"Chechya?" Maya asked tearfully. Her friend grinned down at her, green eyes glinting in the dim light.
"You should have seen your face!" she howled, doubling over. "You're so easy to scare Maya! I can't believe you actually thought-" her words melted into more laughter, and she made no move to help Maya up.
Maya bit her lip and heat rose to her face. "I- I was worried about you," she said weakly. Chechya grinned.
"Oh my god. You actually thought I needed you? Oh god thats funny. Oh Maya, come on." Chechya snorted and pulled Maya to her feet. "Did you really think you were gonna find me, what, kidnapped by a ghost or something? You're crazy."
Maya felt her breath like knives in her lungs, her anxiety making her dizzy. "Did you really wait here for three days just to play a prank on me?"
Chechya snorted again. "Of course not, dummy! I went to the house a few nights ago and I just never called you when I got back. I knew you'd come in after me after a while, so I just had Anya keep an eye on your house. What, you think I'd stay in this dump? Please."
Maya felt tears prickle at the back of her eyes and but the inside of her cheek hard to keep them at bay. No way she was gonna cry in front of Chechya. Absolutely not, not again. Chechya slung an arm around Maya's shoulders and pulled her back towards the stairs.
"Come on, lets get out of here before you wet yourself. Its gonna take days to wash the stink out of my clothes just from being here."
Maya closed her eyes and let herself be led forward, but she stopped at the head of the stares. Chechya kept walking. She never saw the pale hand that shot out of the wall and sent her flying down the stairs. Maya watched Chechya's soft brown hair fly through the air as the girl it was attached too tumbled once, twice, three times, and hit the ground hard with a sickening crack. The pale blue boy looked down at the body at his feet, then up at Maya at the top of the stairs. They smiled at each other.
"Another one?" the boy asked, his voice a whisper in the dusty air. Maya skipped down the stairs, whistling as she stepped over the obnoxious girl's twisted body. Chechya, pale and gray, glared at her from beside the door.
"Yes," Maya decided, breezing past her ethereal friend. She grinned. "Another."

Liz steadies herself on the bar as the beat pounds through the air around her. She leans forward so that her curls the people around her and tries to catch her breath. She loves dancing, she really does, but it's been so long and she's never been to a club this crowded. The most popular club in her old neighborhood got packed maybe twice a year, and the press and push of bodies is making her a little nauseous. She closes her eyes and feels the beat pulsing in her chest, blocking out the chatter and the damp quality of air that's being shared by a couple hundred people. When her eyes open, there's a tall thin glass of pale pink liquid in front of her, fizzing slightly.
Liz stares at the drink for a moment before giving the bartender a hard look. He catches her eye and shrugs. "Not me," he says gruffly. She follows his wave to a girl standing across the bar in the center of a small crowd. Liz felt her heart stutter, stop, and catch on fire.