Jack thought about his parents mysterious pilot crash. He knew there was something wrong about how they died. Ever since he found out about it, he had wondered if it was not an accident but a murder. "She is responsible for my parents' accident. Isn't she? She went after every Smith alive like you said. Oh, my-" He looked at an old photo of his grandparents along with his father, his mother and uncle Sam. "She killed everyone in this photo except for Sam and I!" Serena felt bad. She wanted to say something but she just didn't know what to tell him. "Is she after Sam? Is that why you are here, in Sweet River?"

Serena shook her head. "No, we fled to here for another reason she wouldn't tell us. All she said was 'We have to go now.' And we ended up here. But she is," she put her hair behind her ear and looked down, "after you now after knowing you are a Smith descendant." She didn't want to face him. "I took care of it. You are safe now."

"What do you mean 'you took care of it', Serena?" Jack stepped closer to her. She still refused to look into his eyes. "What did you do?" He moved her chin making Serena look into his eyes.

"I. I just did what was necessary," Serena said softly. "You have nothing to worry about. Her vendetta with your family should be over," she said with doubt in her voice.

"Well, thank you, ancestors for all the love," Jack said sarcastically. Serena slapped on her forehead. "What?"

"Speaking of love, I didn't even tell you that Natalie and your ancestor, the captain of The Lady-" Serena bit on her lip.

"Are you saying the Brothers Smith we are discussing at history, one of them, slept with your 'sister' Natalie!" Jack couldn't believe his ears. "Oh, we are not related, Natalie and I, aren't we?" Jackson said, almost sweating.

"No! Absolutely not! Sirens can't raise children. It is against Siren law."

"Siren law?" Jack asked. He kept hearing more interesting things about Serena's life as a siren. He never expected that the girl from his nightmare was a creature of the sea. A myth. An almost forgotten legend told by sailors and pirates. His ancestors.

"It is a code made by the Elder of a sisterhood, the one who turns you by their blood. It describes the way a Siren must live, or else she must die by the hand of her Siren sisters. I wouldn't want to be an Elder."

"That doesn't sound like your everyday family," Jackson said to himself but Serena heard it and laughed at him. "Sorry for offending your lifestyle."

"Sorry for yours," Serena teased lightly.

"Ouch, that is harsh. Especially, since my family is dead because of yours." Jack's voice had risen. He looked a bit angry but mostly upset.

"Natalie is not my family," she stated. "No one is." She walked towards the door. Jack tried to grab her but she was faster than him. "What about my memories? It is past midnight," she heard. Serena looked into his dreamy blue eyes. Everything in her mind screamed at her to erase what she had told him just now but her tongue refused to say the words to him. Serena just smiled a little and walked out the door. By the time Jack was outside, Serena was long gone.

◇

1 New Message

Jack: Why?

Serena opened the message. She started to type. Then she stopped when she saw both Michell and Natalie. "Sisters, I see your trust in me has completely vanished. Thank you."

"Not everything is about you, Serena. Natalie was just showing me a rather important place in history. Did you know this town is built on the blood of her sister? It started all with a little fire." Michell saw Serena's shocked face. She knew this would make Serena think back about what she had told her before. "Well, everyone is caught up now. My job here is done."

"Michelline! Serena and I need to chat. Go check up on your human boyfriend." With that being said, Michell instantly left before Natalie's anger turned into rage. The Siren looked deeply into Serena's eyes. "You seem different."

"Of course! I had to make sure he wouldn't do anything! Because of you!" she kind of lied with the most convincing expression. "I liked him. Human or not."

"So much, that you were willing to give up sisterhood. You remind me of my older sister."

"Your sister?" Serena was still trying to figure by what Michell had said about Natalie's previous companion. She wondered if this older sister was the same woman Michell had told her about back in 1920. She knew Natalie didn't open up much about her past life, well lives. She had only recently told Serena somewhat about her history with Jackson's ancestor but she never in fact had shared anything about her other siren sisters.

"Anne. She once was smitten by a Smith man like you. I wouldn't want to end up like her, Serena. Before his charm had gotten to her head, she was a beautiful Siren. One who made me who I am." Natalie seemed a bit more emotional than usual. Her eyes looked more pure, something that you rarely see in a siren's eyes. Serena, however, didn't seem to notice this. It upset Natalie even more. "She was a fool like you," she said disgustedly while her eyes turned clear blue again.

"You were smitten by a Smith man once, Natalie. That makes you a fool too. Or did you already forget that William started your whole personal vendetta against Jackson's family!"

Natalie smirked. "You wanted me to postpone my vendetta, which I remember for all the right reasons. I can easily change that back for you. I happily do so." Serena didn't look pleased and rolled her eyes at her. "Can you not appreciate my humor anymore, Serena? Alright then."

"I did what you wanted me to do, Natalie. You have won once again. That doesn't mean I have to laugh at your command. I want to go home. Or should I turn colder like a Ciren?" warned Serena as her eyes slowly glowed.

"Chérie, there is no need to threaten me. Please focus. We cannot let you lose your control." Serena's eyes kept glowing. "Serena!" she shouted.

◇

September 6th, 2019

Jackson sat down in the classroom of Mrs. Weatherfield. He saved the seat beside him for Serena. He looked at the clock. It was almost time for the class to begin.

"Where is your girlfriend, Jack? Did she break your heart?" June smiled and then bit her lips a little while sitting in the row in front of him next to Trevor Princeton. Trevor looked angry at her. "I didn't mean it like that, Trevor. Sorry," she genuinely apologised to him. He gave her a small nod.

"June, stop being a bitch. Trevor literally lost his ex-girlfriend to a wild bear. And let the man date whoever he wants to date. I think you of all people should understand that," said Nathan backing up his friends while walking into the classroom. She put out her tongue to him "Classy move." He sat down behind Jack next to June who sighed deeply. "Hey, Jane." She rolled her eyes at him. "Alright then."

"Serena and I are just friends," Jack stated, finally being able to speak for himself after watching this 'catfight' between his friends.

June laughed a little. "Sure, that is what all the puppies say when they follow a girl around like she is some sort of forbidden meat that they cannot have." She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, you know all about that. Don't you, June? Serena is nothing like you. I am sure of that."

Like. I am sure of that. June cannot be a Siren.

Nathan coughed and said, "Yeah, did Serena ever fuck a guy in Spain out of jealousy?"

"I hope you still have him on speed dial because it looks like Jack is still all in Serena mode," commented Trevor with a grin. He gave her a small punch after seeing her annoyed expression. "I am just teasing, Clovers. People in mourning do that."

"Trev, that doesn't excuse you to act like a bitch."

"Says Queen Bitch," they both said. Trevor gave Jack a high five. "Nice, bro," Nathan commented to them.

The bell rang. June smiled at Jack again, "Well, she is already starting to be late, Jack. That is the first step to being a bad girl."

"Whatever." Jackson looked at the door. "She will come."

Did last night cause her to be late?

Did she get in trouble for telling me the truth?

Oh my, what if her sisters found out about the text I sent?

"Smith! Staring at the door isn't going to help you focus on your English literature project," said the teacher. Jackson turned his head to her. "Thank you. Today, we are going to start reading-"

"Jack," whispered Nathan who sat behind him. He quickly moved to the seat where Serena was supposed to be sitting. He continued to whisper, "didn't Serena tell you?"

"What didn't she tell me?" Jack asked a bit too loud. Before Nathan could continue on how Michell texted Joe that he heard, their teacher turned to look at them. "Fuck," Jackson quietly said at the same time as Nathan.

"Royce! Aren't you supposed to be seated next to Jane!" said Mrs. Weatherfield while sighing. She had done her best to make this seating arrangement to prevent any typical high school gossip and whispers during these times of death. Both guys now looked at Jane. She was practically begging Nathan to stay next to him by the look of her eyes. "Mrs. Weatherfield?" she heard coming from her best student. "Yes, Jane?" she asked kindly.

"I think Nathan should stay next to Jack since Serena left. That leaves Jack without a partner for the English assignment and I can easily do it on my own, unlike my cousin." She just wanted to get rid of Nathan. He would ruin her grade for sure.

Serena left?!

◇

October 1st, 2019

He hadn't seen Serena for weeks. All he had heard from Nathan was that they had left town for some family reason. Why did they leave the day after Serena told him about, well, everything? He wanted to know why she told him, why she let him know the truth, why did she leave him now. But Serena didn't answer any of his texts.

Ever since she had told him the truth, he had been trying to figure out how exactly he was connected to all this. He had figured out his ancestor William Smith was the only survivor of the two brothers. The younger brother, Cornelius, had died during a tragic accident of their voyage to Sweet River. The ship had never been found ever again. Jackson wondered if Natalie had to do anything to this, if she was the reason the one brother survived and the other didn't. Why couldn't Serena answer him, he thought.

"I see you are taking your history quite seriously this year," Mr. Richardson said to the focused Jackson. He laughed at the young man looking at several history books. "Well, yes, sir. I thought why not look up more about the Brothers Smith. After all, they are my ancestors." Jackson smiled. He quickly closed the book about the accident of Cornelius Smith. "What are you doing here so early in the library, sir?"

Mr. Richardson laughed. "Same thing as you, Jackson. Digging up the old files, as they say. Want to help me out, kiddo?" Jackson nodded. He packed his things and followed his teacher. "I need all books on the roaring twenties, specifically the year 1920 until 1925." Mr. Richardson started to grab a few history books.

"Please tell me that we don't have to know everything about this period," Jackson asked, a bit frustrated. He knew Mr. Richardson loved to make his tests detailed. His teacher laughed at him. "No, this is a personal project," Jackson heard. "Personal?" he asked as he gave his teacher other books of this time period.

"Yes, I am investigating the unsolved crimes," he paused for a moment before he continued his sentence, "because they still give out prize money for solving them." He smiled. "Currently, there is still a prize going on for the unsolved case of this woman. Nightmare sure was quite a serial killer."

"Who was she, sir?" Jackson asked.

"We are outside school hours and you are helping me, Jackson, feel free to call me Henry. These formalities start to make me feel very old." He nodded at Mr. Richardson. "She killed everyone who dared to be on the streets, but when she was done with that she moved on to monsters like herself, both men and women. Ironically, she spared a few other serial killers. One of these was the serial killer, the Red Housewife. Rumours said that they even killed together for a while until they just vanished. The cops still want to figure out what happened to them and who they were."

"That is pretty dark, teach."

"Well, someone has to do it. Cops these days can't even solve a simple missing case," Henry said a bit sad. "This one." He grabbed a book called 'The Red Twenties'. "This is the perfect start for you, Jackson." He handed over the book to Jackson with a smile. "Tell me what you think about it. Later, kiddo."

Jackson sat down again at the table. He looked between the pages. He saw old photos of the crime scenes. Photos of the ones who had been killed by these famous female serial killers, apparently there were a few more of them: Mistress; the cheater killer, Perfume; the killer who left a beautiful scent on everybody she had left behind and Shopper, she left the bodies of headless women clothless. Their victims all looked like people who had done something bad themselves, Jackson thought to himself. The men looked like rats in disguise while the women looked like Natalie: cruel women. He turned over a few pages. "1922," he read quietly, "the club murder of the Red Housewife. Damn, nobody survived that dance." Jackson looked at another picture of the club murder. This one had been taken the day after the crime scene had taken place. Jackson blinked a few times. Did he see that right, he thought. Was that Michell standing behind the tape?

He had to make sure no one else would see this, not until he knew what was going on exactly. Jackson went to the librarian. The woman registered it on his account. He went back to the table and looked at the picture once again. He was sure of it. It had to be Michell. Her hair was longer and straight but her face looked too similar to the siren. She had to be the killer. The Red Housewife.

"You do what you must, Johnson! I don't care about your damn rules! She is going back tomorrow without any extra work!" heard Jackson in the distance. He stood up and walked towards the exit of the library. He couldn't believe his eyes. It had to be Michell who walked out the principal's office. He quickly stepped back but it was too late. She saw him.

"I can hear you breathe out, Smith," said Michell annoyed. Jackson acted like he was surprised by her knowing his name. She opened her mouth leaving out a gasp. "You know! She didn't erase your memories. That lying scheming bitch-"

"Are you going to kill me like you did with everyone back in the twenties! I have seen the photos!" Jackson interrupted in panic. Michell grabbed him by his upper arms and dragged him into the principal's office. She shut the door. "Keep your tongue in your mouth, vermin. I am not in the mood to compel an entire high school." Before the principal could say anything, she told him to shut up by humming into his direction. Jackson fell under her beautiful vocals as well. Michell sighed. "Speak! What do you mean I killed everyone back in the twenties? There are so many of them, Jackie."

"1920," Jackson blinked, trying to hide his fear. Michell laughed at him. "The twenties? Jackson, dearest, that wasn't my doing. It was Serena's. Unlike her, I always have kept my emotions. Even when I felt my eyes turning frozen. - If it wasn't for me, she would still be stuck in The Siren Age with those blood drunks," she said to him. "You are lying! Serena would never do that!" Jackson yelled.

"Why would I lie? I at least own my crimes, the good and bad. Serena, however, was like the other cold Sirens, Cirens, bloody serial killers. She even enjoyed it, dearest. Oh, she refused to come back! Even when I warned her in the early 1920s. I tried so hard to get her back for Natalie." Michell looked both angry as upset. "The brat literally made sure I got stabbed in the back by one of her so-called new friends." Michell smiled when she realised Jackson didn't even know about Serena's current crimes. "Ah, I can't wait for Serena to return back here. - Oh, hello, Rena!" Michell shouted as an angry Serena kicked open the door. "Of course, you come the moment you sense Jackson might be in danger. No worries, I am just teaching Clueless over here about the glorious Siren Age!"

༻ ♡ ༺

Hello, reader!

What a part, don't you agree?

What do you think happened in the twenties?

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