Prologue

Jessie:
I am seventeen years old, the star of the football team, and what many people chase after. My life consists of fighting with my parents, relationship drama, and teachers who give way too much homework. All that makes me sound normal right? Well I’m not. Not since I started having those dreams, what she told me weren’t actually dreams at all.
This girl is beautiful. Everywhere I go, she is on my mind. Even now, after everything that we have been through, everything she has done, after knowing who and what she is, I still love her.  It’s like she is engraved in my mind. Her hair is blonde with streaks of a dark shade of blue. Her eyes are like sapphires in the sunlight. And her skin, is so fair that she’d give Snow White a run for her money. She is hypnotizing.
Everything started when she first came to town. This was back when I had no idea who I was, and no idea who I was supposed to be. This was back when everything was normal. Out of nowhere, I started having these dreams of this girl in a pure white dress. There were times when she would beckon me to come to her in the bay, and other times when she’d be sitting on the shore singing. Whatever it was I was drawn to her.
I had the dreams for weeks, and when I finally saw her face in my reality, my whole world came tumbling down

Sarah:
The water has always been the most comfortable place for me to be. I remember when I was little, I would get punished for trying to swim in the ice cold waters of my homeland. They always told me it was bad, but it never felt that way to me. Of course, almost drowning should have warned me away, but it never did. Before I moved, I would just float in the icy waters and sing. That was when I found out what I could do.
For a while there, I was just considered weird. I wouldn’t wear my coat, I would go outside with my hair wet, and I would cry being forced to sit next to the fire. But the year I turned fifteen, I was considered a siren. All the men of my hometown were drawn to the waters where I would sing, and when they came to me I lost every ounce of control in my body.
I began to lure them in the water, and if they didn’t freeze to death, they drowned. I would drown them. I would take them as far down as I felt, and hold them there until the life was gone from their bodies. And as if that wasn’t enough, I would consume them. Not their bodies. No, what I did was much worse. I would consume their souls.
People were terrified of me, but no one tried to make me leave. Not for a while. I was known as an omen, but not one that they needed to cast out. Some even thought that I protected the town. So every once and a while, they would bring me some poor sucker who didn’t know any better than to stay away from the water’s edge. As I grew, something changed. I’d only knew what I was for about a year, when Jonathan came to mind.
Jonathan was the man who’d saved me from drowning as a child. He was the one person that didn’t give me the urge to consume him, and yet, I was angry with him. He had left me after saving me that day; my only father figure was gone. Just thinking of him upset me so, that I became that which was uncontrolled. I became reckless and stupid, and out of control. I would force people to love me, and then when they got close enough to me, I would invite them to my pool of water, and drown them. Even the people who once believed I was a protector began to contemplate killing me. My own family shut me out, thinking that one of them was next. They even sent my brother, Sasha, away from me.
He was my same age, and he almost looked just like me. The only difference was in the eyes. Both of us with bleached blonde hair and fair skin, we were inseparable. Unfortunately, no one knew how safe he was from me. Months passed after making him leave, and my family decided that it was time for me to go too. They sent me to a place far from where I was used to. They sent me somewhere warm, and uncomfortable.
That was when I heard from Jonathan again. He’d called me and told me that he would be my new caregiver and that he was not afraid. He found me somewhere to live, and taught me the language of the place I was in, all of this without ever showing his face. He kept me from going crazy, and taught me how to control myself, how to keep myself from killing. He helped me adapt.
By the time I turned seventeen, I was settled, and smart. I had learned everything there was to know. I’d become smarter even of the country I was in than the people in the country. Jonathan then began asking me favors. I would do things for him, and in return he would keep me safe, and taken care of. Everything was going great.
Then, he sent me to a different city, in a different part of the country, and he asked me to keep tabs on a boy. I didn’t ask why, I just did what I was told. But I never expected to fall in love with this boy, and I never expected that Jonathan would turn on me when I did.

Chapter 1

Jessie:
I’m compulsive in everything I do. Coach would say that I needed to keep my head in the game, “Always give 110 percent!” Regardless of how hard he would push me when we were out on the field, he was more of a dad than my old man was. I could tell him just about anything. Just about . . . I couldn’t tell him about her. I couldn’t tell him about that mysterious beauty that was making my head go crazy. I was not about to confide in him about the reason my head wasn’t in the game.
I was at football practice the first time I saw her in person. It was September my Senior year. She was wearing a white tank top, blue jacket, and skinny jeans with brown boots coming up past her shins. They hugged the shape of her legs perfectly. We were supposed to be practicing a play, when I looked up and saw her sitting in the bleachers on the right side of the field. She was reading, but every now and then, she would glance up to see what was going on. The sun was shining on her just right, and it made her look all the more beautiful. I stopped dead in my tracks. That was when it hit me . . . Like seriously, it hit me. I was tackled to the ground by my best friend Mike.
Looking up from where I was laying on the ground, I saw her laughing. With that clear look to her face, I knew that she had to be the girl of my dreams. This was that girl that had me waking up at exactly 3:10 every morning in a cold sweat. She was that beautiful nightmare that kept replaying in my mind long after I’d woken up. It was like she was calling to me, and somehow I felt that I shouldn’t answer the phone.
I got up and tried to play it off like I’d meant to get tackled, but it was pretty see through. “Ha!” I said jokingly. “Don’t get too used to tackling the champ. You know I let you have that one right?” I could see her rolling her eyes a little, still laughing at me. Right before yelling at them to run the play again, coach called me out and began to preach to me the importance of the game.
“Jessie, what the h--- just happened out there!? You can’t do that in the game son. You give that 110 percent even in practice! You hear me, boy? You don’t have time to waste, or focus to lose. Get your d--- head in the game son! Get it in there now!” by the time coach was finished, and sent me back onto the field, she was no longer in the bleachers. Somehow, I felt like I should have followed her. I felt that way I did whenever I woke up from those dreams. I felt as if leaving her was tearing me apart.
Practice ended almost an hour later. I dashed to the showers ignoring the comments my teammates offered me. They were the same comments that always got thrown at me whenever a girl came to practice. The way it worked, she was automatically there for me unless someone else said something ahead of time. Most of them were just girls who nobody knew coming to watch us practice. They came top watch all of us practice. Funny though, I had the feeling this girl actually was there for me. How she’d found me, was another thing altogether. “Guys!” Chris called across the showers, “Jessie’s got a date tonight! And she’s hot too! Can you believe it? Another one!” you could hear the hoots from all the guys all the way out to the field.
“No!” I said. “Not to night, and definitely not that one.” the guys looked skeptical. “Look, there’s obviously something going on there that I don’t want to get myself into.”
“Really, Matthews?” Mike replied, “the way you were looking at her on that field today, bro . . . I’m not sure you believe yourself.” that got a bunch of laughs. But if they noticed it, there was only a matter of time before Coach noticed it too. I walked out without countering what he’d said to me. I just wanted to hurry and leave before Coach realized that I’d messed up today. I’m sure he noticed it, but his brain probably hadn’t processed it yet, and when it did, he was going to force me to tell him what was up. He’d think I was crazy.
Walking to my car, my mind was racing. I’d always felt like she was real before, even dated like fifty girls just to get her out of my head. All the world’s reasoning said it was impossible for her to be there. I probably would have been able to count if off to day dreaming if everyone else hadn’t have seen her too. It wasn’t enough for her to invade my dreams, she had to invade my reality too. This was her game, and something told me, that she knew it.

Sarah:
Every since Jonathan moved me to that city, I couldn’t think of anyone but that boy. He kept appearing out of nowhere by the water. It was so crazy he would be there, coming to me, and the next minute he wouldn’t be there. When I finally found out who and what he was, I stayed in the shadows. I was hidden. That was until, I couldn’t take it anymore. I made myself seen at one of his football practices. I was having a hard time paying attention to anybody else. I was actually surprised that he hadn’t seen me sooner. For weeks, I’d been his shadow. Everywhere he went, I was there, and Jonathan heard everything about it. I had exactly seven classes with this boy; he was really unperceptive.
There was something about him that made me want him to come to the water with me. But this was a different want than the usual. This one was stronger. I wanted him to be stuck in the water with me. He was the one man that I was drawn to. He was the only one. Out of all the men to come to my water back home, not one ever affected me as much as to make me want to be with them. Mostly my want came from wanting to kill them.
I sat at the bottom of the bleachers, close enough for him to see me, with my headphones in , and an open book in my lap. Despite what it looked like, I was not reading, and my music was not on. I wanted to pay complete attention to him. He was good. I liked watching him play, but it wasn’t too long before he noticed me and stopped dead in his tracks. He just stared at me with that knowing look on his face. It was a mixture confusion, love, and letting me know that he knew my face. Just at that moment he was tackled. “Jessie! Get your a-- over here!”
So his name was Jessie. Jonathan hadn’t told me that. He hadn’t really told me much about the boy, including why I was supposed to watch him so intently. Granted, watching him as I was, I should have known everything about him, but there were other aspects of him that I was paying attention to. . . Not necessarily his name.
It seemed that he was getting yelled at, an I figured that it was the perfect time to go. I couldn’t be around when his practice ended, because that would spark contact. I was forbidden from contact. That was the one thing that Jonathan was the most serious about. Contact was out, and he wasn’t the type of person I’d really want to disappoint. He was the one taking care of me and everything I needed. He could take all of his help away like that.
As I was leaving, I looked back to see Jessie staring at the place I had been sitting, then his head swiveled looking for me. I rushed down the last steps of the bleachers and hurried to my car. As if that wasn’t enough, my phone rang. Nobody called me except for Jonathan, and he only called when he was getting impatient; when I was taking too long to feed him the information. Those were the times when he wanted to see me in person, though I never got to see his face. I answered.
“Hello, Blu,” the deepness of his voice shocked me every time I heard it.
  “You want to see me?” I asked. There was no point in waiting on him to say it. That would only prompt him to be even more impatient.
“You know me so well, Blu. Be on your way, now. Hurry. I don’t feel like waiting.” he hung up the phone. He wanted to meet at the water. He didn’t really have to say it. Sometimes, it would be at a dark restaurant, where I wouldn’t be able to see his face. Other times, it would be at the house, but he would always be behind a door. When he didn’t name a place, there was only one place that he had in mind.
Jumping in the car, I threw my phone in the passenger seat, and sped out of the parking lot. Ignoring the traffic laws, I hurried. I would not keep him waiting. Already nervous, I was late. When he called me, he expected me ten minutes later. That was that, and that was how it worked. It took me fifteen, and I could feel his anger in my bones. Making him angry could mean so many things to me, and none of them good. He’d saved my life more than once. He kept me from drowning, and he’d kept me from being skewered with rakes and pitchforks. He had complete control over me.
Kicking off my shoes as I got out of the car that Jonathan had bought me right before school started, I ran. I moved faster than I would have ever thought possible of me when I was in my home country. I ran past the boulder by the pier, and deeper and deeper into the trees that surrounded my water. Coming up on a set of trees, I saw a silhouette of a man with his back to me. I skidded to a halt.
“Finally,” his deep voice came from everywhere and nowhere, even though I knew exactly where he was standing. “I do not mean to be rude, Sarah, but did I not say hurry?”
“I am sorry. I was not home.” I said trying to keep the guilt from my voice. I shouldn’t have even tried though. He knew where I was, and I knew that he knew.
“I am aware, Rusalka” his nickname for me made me feel all the more better, but his anger still rang through the trees. “I told you to make no contact with the boy, yes?” I nodded, and even with his back turned he saw me. “Then why are you trying to be noticed?”
“I thought-”
  “I know what you thought, Sarah. But you thought wrong. Please do not take me the wrong way, I only say these things to protect you. You have no idea what this boy is capable of. He is more powerful than he looks, daughter, and he will know it soon. You are watching him, so that when he knows, I know. Do you understand?”
“Yes, father,” when he called me daughter, that was when I was sure that he was serious. His fatherly tone only came on when he completely meant what he said.
  “Wonderful, I would like you to-” he cut off short. A few seconds later he continued at a faster pace, “I would like you to try your hardest to stay away from him. I know your charms at not at your control, but you must be brutal if you have to. He is dangerous! Now keep him away from you, and stay protected. You must leave now, someone is coming. Do NOT be seen, Sarah! Call when you are home.” without further adieu, I ran back the way I had come. If he said not to be seen, then that is what he had meant.
As I neared the boulder and the pier, a face came into view. It was him. I stopped. He’d seen my face before I’d seen his. He kept trying to get my attention, but I just started running again. He was a football player, one thing I knew, was that I wasn’t going to get past him, and I couldn’t exactly turn and run, because he would catch me. There was only one place I could go that I was sure he wouldn’t be able to catch me. I was going to have to make contact with my element. I was going to have to get into the water.
Running for the pier, I made it just seconds before he did. I continued full speed down the pier, and at the edge jumped into the water. I embraced it. The only problem, was that I could not be a siren. Not this time, no matter how much I wanted to be. I swam deeper and deeper into the water. I did not need to breathe, this is something that Jonathan himself had shown me. I heard the water splash, but didn’t stop swimming. The water would tell me when he was gone, my only task, was to stay deep enough, that I wasn’t the one who took him.
I’d sat at the bottom of the water for so long, that when the boy finally did leave, I didn’t want to. I was sure that he’d noticed my car, and he would recognize it when he saw it again, and I wanted someone. I wanted someone really bad. Being in the water so long, without dragging someone under was torture. The water was so big too. I could have easily moved to a different location and grabbed someone. Underwater, I was fast. But, Jonathan had given me specific instructions not to touch another being, unless he gave me the permission. Sometimes he did, never someone that tasted good, but a someone none the less. He only gave me enough to ease my hunger. He never let me gorge myself. I guess that’s what kept me safe.
After I got home, I called Jonathan to let him know I was home. He’d given me more instructions, and asked me what had taken so long, but I didn’t have to answer. He knew. Somehow he knew everything. Maybe he was like me, maybe he wasn’t normal either. Stressed, nervous, and worried about the fact that I had been seen, I plopped down on my bed, and barely took a breath before I was out.
The next morning, I woke to breakfast sitting on the table. An American breakfast of eggs, bacon, waffles, and syrup sat on the right side of the table, half eaten, and on the left was my type of breakfast, syrniki and pelmeni, food from the homeland. I sat and ate, then took a quick swim in the pool before washing the dishes and taking a shower. I grabbed a pair of black pants and a blue t-shirt that had the back cut out. I put on a white jacket, and a pair of blue and white shoes before heading to school.
Taking a deep breathe before getting out of the car, I prepared myself for a day that would turn out to be the start of the worst, but best times of my life. Right before I embraced the world, Jonathan texted me:

You were right. You need to
get closer to the boy. But do not
get too close Rusalka.
Remember what I said.

Even with his permission, I was genuinely scared.