Jerome blocked the door and dropped the key into his shirt. If there was one thing he was not going to do, it was let her back into that room. "You don't get that book back. Since it is my possession I have a say in who gets to see it, you are not included in that." He shot her a glare that meant he was far from kidding. There was a tiny flicker of almost a sad look that crossed his eyes, but that was replaced with cold, dead eyes. "That book is not meant for anyone, especially you."
"And why is that captain?" She matched his glare and took a step towards him and the door, "Why can't I read the book? Are there secrets you don't want me to know?" Even though she was quite a lot shorter than him she did her best to seem tall and strong, reminding herself to keep her hand away from her cutlass. Her mind was spinning with a plan to try to get the book back, or for him to tell her about the sirens, but she didn't know if it was going to work.
"That book is none of your business." Jerome huffed. His cheeks by now were a little red, a good sign not to push it to far. The man never was mad, or annoyed, he always hated being like that. Although, if someone were to push his buttons, he would usually say that he couldn't be held accountable for whatever happened. I knew I should have burned that damned book, I should have never kept adding on. He scratched the back of his neck, badly opening up a cut that had been there, it would scar but that didn't matter to him right now. "Being as I am one of the contributing writers to that book, yes, there are some things that you do not need to know."
Reva scowled, "Then I suppose I should never want to know anything about the sirens and I shouldn't look in the book or in there for anything that could help me learn more about them?" Her gaze flicked to the secret room before she focused back on him, her eyes showing exactally how determined she was to get the book back. "I suppose if I keep reading that book then I'll become even more curious about the sirens? Maybe even curious to jump in and go try to talk to them?"
Jerome scoffed at her. He planned to later burn that book since there was a very curious person on board planning on reading it, although he should have burned it much earlier before. It was so stupid to have even added onto to the book himself. I still wonder why I even bothered with that book. "That book shouldn't have even been created, what a regretful thing to have been apart of." Shaking his head, he looked her in the eyes, "And you could have just asked me." There was something, that passed through his eyes, like there was an unsaid thing that only he knew.
"And listen to you? You would most likely leave out the parts that you think I can't handle." She asked, putting her hands on her hips and motioning to the door, "Now, give me that key, I was in the middle of reading a very interesting book that I wasn't supposed to have." In all honesty she was being truthful, she was fairly certain that he would cut out parts about the sirens he didn't want her to hear. Reva was determined to get that book back, or at very least learn more about the sirens from him.
Jerome motioned his hands away from the door, in an almost mocking way. Why didn't this girl get it? It clearly was not meant for the likes of her. So why must she be so stubborn? "If I told you the whole truth, at least summed up since i'm not giving a history lesson here, would you just stop?" In whole truth, he was about to tell her, the book itself held what he was about to tell. Only, it felt much better to tell the secrets of that book instead of it being read on paper, which was the most of tempting. "Oh well, there's such valuable things in there, I guess i'll get another key at a blacksmith." Without a warning he took the key, which was small to begin with, and swallowed it. "Blast, looks like no liquor for me for a while."
She huffed at his hand motion and didn't move an inch, "What do you mean by the whole truth captain? Would you answer any of the questions I ask? Or again, are you going to hide parts of the story?" Tapping her foot she watched him, still scowling since he wouldn't give her the key. When he swallowed it without warning her face showed just how shocked she, "Why-why'd you do that?" She spluttered, motioning to him and the now gone key. It was a smart move she could say, it kept her from getting the key in any way she could, though now he couldn't open the room either.
Leaning close to her ear without even moving from the door, he whispered in her ear. "To keep you from getting it, simple." Jerome smirked, it was obvious that she was shocked from him swallowing the key. It was a little surprising to himself as well, but it didn't bother him as much. "It's not like there is anything of complete value to me in that room other than the book and my medicine anyways." Cracking his knuckles, he made an expression that meant all jokes aside, he was serious. "And to answer you question, yes I will answer any of your questions that you ask."
"I suppose I might take you up on your offer then, though I make no promises that I won't try to get into that room again." Reva looked around the cabin and huffed again, "Alright captain?" She took a small half step back and met his eyes, "You better start talking." Having him tell her about the sirens sounded fun and she was almost looking forward it, though she would deny it if she asked.
Sighing deeply, Jerome wiped the back of his neck to get rid of some of the blood that had started slowly pooling out by now. It was painful yes, but it was nothing compared to sharing the secrets of sirens, secrets that had been pretty much kept a secret for decades by now. "Fine, now what would you like to know then?" He said slowly, through gritted teeth, not wanting to make it obvious that he was in some sort of pain, wanting this to be done and over with soon as possible.
She thought for a moment before answering, "Tell me some of the basics about them and then i'll decide what I want to know more about." Turning on her heel she walked to the bed and flopped down, looking over at him with a face that said he could start talking. "I didn't get that far into the book, so I was still learning the basics of the sirens."
Nodding he sat down in a chair that was by the bed. Scratching the cut even worse. "Well, as you know they become sirens due to a broken heart. To become a siren like the process is still being questioned, although I have watched someone become one." He sighed, "From what I saw, she started hearing whispers and was lured to the sea, where she had plunged into the depths. It was like as soon as she had dove in, she emerged as a siren. Scaled tail, and I would say more beautiful version." Though his description sound beautiful, his voice was grim, almost sad sounding. "There aren't too many basics with them, it's mostly just how they lead men to their doom."
"Then tell me about that." She said, watching him as he talked. Reva put her hands behind her head and laid down, her mind taking in all the information that she didn't know and wanted to remember, "Can I ask one question quick? Who was the girl you saw transform? Was it your sister?" She looked up at the ceiling and thought for a moment, nodding slightly and figuring that it must have been her.
Rubbing his temple in annoyance, Jerome shook his head. Why was this girl so interested in sirens? Yes most people wondered about them, but never really questioned them like Rev. Sighing quietly, he continued on explaining. "Well, they don't have such beautiful voices for nothing. Whenever a passerby ship is to pass them, they will start singing their beautiful tune, luring men out to them. Most of the time, those men end up going overboard to get to the sirens, who end up killing them anyways." He tsked, shaking his head. "As for that girl, it wasn't my sister, I was but a child when it happened to her. No, that girl was a friend of mine, a little more than a friend, at least that's how she saw it."
She nodded, a little surprised to hear that he had watched more than one person become a siren. "What else interesting is there to learn about them that you know?" Reva asked, looking over at him with a curious look on her face, "Do the sirens keep their singing voices that they had when they were human? What if one of them had a terrible voice? Would they be able to sing better now that they were transformed?" All of her questions were ones she thought up on the spot and frankly, she was fairly certain she was just asking questions so he would stay longer. The sirens still interested her immensely but her brain was full at the moment.
All he wanted was an excuse to leave the room. Talking about sirens, as you could tell, was not one of his favorite things in the world to do. Especially not at this point in time, but the girl had asked, repeatedly. So he almost now felt obligated to answer her questions. "I'm not entirely sure about the voice thing. I've seen quite a few woman who turned to sirens, but most of them I hadn't heard their singing voice. Although, the girl I talked about, her voice was not the most pleasant when singing." At that he quietly chuckled, which was soon placed with an empty, sad look. "I think if their voice is bad, its replaced with something beautiful for the purpose of luring out men."
"That would make sense," She said, more to herself than to him. looking up at the ceiling again she sighed and shrugged, "Is there anything else that you think I should know about sirens right now? Otherwise I'll just ask you more questions tomorrow." Reva shifted around and glanced at him for a quick moment, "You seem very bored to be telling me about all of this, so I can wait until tomorrow to pester you with more questions."
"Hmm." Jerome said with a slight grin. A way out now, finally. Truth be told, he was scratching his cut before so he would have the sudden excuse to leave, but now he had a way out of this conversation. "Well, I don't actually think you should know anything about sirens. All i'll say now, is if you ever earn a broken heart, steer away from the waters, and don't give into the sea." He said in a quiet voice. As he stood up and was departing the room, he said one last thing. "It would be a great loss to have you turn into a siren."
His last sentence before he left made her roll her eyes, "Why would you care if I turned into a siren? I'm just another stupid, reckless girl." She said it loud enough that maybe he could hear but it was more to herself. Having him leave left her with two choices, try to open the secret room again, or get some rest. The first seemed more fun but she opted for the second anyway, figuring that with the limited time she was allowed to sleep in here it would make more sense to get some sleep.
(Sorry it took so long, I had a lot of rehearsals since im doing a musical)
Hearing her, he yelled back one thing to her, above deck but enough for her to hear him. "I think it would be a great loss to lose a girl like you to becoming a siren." Heading over towards the side of the ship, he watched the few sirens that hung around in the depths of the sea. What was it that made them so interesting to people? Disinterest growing quick within him, he laid against the side of the ship, his eyes fluttering shut. His last few thoughts about the stubborn girl Reva was.
(It's alright I had a track meet so you're all good)
Reva tossed and turned for a few minutes before settling in, her sleep filled with random dreams. Morning came far too soon for her and she flipped her arm over her eyes when she woke up, groaning and mumbling about not getting nearly enough sleep. Overnight her hair had come out of its braid and it was splayed out around her, mostly laying over her face in an already knotted mess she knew would take quite a while to deal with.
Above the captain's quarters on the deck, most of the crew was already up working. They were, like Jerome liked to say, very proficient when it came to their line of work. One of the reasonings as to why Jerome loved and respected his crewmates. He had been up before everyone on the ship, just a little while before dawn. Alro had found him up early at morning, already planning their route for when they were to dock on land. It made him question what happened with Reva and Jerome, but he shrugged it off.
After a few more minutes of grumbling, she sat up and scowled. Her hair fell in her face and Reva huffed, barely reaching up to brush it out of her line of vision before starting the impossible task of untangling the mess. A grumble of hunger came from her stomach nut she ignored it, the scowl turning into a glare when she reached a spot she couldn't untangle.
(Sorry it took so long to respond, i've been in a place where there's no internet, in a little while i'll be gone for a few more days again)
Finishing the route for the ship to dock on land soon, Jerome examined the page one more time to make sure he had not made any simple mistakes. The paper itself was drawn in such an intricate way that not many would have made sense by it. Looking around the front deck to see if the whole crew was there, he noticed that Reva was not up to hear the announcement about the ship docking. Shrugging, he called forth Alro. "Alro lad, go tell Reva of our plans to dock soon." "Aye captain." Alro responded, and with that he ran below the decks to the captains quarters.
.jpeg)
