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Goodness gracious what had she done. Why on earth did she go and live in the kingdom of the guy that got her cast out. She wishes she’d never saved him. That way, she’d still be happily in the ocean with the other sirens drowning people. Why did she save him in the first place?! She remembers the day clearly. She saw him slowly sinking to the bottom of the ocean, and something compelled her to drag him to the shore. But what was it? What was it about him that made her act outside of her initial instincts. Smiley lets out a sigh. She supposes she’d never know.
Life in the kingdom isn’t actually all too bad. No one asks her questions, or seems to be too scared of her. She’d found a job pretty easily, helping the fishers catch fish. She got a house close by the harbour, being greeted by the soothing, salty smell of the sea each morning. It’s not bad at all. Aside from that one detail.
The wide variety of shops never stop to amaze her. There’s a store for anything you can possibly think of. While you’d think this would make it easy to get everything you need, it actually makes it needlessly complicated to find the exact store with the exact item you’re looking for. And our dear siren has found herself to be lost in the maze of shops once again.
She moved here a month ago and yet she still gets lost whenever she goes shopping. It can’t hurt to just walk straight ahead. She’ll get out eventually that way. She looks around at the different kinds of shops, trying to memorise this part of the shopping district. There’s a pottery shop, a cacti shop, a redstone shop … someone is actually right outside the redstone shop, adjusting the displays outside. Smiley stands still for a moment, observing the person. He seems … familiar. Too familiar. Bad familiar.
She hesitantly walks towards the caped man. “Excuse me?”, she speaks. “Hi! How can I help you.” The person turns around. “Uhm,” she says nervously, “you.” “Me?” “You. I know you.” The guy looks confused, then looks at Smiley intensively, and then he exclaims: “YOU’RE ALIVE?” “Hi, yes I am, you’re alive?” “Ah, yeah.” “You, uh, certainly had a wardrobe change.” “And you certainly had a … change. Do you want to come in? Catch up?” “Sure yeah.”
They go inside the redstone shop, the smell of metal and that red dust hitting Smiley’s senses immediately. “ Haven’t lost your interest in redstone, I see?” she mentions. “Of course not.” They make their way to the back of the shop and sit at a small table that’s been pushed against a wall, scrapes of that still visible on the hardwood floor. “I hope you’re not still making planes?”, Smiley asks, already knowing the answer. “No, no. I left that behind. Wouldn’t want to, uh, repeat past mistakes.”
The both of them are avoiding the subject, carefully tiptoeing around it as if it’ll explode if they make any sudden movement towards it. But they are so curious. Curious to know. “How did you … how are you alive?”, Smiley breaks the building tension. Her old friend sitting across her fiddles with his fingers for a moment, as if trying to figure out where to start. “Well … from what I’ve been told, I washed up on a shore and was found by … my sire … I was on the brink of death, so he, uhm, turned me.” “You’re a vampire?!” “Yeah? You couldn’t tell???” “No? I’ve never seen a vampire. How should I know what they look like?” “Fair enough. And you? What happened to you?” “Drowned and landed in a magic pool.” “Ah.” They sit in silence for a moment.
The both of them had been friends in an almost past life. Dr. Black was a redstone engineer, and still is, and Smiley was his supplier for redstone. She’d never liked that job. It was boring. Until they started talking that is. She’d look forward to delivering to him. They became friends quite quickly. One day, Dr. Black invited her to fly with him, in his newest airplane model. They both wore these really soft aviation jackets. Dr. Black still has his. Smiley doesn’t. It started raining. Now, Dr. Black is a smart guy, honestly, but the plane wasn’t entirely waterproof. The water made it malfunction and they crashed right into the ocean. Unbeknownst to him, since he was unconscious , the redstoner had the luck of staying in the aircraft, which was light enough to float on the water. Smiley fell out. You heard the rest.
They had never seen each other since that. They both had assumed to other died and grieved, but when you’ve become practically immortal, you’re bound to move on at some point. You’re bound to forget.
Except neither of them are dead. Well, not entirely at least. Both of them have a heartbeat. Not a normal heartbeat, but it’s just smalls flutters of occasional beating. The brain is still operating, so why shouldn’t the heart?
“I’m really sorry. About taking you on that plane,” the vampire speaks. Smiley stares down at the table. “It’s not your fault.” “It is! I should’ve made sure it was safe!” “But you didn’t know. It was a complete accident. For all you know, it was just a tiny crease that let water through.” He thinks about it for a minute, before he talks again. “Do you want to become friends again?” “Of course!” She smiles at him. “I missed you, R-” he tries to say, but he cuts himself off. Smiley looks at him with wide eyes. “Don’t use that name.” “Ah, alright, then what do I call you.” “I go by Smiley these days.” “Huh. That fits you.” “Thanks! I chose it myself.”
The two catch up and talk for much longer. It’s not like they need to sleep. What’s going to happen? They die? Very hard to do when you’ve already done that.