Deathdream #3

really enjoyed writing this bit.  hope you enjoy reading it...

...

“Really,” said the older girl, conversationally, “You ought to find out what your name is – it’s bad that you don’t know. Really bad”


Unsure if she really wanted to know, the swimmer asked, in a faint voice, “...why...?”

“’Coz they’ll get you and eat you up and crunch your bones and spit out the gristle!” shrieked the younger, gleefully.

“Amanita!” snapped Biffy’s voice from outside. “That’s enough!”

“But they will!” insisted Amanita, with a small pout.

“’Nita – shush!” said the older girl. “You know you have to do as Biffy says.”

“Don’t see why...” grumbled Amanita, resentfully.

“Because he’s our brother and he came here to look after us.”

This struck the swimmer hard, as she suddenly realised that she not only had no idea of who she was, but of where she was, either. Or, for that matter, why. Continuing to stare out at the menacing shadows sliding below the surface of the glowing water, she racked her brains, trying to discover the answers to any of these questions. True enough, she remembered the swimming very well. But, before that...? Nothing; except for the vague, half-grasped wisp of a memory of that boat.

Falling...or being pushed? To where?

Her eyes unfocussed as her thoughts turned ever inward. Probing, searching the inside of her mind for something – anything – that could give her some glimmer of sense. But all there was to be found was darkness - clinging shreds of misty darkness, in which the one dimly shining beacon was the dawning awareness of swimming in the lake.

The lake.

Refocusing her eyes to the rainy, glowing blackness outside of the cabin, she was just in time to see one of the shadows, out in the centre, begin grow bigger and move towards the shore.

This was wrong. It shouldn’t be able to do that. That...whatever it was...should...not...be able to grow like that. And the speed! When she had first seen it, the shadow had been out near the middle of the lake. Now, however, it was heading for the shore at a speed no aquatic creature ought to be able to manage - the water humping up as it pushed a wave before it. But it was. She waited, breath held, for it to erupt through the water, spraying fountains of sparking water from its huge body – and it was huge by now – roaring or screaming as the rain sheeted down its squamous flanks.

But it did not.

“Biffy,” called Amanita.

“In a moment, ‘Nita,”

“Biffy, come on!” said the older one, a note of urgency in her voice.

“Just a minute, Purlieu,” he replied, calmly. “I want to get a decent view....”

It came for the shore, faster and faster, the swimmer was sure that soon it must erupt through the surface, or dash itself to pieces on the undulating rock of the shore. But it did neither. Instead, it disappeared just as it got to the rock.

And a hump appeared on the shore. The rock turning fluid and humping up, just as the water had, as the creature had sped through it. But now it was speeding, albeit much more slowly, through solid rock.

“Biffy!” shrieked the girls in unison.

Biffy evidently had decided that now was the moment, as he put his hands on the balustrade and lightly vaulted onto the walkway, to lean against the wall just inside the windows, and watch the creature’s approach.

The swimmer’s eyes were locked on the moving hump, as it came closer and closer to the cabin, too scared to scream at the visceral horror of watching some unknown and patently dangerous creature doing such a weird and impossible thing. She opened her mouth, and tried with all her might to scream out the fear that was clamouring in her tightened chest, but all that would or could escape was a thin and reedy whisper. As the terror clawed at her chest, and the cords stood out on her neck with the dreadful effort, she felt a small, warm hand on hers.

“Don’t worry – the stilts will stop it,” said Purlieu, squeezing.

This was no comfort. The swimmer was rooted solidly to the bed – paralysed - unable to do anything as her eyes, locked on the moving hump, widened further to take in the approaching doom of the monster. As it disappeared under the hut with a rumble, she drew breath and tried to scream again as the rumbling grew louder, now under her feet, and the creature moved about beneath the cabin. Still nothing but the reedy whisper left her chest.

“It’ll go in a minute,” said Biffy, watching the swimmer with an air of calm.

She barely heard him.

After an eternity, his words proved right, as the rumbling calmed a little, and the hump reappeared and headed back towards the lake. As it reached the shore, the gigantic shadow was in the water once more, and it sped rapidly back towards the centre. Gradually, it receded, diminished, and was, once again, just one of many shadows under the surface of the glowing water.

The swimmer began gasping for breath.

Biffy watched her collapse forward on to her hands and knees, her body heaving, as she fought to recoup the breath she had spent whilst trying to scream.

“Told you so,” he observed, with mild amusement.

Still gasping, the swimmer turned wide, frightened eyes on the young man. What... what the hell...was that...thing?” she managed, between heaving breaths.

Biffy raised his shoulder in a casual half-shrug. “Soul eater.”

Her breath stilled. “A what?”

“Soul eater.” was the laconic reply. “It was looking for you. They love halfers. I think they taste better or something...” he trailed off, looking a little thoughtful. Then he shrugged again, properly, this time. “Dunno what they are, exactly, but that’s what they’re called. Never seen one – not properly. They stay under the surface.”

The swimmer hunkered back on to her haunches, almost curling into a ball, and began to shiver. “It was...horrible,” she whimpered. “Nothing should be able to do that.”

“Yeah, well – you’re not in Kansas now, Toto.”

Amanita giggled. Purlieu admonished Biffy with, “That wasn’t nice! How would you like it? You’re rotten and horrible!”

Crouching down next to the shivering swimmer and, with a maturity beyond her years, Purlieu put her arm around the swimmer’s shoulders, saying gently, “It’s all right – it’s gone now. It was just a scout, and it knows it can’t get to you in here.”

.