Clawed, pale blue hands reached up from the water, gripping his face, digging sharp tips into his cheeks until he shrilled, his tongue vibrating in his wide-open mouth. The wounds blossomed in red, then thick rivulets ran down his face like tears. Slowly he was pulled under, hooked into the beast’s claws. His eyes flashed in pure terror until the moment they disappeared, the water swallowing him whole.
Silence engulfed us. Everybody left standing there in confusion and surprise, with no idea what was going on. The water bubbled and a big gush of red exploded upwards from its depths. The river swept the color away slowly.
“What’s happening!” Someone shouted, running towards the water, his boots splashing into the river as he tried to get to his friend. He waded out further until a shape floated to the surface, a whole body bobbing up, the throat ripped out in a frenzy of ragged bite marks.
The man in the water turned back to the shore frantically. His legs moved slowly, the water impeding his progress. His friends yelled at him to hurry. Everyone was confused, not knowing what to do as the situation turned inside out and upside down.
A head poked out of the water, black hair sticking to it. Two reflective eyes shone with the light of the moon. It was like the oxygen was sucked out of the air, everyone's words vacuumed up. Their minds were stalling. I could see it in their eyes, wide and brimming with concentration. Their instincts were screaming to stand still and quiet, to never look away from the predator or attract its attention.
The man in the water fell down and tried to crawl to shore desperately. The creature reached out its clawed hands, fins on its forearms, gripped the man tightly and then began to tug him backwards, back into the water. The man screamed as everyone stood with mouths hanging up, shock seizing everyone’s muscles as they looked at the creature.
The man’s body slowly submerged as he thrashed and wailed. Terror scratched up his throat until it was just gurgling in the water.
“Fuck!” Loren bellowed and everyone finally snapped out of their daze. Their leader's whip-crack voice was just the starter they needed for their shock and fear to grind into action.
"Get to the bridge. Don't shoot it," he spat the last command like he did chew, ugly and impolite.
Loren gripped my arm and tugged me too sharply from the ground. My shoulder screamed, the muscle straining. I yelled but everyone was yelling. Everyone was moving.
They were running.
Running away from Caspian.
21
Idragged the man down before pulling him close. My arms tightly entwined around his body in a murderous embrace. Plump panicked eyes darted erratically, frantically searching for some way to cheat death. I slid my hand around his throat and felt the weak fluttering of his pulse against my fingertips.
I’d never felt anger like I did now. A consuming rage boiled under my skin, burning out my ability to think straight. Those motherfuckers had her. There was a pungent sour taste on my tongue that couldn’t be washed out. Even my hands were trembling.
I curled my fingers into the man's neck and my thin talons sank into his flesh with the resistance of warm cheesecake. A pale, gooey cheese that pissed out its red raspberry filling. He jerked and bubbles of air exploded from his mouth, trailing up towards the surface.
He inhaled in panic. I could almost hear the sloshing sound of water suctioned into his lungs. He coughed, hacked, writhed, and inhaled more water as he thrashed in my hold. He was anchored in my grip though, his ending already written. I looked on in delight to see him struggle.
Even with water splashing into his lungs, it was still me he was most panicked about. Some reptilian part of his brain was screaming he had to run from the beast that had come to eat him. That if he could just get away from the monster, then he could survive anything else. I smiled wide. Sharp, thin teeth were packed tightly in my mouth. My tongue ran over the brutal tips, showing off.
His eyes bulged again, his pupils enlarging. He gave one last good attempt to kick me off while he drowned but the effort was wasted—a quick burn of oxygen that tapped an exhausted blood supply as life faded. Red rivers floated from the wounds on his neck like smoke tendrils in the air. His body began to jerk unnaturally and then abruptly stilled, his arms floating out to the sides, his eyes lifelessly locked onto my teeth in terror.
His death could only give me a fleeting sense of satisfaction. I liked killing him but there was no time to linger on that fact when Ava still needed me.
I’d done what I could to be the man Ava could want. But a man, I was not. I presented to her a facade so that I could offer her comfort instead of fear.
She was my soul, my heart, my purpose. My calm water.
Now I would rip the blinds from her eyes and show her the beast that lurked behind them. There was no going back after this.
I swam to the edge of the river, my body slowly emerging from dark water as I grew closer to the shore. My water-grass hair was a mess, hanging down into my face and haphazard atop my head. My skin was pale, blue-tinted and thick, made to withstand colder temperatures.
My hands and feet were webbed and tipped with talons. Gills prominently decorated both sides of my neck. My teeth were razor-sharp, made for ripping into a raw fish diet. My mouth could open wide, the jaw unhinging so I could swallow things whole.
Ava would look at me in terror. The bony protruding fins on my forearms and spine, the thick pupils, and the enlarged eyes were all inhuman. Yes, Ava would be scared but those men would be too. They’d bleat like goats.
I’d save Ava by whatever means I had. Even if it murdered the chance to have her love me.
I moved through the trees, animals scampered away in fear. The group had taken off, wild with fright from something they never expected. What a joke. These people were supposed to be hunting a monster. Seems they’d never expected one quite like me to come knocking.
Something caught my eye, an old axe leaning against the tree off the trail. Considering how often these men must have paraded around these woods it wasn’t surprising. The wooden handle had thin cracked lines through it. When my fingers wrapped around the wood it still felt sturdy. I tugged it up, bringing it along.
* * *
