It wraps one of its appendages around Faye’s ankle, pulling her towards the water’s edge.
“Oh, shit! Faye! Hold on!” I yell out, diving for her hands. My knees hit sand, scraping against the rough grain. Her fingers grip around my wrist, her manicured nails digging into my flesh for dear life.
The creature is strong, pulling her farther into the water.
“I don’t think this is an animatronic!” Faye yells as I pull with all my might to free her from its monstrous grasp. My hands begin to slip so I dig my fingers into her flesh deeper, determined to stop her from being taken. I’m so distracted trying to hold on that I don’t see the rogue tentacle until it’s too late.
The appendage wraps around my wrist, pulling my hand free from Faye’s. She slips farther into the water with a scream.
Audrey runs over and smashes the tentacle attached to me with a rock over and over again until it finally lets go of me and Faye. She scrambles up on all fours and I help her get to standing. On her ankle and leg there are suction marks, all dark red and raised along her skin. Audrey drops the rock as the creature lets out a roar so fierce that my ears ring.
“Definitely not fake,” I say at almost a whisper because my brain can’t process what I’m seeing. We were just in that water not even a half an hour ago. Was that thing in there this whole time?
The three of us scramble backwards as the creature thrashes its many tentacles about in the water, searching for something or someone to grab onto. It catches the leg of one of the chairs we were just lying in. The thing breaks it in half throwing the bits haphazardly about. It narrowly misses us, landing just a few inches in front of us with a loud smack.
“Run!” I say, realizing that we need to get the hell out of here.
We sprint out of its way, booking it to our cabin where Stephanie, Iris, and McKenzie have already barricaded themselves inside.
I bang on the front door with my entire forearm. “Let us in!”
The knob turns and the door flies open, letting us spill in. We’re soaking wet, breathless, and scared shitless. A puddle forms at my feet as shivers wrack through my body. I’m suddenly freezing.
I rush over to the window and pull the shudders wide open to get a good look at whatever monstrous creature that was, but when I look out over the water, there’s nothing. Not even a ripple in the water.
There’s no way all six of us hallucinated it, so what the hell? It couldn’t have just disappeared so quickly, could it?
“It’s gone!” I exclaim.
“What? Let me see,” Faye says, shouldering me out of the way with a limp in her step.
Her mouth drops open. “How?”
The rest of our friends crowd around the window, straining to see. We’re quiet, trying to process it.
“See, it was an animatronic, right?” McKenzie says first breaking the silence.
“… right,” Faye answers after a substantial beat. But as she limps over to her bed, I can see the doubt cast across her face.
I felt the tentacle myself. It didn’t feel robotic or manmade.
“I’m taking a shower,” I announce to no one in particular. I just need a moment to clear my head.
The shower is cold as fuck and more of a trickle than a steady stream of water. I go as fast as I can, trying to scrub the feel of that creature from my memory, but no matter how hard I scrub, I can still feel it slithering and suctioning my skin. My wrist still shows a visible red ring from where it gripped me.
There’s something about this place that has my mantra from my therapist not holding up. There are cracks forming in believing it’s all fake. Even with my experience with Hendricks last night had me wondering at times if there was something more to him. He has an essence of darkness that clings to him like a second skin. When I asked him to bite me, his fangs felt like they were real teeth. Though, I thoroughly enjoyed being ravaged by him, it felt like maybe he was holding back or hiding something. And the way we left things…
My mind wanders and then that prickle at the back of my neck rouses me from my thoughts. Like I’m being watched. I glance around, listening to hear if someone else is in here. But the only sound is the paltry amount of water slapping on the concrete from the shower head.
The water suddenly sputters to a stop leaving me shivering, naked, and wet out here in the small showering station.
There are six stations total that have a flimsy sheet curtain pulled around each crooked shower head. The floor is concrete with one lone drain positioned in the center. But with the floor being uneven, the water pools at my feet. Thankfully, I came prepared and wore my black flip-flops in here. Not today, athlete’s foot.
I quickly dry myself off and dress in a white tank and jean shorts. My hair gets tied up in a makeshift messy bun for now, wanting the wet pieces out of my face.
It’s when I leave the shower station that I notice wet footprints leading from the room to the path outside.
Chapter 18
