The two of them looked at one another and then fell silent.
"Just stay on your toes," Eddie said.
"Did you bring your mask?"Nagi asked me."You should have brought your mask."
A crimson LED light on a camera in the corner had flickered on.It seemed to track us.
"There's no time," Eddie muttered."He's already heard us.Let's just get this over with."
Eddie stepped forward and pressed in on the buzzer.It whined; somewhere in the distance, I heard splotches, like wet footprints, and a far-distant buzzing.
The intercom blasted on with a whine.
"And so you come to me in your time of need, again," DeFoe said, his loud voice booming, and I swear as he spoke I could smell swamp gas and decomposition like a foul hearty breeze splash against my face.
Eddie pressed the buzzer in on the intercom.
"Look, Gurg, it's kind of an emergency," he said.
"Move out of the way of the camera," DeFoe said."Who is that gorgeous woman out there with you?"Gurg's voice was like water sloshing down a drainpipe.
Eddie looked back at me.I nodded at him, and his face twisted, before he moved and bowed.I stared into the camera, head at an angle.
"What a beauty," Gurg's wet voice said."Well, how can I say no to a gorgeous specimen such as her?Come in, come in."
Something clanked behind the door.A puddle of murky water bellowed forth as the barricaded entryway opened, and Eddie gestured me inside, walking ahead.
"Go ahead," Nagi said, voice gentle."This used to be an honor, once upon a time."
It wassome kind of dark, dank, underground swamp in this room—wires and facets had been arranged in a semi-circle that ran against the wall, insulated, as it headed to a console in the next room.Stained windows peered forth into other chambers.Dark water lapped at my feet from a deep basin etched into the floor, the bottom of which was unknowable.Here and there were bits of technology used to prop up bits of wilderness that had faded and withered from the lack of light.A small, wizened tree spider-webbed itself up and around, its roots dipping deep into the water, another faintly buzzing light gloomily flickering over it, its branches spread wide against one wall.It felt like… well… the whole thing felt like an alligator enclosure.
A massive eye the size of a beach ball, iris slit like a cat's, raised itself on a fleshy stalk from another window, peering at me myopically, unblinkingly following me as I stepped alongside the narrow pathway to yet another rusted door inside.
"Don't fall in the water," Eddie said."I won't be able to grab you."
"What is that thing looking at me?"I hissed.
"Don't pay it any attention," Nagi said."It feeds on your attention."
We walked past the dirty windows and into another chamber.The Eye had dipped back below the surface again.I let out a breath I hadn't known I was holding, and then turned my attention back to the room we were in.
A long, rickety bridge led over the water to another door in the back.Something slimy, some kind of extra-large tentacle had slapped itself up against the brick here, mindlessly rubbing itself against the window glass.We walked past it, and I made the mistake of looking down into the waters beneath the raised walkway.Little red eyes stared up at me.
"Head up," Nagi said.
"Almost there," Eddie said."Just this final door."
Moss quivered on the walls as the last iron-bolted door opened with a whine, and then an even more putrid smell of rot hit me…
Gurg raisedhimself from the subterranean basement swamp, squirming forth from the water like a bilious worm, his corpulent flesh pale and white.His head was bald, separated from the rest of the pile of his flesh by a narrow collar wrapped around a piece at random.The top of his head jutted up into a cone shape, smooth and bald and white, and he wore a pair of sunglasses.His mouth opened when he saw us, and several rows of sharp teeth shined at us.
"Two of my favorite people.And you've brought me a remarkable young woman.What a gift the two of you have brought me."
The skin on the back of my neck shuddered.The sight of this worm-like thing was horrific.Whatever was left of him, however much was hidden, was still submerged deep into the brackish water.Every now and then, hidden gill flaps would open and suck air in.At random, parts of his exposed flesh would shudder, and what seemed to be an infant's arms would begin to ripple and press against the flesh.
"We're here for your help, but the woman is off-limits," Eddie said.
"What a tease," Gurg said, swiveling closer to us.Spiracles opened where a nose might be, and a long, sinuous tongue slid and danced in the air before me."She smells heavenly.Like the moon on a bright night filled with stars."
