“Do not try to overcome me, for I am Leviathan, and you cannot contain me!”
The voice that issued from my captured throat was deep and resonant and impossibly loud.The words held a powerful command, and I was shaken by their strength.
My anger built and grew.I pushed against the thing that had swallowed me and now possessed me, and I used all my inner strength, letting the rage fuel me.
“No!”
I wasn’t sure if the protest came from me or from the evil thing, but I felt a shift and I pushed harder, standing on wobbly legs and forcing my eyes to open.
Dinesh and Domingo stood on the deck of theArrow, with half the crew behind them, gazing upon me, or upon whatever I was at the moment, with absolute horror.They had covered their ears, as if the voice was too painful and too loud to bear.Pearl, my sweet dog, cowered against a pile of sailcloth, her ears back and her tail between her legs.She was shaking as she growled low in her throat at whatever it was that I’d become.
“Nooooo!” the voice said again, and I forced my way past it, shoving the creature out of my body with a vehemence that gave me much satisfaction but left me with a roiling gut and a throbbing head.I gasped and wrapped my arms around my torso, breathing with relief that I was myself again.
I was returned to my flesh.The voice was mine now and filled with rage.
“Get the fuck out of me you fucking devil!Get out!Get out!I will not let you in, do you hear me?”I gasped.“You fucking little shite!How dare you?How dare you?”I yelled, full of challenge and determination.“Get out!Leave us!Leave us the fuck alone, or I shall send you back to where you came from, and you shall perish in the depths where you belong!”
The slimy, inky creature had been thrown from my body and now sagged against the gunwale, tentacles flopping as the monster attempted to recover itself.
The captain gazed upon me with a mixture of relief and astonishment, then gaped with horror at the octopus-like beast.He darted forward as if to attack the creature but Domingo held him back somehow as the other crew members shrank from the sight.Squid grabbed Pearl, pulling her into his arms and cowering with the rest of the crew.
My body burned with blue fire.I closed my eyes and spoke an incantation that came to me unbidden:
“Take this demon and keep it hidden
Until the day that its presence is bidden.
I’ll not let it use me for anything more,
Banished and bound where it was before.”
The wind howled and shrieked, as black clouds churned around theArrowand filled the sky above us.The creature made a low humming sound that became a terrified roar, its many tentacles flapping and sliding on the deck of the ship as if they couldn’t get purchase.As if the creature was not prepared to be made solid, and didn’t know how to conduct itself.
At least the song was gone.The beast only wanted to get away.
I focused all of my energy and the clouds and wind became a churning maelstrom above us.The demon wrapped the end of its thickest tentacle around the rail and held on as the storm began to pull at its inky girth.
“Take this demon!”I yelled with the force of my witch’s soul.
The maelstrom increased.The creature tried to hold on but was pulled upwards.The monster held fast for a moment, until with a tremendous crack, the railing broke and the creature swirled up and into the dark clouds.
“Take this demon!”I shouted again.“And keep it hidden!”
I brought my head down and gazed at the deck of theArrow, the blue fire blazing about me and through me and in me, but causing me no pain.
The captain and Domingo, the crew, bent to resist the pull of the wind, hair flapping about their heads, hands reaching for solid objects to hold onto.I had to make this quick and end the summoning before they were all pulled to their deaths.As much as the people I cared for usually survived when I called upon my magic, I didn’t want to take any chances.
I gazed up again, through the churning tunnel of wind.Two flaming eyes stared down at me as a mouth full of sharp teeth gaped open in terror.Inky skin flashed and a confluence of long tentacles flapped helplessly above me.The broken rail fell into the water.
“Leave us!Return to your place and hide your dastardly face from this world!For I shan’t bear your torment any longer!Leave us!”
I lifted my arm and sent a bolt of blue lightning at Leviathan.I wanted to finish this, here and now.
The flash of fire made contact with a horrible crash.The beast lit up both without and within, the full horror of its being plain to see.Then, the monster opened its maw even wider to screech as the whirlwind closed upon the beast and curved toward the surface of the ocean, before burrowing beneath the waves, the demon captured inside the swirling miasma.
There was silence, finally, but for the creak of theArrow’shull in the diminishing waves.
I turned to look at the captain and the crew as I tried to douse the energy I’d summoned.
