Someone was screaming.
“Rooster!Rooster!My God, what’s wrong?”
I was out of the dreamworld now but still fixed with terror.
Dinesh grabbed my shoulder, shook me, tried to get me to stop screaming.He thought I was still caught in the dream.But I was awake and couldn’t stop screaming.I pushed at him as if he were the creature trying to attack me.
“Stop.Rooster, stop.I’m here.I’ve got you,” he said, soothing me as best he could, whilst I pummelled him and continued to wail.“You’ll have all the crew up here in a moment.”
That got through the horror, and I met the captain’s terrified gaze, forcing my mouth to close.But I could still hear the sickly singing.The horribly compelling dirge echoed in my ears and my brain, eliciting a queasy feeling in my gut.
Dinesh pulled me to him and wrapped me in his arms, which was comforting until I focused on the inky blue creature at the windows standing on tentacle legs, with tentacle arms, tentacle hair, and flaming eyes.
“There!”I said, stiffening in the captain’s embrace and clutching his arms.“It’s there.Don’t you see?”
“No, Simon.There’s no one here but you and I,” he said, after glancing at the spot I was fixed on.“Look at Pearl.”
“I swear the beast was there.Right in that spot.”
Now, only the bank of windows that looked onto the dawn ocean stared back at me.
“There’s nothing now.The creature is gone,” the captain said, forehead creased with concern.
“I don’t know…”
“Do you still see the monster?”
I shook my head.“But I feel it.I hear it.”
The song was fading.The presence was receding.Thank fuck.
“Oh, Rooster.I thought…” he began, then continued.“I hadhopedlearning to control your powers might assuage this guilt that’s eating away at you.”
I relaxed my hold on his arms and laid my forehead against his cheek.“I don’t think that theory is correct.Not anymore.”
“What?”
“I don’t think… I don’t think my own mind is doing this.”
He pulled back, taking my upper arms and making me look at him.
“But, what is the other option?That there’s something out there…downthere…pulling at you?”
“I don’t know.But the creature is feeling more and more real.Those times I’ve seen the monster, here in the room, I could have walked over and touched the thing.”
I shuddered, putting a hand over my mouth to still the scream that wanted to return whilst my eyes bugged with terror.
Dinesh curled over me again.“No, my love.I refuse to believe that.Perhaps you’re ill.You could be suffering a brain disease or some kind of strange contagion…”
How was that supposed to comfort me?
“That doesn’t sound any better, to be honest.”
“No, I suppose you’re right.”
“Do you think I’m ill in the head?”
“No, of course not.But for these recurring nightmares, there’s naught wrong with you,” he said.“I do think the idea of distractions is a good one.Perhaps they will take time to have an effect.But if you aren’t distracted, you’ll spend your days fretting, and that’s likely to make your health even worse.”
