Jill pointed down at the arm. It bobbed on the surface for several seconds before it was struck by a serpentine shape. Suddenly, a swarm of eels was biting the arm, tearing and nibbling.
“It’sher, Charles! It’s Mrs. Smith.”
“Where? I don’t see her!”
“She’s killing all the kids! If we go in the water, she’ll get us, too!”
Charles shook his head. “This can’t be happening. What are we going to do?”
Jill put her hands on Una’s cheeks and turned her head away from the water. “Una. We have to get on a lifeboat.We have to go now!”
Una’s eyes were haunted. She tried to look at the water again, but Jill wouldn’t let her. “I must stop her.”
Charles tugged on Una’s arm. Together, he and Jill finally got her to move.
As soon as they led her away from the bow, Una seemed to come back to herself. Wrenching her wrist out of Jill’s grasp, she scooped a rectangular plastic bag off the floor and told the kids to hurry.
Bent over, as if the smoke and falling ash were pressing down on them, they hurried to the lifeboat station. The wind shifted again, and the air around that part of the boat almost cleared.
As they paused to suck in a breath of clean air, Jill scanned the dark horizon, searching for the lifeboat’s bow lights.
“Listen,” Una said, putting a hand on Jill’s and Charles’sshoulders. “When the boat comes back, you two need to get on it. I’m not going with you. I need to wait. For her.”
She unzipped the plastic bag and removed a pair of steel poles. One of the poles looked like the tip of a spear. Jill saw the lettering on the bag and realized what Una planned to do. Her eyes flooded with tears.
“No, Una! A harpoon won’t work. You’ll never get close enough. You have to come with us!” Jill started crying hard. “Please!I won’t go without you.”
“You must,” Una said, already heading for the stairs leading to the lower deck.
The guests who hadn’t jumped overboard or found a space in the lifeboat were milling around the aft section, sticking close to the rails. Everyone wore a life jacket. Jill didn’t see any little kids in the crowd. Most of the kids her age were gone, too.
Unable to find her parents or her brother, Jill felt a fresh stab of fear. Were they in the lifeboat? Were they in the water? Out there, withher?
Are they still alive?
The lights of the houses along the shore were a world away. There, behind walls of wood and glass, people were watching TV or reading books. Some were asleep. To them, the darkness was a comfort. It shrouded them in silence, invited them to rest. To Jill and the other partygoers, the dark night with its eyelash of a moon provided cover for the demon in the water.
The stars turned their shining faces away from the burning boat. Smoke blotted out the impotent moon. The air tasted of poison. The wind threw ash like confetti.
“The lifeboat’s coming back!” a man shouted.
Jill heard the panicked voice of a woman. “Where are the kids? I can’t see the kids!”
People surged to the starboard side, desperate to secure a seat on the lifeboat.
A crew member tried to instill order. “Stop pushing! Form a line! Women and children first!”
Jill looked around for J.J., or Heather, or Aaron, or anyone she knew. Every face was turned toward the shore. Every head was veiled in soot. Jill couldn’t tell who was who. She pictured the chewed arm and the heads bobbing in the water like a pod of seals. She pictured the monster pulling them under, one by one, and biting them. Heather, Aaron, Lisa, Christine, Billy, Jason, Kim, Brian, Michael.
Bile surged up Jill’s throat, and she rushed over to the rail to vomit. As she heaved, tears escaped from the corners of her eyes. The wind snatched them away before they could fall into the harbor.
When Jill stopped retching and could stand upright again, Una took the towel-wrapped knife out of her purse. She gave the towel to Jill and pressed her grandmother’s knife into Charles’s hand.
“Mrs. Smith is killing the children. She killed my sister. I must stop her.”
The lifeboat glided to the yacht’s side. “Rescue boats are on the way!” the crew member shouted up to the guests. “ETA is five minutes! Stay calm!”
“We don’t have five minutes!” a man cried. “This thing’s gonna blow!”
