Dragged Deep Down Below

Hold your breath

It’s been a few weeks since the last chapter. We’ve been here before, but if you’re going to start reading today and haven’t read what’s come before, you’re going to need to take a deep breath before proceeding. By taking a deep breath, I mean reading everything that’s happened up until this point.

Tap here to see the chapter list and start from the beginning, or if you only missed last week, tap here to catch up on that one.

Without further delay…

Dragged Deep Down Below

Jeremiah Marsh, Cole Marsh, and Jeddy Lee froze. They were transfixed at the horror before them. The husband reeled at the unnatural events unfolding before him.

Moments ago, this thing before him had been the lovely lady Lily Marsh before it transformed into a slithery creature. The green eyes that had captured Jeremiah’s heart and soul were now round like saucers and glassy black. The smile that once could disarm any anger and frustration he had carried home from work now stretched and lengthened into a long jaw of razor sharp needle teeth. The curve of her back that he would gently put his hand on to affirm her beauty, the same curve he would daydream about when they were apart, now curved into a gaunt arch. His beauty had turned into a beast. Deep in his chest he knew that whatever this blasphemy standing before him was, it was not his Lily. No way was this his wife.

The single note song bubbled from the waters behind what once appeared to be Lily. Five more creatures, Tannites as Lily had called them before her gruesome change, slinked out of the churning black water and crept up behind the Lily-thing to match her song.

Jeddy was the first to speak. He leaned toward Jeremiah and whispered in his ear, “I heard Old Zeke go on about monsters swimming and singing at the rock. He says that’s where the whispers come from.”

“I ain’t heard one whisper since we got off The Herald, Jeddy. Nothing but that song note they’re singing.”

“You think these are what Old Zeke saw?”

“Old Zeke saw lots of things, half of which were a result of being in a drunken stupor. Doesn’t mean he didn’t see these guys. The only question is if he did see them with his own eyes, how’d he live to tell the tale?”

“I don’t know. One thing I do know is I’m not about to go down without a fight.”

“You can’t fight them. You have no idea what we’re up against.”

“They’re about to be up against my fist,” said Jeddy as he clenched his fingers tightly.

“I saw them take Lily,” Jeremiah quickly confessed.

“What?” Jeddy and Cole asked in unison.

The Tannites gnashed their teeth as they formed a circle around them. The three were surrounded. Jeremiah hung his head.

Jeddy took a swing at one of the creatures but it stood a head taller than his fist could reach. If it had held itself erect, it would have been a whole other arms length taller than Jeddy’s already outstretched limb.

“Dad?” Cole asked.

“Here we go,” said Jeremiah in defeat. “We can’t hit them. We can’t escape.”

“Dad?!” Cole asked again. Jeremiah didn’t respond this time. He slumped his shoulders instead. “Don’t give up, Dad!”

“It’s too late, son. They got your mother, and now they’re going to get us.”

The air shimmered and ripples of green light surged through the rock beneath their feet. Yellow light shone from the Tannites hands, or claws, or fins. Whatever they were. All six closed in on their three victims.

“Be brave, boy,” Jeddy said to Cole.

Jeddy lifted his hand in a feeble attempt to fend away what could not be fended away. One of the Tannites swiped at Jeddy. Instead of being slashed with claws, he was slapped with a sticky substance. He held up his arm and inspected the goo. It was hard and tacky. In the moonlight, it was a brownish color. Another swipe, and another slap of substance. All six Tannites began to swipe and sling brownish slime from the yellow glowing lights in their hands.

The slime collected and caked around the two men and the boy. Jeddy and Cole lifted their legs one at a time to try and loosen the substance that began to hold them in place. They wiped at their arms, trying to get it off of them. Jeremiah didn’t fight.

“Man, you’ve got to snap out of it!” Jeddy yelled at him as he wiped a fresh patch of slime off his face. He took another swing at the closest creature. “I’m gonna knock those teeth back into your ugly mouth!” His fist sailed at another yellow lighted hand and missed. As his punch lost the last of its power, a spray of slime landed on his fist and stuck it behind him.

Cole shouted, “Dad!” in another attempt to rouse his dad to action.

“Guys, they may capture us, but they will never conquer us,” Jeddy said with a stiff upper lip. He closed his eyes, mustered every ounce of defiance he could, and began to sing the only song he remembered the words to. It was an old Sunday school song from his childhood when his parents used to drag him to church. “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Oh this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine.” It felt foolish to him at first, but he kept repeating the words as the slime enveloped him.

One of the Tannites lashed a claw out at Jeddy Lee and this time, they left a slash across his face. Deep lacerations cut into his cheeks and blood began to run down his neck into the casing he was being wrapped in.

Jeremiah sighed as the cocoon built around them. He exhaled and said, “Lily, I’m sorry.” The Tannites spun slimy mucous from their spindly arms and yellow lights until the heads of their victims were completely covered.

The two men and boy were cocooned in one giant mass of hardening Tannite slime. Low murmurings could be heard through the walls of the case. The six creatures slithered to the sides of the cocoon, bent their arched backs low to get a grip on their prey, and lifted the cocoon off the rock. Claws on the ends of webbed fingers scratched against the hard surface of the case. They staggered to the water with the cumbersome package and sang the song as they heaved.

The single noted song carried on the wind so loud that it even echoed through the Nexus back to ears of Old Zeke who was laying prostrate on the ground outside of The Green Glass. He shivered and pulled his toboggan hat down over his eyes.

As the Tannites came to the water with their fresh catch, they stopped to stare at The Herald as it bobbed in the waves. Judging it not worth any attention, they stepped into the bay. With each Tannite holding onto the cocoon, they dragged it beneath the surface of the water where no song or murmur from within could ever escape.

In Too Deep

I can’t even give any hints about where this story’s going. Find out for yourself! Tap here to read chapter 9, Into the Water and Out of the Aether.

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Talk to y’all in two weeks.

~ J.P. Simons