Oculus

by S. E. Akers

  Tanner halted his throw. “Amphibious,” he replied.

  Now knowing it could be ANYWHERE sent me straight into a speedy 360° spin on the spot. Tanner acknowledged my ruffle with a grin and then resumed slinging his rock. I trailed its skip across the water, growing more frustrated with every hop I tallied. He pointed towards the pool, his eyes brimming with pride from his lengthy run of bounces. “That might be a record,” he bragged.

  I slapped my arms down against my legs. “That’s all you’re going to tell me?”

  My mentor shot me an amused glare. “You’re determined to suck the fun right out of this, aren’t you?”

  I had to catch my bottom lip before it ended up with a mouthful of sludge. “No. I’ve been mauled, gored, bitten, kicked, and swung like a pendulum by these things,” I replied, counting them off with my fingers. “All I want is more of a courteous heads-up!” I started to storm off in protest, but my heated gait turned out to be more of a wobbly stomp. The muck caking my shoes had already hardened and was collecting even more mud. I couldn’t have that, especially since I still had no idea how deft or fast this thing was. I spotted a semi-dry log wedged against the bank and trudged a path towards what I viewed as the answer to my no-doormat dilemma. After all, I wasn’t a water elemental who’d been commanding small streams of pond water to wash off my shoes since we’d dropped into this swamp hole. And past experience prevented me from asking him for any assistance in that department.

  Oh yeah… He would give me a proper hosing. I slung off as much crap as I could with a couple of heated shakes and then hopped onto the log. I raked my soles across the rough bark. Every scrape left me feeling even pissier about his last little crack. “I promise you,” I shouted. “I’m not trying to ruin the little boy’s fun!” I may have thrown a rock at his rear too — but not that hard.

  Tanner bit back his smile and then directed his gaze to the turbid water. A small wave rose from its surface but remained right where it was, steadily building. “I can help the little girl get cleaned up if she’d like,” he hinted.

  I pitched the rest of my ammo into the water. I knew it. “No thank you,” I surrendered, holding up my empty hands and waving them innocently. “Not necessary.”

  Tanner released his wave back into the water, laughing. “You’re already muddy. Don’t think for one second you’re not going to get wet.”

  I narrowed my eyes, pouting silently. I figured that. But that didn’t stop me from praying that I avoided too much grossness.

  “So did you bring the oculus?” I asked.

  “No,” he replied. “I didn’t see the need.”

  Well, so much for “encouraging”. “Thanks,” I snarked and gave my shoe another feisty scrape.

  “That’s not what I meant.” Tanner extended a gruff sigh and slung another rock into the water. “I haven’t located its eyes.”

  Its splash paled to the “boom” pounding the receptors in my brain. “I’m sorry. Did you say, ‘you haven’t found its EYES’? The very things I need to for the oculus to work in the first place?”

  He never looked my way. “That’s what I said.”

  All of my muscles went to jelly. That wasn’t just any bomb — more like a leveling nuclear blast. “How am I supposed to get rid of it?” I blurted. “Without its EYES?”

  “It has to have some,” he assured. “Somewhere.”

  I pursed my lips, head shaking. Sometimes knowing things proved worse than being left in the dark, but even that couldn’t halt my whirling speculations. “Well, is there anything else more paramount I should know about?”

  My mentor shifted his gaze, now staring long and hard at me in silence. A bright flicker sparked in his eyes like lightning breaking loose from a smothering cluster of thunderclouds. I always dreaded what followed that particular dark look.

  “Yeah,” Tanner confirmed. He tossed the rest of his rocks on the ground and dusted off his hands. “Heads-up — You’re standing on it.”

  I’d no sooner looked down at the rough bark of what I’d thought was a half-sunken log when the creature’s body spun in a jerk. Fortunately my reflexes kicked in, keeping my shuffling feet steady despite its accelerating turns. I knew my luck was about to run out as soon as I’d spotted Tanner’s amethyst blade streaking across the pond. It speared the creature a few inches below my feet. The long, scaly body of the beast jerked with a flinch and ended up flinging me into the air before I could dive towards the bank. My body smacked the water several yards away — too many for my liking. I scrambled to the surface. Tanner had barely retrieved his sword before the creature completely submerged itself. It was now somewhere under the water, right along with three-quarters of waterlogged and worried me.

  I’d already started swimming when I sensed Tanner directing the water to swiftly carry me the rest of the way. I crashed onto the shore of the bank a few seconds later, thankful for his wet-handed ride.

  My mentor had just grabbed hold of my hands to help me up when I felt something slide over my legs and then clamp down like a vise. I shot up immediately and looked down. Both my limbs from the knees down were being sucked inside an enormous, crusty-scaled creature, more worm-like than a snake. Its mouth looked like a wadded up mesh of slimy layers that kept stretching over my body and slurping more of me inside its repulsive tubular form.

  Without a second to lose, Tanner shot a gust of layria bark at the beast. Its entire body froze immediately. A sigh of relief was just about to boom from my lungs when the creature suddenly sprang back to life.

  I tried wrestling free, but its hold had already tightened. “I thought you said it would knock these things out for TEN or FIFTEEN MINUTES?” I shouted.

  Tanner looked beyond baffled. “It usually DOES!” he argued. He tried the layria bark again — several more times to be exact. The results were always the same, like trying to lay hate with a BB gun. “This thing’s scales have to be neutralizing its effects.”

  After its slimy mouth had extended over my thighs in a foul gulp, I didn’t care if the damn thing had been magically vaccinated. “Pull me out!” I yelled.

  Tanner snatched my wrists and gave them a yank. “Stop moving!” he demanded, tugging fiercely. A putrid yellow ooze rolled out of the creature’s mouth and poured all around me. It seemed to be giving the beast just the right amount of lubrication to slide me in without much effort at all. The part of me that was already inside the creature could feel something locking me in place, vacuuming my frame helplessly like hundreds of super-charged wet suction-cups. This thing was making sure I couldn’t wiggle my way out. My harrowing position did afford me something: an up-close & personal view. Tanner was right about the eyes. I couldn’t find any either, and I had nothing to do but look — and freak-out. Nope. All this ugly creature had up front was one big ole mouth with half of me sticking out of it.

  Oh, and he was correct about it not having teeth — THANK GOODNESS!

  With my belly no longer visible, a fateful prediction surfaced that didn’t require the first drop of Emerald Eyes or shaking any Magic 8 Balls. No matter how hard the powerfully strong Amethyst Talisman heaved, my pig-in-a-blanket butt was getting eaten.

  “You’d better PULL HARDER!” I pleaded. “I’m glued in here!”

  Tanner commanded a rush of water directly into its orifice. Whether his goal was to choke the creature or loosen its hold, the damn thing ended up clenching its muscles even tighter. My head rocked backward after witnessing the creature’s mouth blanketing my breasts.

  My glare was painfully raw. “DO NOT LET THIS THING EAT ME!” I grumbled.

  “I WON’T!” Tanner vowed and dug his feet deeper into the sludge. The force behind both the monster’s and my mentor’s steadfast grip was as agonizing as it was nerve-racking. Here I was, now literally face-to-face with this thing. More icky goop spilled onto what little of my chest was left. My heart was thumping so hard I could feel every one of its smacks beating against the inside walls of the creature’s mouth. I honest
ly felt like the knotty old rope in a sick game of tug-of-war. Despite the bitter gnaw of my strain, I remained fixed exactly where I was: still boob-deep in the beast and holding — no more, no less. I didn’t dare conjure any wind. What if my gust knocked Tanner off? I would end up further down this thing’s tube for sure. The way I felt right now and after the promise he’d made, his ass had better dive in here with me. Teachers have to go down with the ship too — the same as captains!

  The folds covering the beast’s mouth extended again, attempting to devour what was left of me. The last thing I saw before my world started to go all dark and nasty was the vehement color swirling in Tanner’s eyes — a hue that swayed more alarmingly red than purple. The squishy, suction-like muscles lining the creature’s insides were clinging to me from the neck down. I shut my mouth quickly and braced for another jerk. It came just as forcefully as I’d expected, but I hadn’t planned on the absence of Tanner’s hold. I’d broken away from his grasp and was now fully ingested in the pitch-black, slimy innards of what amounted to supernatural fish-bait — except I was the one dangling on the rusty hook.

  I felt the creature starting to move backward, but it abruptly halted in a jerk. “Shiloh, it’s trying to submerge!” Tanner called telepathically. “You have to help me stop it! Try poisoning it with your lapis lazuli!”

  The thought was crossing my mind just as his suggestion hit. I think I wanted to hear an “I’m sorry for letting it eat you” first, but I wasn’t about to turn a deaf ear to any valuable strategies.

  Now the only problem was picking an orifice and getting it out. Opening my mouth was out of the question, knowing I would gag on the creature’s slimy belly juices for sure. So with that considered, I focused on the lapis lazuli’s powers and snorted the noxious powder straight out of my nose, blowing hard enough that I felt like a bugler at the crack of dawn. And at the rate this dynamo was churning out the blue toxin, I probably looked like a daggone Smurf.

  The creature started flopping around instantly, squealing a high-pitched sound the entire time. Then all of a sudden it stopped. No noise, no movement. I took that as a good sign until a loud gurgling sound rumbled around me and then a roar exploded from the creature’s rear. If what I’d just heard was an actual fart, I only hoped it smelled really, really rank out there.

  Oh, ‘I won’t’, I groused, recalling Tanner’s last words to a ticked-off T.

  The next thing I knew, the creature had fortified its hold with an insane amount of suction and away it went again, tugging me further into its belly.

  Hell no, I rallied. I wrenched my right hand free and scraped a sluggish but steady path down to my side. Thankfully I was able to cut through enough of its sticky muscles with my diamond-hard fingernails. I wiggled my hand around to my thigh and gripped my hilt. Once I’d managed to pry my weapon free, I pressed it against the creature’s side and summoned the diamond blade to appear in a violent twist. The beast writhed in a fit and let out an ear-piercing shriek. The more I cut, the more room I had to maneuver inside the creature’s belly. Within a matter of several slicing-seconds, I was finally free.

  I wrestled my frame out of the horrid remains and then rose to my feet, shaking off chunks of the creature’s slimy insides and covered in sticky yellow goo. I retracted my blade and holstered my weapon, desperate to get as much of the putrid gunk off my face as quickly as I could. Once my eyes were clear enough to focus, I homed in on Tanner. My arm shot towards the severed carcass with a cocked finger so sharp and pointy it could rival any Veil-blessed blade.

  “You let that thing EAT ME!” I fussed, winded and downright pissed.

  Tanner brushed past me looking relieved but nowhere near as concerned as my pride would have preferred. He walked over to the creature’s front section lying limp on the ground, the portion that held the beast’s mouth. He gave it several kicks and then waited for any signs of movement. When not a solitary muscle roused the first twitch, he moved to the other end and commenced with the same suspicious examination. Again, nothing moved.

  “Maybe it wasn’t immortal after all?” I posed. It sure looked good and dead to me. My optimism didn’t sway my mentor’s focus. He stood there intently eyeing the creature with his arms dug into his waist, not looking the least bit convinced.

  I’d had my feel of his blind-eye routine. I sidled next to him. “I’m OKAY — in case you’re interested.”

  Now more attentive and looking painfully ashamed, my mentor turned to me with a whip and started to take my hand. That is, until the sound of something thumping alerted both our ears. We turned to each of the sections, which were now twisting and turning in a convulsive fit. The creature was slowly mending itself right before our eyes, and both sections were growing. The top portion was working on reforming its tail while the back end started sprouting its very own head. Our mouths were so gaped any curses we mumbled would simply fall right out and land smack in the sludge.

  “No. It’s clearly immortal, all right.” My mentor and I took several defeated steps backward and then stood there to watch the twins slowly writhe a sightless path back into the water. “Correction,” he remarked. “They are.”

  My gaze fell to the ground, searching for my downhearted spirits. It sure felt like they were lodged down there, somewhere amongst the crap. In one fell swoop of my blade, I’d gone from five monsters to SIX.

  Shit.

  My peripherals snagged Silas standing on the bank. “Here you are, Professor,” the house steward announced and then handed Tanner a fluffy white towel. I spied a growing grin when Silas extended the other one he was toting my way. “Why look . . . there’s two,” he remarked, giving the second towel a cutesy little shake.

  I averted my sneer. Though my skin was pleading its case, I couldn’t bring myself to snatch the damn thing out of his hands, let alone look at him. I could feel the high arch jacking up that know-it-all brow of his, as well as the icy criticism searing the whites of his eyes.

  How else was I supposed to get out? I didn’t know what that thing’s stomach could do to me before long and neither did Tanner. And I certainly didn’t want to think about escaping through a more natural exit. I had to make my own. My confounded stare bounced between Thing-One and Thing-Two. Who freaking knew?

  Silas stepped closer, angling for my ear. “You were right, Ms. Wallace. You certainly don’t make the same mistake twice, not when there are so many new ones at your disposal.”

  The house steward’s jeers carried on throughout the rest of the day. My conditioning proved to be “twice the fun” when he insisted on hurling TWO of anything sharp & iron that he could find at me — at the same time. Silas claimed that he had no idea how bored I must have been with merely “one” of everything. He planned on rectifying that from here on out. Then came dinner, and his version of the classic two-for-one special he kept placing in front of me. My filet arrived pre-cut, sliced into two perfect sections. Along with it lay two tiny golden potatoes flanked by two steamed broccoli florets and two baby carrots. And I couldn’t forget the two rolls and two butter rosettes that accompanied his painstaking masterpiece.

  I stared at my plate. Part of me was hungry enough not to care, though the rowdy redneck in me wanted to stack every individual item onto my steak knife, grab the arrogant artisan, and stick it where the sun didn’t shine, twice.

  Tanner noticed I hadn’t touched my food. “Is there something wrong with your meal?” he questioned.

  I shook my head. After all, he couldn’t see the house steward’s prank sitting all the way down there — a daggone country-mile away.

  “Not one thing,” I replied and then aimed my stare to Silas who was standing nearby. “Nor two,” I insisted. If I had clenched my sickening-sweet smile any tighter, I would have probably chipped out my two front teeth.

  I kept my stare glued on the house steward as he strutted out of the room. He had some serious payback headed his haughty way. I just needed to hatch something fitting enough. Something that didn’t
require me physically ripping him two new assholes.

  I sliced into my steak so hard the china squeaked. Well, he’d better keep up his theme and bring me “two” desserts!

  CHAPTER 8

  The lights in the main house were still doused when I arrived for breakfast thirty minutes early the next morning. I slunk my way into the shadowy dining room with a proud smile hoisting my cheeks. Oh, there could have been a little smug jacking them up there too. Silas was in the kitchen preparing breakfast “clanking” and “clattering” about, and by my guesstimate, he hadn’t stepped one foot in here yet.

  Good, I nodded and then slipped into my usual chair, now dug in for my wait. My expression exploded immodestly as I panned the dim scene. Somehow all the leaves from the mile-long table went missing last night, as well as the fourteen spare dining chairs that formerly lined the walls. Wonder whose “two” hands could have had a hand in THAT? It took me long enough to do it — twenty creeping trips down the stairs to be exact. I hid everything inside an empty chamber and then used a little of my own magic to make damn sure they wouldn’t be found. The noise wasn’t a factor in the least. Between Tanner off doing who-knows-what down in that secret lair of his and the ceaseless rounds of moaning chants and wake-the-dead throat singing numbers I heard blaring from Silas’ upstairs bedroom, I could have drop-kicked all that stuff the entire way.

  Roughly twenty minutes later, the dining room illuminated in a blinding flash—the chandelier above, each of the outlining spots, and every single sconce—all at once and without the first hand flipping any of the surrounding wall switches. I didn’t even hear any spirited “clap-claps” coming from the other room.

  My lips tightened into an insightful pucker. Yep… You’re some kind of supernatural son-of-a-bitch all right.

  Silas charged into the room like always, rear first through the swinging door. My “minor adjustment” came into view just as he was placing his serving tray down on the buffet that would normally sit to his left. The sight of the pompous house steward’s plummeting mouth was priceless enough, but imagine my delight when the silver service tray beat his bottom lip to the floor in a rackety “crash”. Yeah, I may have scooted the buffet down a teensy bit too. Though in my defense, the room looked a little off with all those leaves and chairs gone. I figured the King of Couth would appreciate the feng shui.