She looked down at the jury-rigged float worriedly. “Do you think that this will hold my weight, let alone when I have Evan with me?”
Marsha shook her head. “Honestly, honey, I don’t know.”
“Well, there’s nothing for it. I have to try.”
Marsha nodded. “I know. I love you.”
Erin smiled but refused to meet her mother’s eyes, “I love you too.”
Without another word, the two of them pushed their makeshift raft toward the edge of the pool. Erin eased the first sections off the concrete lip of the pool while Marsha pushed from behind. Some of the inner tubes take on water and partially began to sink, but most of them remained afloat as they pushed through the floating leaves and cut a path through the layer of algae scum on the water. Marsha was forced to stop as her fingers struck the invisible barrier a few feet short of the pool’s edge. She stood and stared at her daughter anxiously. Her pallor paled considerably. She took a deep breath, but all she could say was, “Be careful. Please hurry back.”
Trying not to notice the fear in her words, Erin nodded to reassure herself as much as her mother. She stared at the pool’s edge before her. She glanced at Evan and tensely set her jaw as his proximity invigorated the strength of her conviction.
Without another thought she stepped off the ledge awkwardly and knelt onto the raft one knee at a time. The inner tubes dipped beneath her weight and she clumsily tumbled forward and belly-flopped onto the raft.
With a splash it dipped beneath her sudden weight, and frigid water gushed between the gaps of the raft, soaking the front of her torso and legs. Putrid water splashed up into her face and inside her mouth causing her to gag violently. She inhaled and the slimy fluid flew up her nostrils. She coughed harshly and streams of green algae water mixed with mucus. Ribbons of the mixture formed a disgusting mustache over her lip and chin. The moldy stench was unbearable. She sealed her lips determinedly to swallow back the bile rising up in the back of her throat. Thick strands of her hair were soaked with the gross film, and it lay across her face in wet curtains. She pushed it out of her face and looked around. Flimsy and deflated as the raft was, it remarkably maintained most of its shape and stayed afloat on the pool’s surface. Only about an inch of water flowed over her knees.
Once she was sure that she wasn't going to immediately sink, she reached over the side of her raft and began to paddle with her hands toward the island. Her hands passed through layers upon layers of decayed leaves that disintegrated at her passing touch. Her hands came out green and algae-covered. The raft began to push through piles of floating debris like an icebreaker ship through great glaciers of the north. Piles of molded mess spilled onto her as she passed. She ignored it as focused on her son ahead.
The going was painfully slow. She knew that even though she was not a strong swimmer, she could have crossed the median much faster without the raft. After several minutes, the sun had dipped further on the horizon. Evan was barely discernable amongst the leaves and shadows. She only had a few more feet to go.
Something thumped against the underside of the raft.
She screamed and searched around her raft anxiously for any signs of trouble. She was terrified at the thought of putting her hands back into the water, but she could see little choice. She dipped her hands in the water in quick movements.
The raft bucked beneath again, harder than last time, and she screamed louder as she was thrown over a foot into the air. She slammed back down on the raft and looked around wildly. Upon impact, a lone inner tube separated from her raft and drifted slowly away. She loathed losing any part of the security of her raft, and it was only a few feet away. She slowly reached for it out over the edge of her raft.
When she was just six inches from reclaiming her lost tube, raft rocked again and Erin’s hand splashed down into water as she almost fell over the side. She scrambled back to a safer position. As she shifted, she felt the current change below her hand as something evil reached for her. She fell back clutching her abdomen and instinctively protected the child within her. She stared through the lengths of her frazzled hair at the lone inner tube. It drifted further away. It suddenly bucked up as something below the surface struck it. Whatever attacked it then dragged part of the inner tube under the water. The inner tube burst open with a loud pop, followed by simultaneous hissing and bubbling through the dark green water. It was gone within seconds.
Erin snapped out of her frozen state. She stabbed her arms into the water and paddled furiously for the island ready to pull her arms out in an instant.
With another thump she was thrown upwards even higher this time. As she crashed back down, she lost even more of her rafts from her flotilla on impact. She ignored them as she continued forward desperately.
The island was only three feet away. Almost there! she told herself.
Under her raft she heard a rapid succession of pops followed by a multitude of hissing bubbles. Water poured over her as the raft began to swiftly sink around her. Erin’s hunter was trying to pull her under. She awkwardly stood on the sinking inner tube raft as the water rose to her knees. She stared at the island intently and without hesitation, Erin jumped.
Chapter Seven
Swimming
The air exploded out of her lungs as she landed on her arms and chest. Her abdomen, waist, and legs splashed into the water. Ignoring her pain, she clambered onto the leaf-covered island.
She sucked in air and painfully crawled forward with a singularity of focus. There he was. She had finally reached her son. Her Evan.
“Evan?” He didn’t answer. “It’s okay, honey. Momma’s here.” She reached down and touched his cheek. It was ice cold and he did not respond to her. “Evan?” she couldn’t contain the hysteria growing in her voice. She reached down and scooped up her son, gasping as Evan’s head rolled back and he stared up at the darkening sky with blank eyes. A whimper escaped her throat. “Evan? Come on, baby, say something. Please say anything.”
He remained silent.
She pressed her chest and forehead to his. He felt so very cold and limp. Was he even breathing? She stared down at his chest, but the growing darkness and the multitude of tears were blurring her vision.
Despair began to anchor itself deep within her core. Erin’s breath came in ragged gasps. Please don’t be dead! Please don’t be dead! she thought over and over as she started to rock him instinctively.
A loud splash of water cracked through the barrier built by her growing remorse with a fresh surge of terror. Her head snapped up and she warily scanned the surrounding area for the source of the noise. She was startled by something that stirred below the surface of the leaves at the far edge of the island. The beast was using the shadows to crawl up onto the island, her temporary its haven of safety. Erin clutched her son even harder to her chest and began to slowly back away from the moving leaves.
Another dark voice, sadistic and devoid of warmth all too familiar to the one before, spoke inside her head. "It's too late for you, Erin. You cannot escape us. Your son is ours now. We took his life, and his spirit will now be trapped here with us for all of eternity.” She could feel its cold chuckle reverberate within her skull. “But don’t worry, you will soon join him."
The invader from the stagnant pool started to pick its way through the leaves, crawling directly towards them. Suddenly her foot stepped out onto nothing as she reached the edge of the concrete island. She wavered there for one panic-filled second trying to recover her balance, but with the awkward weight of Evan in her arms her center of gravity rapidly shifted backwards. She toppled backwards with a scream, her clutch on Evan convulsed tighter around his little form.
She splashed into the murky water and was enveloped in its putrid darkness. She thrashed around furiously, but she could not find her bearings. She couldn’t even feel the pool’s bottom. She kicked as hard as she could for where she thought the surface was. Her lungs burned for air. What about her son? Evan had been through too much alre
ady. Suddenly her head punctured through the water’s slime- and mold-riddled surface into a decrepit pile of foliage. She sucked in air hard and fetid leaves disintegrated and flew into her mouth. Erin sputtered and retched as she swatted them away from their faces furiously.
A tiny gasp made her heart stop. The sound was small and weak, but to her it resonated like a thunder crack. Evan’s shallow inhalation was quickly followed by a fit of spastic coughing as he expelled bits of organic material from his mouth and throat. Hope instantly flowed through her. She placed the back of his head on her shoulder for support.
One thought flashed through her with an unparalleled jubilancy. "You’re alive! Oh, thank you, God! Evan’s alive, Momma!"
“Don’t stop now! Keep swimming!” Marsha shrieked.
Erin was momentarily stunned by her mom’s terrified tone.
"You are mine!" the dark thing’s voice ripped through her, shattering her momentary celebration. Its excited splashes approached them, jolting her to action. She looked around frantically. The pool’s edge was some twenty feet away, but where did her mother go? She was right there a moment ago. She pushed away the worry as she kicked her feet and stroked with her free arm as hard as she could towards the pool’s edge.
Another splash sounded from the other side of the concrete island. Then another splash and another from around its perimeter.
"Three more of them!" she thought wildly.
She kicked harder. She glanced toward the end of the pool. It was at least another fifteen feet so very far away. At her slow speed, it might as well have been a mile away. Squeezing her son tighter, she flailed harder ahead. It was all she could do.
Splash
With the sound of another splash directly in front of her, made her heart sink. She was surrounded. Erin’s mind wheeled. I don't care where they are. I'll go through them if I have to.
Her movement reflected determination as she pounded harder on the water.
"Erin!"
She looked up to see her mother was standing at the edge of the pool holding something bulky. Marsha threw one end of the object to her and it unspooled in the air then slapped down right in front of Erin.
"Grab hold!" shouted Marsha. It was one of the lane divider ropes from a lap pool.
Erin clung to the rope while keeping herself and Evan above the surface of the water by kicking her feet. As soon as she grasped the rope, her mother tugged on it with surprising speed and strength, swiftly pulling them through the water.
Marsha shouted, “Hold on tight, sweetie! I have you!
Erin kicked even harder, and together they approached the edge of the pool at a much greater rate of speed. Just as she had begun to feel safe, something latched onto her ankle and dragged her back under. A scream burst from her mouth, forming bubbles into the repugnant water as searing frosty, pain shot up her leg and into her spine. She was encompassed by an oblivion of writhing agony, too incapacitated to notice that Evan was also affected. Her body became a conduit, itself projecting the unrelenting agony that coursed through her and into her defenseless son. Within his comatose state, his body shivered beneath the weight of his own turmoil. Her pain induced muscle spasms caused Erin to unconsciously grip tighter onto Evan preventing him from dropping below the murky depths into the awaiting grasp of the dark creatures.
Marsha watched in utter horror as her daughter and grandchild convulse barely clinging onto the rope. Gritting her teeth, Marsha hauled back on her daughter's lifeline, trying to reel them in as fast as she could.
Marsha cried out as she was yanked forwards by a sudden jerk that pulled the rope towards the pool with violent force. She staggered several steps before she regained her footing and cringed. The lost ground allowed both Evan and Erin to disappear as they submerged beneath the putrid water.
"No!" she snarled, as she stamped down on the rope and pulled back with all her might. For a desperate moment, her feet continued to skid forward several inches before her progress halted completely. Struggling against the mighty burden, she slowly began to make more progress from the edge. The rope was pulled taut. The sudden tension on the line brought Evan and Erin back to the surface, still locked in their agonizing spasms. An oozing leaf lay on top of her convulsing grandson’s head.
Gritting her teeth, Marsha pulled back harder than ever. “You cannot have them!”
The water beyond her loved ones frothed as the evil things below fought frantically to tug their victim’s back below into their grasp. Marsha’s effort was starting to help her gain ground. She almost had them at the pool’s edge where she could pull them both to relative safety.
Suddenly the rope surged backwards into the pool and she was yanked forward off of her feet. “No!” she screamed.
More of those unholy things had joined their evil brethren in the fray and pulled their end of the rope from the depths. There was a loud splash as Erin and Evan plunged back under the water. The creatures pressed their advantage as they dragged the line with the warring Marsha in tow across the ground.
“No! No! No! You can’t have them!” she wailed, as angry tears streamed down her face. She desperately fought to regain her footing, but all she could manage was to get to one knee as they continued to drag her forward against her will. She held onto the rope fiercely, but she winced as her outstretched knee pressed against the invisible barrier outlining the pool. As they continued to pull, her outstretched hands thumped against the unseen wall.
She gripped onto the rope. She shrieked burst forth as they pulled it forcefully through her grasp, burning her hands. She coiled several lengths of it around her hands. Moments later, her white-knuckled fists slammed into the wall. She flexed back with everything she had, but the line would not budge. The rope had become the unmovable object that anchored her loved ones down beneath the rancid water.
An inarticulate scream burst out from her very core as she leaned straight back away from the pool’s edge. The rope burned against her palms, but Marsha ignored it as she pulled Erin and Evan away from the reaching hands of a fate worse than death.
The whipcrack of the rope snapping echoed off the dilapidated shops. Marsha shot backwards, propelled by the force of her own efforts. She landed on her back, still grasping the severed rope in her hand.
She hurled herself onto her feet and winced as an agonized scream reverberated through the air and pierced her skull like a dagger through the ear. She was momentarily perplexed as her eyes followed the source of the scream where a remnant of light trickled through the gaps of the tower slide stairway and shone on them. She saw her daughter and grandson convulsing as the upper halves of their bodies laid on the pool deck. Their chests heaved as they gasped unconsciously. Erin still had her arm locked around her son’s midsection. They were not screaming at all. Both of their jaws were clenched in silent convulsions.
What confused her even more was what was happening around Evan. A dense screen of acrid smoke rose up from his little body. The water around their legs frothed violently.
This scene only took Marsha a moment to absorb before she rushed forward to their aid. She gasped when she approached them. Pinned beneath both of them was clawed a hand so dark it seemed it was composed of liquid night. This was what produced the acrid smoke, and the creature it belonged to was actively screaming in a piercing, otherworldly shriek. The trickle of light touching it seemed to hold the same potency as a white-hot flame.
Something about this sight caused her eyes to ache just by looking at it. Marsha could almost sense that just by staring at it, it was absorbing the part of her essence that was fundamentally good. This was a creature of pure corruption.
Without further preamble, she kicked the appendage away and gasped as a flash of searing pain shot up her leg from the brief contact. The hand plunged beneath pool’s shadowed depths and the screaming ceased immediately. In the echoing silence that followed, she could sense a whimpering of pain that hung in the air. Marsha wasted no time as she grabbed them both and dragged them
completely out of the water, away from the wretched pool. She knelt and shook them urgently. "Erin! Speak to me! Come on, honey, say something!”
Erin suddenly bolted upright and wretched violently. Streams of brackish liquid poured out of her mouth and nose splattering all over herself and the ground in front of her. She finished with a period of spasmodic coughing that left her wheezing. Marsha held her daughter’s hair back until she finished sputtering.
“How are you, Erin?” Marsha asked when her breathing finally eased.
Erin shook her head then croaked, “Better than a few moments ago. How’s Evan?” She looked up sharply. “How’s Evan?” she demanded. Erin looked around and saw him beside her. Her momentary disorientation was erased as she gently picked him up and held him to her. His body limply complied, but his head rolled back. She cupped it in the crook of her arm and looked him over more thoroughly. Evan’s chest heaved up and down laboriously with each breath, but he was still breathing. Grateful for that not-so-small miracle, she pulled him tighter into her embrace.
Marsha helped her stand up with Evan still in her arms. Erin looked at her. “Momma? What happened to him? I’m grateful that he’s alive, but he’s so still. What did this place do to him? Will he be okay?”
Marsha looked at his blank face grimly. “We’ll confront that later. Our first concern is to get you two warm and dry.”
She grabbed some towels from the ground nearby, then threw them over Erin’s shoulders and another over Evan's limp body. “I grabbed these earlier from one of the shops when I was searching for a rope to throw to you.” They smelled strongly of mildew, but they did manage to suppress some of the putrid odor of the water on their skins. Despite their obvious flaws, Erin accepted them gratefully.
“I . . . didn’t think it was safe to go into the shops?”
“It’s not. Especially for you, now that it’s growing darker. More of those dark things lie in wait in the deep shadows of those buildings. They are watching our every move, awaiting the coming darkness."
Leaves and Shadows Page 5