by Serena Vale
She liked herself as she was.
Her hair, now without sand or sea salt in it, took on its usual shade of jet black. Her eyes, without the red in them, more clearly showed their normal shade of brown. Her skin looked lightly sun burnt, but apart from that she didn’t appear to have any injuries to speak of. Certainly there was no sign that she had been attacked by creatures from under the sea.
I was just dreaming… She had said it to herself over and over again. And as easy as it would have been to believe it, something kept tugging at her mind to not give into the lie she was trying to feed herself.
I’ll talk to Mr. Silva and tell him what happened and when he’s done laughing he’ll just tell me that I had some drug-induced dream or something. I’m sure he’ll be happy to help me get back to the cruise ship.
When she exited the shower she found that a fresh change of clothes was waiting for her on the bed, spread out like a display. A rather fine red dress, covered in a flowered pattern, along with a replacement bra and panties, and a new pair of sandals to go with it. There were also a few hair clips that she used to control her scalp and a comb that she put to work to get her hair back in order.
When she finished changing she felt refreshed and more like a person again. And then her eyes fell upon a small note that had been left with the offered attire and when she read it a small smile touched her face, making her feel relaxed.
Lunch in the courtyard. Whenever you’re ready. Bring your appetite.
- Luke
Relaxed, happy, and feeling the pain of hunger in her belly she quickly left her room and retraced her steps back down to the court yard she had entered from. When she arrived there she found it transformed into something else entirely.
In the center of the stone yard a large tent had been erected, big enough to cover a quarter of the square space. Underneath it was a table, large enough to seat four people and covered in an elegant white cloth. Sitting on top of it was the kind of finery that she had only ever seen people use in movies. There were plates of silver and the utensils were made of the same material, each gleamed as brightly as a mirror. Surrounding the place settings were trays groaning with food and she could smell them all as she approached.
There was cooked pork, something that looked and smelled like pheasant, and cooked vegetables that she wasn’t able to readily identify. They had to be something native to the region, she guessed, but they smelled good. There were bowls laden with fruit, and a pitcher of something that looked like wine just sitting and waiting for her.
Sitting at the table was Luke and he smiled and stood as she approached. “Ah, Ms. Howe,” he said warmly as she found a seat opposite him. “I’m glad to see you restored. Feeling better, I hope?”
“Much better, thank you, and please call me Tris,” she said with a thankful smile. “But really, Mr. Silva… this wasn’t necessary,” she said, gesturing to the dress that she wore.
“Oh, not at all, not at all,” he said with a chuckle. “And please, in light of our informality, call me Luke.” When he smiled, Tris felt a tingle down her back that reminded her of excitement. “It was clear you’ve been through an ordeal. The least that I can do is offer you some comfort.” He showed her into her chair. “Please, sit. Dig right in. No need to be polite.”
“Thank you,” she said, getting into her chair. Luke rounded the table and sat opposite her. As he sat, she noticed that there was a third, fourth, and fifth place setting waiting at the table.
“Are we expecting someone else?” she asked politely, picking up some fruit.
“My wife,” Luke said with a grin, “and my two sons… if they ever conclude their business at the docks quickly enough.”
Tris felt her heart plummet at the word. “Your… wife?” she asked, trying to keep the disappointment from her voice. “And your sons?”
Luke nodded as he poured her a glass of wine. “Simone, her name is. And my sons are Jacob and Jon. They tend to all of my business at the docks on the far side of the island,” he said, gesturing over his shoulder to the hills she had seen on her trek down. “They may return in time to join us… I had the staff prepare a setting for them just in case.”
“I see,” she said, taking the wine he offered and taking a mouthful. She commenced right away with setting herself a plate while Luke poured her a glass of the wine and then began preparing a plate for himself.
After a few minutes of allowing her to eat quietly, Luke smiled at her. “Now, my dear, tell me about your experience. How did you come to be on my island? I’m positive you didn’t arrive with the last supply ship, or else my staff would have told me. And my home is not a tourist attraction. That narrows down how you came here at all, I think.”
She paused from her meal just long enough to think that what she had gone through sounded so ridiculous that she had begun to believe that it was some drunken fantasy herself. And Luke had shown her more kindness than she had expected, so there was no reason not to entertain him with the story of what she saw while she must have been more than a little drunk.
“Well… it is kind of a long story.”
“I assure you, we’ll have plenty of time,” Luke said, saluting her with his wine glass and sipping from it. “But the whole of it is not necessary. Why not just start with how you wound up in the ocean and came here?”
She nodded. “Alright, well… I’ve been saving up for the last five years to go on a luxury cruise,” she started simply. She blushed a little, “I’ve been wanting to have an adventure for a long time. And when I finally had enough saved to afford a three-week trip on the Gulf Paradise Cruise, I took it.”
Luke nodded. “I’m familiar with the cruise line… very pricey. But we’re nowhere near any of their stops,” he said confusedly. “So how did you get here?”
Tris thought that to be strange but then a logical explanation presented itself, though a small chill went down her back just the same. “Well, I was aboard one of their sightseeing boats. We went out… I don’t know how far… but the ship was out of sight before we stopped… We were out watching the dolphins…”
“Ah, yes,” Luke said familiarly. “I know of the place where they often take people to do so. Please, continue.”
She paused, having reached the point in her story where things became bizarre. “Well… I bought a drink and… you’re just going to think that this is silly.”
“I assure you, I’ll think nothing of the kind,” her host said confidently. “Likely I’ll have heard something far stranger. Especially for being in this part of the world as we are.”
She could tell that he wasn’t just being polite. His words rang with a tinge of truth to them, like he heard strange stories all the time over breakfast. Convinced that he wouldn’t laugh at her she went on with the story as best as she remembered it. She spared no details and regaled her experience in all of its terror and gore, ending with her falling overboard and swimming before waking up on the beach of his island.
When she was done she expected him to grow a wide grin and laugh at her as though she had told some tremendously marvelous joke. But he did nothing of the kind. He merely sat with his fingers pressed together in a steeple as he looked at her. His look was contemplative for a moment before he spoke.
“What was it that you drank?”
She was surprised by the question. “Excuse me?”
“The drink that you spilled all over yourself, what was in it?”
She combed through her memory, looking for the answer. “Um… I’m not sure. All I remember was that it was something called Água Escura. I think it was Mexican.”
“Brazilian,” Luke corrected with a nod. “And I think it’s what saved your life.”
She froze. “Excuse me?”
“Água Escura, means ‘Dark Water’ in Portuguese. It has a few fruit juices inside of it that are repellant to the creatures that attacked your boat. It’s effective, even when highly diluted by water. If you had it all over you, the beasts would have ignor
ed you. That would explain why you alone survived and managed to swim to my shore here.”
Tris froze, uncertain if she had heard correctly. Part of her was uncertain if the man was joking or not. She had expected the man to laugh and either tell her that she had been befuddled by drink and had a nasty experience or to tell her that her drink had similar effects on others and there was no need for concern. Certainly she hadn’t expected him to validate her experience as she described it.
“Uh…” she said, trying to find the words. “I’m sorry?”
“There really is no name for them,” Luke went on. “Sea Snags, I call them. They’ve been in these waters for hundreds of years. Since before even I came to live here.”
Again, no words came to her. Only confusion entered into her thoughts and she could not make heads or tails of them.
He seemed to grasp that and folded his hands. “You do know where your cruise was taking you, don’t you? And by that, I mean the route you were taking to see all of the sights?”
She thought about it a moment. “Uh… the Bahamas… Puerto Rico…”
Luke nodded. “And, I’m afraid that each of those places runs along the southernmost border of the Bermuda Triangle. And the Triangle has been making people – whole ships and even planes – disappear for years… centuries even.” He unfurled his hands as if to say, ‘surprise’. “Now you know why.”
She sat there, looking at her host incredulously. Words failed to rise to her mouth as did coherent thoughts. All she was certain of was that she was looking at a man that struck her as having spent too much time under the sun, his brains cooked. After a few moments the only words that came to her lips were simple ones.
“Sea Snags?”
Luke nodded. “Yes. Well… not always,” he clarified. “Planes go missing in the Triangle all the time, but it’s not the Snags that bring them down. There are other creatures out there. Some of them are considerably less than friendly and others that even I would do my best to keep well away from.” He said it so plainly, like he was talking about what kind of a dog he would buy if he could.
Tris sat there, her mouth slightly agape. She looked her host over, looking for signs that perhaps maybe he was drunk and had maybe spoken as if the wine had conquered his reason. He looked calm and sober enough, there seemed to be nothing off about him.
A thought struck her and relief washed over her. She chuckled at her host. “Oh, I see… you’re putting me on, aren’t you? Having a laugh?”
The look on Luke’s face was dead serious, yet somehow it was still polite. He shook his head so slowly that each half-arc of his jaw seemed to bolster his point as if he were nailing it with a hammer. Again, she could tell that he wasn’t joking. But the urgency she had felt back down on the beach seemed to reach up to her and her mind struggled to maintain control.
“I don’t believe in monsters,” she said. “You have to be joking.”
Luke didn’t look as though he wished to upset her but he sipped once more from his wine glass. “The giant squid was said to have been a myth for thousands of years. But then when their carcasses began to wash ashore in the 19th century, people began to believe it. And it was entirely proved in 2004 when those fellows in Japan caught pictures of a live one beneath the sea.” He paused, looking her over as if he’d seen this kind of reaction in people dozens of times before. “Just because you don’t believe in something doesn’t mean it’s not real, Tris.”
She wasn’t sure why, but to hear him use her name so familiarly made her think back to Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal Lecter had held that sort of familiarity with Clarice and the effect had been just as spine tingling then as it was now. Every instinct that she had was telling her that it was time to leave.
She stood up from her chair, her legs burning with the desire to get as far away from a madman as possible. “Right… uh, listen, Mr. Silva… thank you for taking me in and giving me these clothes... and giving me lunch. But, why don’t you just go ahead and show me to the docks and if I can get in touch with that cruise ship…”
“Oh, I’m afraid it’s far too late for that, Tris,” Luke said, almost regretfully.
She froze. “E-excuse me?”
Luke sipped at his wine again. “You’ve seen the creatures that ate your fellow tourists… you’ve survived them… even if they didn’t care to eat you at the time they still most certainly saw you, as evidenced by your spoiled clothes. They know that you’re out there somewhere… in these waters… and if you enter open water ever again they’ll stop at nothing to find you.” He set his glass aside and stood up. “If you return to the water, no matter how large the boat you travel on is, they will still bring it down… just to get you.”
He looked down sadly at the table where much of the food had gone uneaten. “You must understand that the Snags are very similar to bloodhounds. They never forget a scent and if you were to be on the water at all they would sense you. That is their way.” He looked at her, almost pitifully. “You’ve been thrust into a world that you know nothing about… and for better or worse, you’re here for the duration.” He sighed somberly. “I am so very sorry to have to say so, but I’m afraid that now, you’ll be a permanent guest of my home.” His look and his words were both sad and Tris could only stare at him, wondering if she was perhaps still dreaming and wondering too if she would ever wake up from… this.
“Luke…” she began.
“I’m sorry, my dear,” he said, his voice heavy with genuine remorse. “If we had the means to fly you out of here I would happily have concocted some story to help you believe that what you’d seen never actually happened. I would do all in my power to see you returned to the mainland safely and you could go on with your life. But it’s not meant to be. Not anymore. My island is too small – and too rocky – for a runway so a plane could never land here. A helicopter might, but there is no landing pad here and even if there was, no helicopter in the world has the fuel capacity to fly you to the nearest island with an airport. The only way to leave my island is by boat. And those poor souls that you witnessed being slaughtered… well, the Sea Snags would not have attacked unless they were certain that someone on that boat had seen them first hand. It’s one of their only defenses really.
“You say you were watching dolphins? Well, likely the Snags were feasting on them when one of your fellow passengers saw them. Their only defense then would have been to bring down the sightseeing boat that you were aboard. And if they know you are aboard my supply boat, they will inevitably sink the whole vessel just as they did yours. I cannot ask my people to take that risk, I’m sorry.”
He turned as if to go but before he left the shade of the tent he turned to look at her. “The room where you showered is yours now. I’d advise you to please not try to escape. My supply boat really is the only way off the island and my staff will be alerted to your presence and they’ll know to watch you.” He looked sadly at the stony ground. “Also, there are worse creatures out there than the Snags, Tris. Here in my home, is the safest place you could ever be.”
She could see that he still wasn’t lying. And for a man who was wealthy enough to own an island she imagined that perhaps he was a gifted liar. Yet somehow she was perfectly aware that every word he had said was true. This seemed a bit far to go for a practical joke and there was no sign of humor in anything he said.
“I’ll do everything that I can to make you comfortable, Tris,” he promised.
She shook her head. “No… I won’t believe it. You can’t keep me here!” She took a hasty step forward, intent on throttling he man.
Before she got within reach, however, a loud howling sound drew her attention, freezing her in her tracks.
She turned and a scream built up inside of her lungs that failed to leave her mouth. Her terror was so vast at what she saw that to even make a sound as necessary as a scream would surely have meant death.
There were monsters standing in behind her. Three of them… each of them easily as large a
s a man, though one was slightly smaller. Each of them poised to block her escape.
At first she thought they were some kind of a lizard. There were three of them and they were impossibly large lizards, like Komodo dragons. But they weren’t Komodo dragons. These looked far fiercer than that. And lizards, she knew, did not walk upright like people.
They were indeed standing erect like a man would, but on two short and stubby legs, balancing the remainder of their weight on their long tails. But from the short legs that hung on their bodies where on a man arms would be, she guessed that the creatures could crawl around on all fours like a genuine lizard if they wanted. And on any surface, as each of the creature’s limbs was capped with five fishhook shaped claws. Their skin looked as smooth as glass, almost like a snake’s. And the pattern of its scales looked just like the strange image she had seen on…
The realization washed over her in less than a heartbeat. No. No! It wasn’t possible… it couldn’t be…
The creatures hissed at her and she got a closer look at the rest of their features. Each creature had a spear-shaped mouth filled with two dozen tiny daggers. In their mouths were forked tongues that flitted from one side to the other like a snake’s.
Protruding from their lower jaws were several small hair-like extensions, almost as though the creatures had a beard that had not yet grown in. Their eyes were yellow and catlike, the top of their head lined in small horns that extended from the tip of their snouts all the way down their backs. Their bodies were colored almost as dark as blackened glass.
And from the hiss that issued over their lips, she would have thought they sounded hungry.
She reached back into her senses, thinking that she had truly gone mad. That maybe she was in the throes of death and drowning in the ocean right now… that she’d never actually made it to shore… and that her mind was just conjuring up some image that helped her cling to life only to make her long for death.