Dark Waters

by Lucas Pederson

  “I stopped the bleeding. But I tied him to a seat for safety purposes.”

  His body slumps from exhaustion. The mental kind. The kind that really gets to a person. Ma’s clothes are soaked and slathered in blood. Her hands are like crimson claws. Small blood splatters sprinkle her face.

  “It’s getting into our heads,” Ma says. “This isn’t just a sea monster, Miles. It’s…like a god.”

  Frowning, Miles’ hand drifts back to the butt of his pistol. “You don’t believe in gods, Ma.”

  Seeing where his hand is, Ma also frowns. “No. I don’t. But I can’t come up with any other explanation right now. I’m sure there is, but I’m not finding it.”

  That sounds more like Ma, if not a little off. Maybe all the insanity is getting to her. As it’s getting to him.

  “Yeah,” he says, though his hand never leaves the butt of his gun. “Is Emma okay?”

  Ma shrugs. “She’s been through more than most civilians. But she’ll live if we ever get to the mainland.”

  “Okay. Help me with Jenna, please.”

  He bends to move his best friend out of the cockpit when Ma says something that stops him cold. “When we get back, we need to tell everyone what happened. We need to plant the seed.”

  Miles’ eyes widen. His stomach drops. A shiver scuttles through him.

  There’s no time to react. Something hard crashes into the back of his head. He drops on top of Jenna, mind reeling, pain flaring through his skull. But he’s still conscious. With a grunt, he rolls off Jenna, pulls his gun free, but the moment he lifts it, Ma kicks it out of his hand. It tumbles across the cockpit in a series of clanks and clutters.

  A grin splits Ma’s blood-spattered face. The very same lip tearing grin Jenna had.

  Rage unlike he’s ever felt before consumes him. “You bitch!”

  His vision glares red around the fringes, ultra-focused on Ma and the thing possessing her. Like battle fog, all things fall to the wayside and when the red fringe fades, he’s on top of Ma choking her.

  With a cry of terror, Miles hops off her, body quaking in shudders, heart slamming in his throat.

  Ma coughs and rolls onto her side breathing in wheezy gasps.

  Temples throbbing, Miles kneels next to her. “Hey. I’m sorry, it was trying to—”

  She swings, the back of her hand smacking into the side of his face hard enough to rock his head to the side and a burning sting laces over his skin. She scrambles onto her hands and knees. Her dark hair falls in strings over her face, barely hiding the grin.

  “All of those you ever cared about are now gone,” Jörmungandr says through Ma’s mouth. “You have nothing more to protect or love. Nothing left but to worship me.”

  “What do you mean they’re gone? What did you do?” The one’s still alive back there are Emma, Mike and Sylvi. Ma had been too…until now.

  The thing toiling inside Ma chortles.

  With a cry, Miles latches onto Ma, yanks her to her feet and slams her against the wall next to the open doorway. “What the fuck did you do?”

  Eyes rolling in their sockets, Ma cackles.

  He shifts his weight and slams her into the wall again. Harder. The back of her head cracks against the metal. “What did you do?” He slams her again and again, each time the back of her head connecting with the wall and splattering blood. He roars when the light in her eyes dims, then goes out.

  By the time he tosses her to the floor like a moldy rag, there’s little left of his sanity. Ma doesn’t move and now he has two corpses in the cockpit. Both killed by his own hand.

  Somewhere, either in his own head or echoing through the STAV, Jörmungandr chuckles darkly.

  Chest burning from all the strain and adrenaline, Miles staggers until his back bumps the far wall. Sobs clog his throat. His vision swims in hot tears. A few weak whimpers spill out of him.

  It is now he realizes what’s going on. Now, as he shivers and sobs against the far wall of the cockpit, he sees it’s not his team that’s possessed, but him. Jörmungandr is in his head. Has been since that weird little dream he had before Geri woke him up. The one with the cold claws sinking in his back.

  But the way they looked…the way they acted and those grins…

  He shakes his head and tears drip to the floor. He cries out, sliding down the wall, beating a fist against the side of his head. Beating and sobbing and everything is madness. Everything is for her. For her…

  Her…

  Flashes of memories break free in his mind and float to the surface. Buoys bobbing in dark waters at night. Miles shakes his head again, not wanting to see these buoys for what they really are. And indeed, Jörmungandr tries to coax him away from the buoys by shining a bright light in the distance. A warm, loving light. An inviting light. And he almost goes for it when someone says, “You do it and I’ll fuckin’ kick you in the lugnuts, bro.”

  Miles gasps at the voice of his brother. Mike, but he sounds…different. Doesn’t sound so full of sarcasm or malice or sadness. He sounds…kind of happy yet disappointed, if that’s possible. Or maybe this is all still some fucked up dream? Shit, he doesn’t know.

  Was any of the mission real?

  What is real, anyway? Anything?

  Maybe everyone is some AI wandering around controlled by the real humans out there and…

  “Oh, for shit sake, dude,” Jakob says. “Will you just look at the buoys? I mean, damn.”

  And no matter how much he looks around, all he sees is the warm light, the buoys and the rolling dark waters. But he doesn’t want to look at the buoys for what they might reveal. Be it true or fake, it doesn’t matter. What matters is he’s not sure if he can see what they offer. He’s not sure how his sanity will hold up, as battered as it already is. It—

  “My dear,” Geri says. “Look at those. Look deep. It is the only way to free yourself from her clutches.”

  “You got this man,” Guether says. “Look at the buoys.”

  The dead speak, even when the dead should stay silent.

  Or are they dead? Maybe they’re all still alive and he’s in some messed up coma lying on the floor of the STAV and they’re almost to the mainland now. Maybe Jörmungandr isn’t even real. Because—

  “Miles,” Mike says. “Thank you for coming for me, but you need to look at the buoys.”

  Miles blinks and his gaze drifts to the first buoy. A shiny, silver one that bobs and sways with every small swell. He frowns and—

  In another life, he stands from his seat and walks into the body of the STAV. When? He doesn’t know when this is, but it’s fairly recent. Through his eyes, he glances at Jakob and Mike and Sylvi. He shoots his sight to Geri and Emma and Ma. And he’s just walking down the aisle between the rows of seats toward the tiny closet that’s supposed to be a bathroom. A couple of feet from this, he stops and turns back to his team, minus Guether. Because Guether was swallowed up by Jörmungandr. He’s not here. But the others are. His sight lingers on Emma for the longest, then shifts away.

  Geri tells him something, but he doesn’t understand the words. She has crystals in her hands and a large hammer on the floor. Something that looks like Thor’s hammer. Maybe it is. All he knows is he’s slightly afraid of it. The crystals hurt his eyes to look at.

  His sight lowers to a knife held in his hand. And when he looks, no one but Geri seems to notice. The old woman is saying something. Her words are a muddled mess he can’t sift through. Even though part of him tries, really tries, to understand. Something else blocks him from comprehending anything except for what needs to be done.

  Blink.

  His knife blade plunges into Mike’s chest. It’s yanked out and a fist crashes into his face, breaks the nose. Mike falls to the floor, curling into a U-shape. His vision sweeps to Sylvi, but the woman is too fast. So, here’s Jakob. The younger man puts up a struggle and would have stopped the killings if not for slipping in Mike’s blood. This minor misstep is Jakob’s undoing. Miles stabs him in the chest,
stomach and slashes open his throat.

  He drags Jakob to the back of the STAV, rushes toward Emma and…

  Miles blinks now, focusing on the second buoy. An emerald green one.

  Knife high, ready to stab, he comes at Emma. The woman manages to stand and turns just enough, though not enough. He stabs her. A shallow stab, but maybe…

  No. Something strikes the back of his head and he loses a space of time. When he wakes, Geri is there trying to tell him it’s not real. He brings the knife up and into her stomach. Before she falls, he stabs the blade into her chest and twists, then shoves her aside. It hadn’t been Mike at all. Miles was the killer…

  He blinks again, gaze falling on the red and yellow buoy.

  In this one, he watches through his eyes as he enters the cockpit. Jenna asks him if everything is okay. Instead of really answering, he draws his pistol and beats her over the head until she doesn’t move.

  In the next breath, he’s trying to save her. Maybe Jörmungandr’s hold slipped. Then Ma is there trying to help and probably planning on somehow detaining him. Because it’s him. He’s the one possessed. He’s the one being used as a puppet to kill everyone onboard. Because the serpent needs one survivor to tell the tale. To plant the seed.

  Jörmungandr changes reality. He saw Jenna with a hideous grin and Ma has the same grin. Thinking Ma is also possessed, he kills her too.

  All of this…through his eyes.

  All of this…is his own doing while being possessed by Jörmungandr.

  It’s the final buoy and eventually everything fades to black. The only sound is of his heart thudding heavily in his chest.

  “It’s up to you now,” Mike says before Miles snaps back to reality. “Only you can kill her.”

  “Fenrir’s fang,” Geri says. “Right in the eye.”

  “Use thrusters sparingly,” Jenna says.

  “The hell you doing, man?” Jakob spouts. “Snap out of it and kill that bastard.”

  Before he can, the world fills with darkness.

  CHAPTER 22

  Sylvi cuts the rope binding Emma’s hands behind her back and turns her around, hands gripping her shoulders. “He’s not him right now.”

  Emma somehow finds the strength to nod. She doesn’t want to look at all the carnage in the vessel right now. And poor Geri…

  “We have to take him out,” Sylvi whispers.

  The stab wound in her stomach burns, but it’s a tolerable burn. “You mean kill him?”

  Sylvi blinks. “Uh, no. Killer. No, knock him out and tie him up. I can pilot this thing to the mainland if I have to.”

  Ma has been in the cockpit for a long time. Too long, maybe, Emma notes.

  “I know it’s not really our Miles. Like Geri said, it possesses people.”

  “What if he’s waiting for us?”

  Sylvi shrugs. “Well, it was nice knowing you.”

  “You think,” Emma says, “he’ll be okay?”

  To this, Sylvi only shakes her head.

  After a moment, the woman tells Emma, “Stay behind me.” She hands Emma a pistol. “If things go wrong and he gets the best of me, shoot him.”

  And when Emma blinks at the gun in her hands, Sylvi asks, “Do you know how to use it?”

  “I think so…”

  “I need you to know so.”

  Emma sighs, not believing everything that’s happened, yet coming to grips with it, inspects the pistol.

  “A forty-five,” she says and frowns. “Safety is still on.”

  Sylvi smirks. “So, turn the safety off and let’s stop and get us home.”

  With Sylvi in the lead, they creep toward the closed cockpit door.

  CHAPTER 23

  He wakes slumped against the wall, staring at the lifeless body of Ma.

  But there’s one difference he can’t deny.

  The serpent inside him is gone.

  The weight is gone.

  The constant gibbering is gone.

  He’s free.

  Miles manages to stand, though his eyes keep flitting from Ma to Jenna and back again.

  I did that.

  No. It’s no good to dwell on that right now. Right now, it’s time for…

  “Revenge,” he says in a growly tone he barely recognizes as his own.

  He faces the curved windshield and darkness beyond. He steps over Ma’s body to sit in Jenna’s seat. The triggers are in the same places on the throttle/wheel as they are on his side. He hasn’t piloted the STAV much, but it can’t be any worse than a minisub. And didn’t Jenna say something about it being like a minisub? He’s not exactly sure. Can’t remember.

  All that matters is—

  The door behind him creaks open. He’s barely aware of it until an arm snakes under his chin and squeezes, pinning him back into the seat. He gags as the pressure increases.

  In his ear, Sylvi says, “Easy, Miles. Easy. This is for your own good.”

  For his own…

  Yes, for being possessed and killing most of his team. Sylvi was spared, somehow staying out of sight when he went on his small spree. She’s the only one left, which makes sense because she didn’t tell him to look at the buoys. And now she’s trying to detain him for his and her safety.

  But…

  She’s going to kill you, a hissing whisper slithers through his mind. She wants to plant my seed in society. She—

  Miles, growling, shoves the voice of Jörmungandr away. Much easier now that rage and vengeance has replaced her inside. No more are her claws wriggling in his brain. He’s free of her. At least for now.

  He gasps as Sylvi squeezes harder and red blobs float through his vision, which is melding to gray now. She’s applying just enough pressure to put him out, but not kill.

  He repeats the latter in his head: Not kill.

  There’s some comfort in that. After what he did, Sylvi will not kill him. Maybe she knows he was possessed? Or at least believes he might have been?

  Even so, he tries to tell her to stop. Tries to tell her they need to kill the monster serpent right now before she does any more damage. Before they all die out here in these dark, cold waters.

  He could cut her with his knife to get free. He could do a few different things to break loose of her hold. But he doesn’t. Because, maybe it’s for the best. Maybe—

  “Oh…my god…”

  He blinks, gray clouding in. Was that Emma?

  The arm pressing against his throat jerks. The pressure lessens little by little.

  Miles sucks in a gulp of air, coughs, the gray fog receding. Sylvi’s arm slips away. He struggles a moment to sit upright and…

  “Shit.”

  About fifty yards in front of them, picked out by the white glare of the STAV’s lights, Jörmungandr stares back at them. Her yellow eyes glow like lamps set in deep stone. Her triangular head is outlined in a dull shimmer. She drifts closer, thin reptilian lips parting just enough to reveal the long, pointy teeth.

  Terror bashes through Miles. His heart stutters. All the blood in him turns to ice water. He shifts a bit, not liking how full his bladder feels. For this moment, all he can do is gape at the monster that made him kill a majority of his beloved team. His friends. His family. It made him kill his own brother.

  Hate crashes through the terror and rage ignites an inferno within him, thawing his blood. His eyes narrow as battle fog drifts in once more.

  “Miles,” Sylvi says. “What do we do?”

  Upper lip curling in a sneer, he says, “Kill it.” His hands grip the throttle. “Buckle in. Now.”

  Jörmungandr’s massive head cocks to the side for a moment, giving Miles a clear shot at one of its glowing, yellow eyes.

  Not thinking, Miles squeezes the trigger, only realizing too late he pulled the wrong one. A reddish beam slices through the gloomy water, stabbing into the giant serpent’s eye. Its mouth opens wide, it rears and the glowing eye goes out.

  “Fuck,” he says. “You two buckle in.”

  From so
mewhere behind him, Emma shouts, “We have been.”

  Lips pressing together in a thin line on his face, Miles glances over the controls. He eyes the high thrusters but refrains from using them. No. He doesn’t want to run. It’s time to do what they should’ve done in the beginning. Kill the ancient bastard. Instead of trying to run when they found Mike, they should’ve blasted the fucking thing to pieces.

  Jörmungandr thrashes, the force of its movement rocking the STAV.

  Before Miles can aim and fire the laser burst containing Fenrir’s fang, the sea serpent dives deep into the darkness.

  He frowns at the monitor, watching as the thing dives so deep it blips out of range.

  And he can’t follow. Not with the cracked windshield. Even with it fairly repaired, the patch won’t hold in the deep. So, instead, he maneuvers the STAV in four hundred feet of water away from where Jörmungandr dived. He sets in a sluggish zig-zag pattern, keeping a close eye on the monitor.

  Minutes pass like hours while he waits for even a glimpse of the giant creature.

  It’s long enough to wonder if Geri had been all wrong. What if…all they needed to do was shoot the damn thing in the eye? What if…

  A shrill scream lashes at his back from the body of the STAV.

  Miles jumps, looks around his seat, but from this vantage point he can’t see anything.

  Another scream blasts through the STAV.

  He unbuckles, picks up his pistol and runs to the body of the vessel. What he sees stops him. It leeches away all his strength and he stands there staring at the scene before him, hand holding the gun lowering.

  Sylvi slashes her katana through Geri’s throat while Emma fumbles with one of the AT-30’s. Jakob and Mike shuffle toward her, arms extended, hands grasping.

  Sylvi shoves Geri aside and the old woman, blood spilling out her open throat, crawls toward Miles. Her eyes, once a cold blue, are now milky with death. Her mouth yawns open, jaws snapping. Her teeth click sharply.

  “Oh, for fuck sake,” Sylvi grumbles. She leaps from the seat onto Geri’s back. Thick snapping sounds dilute the air as the woman’s spine cracks. Then Sylvi drives her blade into the back of Geri’s head.