Catfish Lullaby

by A. C. Wise

  How many bones in the swamp? How many babies smothered or crushed or drowned until Cere was born? Caleb shook, fighting the horror of it. Cere rose higher, her limbs slack. She was a little girl, a grown woman, a goddess swollen with the light of the moon.

  She struggled, fighting to hold on, to hold darkness in. Her eyes snapped open. Their gold struck Caleb like a blow. Her lips moved.

  “Stop him.”

  He struggled upright, even as the world tried to crush him. He took a step, feet dragging. Cere flickered, blurred, became shadows bleeding out from the center, tendrils of darkness curling outward and wrapping around everything. The tendrils snapped trees, ripped their roots from the earth, filling the air with the sound of splintering wood. She spoke again, and the words cracked against Caleb’s heart.

  “Stop me.”

  He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to take another step. He couldn’t raise his head, not all the way. Del seemed unaware of him, his body still jerking as though in a trance, words pouring out of him, speaking themselves through him.

  By the light from Cere’s skin, Caleb could see symbols carved onto Archie Royce’s arms, his chest, his cheeks. They covered his body, flaring dark, pulsing. Caleb flung himself forward. It took every last ounce of his strength, the motion more like falling. The world became an abyss, and he tipped himself into it.

  Kyle shouted behind him. Rose’s voice was there too. Both came from very far away, slowed down and stretched until the moment of impact. He struck Del, knocking him sideways.

  Like a door slamming shut, Del crashed back into himself, something huge crammed into a tiny space. He snarled, snapping rotten teeth at Caleb. Caleb jerked back, fighting to get free as he had fought to get closer a moment before. Age had ravaged Del’s face, but it was more than that. The humanity had drained from him, whatever little he’d had, leaving a hollow mask. Only his singular purpose remained—end the world and thereby end Catfish John.

  Del wrapped his arms around Caleb, pinning him, a wild animal, all strength and rage. He caught a glimpse of Cere as he tried to wriggle free of Del’s hold. He could only hope he’d been able to break Del’s concentration enough for her to get free.

  “Fight it,” Caleb shouted.

  Del squeezed, a snake, slowly and inexorably crushing Caleb. An alligator performing a death roll. Caleb’s ribs creaked; black spots danced in front of his eyes.

  Caleb reached frantically, trying to catch the threads of Catfish John’s song. This time, the wooden carving leapt to him. Caleb closed his hand, electricity crackling between his bones.

  He couldn’t throw the carving; Del had him pinned. He nudged it, felt it roll out of his grip. Hopefully Cere would see or Kyle or Rose. The world dimmed, wanting to go black. He had to get to Kyle. He had to . . .

  Singing. He felt it like he’d felt the guttural terrible words calling Archie back from the dead. Except this music lifted him. It put air in his lungs, and he gasped, drawing in an aching breath and coughing it out again. Del froze, grip slackening, and it was enough, so Caleb could wiggle free.

  “Caleb.” Hands steadied him, and Kyle’s voice was next to his ear.

  “Don’t you dare leave me with this mess, boss. You have to get up. Now.” Rose’s voice too.

  The sky overhead flickered. Rose and Kyle leaned over him. Kyle held his hand, squeezing it hard enough to shift his bones.

  “The figurine, get it to Cere.” He moved his head, trying to indicate where it had fallen.

  He could just see Del out of the corner of his eye, half crouched, an animal trying not to become prey. Rose stood, fingers curled at her side. She darted forward and snatched the figurine. Del snarled, fighting loose of the lullaby.

  Caleb stood, leaning on Kyle. Fear locked his throat as Del leapt toward Rose, but she was faster, closing the space between her and Cere and pushing the figurine into Cere’s hands where she hung in the air.

  A howl shook the sky. The earth cracked, heaving under them, and Caleb lost his balance again. He caught at Kyle, and they held each other up as the ground rocked. The song, coming from everywhere and nowhere, changed, rising. Something so large he couldn’t take it in all at once launched itself from the water surrounding them. Crooked jaws, dripping thick-plated armor, powerful limbs, and teeth.

  The creature twisted in mid-air, unfolding. A downturn to its mouth, slick greyish skin. Eyes as black as all the space between the stars. Caleb’s breath snagged.

  The creature’s jaws snapped closed, catching Del before it slammed back into the water, sending a wave of brackish filth over them. Caleb tightened his grip on Kyle, clinging as his feet slid in the mud. The sky continued to come apart overhead, the land crumbling underneath them.

  Kyle shouted his name. Caleb blinked. Time sped up again. Rose was just now ducking past Cere. And Cere’s fingers closed on the figurine. The light emanating from her skin was near unbearable, and Caleb had to shade his eyes.

  The singing grew louder, the lullaby steadying Cere. Her form solidified; she stopped turning, stopped drifting. Her feet touched the ground. For a moment, Caleb saw her elsewhere, outside the world in the vast dark. She held the figurine like a talisman, and it soothed the rage inside of her.

  All around them, the water that shouldn’t be there frothed red. Caleb caught glimpses of scaled limbs, teeth. A vast serpent encircling them. Tiamat. Jörmungandr. The World Snake. He remembered the names from Kyle’s books.

  The ground shuddered again. As if called by the blood spilled around him, Archie Royce sat up.

  “Oh shit.” Kyle took a step back, trying to pull Caleb with him.

  Caleb dug his heels in. Rose edged toward them. Caleb caught her hand, pulled her close. Cere approached her father.

  Archie turned his head. His hair stuck out wildly around his head, making Caleb think of a desiccated scarecrow left out too long in the rain. The terrible face in the sky had vanished with Del. Archie was only human now. Human and dead. Naked, pale, faced with the daughter he’d created.

  Archie Royce looked small, pathetic.

  Cere reached out and touched her father’s face. Her palm covered it, her fingers stretching to his hairline. Every terrible thing inside her burned through her skin. Everything beautiful as well.

  Archie screamed. The world flashed white hot, bringing a scent like a lightning-struck tree. Archie Royce’s body collapsed, a pile of rot-softened flesh caving inward, so yellow-white bone protruded, ribs revealed to the sky. The mass juddered once, like he was still trying to wake, and fell still. The sky bulged, trying to rip itself apart. Cere closed her eyes.

  Caleb reached for her, close enough to touch but miles apart. Finally his fingers brushed her hand. Her flesh was warm, hot, burning against his.

  “I can’t.” Cere turned to him. Cracks riddled her eyes, gold light spilling through. Lines of char shot through her pale skin. “I can’t stop it.”

  The earth shuddered. The sky opened along a bloody seam edged with teeth.

  “Yes, you can.”

  Caleb let go of Kyle and Rose and threw his arms around Cere. If he could only hold onto her long enough, she wouldn’t fall. She wouldn’t jump. And maybe the world wouldn’t end.

  He tried to remember Catfish John’s song, projecting it to her as she became smoke in his grasp, shadows. Too vast to hold. Tendrils of darkness lashed around him. Mouths filled with jagged teeth, dozens of mismatched eyes.

  “I won’t let go,” Caleb shouted.

  All at once, Cere was human again, small and sharp-boned in his arms, tears on her cheeks, drying instantly from the heat of her skin.

  Caleb pressed his forehead against hers. His cheeks were wet too.

  “Give me the darkness. Let it go.”

  “No.” Cere’s voice hitched. She tried to pull away. Caleb tightened his grip.

  “Us,” Rose said, steppi
ng up beside him.

  She wrapped her arms around Cere as well. Then Kyle was there too. They enclosed her, close enough to feel her pulse. Her body shuddered.

  “No.” Barely a whisper.

  “Let us help you.”

  Caleb closed his eyes. He called Catfish John’s song to mind again, letting it pour through him. Strange stars, cool water. Home.

  A knot inside Cere let go. The darkness untangling. Cold stole Caleb’s breath. Shadows lashed the sky. The stars peered at him. A burning wind howled through him. Everything all at once. The world ending and ending and ending, and dead faces in the water below the bridge crumbling. Kyle and Rose drowned. All the things he’d ever loved gone, and only hollow emptiness in its place.

  Caleb threw back his head and screamed at the sky, a raw and painful sound. But he kept his arms around Cere, letting her hurt and loss into him.

  Everything flared white again. The negative image of Cere against a rift of burning blackness opened in the sky. Walking away. At her side, a small figure no bigger than a child reached up a webbed hand to take hold of hers.

  The stars blinked, black on white, and the world righted itself. When the ringing in his ears stopped, the first sound that returned was the cicadas. Caleb listened to them for what felt like a very long time, just trying to breathe.

  Kyle and Rose’s arms were still around him, but Cere was gone. Caleb’s arms dropped to his side, his whole body heavy.

  He looked at Kyle and Rose. Caleb could feel slivers of Cere’s nightmares, flickering under his skin. He could see it in them too, haunting their eyes. How would he look at Rose at work from now on? What would he do the next time Kyle touched him?

  Caleb pushed the thoughts away. A pile of bones lay nearby, stripped of flesh and aged beyond belief—all that remained of Archie Royce. Overhead, stars paled in a sky that had knit itself whole. Time had rolled back; the sun was just starting to rise.

  “I think we did it, boss.” Rose’s voice was barely a whisper.

  Caleb could only nod. Tears streamed down his cheeks, joy, relief, fear, everything. He didn’t bother to wipe them away. He let them fall, and together, they watched as the sun climbed upward in the sky to set the top of the trees alight with a glorious new day.

  chapter five

  No one ever saw him leave. He was there and then gone. The only thing left were footprints, baked into the earth like they’d turned it to stone. Folks say he walked right off the edge of the earth, right into the sunset, waiting to be born again someday into a kinder world.

  —Myths, History, and Legends from the Delta to the Bayou (Whippoorwill Press, 2016)

  ***

  S

  o what happens now? You skipping town or what?” Rose

  glanced at Caleb and Kyle.

  The three of them sat in chairs on the porch. Whether consciously or not, Caleb had brought a fourth chair out. It sat apart, and looking at it opened an aching space inside him.

  They each held a mason jar of sweet tea, liberally spiked. Caleb propped his feet against the porch rail, leaning back.

  “Still gunning for my job?” He tried to grin, but it felt stretched, flat.

  “Wouldn’t dream of it, boss.”

  Caleb turned his head toward Kyle. Right now, he was so tired the thought of going as far as the kitchen was exhausting, let alone the thought of leaving town. They hadn’t talked about it, but he wondered. Kyle looked back at him, steady; Caleb could almost see him trying to process everything that had happened. It had been almost a week, but they both still woke up shivering, and Caleb couldn’t help expecting to see Cere standing at the end of their bed every single time.

  “What do you think?” Caleb asked softly.

  Kyle started, coming back from a long way away. He frowned slightly and shook his head.

  “I think it’s something to talk about another day.”

  Caleb turned his attention back to Rose.

  “What about you? Thinking about cutting out on me now that you’ve seen what kind of sheriff I make?”

  “Nah. I think I’ll stick right here. Besides, I owe you war stories.” She said it lightly, but Caleb didn’t miss the strain underneath her words.

  Did she wake up with nightmares too? The thought pained him, but the idea of the dreams stopping was worse. Dreams meant the door was still open; there was still a chance Cere could come back. But if she did, what would she bring with her? Just because Del and Archie had been stopped, did that mean it was over? What if they hadn’t done enough to save her?

  The thoughts rolled around in his head without any answer. Kyle surprised him by taking his hand, lacing their fingers together.

  “Think she’ll ever come back?” Kyle asked.

  Beside them, Rose sipped her tea, watching the sun go down, the sky turning all different shades of flame. If Caleb squinted, he could imagine a silhouette, very small against all the brightness. But he couldn’t tell if it walked toward them or away.

  “I don’t know,” he said, squeezing Kyle’s hand.

  It was the truth. He didn’t know what the future held, but he and Kyle would figure it out together, and when it came to work, he and Rose would have each other’s backs. The rest would fall into place.

  And Cere, she was family. Whatever else might happen, no matter where they went, Caleb knew some part of him would always be waiting to welcome her home.

  AC Wise was born and raised in Montreal and currently lives just far enough into the Philadelphia suburbs that deer roam her backyard. Her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Shimmer, The Dark, and The Best Horror of the Year Volume Ten, among other places. She has published two collections, The Ultra Fabulous Glitter Squadron Saves the World Again and The Kissing Booth Girl and Other Stories, the latter of which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Her story “The Last Sailing of the Henry Charles Morgan in Six Pieces of Scrimshaw (1841)” won the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Find her online at www.acwise.net.

  ——

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