Infamous Last Words | ONC 2021 Honourable Mention | ✔

Chapter 7: The guardian

If I hadn't been appalled by the idea of swallowing any of the vile water surrounding me, I would have opened my mouth and screamed.

The creature lunged towards me, undoubtedly intending to grab me with its large claws before I could even consider pleading for my life. Its eyes, flaming despite all laws of logic stating they shouldn't have been able to, instilled a deep terror in my soul.

Beware of death on your doorstep.

I couldn't die here. I wouldn't. I hadn't gone through the agonizing process of struggling free from quicksand to be eaten by an underwater beast.

My life wasn't over yet. This couldn't be the end.

I had to get to the surface, exchange the darkness for daylight. With my legs kicking, arms flailing, I pushed myself up, reaching for Algor's sun shining down on me from above. The creature was hot on my tail, driven by its thirst for my blood; if I'd started fleeing but a few seconds later, sharp claws would have burrowed into my right shoe and the soft flesh of my foot inside it.

I didn't dare look at the creature, staring up at the surface above me instead, sunlight glowing brighter and brighter as it broke through a thick layer of algae and autumn leaves. Almost there. I could do this. I could do this. I'd make it out alive and without a scratch and I'd look back on this later and smile about it because I'd survived I'd survived I'd survived and my destiny foretelling my death could rot in Hell for all I cared and-

My blood ran cold when I felt something grab hold of me.

The monster.

But it wasn't the monster; logic unavailable to me in my panicked state could've told me so. The monster didn't have hands. The hands yanked me up out of the water, pulled me to the shore the rest of the way with force as I sputtered and gasped for breath, eyes wide in shock.

"Fuck," Isla hissed in obvious distress while I snorted leftover water out of my nose, "there was nothing in the water, you hear me? Nothing!"

That probably meant she hadn't been trying to feed me to whatever that thing was. Excellent, though it still didn't calm the nerves going haywire all over my body.

"That creature could've eaten at least four of my toes!" I shrieked, wrenching myself out of Isla's grip and blundering frantically away from the water, coughing. My suit was beyond ruined now: torn and ripped, covered in grime I'd never be able to wash out, and I was pretty sure I'd pissed my pants when the underwater beast came for me. However, I was past the point of caring about my fashion aesthetic at this point.

"I don't care about your toes," Isla snapped, "but I want to know where… where that thing…"

She didn't finish her sentence, falling silent as the creature rose up on its hind legs in the water. It stood submerged to the waist, but I could tell it was taller than the tallest men I'd met in my life. Its scaly skin was brown in colour, drops of water coating it, glistening. Its forked tongue, red as blood and hidden among rows of yellowed teeth, contrasted sharply with the rest of its body. And then there were the eyes… I studied the beast as it stood watching us from the water, looked it in the eyes, really looked, and stiffened.

Those eyes weren't just underwater fires. Those eyes were fear in its purest form.

I gazed into the blazing flames, flashes of the worst memories I had playing on loop in my mind. Every time I'd felt true fear.

I was six years old, had met a homeless junkie in an alley who gave me a wicked, toothless smile and told me he wanted to do unspeakable things to me, and I'd ran and slept in my parents' bed for months because I feared I'd see that face hovering above me every time I opened my eyes in my own room.