The Shipwreck of the Pelinaion

Chapter Six

            Thomas looked at the mud on his shoes, slightly perturbed and confused. His throbbing head did not allow for much thought on the matter, but Tom tried anyway to remember what he had been doing that could have gotten dirt caked all over his clothing. The last thing he remembered was standing outside, about to go look for Max, when…

            And that was it. His memories just ended there, very disconcertingly.

            Tom stood up and walked to the window. He pulled open the curtain to see the sun almost completely set over the horizon. It had been at least a few hours since his wife left to get the doctor, which meant it had been almost as long since he… had that last coughing fit and collapsed. His head gave a particularly painful twinge, and he rubbed his forehead with his hand in hope of soothing it.

            He heard the sound of a key in the lock, a creak as the front door opened, and a pair of footsteps on the wooden floor of the hallway. His wife opened the door to their bedroom and peeked inside.

            “Thought I’d find you in here. Glad to see you had the common sense to stay in be- What is on your clothes?!”

             He followed her gaze to his muck-covered Sunday best and grimaced.

            “I’ll explain later. It’s a long story.”

            Helen sighed. Thomas knew from the look on her face that she wasn’t going to let it go, but there were more pressing matters at the moment- namely, his mental health. “Well, let’s not keep the doctor waiting then, he’s a busy man.” She opened the door completely and stepped inside, along with the local doctor. Thomas didn’t know Doctor Marshall very well, having only seen him a few times before, but he seemed to be a good, honest man.

            “Nice to see you, Tom,” said Doc Marshall, giving him a firm handshake. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner. Now then, what seems to be the problem?”

            Thomas shook his head, not willing to drag someone else into this mess, and tried to pretend everything was all right. “It’s nothing, really. Just a little coughing and such, probably a cold.”

            “Your wife was very insistent that I had to come and see you. Just for her sake, let’s do a little check-up, shall we? Make sure everything’s in tip-top condition.”

            “Of course, Doc,” Thomas said with a smile. The headache was constant, but he made it through the doctor’s quick physical exam. Helen looked at him skeptically from her seat on the bed. He tried to look at her reassuringly, a difficult task to accomplish while saying “Aaah.”

            “Everything seems to be in order. Might be just a cold or some allergies acting up. Drink hot tea and get plenty of rest. I’ll see you later, Tom,” said the doctor as the lighthouse keeper lead him back to the front door.

            “Goodbye! Stay safe!”

            Thomas shut the door gently and walked back to his room, where he knew his wife would be waiting for an explanation.

            “Helen, something really bad is happening, and I don’t want anyone else to get involved. It might already be too late for me, which is another reason you need to get far away from here as soon as possible.”

            Helen pushed herself up and stood toe-to-toe with her husband.

            “I need you to look me in the eye and tell me what is going on. I leave you alone for just a few hours and I come back to you looking like this! What did you do?”

            Thomas stared straight into his wife’s eyes. “I don’t know. I have no memory of the last few hours, aside from a splitting headache. And this feeling… Something is watching me, and whatever that thing is, it’s sinister and hungry.”

            “How can you just not remember anything from-” Helen cleared her throat.

            “Honey, please don’t start coughing. I can’t lose you, too. You need to take the children and get as far away from here as possible.”

            Helen made a small noise of frustration, striding out into the kitchen.

            “Tom, you need help. You should have told Doctor Marshall about your hallucinations, maybe he could have given you some medicine. Do you seriously think someone is stalking you? Why would anyone want to do that?” she said, clanking pots and pans around in the kitchen as she began to prepare dinner, stifling a cough in the crook of her elbow. Tom walked into the room, sat down at the table facing his wife, and started talking.

            “I already told you, I found this creature when I was a child. Or, rather, it found me. You already know that I grew up in Montana, surrounded by trees and mountains. I really don’t want to talk about what happened there, but the first chance I got I moved here, to Bermuda, because it was the farthest thing from all those dense forests. It seems like that didn’t stop him, though, because somehow he managed to find me here. Now everyone is in danger and it’s all my fault.”

            Something had been bothering Helen, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. She realized what it was once Thomas finished his speech.

            “You haven’t coughed this entire time! See, it was nothing after all.”

            She smiled at him, but Tom didn’t smile back. He was staring at the hallway behind her.

            Helen cleared her throat, trying to get rid of the urge to cough. “What’s wrong?”

Thomas didn’t respond. He seemed to be mesmerized by something over her shoulder. She slowly turned around and screamed at the sight.

            In front of her was a tall, slender, faceless man in a black suit.