Cranberry Clairvoyant (Azealia Banks Story)

Tears and Astonishment

A/N: I hate this chapter with a fiery passion. I wrote it unenthusiastically, because it feels like crap to me. Whatever. Hope you enjoy! :*

The sea monster, although repulsive and a bit frightening, had soothing eyes. He floated in the water and stared at me, stopping to blink his big, black eyes only every minute or so. Was this monster a ‘he’, anyway? Half of its body was buried beneath the surface, so I couldn’t really look for any male or female genitalia. Maybe Darrius would know; I’d be sure to ask him. He had been out of sight for about ten minutes already, rounding up food and whatever else we needed for our long journey.

Finally Darrius reappeared, holding our hammock, which was now filled with fruits and veggies, over his shoulder. A corner of his lip was bleeding a bit; I touched my lip too, seeing that it was also bleeding. It sure has been a while since we came across some lip balm.

“You ready?” He asked, setting down the net basket.

“Where’s that going to go?” I pointed to the basket.

“We’ll hold it. Come, I’ll show you everything.”

He then whistled only for the monster to topple over onto the shore, positioning itself conveniently for us to sit and ride. Darrius picked up the food and trudged through the water as the tide came in, stumbling a bit until he finally sat down on the monster. As Darrius sat down the monster blinked, and I chuckled—this would make for a good picture.

“See?” He called out to me. “It’s just like riding a horse!”

And then he pretended to be swinging a lasso, shouting “Giddyup, giddyup!”

I doubled over in laughter, watching him play like a dunce on the back of that monster. The beast sure didn’t look like a horse; he didn’t even have the eyes of a horse anymore. His eyes were fierce now, threatening me to even breathe. I stood still like a stone, watching in slow motion as the sea monster rose higher and higher with Darrius—who still seemed a bit oblivious to it all—and then for a finale, flipped over on its back and sent Darrius flying into the air.

Just like he flew into the air at the carnival.

“Darrius!” I screamed as loudly as my lungs would permit. I wouldn’t let this happen again.

My feet splashed water all the way up to my face as I stomped toward Darrius, unable to control the tears that came. Should I cry? If he can heal himself, he’ll be okay. I stopped when I saw his head rise above the water, and let out a relieved sigh. He raised an arm and pointed at me. What was it? I waved to him, trying to figure out why he wanted to catch my attention. He kept pointing, and pointing, until finally I realized that the monster was no longer to my side.

It was behind me.

“Azealia!”

The beast lifted its limbless body into the air as high as it could. I ran, again seeing and feeling things in slow motion, until the sea monster fell abruptly down. Thankfully, I ran quick enough to get away without suffocating. But he was still reaching for my feet!

I stumbled and fell from nervousness, looking back at the creature we created. It opened its mouth to swallow my legs, and later swallow me whole. One chomp of those sharp teeth; that’s all it took and I’d be dead. To think that we thought this would be a good idea!

“Stop, Agnes!” Darrius yelled. The being surprisingly obeyed him, ceasing all other actions just to look directly into Darrius’ eyes. Agnes, as he addressed our monster, had calm and composed eyes now. What changed? What did Darrius do that relaxed Agnes so much? All he did was stand with his hands outstretched and shout. Maybe he used some kind of power with his hands…? Believe it or not, I was still new to this, the world of supernatural powers and the skill of it.