Split the Sea

. 3 .

. 3 . Black Water

Katie's parents picked up my mom early Monday morning. The last thing we heard before the door closed was 'Be nice to each other and don't stress over school.' The doors closing was final and the car was leaving before I could even think of something to say.

"Okaay." Katie drew out the a's on okay like she did when she was annoyed or bored. "Now what?"

"Honestly, I don't know." I was holding a book that I was in the middle of. Katie had never been a big reader. I usually read while she watched a TV show. Today I had been hoping to go out to the beach but it was raining. The ocean was turning back into a beast, its watery arms reaching up the shore, grasping at the thin threads of humanity that lay within its reach. Lightning crashed and the lights flickered. Thick grey clouds covered the sun and it was as bright as a dawning day.

"Blasted weather. Er break o' day, bring up ye sun." Katie said in her lower 'pirate' voice. She giggled. "Remember when we used to spend entire days on the beach, pretending to be pirates and mermaids and crabs?" She placed her hands on the window. "I'm not going out today." her voice shook.

It was a lot like the day she had been attacked. If anything, the ocean was more vicious than it had been that night. I realized how close she had come to drowning. What was worse? Losing your best friend to death or being separated and forced back together?

I looked over at the counter. The glass of water was still sitting there. I had been hoping that mom would dump it into the sink but she hadn't. It seemed to glare at me, reminding me of the way it had moved, jumping around the edges like something was moving inside of it. I reached over and picked it up. It felt cool in my hands. I brought it to the sink and started to tip it over. The glass grew hot in my hands and I dropped it with a startled shriek.

It landed on its bottom and sat there, the water rippling from the sudden force. Inside the reflection that was glimmering across the sinks silver inside, I could see something inside the water. It was black, small tendrils reaching out mystically. "Katie, come take a look at this." I said tentatively. I could feel her presence behind me as she looked over my shoulder. There was a sharp intake of breath as she noticed the black.

"That's what I saw yesterday." She said, her hand reaching out. The black disappeared and her hands knocked over the cup. It spilled down the drain, vanishing, I hoped, into the sewers that travelled beneath our house.

"I don't want to stay here." I said. "Can't we stay at your house? I'd rather be there than here."

Katie backed away. "I brought it. I'm carrying it." She pulled up the cuff of her jeans and let out a weary groan. Her hip rested against the counter as she brushed back her hair and closed her eyes. The scars from her incident had been almost invisible when she showed me before, but now there was a darkness, like the purple of a bruise. It was spreading. I could see it in the veins around the scars.

"How long have you known about this?" I bent down and touched it lightly.

"It happens about once a year. Something appears in the water and I start to get an infection. The doctors say I have some sort of allergic reaction to something that remained in my body after they removed the poison. It keeps me sick most of the year."

I looked back in the sink. The cup was still sideways. "Did we get rid of it?" I asked.

She shook her head. "It doesn't go away until I've done one thing for it."

"What do you mean?"

"It always asks for a favour. It's always something simple, like running away for a couple days or stealing money from my parents. They know all about it so it's fine. Whatever I do, things will be resolved in the end."

I shivered. "Wait, you're going to have to do something to make it go away? Something illegal?"

She shrugged. "It depends. It's not always illegal, it's just something I wouldn't usually do."

"How does it talk to you?" I took the drain plug off the counter and pushed it down. Some part of me told me that the plug would save me. I knew that whatever Katie was talking about was going to need more than a plug stop it.

"It's a voice inside my head. I can't get it out until I listen to it." Katie was looking around now.

"What are you doing?" I was scared now. I wanted Katie to leave. "Let's go to your house. Please."

"We can't. It's too late." Katie ran towards my room. I followed, calling for her to wait up. She burst through the door and stopped so suddenly that I ran into her. I looked over her shoulder and my heart stopped. The blackness was sitting in the center of my fish tank. The fish were all dead, floating on the surface. The blackness started to expand. It grew until the entire tank was black.

"Come on." I grabbed Katie's hand as the water started spilling over the top. We have to go."

The house seemed to come alive in that moment. The heavy sounds of rushing water overwhelmed me. I ran back to the kitchen and saw that the water was rushing out of the tap full blast. It was already at the rim and spilling over, running down the fronts of the cupboards and spreading across the tiles.

"What's happening?" I screamed.

Katie was dumbfounded. "I don't know. It never does this."

I tried to turn off the tap but the handles were stuck. I ran to the backroom and found the tap and the bathtub running. Water was pouring out, running from the backroom to the rest of the house. It was rising fast, faster than it should've been. The water was coming out four times faster than usual.

"Get out of the house." I ran through the water, which was now up to my ankles. I grabbed the door handle and turned it but it wouldn't move. I kicked against it but nothing worked.

Katie grabbed a chair. She held it by the back and started swinging it at the windows. Nothing worked. There wasn't even a scratch! She threw it with all her might and it bounced off, one of the legs falling off as it fell at her feet.

The water was now knee deep. It was still coming out full blast and didn't show any signs of stopping. It was turning black and something started splashing around in my room. There was a loud growl before my vision seemed to crumble, everything twisting.

The last thing I saw before falling unconscious was something flying towards my face. A wall of water that went from the floor to the ceiling, rushing swiftly down the hall.

The next chapter is... interesting. I promise you that. Hopefully this chapter has intrigued you a bit.