Beyond the Horizon

19. Darkness

Nezumi woke up a bit at a time, vaguely aware of the drumming sound of water coming from beyond the bedroom window.

          At first the sound had migrated into his subconscious and become part of his dream: he was three years old, and his papa had taken him to the lake. The dream had been vivid, more so than any of the others Nezumi experienced. He could taste the mud, smell the tang of blood and fish scales as his father hunted down some breakfast.

          In his dreams, his father's teeth were yellow. Perfect needles stuffed behind his pale lips. Nezumi saw them almost every day, so he knew his father scrubbed them with polish and flossed, even though the minty wax caught between his teeth and broke. His father's teeth were white as a snowman.

          The yellow coloring in his dreams brought about the image of something feral. His father looked animalistic with yellow teeth rather than an imperfect, mundane white.

          In his dream, Nezumi's father caught fish with his bare hands and bit into their spines. There was blood smeared on his lips and scales wedged between his canines.

          Nezumi watched the surface of the still water. He had seen the dark gray storm clouds rolling in, and it soon began to rain. The surface of the lake rippled and shuddered. Thunder cracked in the distance. His father's long, gunmetal hair clung to his forehead, dripping into his eyes. Nezumi listened to the sounds of the rain pattering against the surface of the lake.

          His father turned to him and flashed his teeth in a sinister grin. The rainwater washed the blood from his face, but it remained on his teeth.

          "From what I heard, he was a terror to deal with. He hurt a lot of people."

          Nezumi blinked. His father had never threatened him. Even when he was angry, he made it a point not to use his serrated teeth to terrify Nezumi. Nezumi had seen his papa rage at plenty of other things―when his frustration with the Lab had led him outside to land punches against trees―but he'd never frightened Nezumi before.

          "They were dangerous. You should see the incident reports we had to write about them. The murders in the local town the night they escaped."

          That didn't make any sense. Nezumi's father had never killed anyone. Nezumi would know if he'd done something like that. His father would have told him. And even if he had, those people must have been bad guys. People who deserved to die.

          "Murders in the local town."

          Except Nezumi had heard stories about that night. Rumors circulating in towns about the man with shark teeth who swept in from the forests, killed two people, and vanished.

          His father's dark eyes flickered when the lightning struck. His lips drew back in a wide grin, his lips split from ear to ear until all Nezumi could see were two rows of monstrous, serrated teeth.

          "Papa?" Nezumi asked.

          His father's bloody teeth lit up with each bolt of lightning. The world around them was dark. The lake was pitch black, and his papa rose from it like a horror movie monster, soaked to the bone and staring at Nezumi with predatory eyes.

          A crack of thunder burst through the clearing as his father took a step forward―

          Nezumi opened his eyes. His vision blurred gray at the edges, and he glanced up at the ceiling. It was dark, but his eyes adjusted quickly. There was a bit of light coming from beyond the curtains, and after a moment, a flash of lightning illuminated the unfamiliar bedroom.