A Thousand Salt Kisses Later (Book 2 of Salt Kiss series)

The Beast Has Risen

"What is coming?" I cried, as he held me down in the bottom of the boat.

"Shut up!" he cursed. His face was tensed, and the veins in his neck bulged through his flesh.

Something smashed into the boat, and he slapped his hand over my mouth just in time to smother a scream. I lay there petrified, Spirits palm suppressing my fast deep breaths. A million possibilities flashed through my mind.

Is it a shark? A Great White that was going to penetrate the boat and eat us for breakfast? I knew already from that summer that there were big fish out here.

The waves gradually calmed down, and there was silence. There was a small splash, and I sensed whatever it was had surfaced.

There were a couple of grunts, almost like a boar. I closed my eyes and forced myself to take deep meditative breaths through my nostrils. Sharks do not grunt, to the best of my knowledge. So, what the hell is on the other side of the boat?

Suddenly there was a deafening roar and I felt myself jump, but Spirit's arms tightened around me, constricting my movement.

Tears of terror over spilled onto Spirit's hand, and he looked at me but kept his hand firmly clamped. I did not blame him at this stage, if he removed his hold, I would freak out, and it would not be silently.

Several painful, horrific moments passed, whereby a couple of additional grunts were emitted. And then, finally, there was a splash, and I could feel the sinister presence had disappeared.

Spirit took his hand away and sat up, peering cautiously over the boat, before lying back down next to me.

"We will stay down here for a while longer," he advised, "Until we can be sure it has gone."

"What is it?" I hissed, looking at him.

He exhaled wearily and rolled his eyes. "It's a monster,'" he replied.

"Er... A what?" I cried.

"Shhh!" he put a finger to his mouth. "It's what it says on the box, as you humans say," he finished in a lowered voice.

My lip curled momentarily, but I no longer had the capacity for snarky retorts; my mind was over brimming with fear.

Jemima's father's tales of a new sea-predator quickly flashed through my mind. Could this thing be the culprit?

Suddenly a shadow appeared over Spirits face, and we caught each other's eyes before we each turned and looked up with dread. I gasped; I couldn't help it.

A long thick snaky thing was hovering before our faces. It did not seem to have a head, and I recognized it as some kind of tentacle. The underside was coated with little circular suction pads which appeared to be contracting, as though preparing for something.

It was like that of a giant octopus, and as it came closer and closer towards my face, I realized that the upper flesh of the tentacle was a familiar texture. It was the chunky rectangular scales of a crocodile.

It was a – a - Croctopus.

With Spirit's hand no longer over my mouth, I was now free to do the stupidest possible thing.

I screamed.

Within a flash, the tentacle had wrapped itself around my arm and I was in the water a millisecond later.

I did not have a second to process anything, all I knew was that the Croctopus was moving with lightning speed, dragging me helplessly into the depths.

I tried to wave my arm free but a) it had the strength of a boa constrictor and b) my movement was restricted further by the cold compress of water around us.

As we moved, I presumed that I would run out of breath at some stage, and that would be how I would die. I held it for as long as I could, but after a while, I had to let it out.

As my lungs contracted to inhale, I squeezed my eyes closed and prepared for the inevitable intake of sea water. I knew I would soon feel it filling up my lungs, choking me to my death. A vision of my Mum and Dad flashed through my mind, and I said a little prayer for them; that was all I had time for.

When I was still conscious moments later, I became confused. I opened my eyes and realized I could see perfectly clearly and not blurrily as I'd expected.

I was being pulled around trees whose trunks were encased in ruby bark, while magenta leaves waved from their branches. Is this some kind of afterworld? But if so, then why is that thing still here?

Suddenly, the beast loosened its grip, and I spun off into a tree, grabbing the branches as I went until I managed to get a grip on one.

I blinked several times; there were bubbles everywhere but soon they cleared.

Now I saw the entire monster before me. It had the body of a gigantic maroon crocodile, with a mouth full of pointed yellow teeth, which flashed as they snapped together.

Fucking Hell, I thought as I watched on, frozen in horror.

Now, I wasn't sure whether maroon crocodiles were a thing or not, but there was something else very, very different about this creature. Huge tentacles thrashed around its bulk of a body – about seven or eight. My little nickname had been spot on. It was half crocodile, half octopus and it looked crazy as hell. Its reptilian eyes widened exposing all the whites as it watched me intensely, now crouching down low, looking poised to strike.

I looked up towards the surface, and closed my eyes. Suddenly there was a loud, shrill scream. Was that me? Did I die?

I opened my eyes, and slowly brought myself to look back in the direction of the Croctupus. It opened its jaws wide and another scream pierced the waters. The tentacles parted now and settled around its sides, and as they moved, I realized Spirit was on top of its knobbly back, spear plunged deep down within it.

I watched on as the beast's screams deescalated into whimpers and its tentacles slumped onto the seabed. I continued to stare aghast until a huge cloud of blood obscured the whole nightmarish scene from my vision.

Spirit emerged from the cloud flexing a deep grey muscular tail up and down as he swam over. He was watching me incredulously, and I too began to contemplate what on earth was going on. Why am I still breathing, for starters? This is not...normal... Could I just be dying extremely slowly?

Spirit, however, appeared fixated with something below my waist.

I looked down and screamed. All I could see was a huge blue glistening fishtail.

It's another sea monster attacking me! I thrashed about and swam backward, but I could see the blue thing was following me. I couldn't get away from it.

Spirit grabbed my hand and yanked me through the water towards him. He put his hands on my shoulders, steadying me as I looked around for the big fish.

I could no longer see it swishing around me, and I turned back to him, completely shell-shocked. I realized he was looking me up and down, his eyes wide and bewildered.

You're a mermaid?" he asked.