Chapter #75In The Uncharted Depths by: imaj   You nod your assent. The sooner you get this sorted the better.
“Ok squirt,” says Rick, pointing at a spot on the floor. “Sit yourself there.” He squats in front of you and holds out a filthy looking hand. “Put your palm in mine and think of the moon.”
You are briefly reluctant to do as he asks, so dirty is his hand, but there’s a very serious look in his eyes that causes you to relent. You close your eyes and relax. The moon appears, filling the sky in front of you, so close is it. You drift effortlessly, basking in its reflected light.
And then there is a sharp tug downwards as gravity cruelly reasserts itself. You fall and fall, the moon shrinking away from you until you hit what feels like water with a loud splash.
The ocean, and it must be an ocean for there is no land in sight, is tranquil. A perfectly flat mirror that reflects the sky above. Gentle waves lap at your neck as you tread water, wondering what is going to happen next.
The water around you starts to move. Slowly to begin with, but picking up more and more speed until it forms a raging vortex. You fight to keep your head above the waves but to no avail. The water closes over you, dragging you deeper into the murky depths. You gulp for air but there is none. Your lungs fill with water and you cannot breathe.
But you do not drown, instead you float there, somewhere in the uncharted depths. The water is thick and it is impossible to see very far. There is no hint of the surface above you, nor the sea bed below you and nothing but gloom in all directions.
Then you realise the shadows are starting to coalesce in one direction. You squint at the dark mass forming nearby, trying to make out the shape of it. You can see nothing, or at least nothing recognisable and suddenly you feel very afraid.
You start swimming away from the gathering shadows, but the water is cloying and almost unwilling to let you pass. A glance to your right and reveals a thin tendril of shadow keeping pace with you, just out of sight. You try to pick up the pace and veer to the left, but to your horror there’s another tendril there. It swings in closer, and a gigantic tentacle, covered in suckers emerges from the gloom.
You turn yourself about and try to head in the opposite direction again, but the other tendril draws closer, revealing a second tentacle. All the while, the mass of shadows behind you grows closer and closer. You try swimming straight up, but it’s too late now. The tentacles grasp you about the waist and drag you backwards.
The shadows behind you start to take a solid form as they emerge out from the murky water. A huge, beak like, maw lined with needle teeth snaps open and closed as the tentacles pull you in. Two huge beady eyes swivel to focus on you, peaking out from under a crusted shell that stretches all the way back into the darkness.
Kali called Rick a kraken, and you wonder for a second if that’s what this monster is – a kraken.
Then it bites down on you and your nerves are wracked with them most intense and terrible pain you have ever experienced. You scream and scream and scream as everything fades to black.
*****
The living room reappears. Miko rushes in from somewhere else in the apartment, dropping into a combat stance quickly and with a practised ease. She takes in the scene: You, your face pale with fright and sweating profusely. Rick, tired and disappointed looking. Then Miko bursts into laughter. “I thought someone was being murdered,” she smiles.
“Very funny,” you mutter weakly. You think you preferred her when she was threatening to cut you open.
“Teaching the squirt to hide,” grunts Rick. “Gotta get a handle on his disappearing trick if he wants to use it in the field,” he explains to Miko. “Stick out your hand again squirt.”
“Again,” you whine clutching your hand close. “It hurt…”
“You think that hurt,” sighs Rick. “Wait'll you're snooping around the Egyptology wing of some museum, and the bad guy sends scarabs after you. Now come on."
*****
You try it three more times, with the same results. You're trembling hard by the fifth time he puts out his hand. "Gimme a hint, Rick," you plead. "I can't--"
"You gotta find it yourself, squirt. It's in you someplace. A hole. A shadow. A blind spot where the kraken can’t see you.”
“How come I can do it when it’s you two uh… talking about me,” you ask. You don’t want to mention that it happened earlier in the office.
Miko takes a bite out of the apple she’s been eating for the last little while. “Much as I’m enjoying watching you scream like a little girl,” she begins with a wolfish grin. “You might actually have a point. You’ve got more of a spine than you let on. It isn’t fear that makes you vanish is it?” Her smile glints as her eyes bore straight into you. “Oh, something much worse for a teenage boy,” she giggles.
“What is it Miko,” sighs Rick exasperatedly.
“Embarrassment,” replies Miko gleefully. You feel your cheeks flush. “See!”
“Let’s say your right Miko,” says Rick evenly. “What do you suggest?”
“Ask him what he happens when he’s embarrassed,” grins Miko, looking at you pointedly.
“Sometimes I wish I could just sink into my surroundings,” you say quietly. “Like right now…”
“So what are you saying,” asks Rick. “That the squirt becomes part of the background.”
“Or he distracts you with it,” suggests Miko. “Like the puppeteer in a bunraku show. You watch the puppet, not the puppeteer,” she explains when both you and Rick stare at her in confusion. “Oh fine… Like the way a matador uses his cape in a bull fight. Does that make more sense for you? Want me to explain with diagrams? Americans,” she mutters the last word quietly.
Rick turns to face you again, ignoring the still muttering Miko. She’s shifted to Japanese now and you have no intention of calling up her memories to try and understand it. “One more time squirt,” says Rick. “This time try distraction rather than hiding.”
You place your hand in Ricks again, finding yourself in the depths of the ocean again. Already, shadows gather in the distance as the kraken approaches, but this time you are ready for it.
Though there is nothing nearby to distract the beast, you now realise that there is still one thing that you can use. One thing that you will always be able to use.
The moon is your ally.
You reach for it and feel it as Sulva forms in your hand. Thrusting your arm out, you point the moon in the direction of the kraken. A shaft of light illuminates the water in front of you, and beyond it you can make out the writhing tentacles and snapping beak of the monster. It cannot approach you, for Sulva blocks its path and leads it astray every time it moves towards you.
An invisible hand closes about yours and squeezes hard. The vision wavers and dissolves into Rick's unshaven face. His smile is mirthless as he grips your fist inside his. "Hold it," he says. "Hold it. Hold it. Where is it?"
"It's in my hand," you say slowly.
"Where are you going to put it?"
Where can you possibly put the Moon?
Oh, but you don't have to put it anyplace. You just have to know where to find it. You remember what Miko said, the bit that made sense anyway. "Toro," you tell Rick.
"Good enough," he says, and releases you.
*****
To your surprise, Rick is waiting in the living room when you emerge from Kali’s bedroom the following morning. You’d only been in a few minutes, just long enough to get dressed for another day on site with the client, but somehow he’d come into the apartment during that time.
“I am surprised to see you here again Rick,” you say calmly, letting your attitude match your current visage.
“Morning to you too squirt,” replies Rick, looking up from a battered notebook. You crane your neck to take a peek, but Rick’s handwriting verges on the illegible. “You heading out to Kali’s client again?” Rick continues before you can answer. “Change of plan, we’re going to use that new skill of yours to track down where Kali’s taken herself.”
You think about that for a second. It’s true that most of the remaining details on the client’s house were worked out yesterday. All that needs to be done now is to supervise the start of the work, and Miko could do that by herself.
On the other hand, it wouldn’t be a good idea for Kali to miss two days of work out of the last three.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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