Holly

Pond

Flicking water against a shore is the first sound. It is calm and slow as if the small waves are caused by nothing more than a small disturbance in the water.

The shore is a mix of stone and mud, no sand. My fingers feel cold at the tips and so do my toes. Normally, thinking about reality will bring you back into consciousness. For some reason, I can't seem to wake up from this dream.

My heart is not beating, and I feel nothing. Looking at the pond makes me frown. The water is pitch black, but a night sky is reflected in the water. It is like a deep black mass taking in as much light around me as possible.

In the corner, I notice a flicker of light. It is another reflection, one that must be closer than the stars above my head. Turning in my drowsy, slow state, I see the flickering of a campfire not too far away. The leaves start crunching in that direction and I recognize the outline of a woman by the fire. She appears to be feeding the fire as she speaks to it.

"Sailboat... home...Atticus..."

The words are hard to make out.

A sudden splash from the pond brings my attention back to it. The woman and the campfire disappear from my mind as if it was never there.

Because it never was, right? This is all just a dream.

The pond seems to grow darker somehow. There is no longer the reflection of thousands of stars. Now it is a black mass trying to suck me in.

Move.

My arm is in the pond. The water is suddenly up to my elbow, but I don't remember sticking it in. The water is cold and unforgiving. I don't feel the fury of the ocean in its darkness. Instead, I feel panic. Time is running out and I am not sure why.

MOVE!

An immediate sense of urgency overtakes me, and I begin to panic. My body pushes me to move.

So, I move...


My eyes register a bright light and I squint. My hand automatically reaches up to block it out of my face. That is when I realize where I am.

My legs and fingertips are warm. There is no sign of a red light, only the pale one from the moon. I am in my bed. I must have sat up when I felt that weird need to... move. I still do.

I feel anxious and my legs burn with the need to move. I throw the blanket off me and get up to go to the bathroom. After washing my hands, I look in the mirror and pause to think about the dream. It was weird. Like I was in a daze the whole time. I felt nothing until my arm was in the pond.

The crashing of waves coming from outside my window has me leaving the bathroom and entering my bedroom again. It is slow and steady, calming and inviting.

If I need to move, then maybe a walk on the beach will help.

A stroll along the beach does not help. I keep walking along the shore, but nothing seems to be satisfying the need to move. The moon is lowering, and I can tell that day is coming in an hour or two.

I pass the objects littering the beach. It seems like the waves brought onto the shore more than usual. There are many lumps of seaweed and trash. I even pass a few unfortunate horseshoe crabs and fish, all long gone.

My frown turns to worry when I stop in front of a large fish with something unusual. By its head, there seems to be a small bite mark. I have studied the bite marks of all predatory fish in my area.

And this one is unusual. It is smaller and rounder than most. There is no point to it and no shredding. Just a perfect semi-circle cut out from its head. Something that takes bites that small shouldn't be able to bite a chunk of skull from a fish this large.

The bite almost looks human...

A low hissing echoes from a few feet away and my eyes snap up.

At first it looks like a woman laying on her side and holding herself up with her arms. That is until I see that her legs are too long and pointed at the end.

A fin flips at the end of its tail and I catch the glimmer of scales. Another hiss brings my eyes to its face. Its upper part is human with the skin being mostly scales. Long, unruly hair hangs from its shoulders and its face is contorted to match something truly animalistic. The features are hardly human. The eyes are too large and black. Teeth shining pass where lips should be. Gills along the sharp cheekbones and a slit for a nose.

It hisses at me again and I take a step back. The arms start to drag its long frame closer to me. It is about 15 feet away from me but in the moonlight, I can see every detail perfectly.

Its hiss tells me everything I need to know. It is angry, territorial, and hungry all at the same time.

"They can't be real."

My jaw is hanging in disbelief. The stories Aunt Jane told me were true.

Move.

It drags its form closer to me and I find an odd feeling missing from my chest. The feeling of shock is present but not as strong as I would expect. Some part of me, although terrified, is not surprised.

It is like always knowing that a tiger lurks in the woods by your home and now that it is ready to pounce on you, you are afraid but not surprised.

It has always been there. Just never close enough to home until now.

Why now?

Another hiss rings out and it starts to frantically drag itself towards me. The burning in my legs return and I sprint down the beach.

I hear it howling and screaming. The sound is like that of a woman and a cat fighting but muffled behind closed doors. The sound is strange, and the cadence is nothing like any living thing I have heard before.

I quickly outrun the thing and fly down the beach. The burning in my legs is inviting as it helps me create as much distance between myself and the thing.

Before I know it, I am running up the porch and into my house. It is long gone but I can't help but stare out the window at the ocean. It is quiet. Not even the sound of waves can be heard. It is as if even the ocean is holding its breath.

Or something in the ocean is observing.