Down Under

[13]

"Lucy!" I shout.

"I'm right here," the haunting voice sings. The water in front of me bubbles and churns, and then a head draped in black hair and a crown of seaweed rises from within the whirlpool. The eyes emerge next, glowing red as they reflect back the sickly light of the swollen sun. Finally, her mouth appears. Her lips are taught in a calm smile.

"Don't worry, Shawn," she whispers, but her mouth doesn't move.

My heart races in my chest. "Stop doing that, Lucy! Stop, please!"

"I'm not Lucy anymore." Her mouth curls into a smile. "I'm the queen of the sea." Her lips part in a grimace, revealing her teeth. The sharp, pointed incisors fill her mouth like the jaws of a shark. Blood drips from them, and tiny parasites worm their way around, squirming and squealing.

"Lucy!" I scream. I kick and paddle as hard as I can to get away, but for every stroke I take, the current drags me back another yard. The seaweed wrapped around my legs tightens, pulling me toward the monster impersonating my sister.

"Help!"

I glance over my shoulder. Slowly, the creature rises out of the water. Its torso is that of a young girl, but from the waist down, it transforms into a serpent. Its tail whips back and forth, forming a ripping whirlpool around the two of us.

I try to pry the seaweed from my legs, but that only makes it squeeze tighter.

Suddenly, I'm lifted into the air, the seaweed revealing itself as two massive tentacles extending out of the body of the monster. They connect into her shoulders where her arms should be. I scream, struggling to pry the tentacles from my legs. My skin feels like it's frying in the heat of the swelling sun.

"Stay with me here forever, Shawn," the monster hums. "The sun is dying. The Earth is dying. But you can join me here, beneath the ground. Beneath the sea. In the darkness down under, we can live together. Forever, we'll be free."

My throat burns like it is going to explode as I try to scream, but I can't get any sound out. It's like trying to scream beneath the ocean. Water fills my mouth and my lungs. The queen of the sea pulls me in with her massive tentacles. Worms scamper over them before reaching my legs. They crawl across my body like a thousand spiders.

The monster stretches her jaw, and her parasite-infested teeth spread wide, snapping as they draw in closer and closer to my neck.

"Lucy!" The pressure building in my throat finally, breaks, and I scream as loud as I can. "Help!"

"Shawn!" a man's voice calls out.

A hand grips my arm, shaking me. "Shawn, wake up," another man says.

My heart races as I blink, and cold sweat slicks the back of my neck. A bright white light blinds me. "What?" I manage to gasp, snapping my eyes closed against the burning light. It fades to a deep glowing red behind my eyelids—red like the sun.

"What's going on?" My voice comes out hoarse, like I've been screaming for a year.

The glowing red behind my eyelids dims, and I open them again.

"You're okay," a man says. The beam on his headlamp shines off to the side now. He hits a button on my helmet, turning on my own light.

"Elias?" I say, finally recognizing the wrinkled face and wispy white hair of my crew mate.

The tunnel around me glows a dark, haunting red. America sits next to me, his hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently. Star sits on his other side, glancing at me out of the corners of her eyes. We're still in the caves.