A mist over the island

Chapter five i/ii

If they had been hoping that the shark-things would slink away in the night and that daylight would bring an opportunity for escape, they were to be disappointed. The shark-things, having found their prey, were not about to leave them be.

They were noisier during the night. Or maybe it was just that the noises they made seemed the more prominent in the still of the darkness. As well as their peculiar high-pitched pheeeeeeeeeeeeee! thatcould be heard pretty near constantly, there were occasional bangs as they crashed against the fence or against the car. There was the sound of the sea too, of course, but that was easy to become acustomed to, and they hardly noticed it. The sound of the creatures waiting outside was one that they could never get accustomed to, and it tormented them.

This was the second night Fiona had spent in the lighthouse, but it hardly seemed the same place. Last night, it had been cosy, comforting; a quaint, old-fashioned place, that she and Simon were (He's dead you know) defiling by having illicit sex there. Tonight, it was claustrophobic. She had (dead forever) the impression that the single circular wall was watching the five figures huddled in the darkness at its foot, watching them hungrily, waiting to see them die. Tonight, the lighthouse seemed callous, sneering, evil.

The night hours seemed to go on forever, and the sounds outside did not let up, no not for a moment. Even with her hands tight over her ears she could still hear it, though that might have been her imagination playing a cruel trick on her. She waited for the daylight, and though their situation would be much the same, she felt it would be more bearable in the daylight. It had to be, because she could not cope with sitting here in the darkness, none of them knowing what to do or when rescue might come. She felt she was going out of her mind; she wanted to scream, but she feared that if she did, she might never be able to stop.

There was the sound of heavy breathing. Someone was asleep. Caillin? Fiona was amazed – appalled. How could anyone sleep with those Hell-creatures circling just a storey below them?

Twenty-four hours ago, she thought, I was having the time of my life, getting drunk with Simon. Perhaps twenty-four hours ago, they were already asleep. Impossible to know; she didn't know what time they had started fucking, she didn't know what time they had gone to sleep, and she didn't know what time it was now. She hoped it was late, so that the daylight might come soon.

***

Tom was the first to wake, and Fiona was standing over him.

He gave a start. "Jesus, Fiona! How long have you been there? Don't feckin' well stand over me like that." 

"Come with me!" she said, and she virtually dragged him to his feet. He followed her up two flights of stairs and to the window. 

"I don't know if it's good or bad," she said. "But look over, out that way."

"What am I looking at?"

"You can see Bagg Island."

"I can, right enough."

"Yesterday morning, when I looked out, there was someone there."

"On Bagg Island?"

"Yeah. At first I thought it was Enda, because he had a huge beard, and I was thinking, what's Enda doing over there? Did he swim? But it wasn't Enda and he had a big animal with him."

"What? You don't mean like the fuckers out there?"

"I don't know. I thought it must be a dog. And the sun was behind him, so I couldn't make out any details. But if it was a dog, it was a huge one, I mean it was a monster."