Caspian
“How long has he been gone?” I paced in front of the lake, grinding my back teeth.
“Thirty minutes,” River answered.
“You think he’s okay?” Syn asked, the frantic tone of her words adding to my own growing trepidation.
I shook my head, unable to stop moving. “This was a shit idea,” I blurted. “I should have gone with him rather than go alone. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
“He’ll be alright,” River said. “He’s a tough sonofabitch.”
When I glanced at him with a hard glare, I noticed his arched eyebrows and stiff expression as he kept looking down at Syn in his arms and then back at me. Our poor girl was barely holding on, and here I was losing my cool.
Great job. Shit.
“You’re right, he’ll be fine.” I lied terribly because even Syn looked unconvinced.
“Okay, fine, I’m going in,” I finally announced. “I’ll bring him back out.”
Stripping, I stepped into the water, leaving the bottom half of my synthetic leg in place. I had no time to remove it when an ominous feeling suffocated me that something was wrong with Hendrix. I couldn’t bring myself to voice the worry in front of Syn, but my growing sense of dread had me rushing deeper into the water until I was deep enough to dive in.
It didn’t take long to find myself following a bright light through a cave opening only to find myself in a narrow tunnel with the strangest fucking upward steps on the wall. What the fuck created those? Yep, I l already hated this shithole, but Hendrix was in here somewhere.
Pulling myself up through the water with kicking and my arms, I finally reached the surface and found myself in a cavern, barely able to catch my breath, and something white rushed at me.
It came so fast, I barely had time to react. I threw my arms up, but the hard strikes at my body were like blades. I was thrashed in the water, swallowing it while fighting to keep my head up.
It was only when I ducked my head under, punching ferociously at whatever the hell was attacking me, that I saw the bastard.
Some kind of freakish, skeletal thing. Fuck me but it looked like some alien creature straight out of the movies.
We whipped around in the water, but the thing moved too fast. I wasn’t a fool to not know when to count my blessings and when to know shit was going sideways for me. Hendrix… was he in here somewhere, floating dead after we’d been conned to come into the lake?
Lashing out, my punches weren’t as effective when striking underwater, but the moment I saw the gaping mouth with razor teeth coming for me, my life flashed before my eyes.
He bit into my neck, moving so fast, I couldn’t even deflect the attack.
Like steel, the bite tore at my flesh, and the wisps of blood floated in the water around us.
I screamed, fighting like a motherfucker against him, when a voice called out into my mind.
“Caspian, are you ready? What are you willing to sacrifice for the girl with child?”
The fuck? I breathed heavily, my head just bobbing over the surface, while the monster remained attached to my neck. And no amount of punches would dislodge it.
“Are you my trial?” I gasped, spitting out blood, the pain in my neck burning like fire.
It hummed in my mind, saying, “What part of yourself will you give up for her safety?”
I stared at the bony head with no eyes. “What the fuck?”
Then a strike to my gut knocked all the wind out of me. The next thing I knew, something snatched my feet and I was hauled back under with such speed, that the creature vanished in the blink of an eye.
Then it whispered once more in my ear, “Someone among you betrays you.”
Writhing for escape, I reached for anything, kicking my legs while my lungs screamed for oxygen. They were empty and I was going to drown.
Fear inhaled me, and only when I‘d been released did I finally drive myself upward through the water, desperate for air.
Hitting the surface, I gasped for oxygen, my chest pumping furiously. Desperation clenched my throat at what I’d just seen, and only then did I notice the thick green mist surrounding me. I could barely see my own hand in front of my face, let alone where the hell I was.
“Hendrix,” I cried out.
Nothing, yet something felt odd. I tried beating my legs, but I found myself dipping under the water’s surface, struggling to stay afloat.
I dipped my head low, gaze piercing through the water, convinced something still held onto my legs.
Wait! What the hell? My legs were gone. Both missing from below the knees.
I yelled underwater out of pure shock, staring incredulously and kicking the stumps I had left.
Fuck no, fuck no. Darkness reached out with sharp fingers, grabbing me by the chest and squeezing. I gasped for air as panic shuddered through me.
Coming back up for air, my pulse thundered like a storm in my chest, and I felt myself drowning now from the inside out.
It took me a long time to accept the loss of my leg when I was younger. Years of fucked up shit that made me hate myself, but this… this was both legs gone. What the fuck good was I now?
Swallowing hard, I thrashed in the water, amid the green mist, I was losing the battle of fighting the rising panic. Instead, it filled me. With it came the creature’s words…
What part of yourself will you give up for her safety?