Authors: Shaun Jeffrey
Chapter 25
Bruce cupped his hands around his mouth.
“Jack?” he shouted. At his side, Shazam barked. When his son didn’t reply,
Bruce bit his lip and continued along the road. He slipped a hand into his
pocket, fingering the wallet with the lucky charms. If ever there was a time he
needed their aid, it was now.
With Duncan and Erin’s help, he had
searched almost all the village, but there was no sign of Jack.
“He’s got to be somewhere,” Bruce said.
At his side, Erin nodded. “We will find
him.”
Bruce hoped she was right. The thick
bank of fog had started to thin out, but now the light was fading. A solitary
streetlight had already come on, throwing a pale orange sheen across the road.
Bruce stopped and turned to face Duncan.
“What about that old madwoman? You know, the one who grabbed Jack and marched
him into the bar.” He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of her before.
Duncan scratched his nose. “You mean
Lillian Brown? I suppose it’s worth a try.”
“At this point, I’d try anything.”
“Follow me,” Duncan said, turning tail
and marching away.
Bruce and Erin followed with Shazam
trotting alongside. Bruce looked down at the dog. “Some help you are. I thought
dogs were meant to have a heightened sense of smell.”
Shazam looked up, and for a moment,
Bruce thought there was sadness in the dog’s expression. “I’m sorry girl. I
know you’d help if you could.”
Duncan led them away from the high
street to a house overlooking the harbour. He stepped up to the door and rang
the bell. When no one answered, he knocked.
“Doesn’t look as though anyone’s in,” he
said.
Bruce stepped forward and started
banging on the door. “Jack, are you in there?” he shouted.
Duncan grabbed his hand. “I don’t think
that’ll do any good.”
Bruce exhaled slowly, turned away from
the house and walked to the road where he leaned against the wall at the front
of the property, trying to gather his thoughts. After a moment, he took his
phone out and tried ringing Jack again, but the voicemail cut in straight away.
The sound of footsteps caught his
attention, and he looked back down the road to see a slim girl with brown hair
tied back in a ponytail running towards them.
“Mr. Roberts,” she wheezed, head bobbing
up and down as she fought to catch her breath. “It’s … Jen and that … new boy
…”
Duncan started towards the girl. “Sara,
what is it—”
“What? What’s happened to them,” Bruce
said, grabbing the girl by the shoulders before Duncan reached her.
Sara looked at him, her brown eyes wide
with something he recognised as fear.
“Jen’s grandmother … she’s tied that new
boy up. It’s … crazy. I think … she’s lost her marbles.”
“She’s
what
? Where are they?”
Bruce demanded. He wanted to shake her, couldn’t believe what he heard.
“Calm down,” Duncan said, prizing
Bruce’s hands from Sara’s shoulders.
“I need to find my son,” Bruce said,
fighting to remain calm. He could feel his temples pound, could feel the throb
of blood in the thick veins sticking out on his neck as he clenched his teeth.
“I understand,” Duncan said, “but
terrorizing Sara isn’t going to help.”
“I’m not terrorizing her. I just need to
know where Jack is.”
“They’re down by the cliffs past the cove,”
Sara said.
“Then take me there,” Bruce said.
Sara looked at Bruce, her expression
alarmed. “I … I…”
“It’s okay,” Erin said to Sara. “We’re
here with you now.” She smiled.
Bruce nodded encouragement. “Please. If
they’re in trouble, then I need to find them.”
Sara closed her eyes and nodded.
“Then let’s go,” Bruce said.
Sara lead the way, but Bruce could tell
by the way she walked that her heart wasn’t in it. She had seen something or
experienced something that she obviously didn’t want to repeat.
They followed the main road out of the
village, past the small beach, and continued further along the coast. The road
went up an incline so they now had a view of the sea to their left. The fog had
virtually dispersed, but darkness had fallen, bringing with it a mantle of
stars and a gibbous moon. If anything had happened to Jack, he would never
forgive himself for dragging his son away from the city.
A scream pierced the silence, chilling
Bruce to the core. “What the hell was that?” he cried.
“It sounded like Jen,” Sara said.
Before anyone could say anything else,
Bruce started to run. Shazam ran alongside, her hackles up like a cat. Whatever
was wrong, she sensed it too.
On one side of the road there were
fields bordered by a low hedge. On the other, there was a drop to the sea,
which he could hear crashing into the rocks far below.
The scream rang out again, louder and
more insistent. With it came a shout for help that Bruce recognised as his son,
spurring him to run faster.
Although dark, the light of the moon was
enough to see by, and Bruce spotted a small trail leading towards the cliff
edge. He followed it to a meandering path that wound down the cliff face.
Without waiting for the others, he started down, using his hands to steady
himself. Shazam accompanied him, jumping from rock to rock with the assuredness
of a mountain goat.
The drop to his left was precarious to
say the least, and he didn’t look in case it turned his stomach to see the
water churning below. The tide was at its highest, and he could hear the waves
sloshing between rock formations, invading crevices and cracks.
“Jack,” he shouted. “Where are you?”
A moment’s silence, then a voice, “Dad,
we’re over here... But be careful. There’s … something here. Some sort of
creature…”
Creature? Bruce followed the sound.
Jagged rocks pierced the flesh of his hands, but he ignored the pain. He had to
reach his son. Nothing else mattered.
Two figures stood in what looked like a
recess in the rock less than twenty feet away, but between them and Bruce was
the sea.
Bruce looked at the expanse of water,
the moons reflection glinting from the surface like a shoal of dancing fish.
“Jack, swim across,” Bruce shouted.
Shazam stood on a rock, growling.
Then Bruce noticed movement at the
water’s edge, saw something black and shiny that clung to the rocks. Moonlight
glinted from its body, and despite the distance and the lack of light, Bruce
felt a sudden ray of terror pierce his soul.
The creature opened its mouth, revealing
large fanglike teeth, and emitted a keen wailing sound that chilled the marrow
in his bones.
What the hell was that thing?
Shazam barked loudly, her tail between
her legs as though in fear.
He watched Jack throw a rock at it,
trying to drive it away. The rock missed, splashing harmlessly in the water
beyond the creature. Jack threw another, which hit the creature on the head,
but with no discernible effect.
Rocks skittered at his side, and the
next moment, Erin stood beside him.
“What the hell is that thing?” Bruce
asked as he looked at Erin.
She swallowed, her face ashen. “I knew
I’d seen them somewhere before, but not like that. It’s impossible ….” She
pursed her lips, shaking her head as if unable to believe what she was seeing.
“
Anoplogaster
cornuta
.”
“Can you say that in fuckin’ English?”
Bruce snapped.
“Fangtooth.”
Chapter 26
Erin squinted to see through the dark.
It didn’t seem possible, but there was no mistaking that pitted face, the hard
ridges between the two beady eyes and the teeth … god those teeth, which looked
like a steel-jawed mantrap in the chasm of its mouth.
“I don’t understand,” Bruce said. “What
the hell is it?”
Erin rubbed her eyes, hoping the action
would change the scene before her, but it didn’t, of course it didn’t.
“Well, if it’s what I think it is, they
normally only grow to about the size of your hand. But this …”
Bruce pointed at the creature. “My god,
it’s crawling out of the water. It’s got arms and legs!”
Erin swallowed to hold in the bile as
she remembered Kev’s body bitten in half.
“I’ve got to get my son out of there,”
Bruce said. Before Erin could reply, he clambered down the rocks to the sea’s
edge.
Erin wanted to follow him down, but her
legs were shaking and she found she couldn’t move.
Shazam barked like something demented.
The sound drilled into her ears, deafening.
She stared at the creature, almost too
afraid to blink. Arms and legs! It wasn’t possible. It was like something
conjured in a nightmare. Almost close enough to reach out and touch already,
she didn’t want to get any closer. She thought she could smell it in the air, a
pungent fishy aroma that made her feel sick.
“Hey, get away,” Bruce said as he picked
up a rock and threw it at the creature, striking it on the back.
The Fangtooth
turned its head and looked at Bruce, then it raised its head higher and stared
at Erin. Her legs turned to jelly. On the verge of collapsing, she tried to
control her breathing, was hyperventilating.
Its black eyes seemed to bore into her,
and it almost looked as though it were smiling. The spiky dorsal fins along its
spine seemed to quiver, then it slowly slid back down into the water and
disappeared below the surface.
“Can you climb along the rocks?” Bruce
shouted.
Jack shook his head. “There’s no way we
can get across. We tried.”
The creature’s disappearance spurred
Erin into action. With her legs functioning again, she scrambled down to Bruce.
She was still breathing erratically, but at least she didn’t feel as though she
were about to collapse. She kept warily glancing at the sea, and was about to
speak to Bruce when she saw movement in the water, and the creature’s head
broke the surface only feet from where she stood.
Erin staggered back in alarm as the
creature started to swim towards them. When it reached the rocks, it scrambled
ashore, and with nothing to stop its progress, it moved quickly up the slight
incline towards where they stood. Shazam growled, baring her teeth.
Bruce picked up a large rock and threw
it at the creature, hitting it square between the eyes, but the creature didn’t
even flinch.
“Come on you bastard.” Bruce picked up a
piece of sturdy driftwood as thick as his arm and smashed it across the
creature’s head. The wood shattered on impact with a loud crack, but the
creature seemed unfazed. “What the …”
The Fangtooth opened its mouth, allowing
Erin to see inside its cavernous, tubular throat. A rotten stench flowed out,
like something dead, then the creature started to advance, using its arms and
legs to move in a lizard-like fashion across the rocks.
“Bruce,” she yelled, “Come on, we’ve got
to get out of here.”
“I can’t leave Jack.”
“They’re safe where they are, but we’re
not. And you’ll be no use to them dead.”
With an almost imperceptible nod of his
head, Bruce shouted, “Jack, stay where you are. We’ll go and get help. Come on
Shazam, we’ve got to go.” He grabbed the dog’s collar, turned tail and followed
Erin back up the cliff.
On the way up, they saw Sara and Duncan
making their way down. “Back,” Erin shouted. “Get away. There’s something down
there.”
Duncan frowned and shook his head,
perplexed. “Are they down there? Did you find your son?”
“There’s something
coming after us,” Bruce shouted. “A fucking monster of some sort. I don’t know
what it is, but run.”
Sara threw her arms in the air. “Where’s
Jen? Is she all right?”
“Yes,” Bruce said. “But we won’t be if
we don’t run.”
Erin heard rocks skittering behind them,
propelling her to move faster. The incline made her breathing laboured and she
gasped to draw breath.
Whether it was the look on their faces
or the sincerity behind their words, Duncan and Sara turned tail and hurried
back to the top of the cliff. When she reached the summit, Erin looked back
down. She thought she saw movement in the jagged shadows of the rocks, but it
was getting too dark to see, the moon’s light unable to illuminate the path she
had just taken.
“So what do we do now?” Bruce asked.
Without answering, Erin took out her
phone and dialled 999. When the call went through, a female operator said,
“Emergency, which service?”
“There’s two teenagers trapped in the
cliffs here at Mulberry.”
“So you need the coastguard?”
“No, we need the fuckin’ army.”
“I don’t understand. You said two
teenagers are stuck.”
“Not stuck really, more like trapped.”
“I still think you require the
coastguard in this situation.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Calm down, and tell me again what the
problem is.”
“Okay, there are two teenagers trapped
in the cliffs.” She took a breath, couldn’t think straight. “They’re not really
trapped … well they are—”
Before Erin had a chance to say anything
else, Bruce grabbed the phone from her. “It’s my son, goddamn it, and he’s
trapped by these monsters in the sea. Hello, of course I’m not joking. Do you
think I’d joke about something …hello. Hello.” He shook his head and closed his
eyes. “She cut me off.”
Erin took her phone back, “You should
have left it to me.”
“Can someone please tell me what’s going
on,” Duncan said.
Erin pointed towards the village. “First
I think we’d better get as far away from here as we can.”
Bruce shook his head. “I can’t leave my
son down there.”
“Where’s Jen?” Sara piped up.
Erin felt like screaming. “Bruce, you’ve
just seen what’s down there. The tide’s at its highest, so your son’s safe for
now where he is. So’s Jen. But we’re not.”
Bruce looked pensive. “You’re sure he’ll
be safe?”
“If the creature hasn’t gotten him yet,
then it’s unlikely it will get him now. The rocks were too steep, and by the
looks of it, the creature wasn’t able to climb very well. Now come on, we’ve
got to get out of here and get help.”
“We’ll pick up my car on the way. It’ll
be faster,” Bruce said.
Without waiting to argue anymore, Erin
started jogging back towards the village. After a moment, she heard the others
following behind, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t want to be on
her own.
Erin burst through the doors of the bar.
Graham looked up and scrutinized her with his one good eye. The next minute,
Bruce, Duncan and Sara piled in behind her.
“Pour me … a stiff … brandy,” Duncan
said, wheezing for breath as he leaned against the bar, head down.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,”
Graham said to Erin. “Duncan, what’s going on?”
Erin wiped sweat from her brow. “Not a
ghost, a monster.”
Graham scowled. “Duncan, what’s this all
about?”
Duncan looked up, his cheeks inflamed.
He took the brandy and downed it in one. “I don’t know. I really don’t.”
Erin looked back at Bruce. He seemed
hardly winded by the exertion prior to driving into the village. Behind him,
Sara collapsed in a chair by the door. There was no one else in the bar, which
she found disconcerting. More people would have calmed her fears, providing
security in numbers.
“We need to get help,” Bruce said. “It’s
a waste of time calling the police again.”
“Police!” Graham said. “Can someone
please tell me what’s happened?”
“It’s my son—”
“And Jen,” Sara said.
“They’re trapped in the rocks by this …
this creature.” Bruce held his hands up to ward off any questions. “I don’t
know what it is.”
“I told you, it’s an
Anoplogaster
cornuta
,” Erin said.
Duncan turned and scowled. “A what?”
“
Anoplogaster cornuta
. Otherwise
known as Fangtooth. It’s a deep sea creature.”
“That’s not like
any deep sea creature I’ve ever seen,” Bruce said.
Erin nodded. “They
normally grow to the size of your hand, but something’s made that one mutate.”
“And what could do
that?”
Erin shrugged.
“There could be any number of reasons. Natural mutation, overfishing, chemicals
being dumped into the ocean.”
Bruce shook his head. “So why haven’t
they been spotted before?”
“I can’t say exactly, but as they’re a
deep sea fish they could have gone unnoticed for years. We know more about
space than we do about what’s in the ocean. New species are being discovered
all the time.”
“So why have they come ashore now?”
Duncan asked.
Erin looked at everyone in the room in
turn. “I don’t know. There always has to be a first time.”
“Do you think it’s an isolated
incident?” Bruce asked.
Erin pursed her lips. “I highly doubt
it. But one thing’s for certain—”
Bruce swallowed.
“—we’re no longer at the top of the food
chain.”