The Shore (Leisure Fiction)

The wind. Only the wind, shredding the mist. Then a groan echoed.

'No, Steve, please.' A rattling noise seemed to fill her. A moment passed before she realized her teeth chattered together, that she couldn't make them stop.

'I have a place, Perry,' he called. 'A place you could go. Somewhere we can help you. Where there are others like you. I swear. A farm, deep in the woods. Hidden. That's why I'm here. The two of you can come with me. You and your sister both.' He paced forward slowly. 'Perry?'

The groan rumbled. Growing winds tore the mist into trailing patches.

'Wait for me.' She stepped up alongside him. 'What is that? What's in there?'

The groan became a growl, echoing.

'You know what it is, Kit. You've seen it.'

The growl crackled into a snarl.

She caught at his arm. 'Make it stop!'

On the low roof, a casement erupted, and chunks of glass rained down amid hunks of wood.

'Damn!' He raced forward.

A bulky form crashed through the ruined skylight. Bellowing, it clattered out onto the slick tile in an explosion of furious movement.

As she stared, Kit felt all her remaining strength bleed away.

It stalked to the edge and glared down. Vapor-laden winds damply thrashed the long yellow hair. A blast of sound--an exultant agony--shredded the remnants of mist as the monster shrieked again.

She felt the revolver slip from her slackening fingers, heard it chime against the muddy concrete at her feet. She could not look away.

Shreds of white cloth still adhered to the swollen form on the roof, and something bulged on its back. Through a widening gap in the mist, she glimpsed the red-smeared body across the creature's shoulder.

She covered her face with her hands. That terrible cry rang out again, and she heard Steve shout something but couldn't sort out the words. Then his voice faded. Freezing water soaked the left side of her body, and dimly she realized she must have fallen, and only gradually did she understand that what she heard now were running footsteps. She took her hands away.

Nothing paced on the roof. Shreds of fog slid across the ground around her.

'So cold.' She groped until she found the gun. 'I can't anymore.' She wobbled to her feet. 'Steve? Where are you?' She took a hesitant step. 'Don't leave me here.' She broke into a staggering run. 'Please.'

The world eddied. Isolated objects seemed to float: a single pole, mysteriously still erect; a fragment of wall. Her footsteps thrummed across wood, and she nearly tripped as the surface tilted. Sticking the revolver under her belt, she stumbled up the ramp.

The wind hit. Fog streaked and vanished in a heartbeat, and the sodden planks creaked as she hurried into a blowing mist that made everything blur and glimmer.

'No,' she whispered. Her leg muscles cramped, and she steadied herself against a post. 'Not out there, please, no.'

Somehow, the pilings of the old fishing wharf still tilted from the sea, but the ocean rose almost to the boards. Many of the beams had gone altogether, and others slanted madly into waves that squirted up between sodden logs.

'I don't want to go out there.' The churning expanse gapped before her. At the end of the wharf, where the swells slapped straight across, figures seemed to dance.

XXX

Wind shoved her to the edge. Below, a flotilla of debris, mostly timbers torn from the pier, rushed and receded. The cold knifed through her.

A breaker spumed, and she fell, thudding hard against the dock. As she struggled to rise, the retreating water pulled, and she slid, clutching at slime. Suddenly, the dock pitched, and splintered wood jutted over the water.

A single rail bridged the two halves of the broken pier, rusted spikes poking from where crossbeams had been. It was the only way across.

If a wave comes now...

With a convulsive shiver, she clutched the rail with both hands and began to crawl, wary of the nails. Don't look. She gripped the beam with frozen fingers, squeezing it with her thighs as she inched forward. Stay focused. Her jeans snagged, and she tugged, grunting when she felt blood trickle warmly on her knee. Balance. Water slapped at her, stinging her stomach, and she crawled faster. Slow down. Her hand slipped, and she lurched to the side. Feeling the revolver slide, she grabbed at it but missed.

It vanished silently into the sea. Foam drew patterns on the surface, kaleidoscopic striations that seemed to hint at a bewildering design. She had no name for the color.

The beam vibrated, slanting as she clambered off. 'Help me!' On the other side, she pulled herself into a crouch. 'Steve!' Again she sprawled, her hands clutching frantically at slick wood as the pier groaned to a violent angle, miniature cascades draining across it. '...help...' Somehow, she stumbled to her feet.

Just ahead of her, the pier ended abruptly, smashed away. On the jagged point, the creature whirled and screeched, the boy a motionless heap across its shoulder. It shrieked again with a voice like the storm.

She struggled to reach them.

'Listen to me, Stella.' He kept the revolver trained on it. 'Listen to my voice. Try to understand.' His voice held only weary anguish. 'Try to hold on to my words.'

Kit staggered closer. Spray from the waves battled back a wall of mist. Were those wings that curled from the creature's back or plumes of spray? Tentacles that writhed or lashing froth?

The clenched travesty of a female form shrieked again, and its rage--a gust of sheer fury--billowed at them. Lips rippled away from snarling teeth. Straining muscles twisted as its body swelled with savage dementia, and it hoisted the boy above its head.

'Put him down, Stella. There's no place left to go.'

It shivered, breasts glistening with seawater.

'Don't fight the seizure. Let it ride over you. Think. It fades. You know it passes. You'll be all right again, I promise. Then I'll take you someplace, you and Perry. Someplace good. Someplace you'll be safe.'

A tremor shook it. Slowly, the creature began to lower the boy.

'You have to trust somebody,' his voice pleaded.

Another wave struck, and Kit slipped, clutching at Steve's arm. The creature snarled, seemingly aware of her for the first time. It whirled the boy. For a moment, they seemed to waltz, while the convulsing sea slung plumes of water into a blaring sky.

'Stella! Don't!'

It tossed the boy at them. He hit the wood and rolled limply, like a discarded rag doll.

'Don't make me shoot!'

With a wild shriek, it stomped at them. He fired once into the air. The thing halted its charge, backed away.

'Listen to me,' he shouted. 'You. Whatever you are. Whatever any of you are. You can't run. It only makes it worse when you try to run.'

'Kill it!' She grasped his shoulder. 'For God's sakes, shoot it!'

'Get back, Kit!'

'Give me the gun! I'll kill it!' She grappled with him.

'Stella! No!'

The creature rushed to the boy again.

'Get away from him!'

It groped with a gnarled claw, then jerked the boy overhead, clutching the slack body with both hands.

'Put him down! Down, Stella!'

The creature's head swiveled toward the ocean, and the muscles in its arms bunched.