| |
Her body refused to cooperate. Miriam tried to kick her feet to propel herself back to the surface, but she barely made any headway before the pain forced her to stop. Her right arm stung against the salty water, so she used the only good limb remaining, trying to leverage enough water to push herself up.
She didn’t know if her shot had killed it, but she could hear muffled splashing all around her.
And then arms — not tentacles — wrapped around her tender rib cage. A soft presence pushed against her back. And then, in an instant, Miriam could breathe again, greedily sucking in all the fresh air she could.
Macy kicked along, no doubt in pain herself as she managed to get them both safely to the dock. She fished Miriam out, requiring a little of Miriam’s upper body strength to get the job done. Miriam collapsed onto her back, grateful to be out of the water. By Macy’s lack of urgency, she assumed the kraken was no longer a threat.
Miriam pushed herself up onto her elbows and stared out across the water. The Mama Jean had almost completely disappeared beneath the water line. The kraken floated on the surface, its tentacles stretched out haphazardly, seemingly dead, though Miriam didn’t think she could fully accept it yet.
“I didn’t know you could swim like that,” Miriam said.
Macy pushed a lock of wet red hair behind one of her ears. “Yeah. I was totally a lifeguard in high school. I never mentioned that?”
Miriam almost laughed, but the pain in her ribs prevented it.
“Mostly for the boys, though,” Macy said. “Didn’t think I’d actually ever need to save someone.”
Miriam turned her head towards the squad cars, one of them overturned and the other missing a door. Someone was beating on the back window of the upright car. Miriam squinted and saw it was Detective Tommy Wallace, watching the dead kraken with a pained expression.
One of the uniformed officers ran up to them. His nametag said Grabowski. “Ambulances are on the way. That was amazing!”
His red cherubic face regarded Miriam with more awe than she felt like she deserved. She asked, “What happened to Tommy?”
“Oh,” Grabowski answered. “Detective Wallace, you mean? He told us to lock him back there and to not let him out no matter what he said. He said some pretty awful stuff.”
Grabowski shuffled off to tend to one of the fallen officers. Miriam smiled and collapsed back to the dock. Was it over? Had she really just killed a kraken?
She reveled in the frustration that she could imagine creeping across her father’s face as he read the news.
Take that, dad.
Macy stretched out beside her and they both stared up at Cape Madre’s clear coastal skies. Stars speckled the horizon in every direction. Soon, she would be whisked away in an ambulance, and the pain shooting through every part of her body longed for the relief, but she found something meaningful and relaxing about lying there with her best friend, next to the carcass of an impossible monster.
She was exhausted. But also proud. Of herself. Of Macy. Tanner would still need to be cured, but Miriam felt confident there’d be a way. She thought of Cornelius and actually smiled, thinking of how excited he would be to study the carcass. So much to learn. So much to prove. And now it all fell to her.
“Are we gonna go crazy now, too?” Macy asked.
Miriam considered the question without an answer. Whatever the parasite did, it hadn’t affected her yet. She felt nothing but derision for the creature floating in the water. Certainly, she wasn’t wracked with the pain that she saw in Tommy’s eyes. There was something about it they still didn’t understand.
“Tommy said Emma didn’t turn either,” Miriam said.
“So, like, it doesn’t affect girls?” Macy posited.
“Hmmm,” Miriam hummed. “Maybe you’re on to something.”
She wanted to roll to her side so that she could look Macy in the eye, but when she tried, her ribs protested, so she stayed on her back and settled for turning her head. Macy did the same.
“In Greek times,” Miriam suggested. “Sailors told tales of the sirens. Beautiful creatures of the sea that sang a song so beautiful that the men couldn’t resist it, but women easily ignored the call. It led the men into treacherous waters and ultimately to their deaths... Maybe it wasn’t a song. Maybe it was a parasite.”
Ambulance sirens echoed in the distance. Miriam let out a dry chuckle, which hurt even though she couldn’t help it.
“What’s so funny?” Macy asked.
“The sirens are coming for us.”
Macy laughed.
