Serpentine (17 page)

“It’s okay,” he said, carefully standing up so she could clearly see him. “Just hold tight. I don’t know how you managed to get out there without realizing what had happened, but—”

He was interrupted by a cracking noise that was followed by a peculiar metallic creaking and crushing sound. It was almost like a soda can being crushed. By the time he even thought to look down, he felt water cascading over his feet.

“What the hell?”

When he had stood up, his weight had caused a small portion of the old rotten floor of the boat to buckle and crack. The crack was a foot long and about half a foot across. Water was coming in at a steady rate, funneling to the front of the boat and starting to cover the floor.

“That’s bad,” Valerie said, her voice shaky with worry.

“What can we do?” Joe asked. He was no longer too concerned with looking clueless in front of her now. All he knew was that his feet were already covered in water and Valerie’s once-powerful strokes in the water with the oar didn’t seem to be moving them along very far.

“Nothing,” she said. “We’re going to have to jump out.”

Joe looked back to the bank. It was less than twenty feet away but that was far too much water between them and solid ground as far as he was concerned.
Not that it would matter much,
he thought.
That thing will come
out
of the water for you if it needs to.

“Let me see this,” Joe said, taking the oar from Valerie. She gave it over willingly and slid aside to let him row.

As he put the oar into the water, he could actually hear the water gurgling in through the hole in the bottom of the boat. The water was nearly to his ankles now and when he stroked the oar through the water, he could feel the added weight of the water. He glanced ahead and saw that while they continued to close in on Mac, she was still several feet away. He figured if he could just get them close enough to where he could reach out and grab the canoe, they could climb into it and join her.

With his third stroke of the oar, that seemed less likely. But he wasn’t going to give up…not with Mac out there alone in the canoe and with Valerie watching him. He put all of his strength into his next stroke and it felt as if the boat barely moved.

Meanwhile, the water in the boat went over his ankles.

“Joe, we’re sinking, “Valerie said. “We’re sinking
quick.”

“I know,” he snapped, trying not to sound too mean. “If I could just get a little closer…”

He tried another stroke but he couldn’t even manage to give the oar the full breadth of the stroke. With a curse, he pulled the oar back in and looked to Mac. She was maybe three arm lengths away. He could
maybe
jump to her boat, but it would be close. And even if he landed in the water, the canoe would be easy to reach.

The idea of jumping into the water terrified him, but he had to do it. There was no other way. For a moment, he thought about just letting her float to the bank on the opposite side, but it was at least thirty feet away and he’d have to ride his bike all the way over there, looking for some access point to get to her.

There were no other solutions. He had to jump.

“I’m going to jump,” he told Valerie. “Can you do this with me?”

“Yeah,” she said, although she looked just as scared as he did.

He took her hand and then looked out to Mac. He could now
feel
their boat sinking, going down fast with the added weight of more and more water.

“Mac, you stay right there and don’t move,” Joe said loudly. “Our boat is sinking, so we’re going to come into yours, okay?”

Mac only nodded and went as still as a statue as she waited. Her little canoe now seemed to be drifting away impossibly fast, headed in the direction of the opposite bank.

Joe looked back to Valerie. “You ready?” he asked.

“No. But let’s do it anyway.”

He gave her a nervous grin, gripping the oar in his left hand and using his right hand to hold Valerie’s left one. There was no counting to three or steely gazes of encouragement; they just acted. Joe heard Valerie make a small fearful sound as they jumped out of the boat and into the lake together, hand in hand.

They splashed down into the water at the same time. Panic spiraled through him as his head went under.

This was made worse when, less than a second later, he felt Valerie’s hand get pulled away from his grip.

TWENTY-SIX

Joe came up to the surface, his heart pounding as terror slammed at its walls. He still held the oar in his left hand but his right was empty. He looked around in horror, gripped with a fear unlike any he had ever felt. That monster could be anywhere in this lake. It could be directly below him, waiting in the muck and murk at the bottom. It could be coming for his legs with that black mouth and—

Through the fear, Joe realized that he was directly beside Mac’s boat. She was looking down into the water with something like amusement.

“You okay?” Mac asked.

“Yeah, but I don’t see Valerie…”

But then he did. She came up from the water by the edge of their still-sinking boat. Her eyes sprang open and she gasped for breath.

“What is it?” Joe asked. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. My stupid foot hit the side of the boat and I fell in.”

She swam towards him, looking embarrassed but still visibly scared, too. Joe waited for her and helped her along the edge of the canoe.

“How do we do this without tipping the boat over?” Joe asked.

“Very carefully,” she answered. “I’ll pull myself up and the boat is going to rock. But when I get most of my back up on the air, I’ll try to throw a leg up over the side. If you can give me a boost after that, I think we’ll be okay. Mac and I can pull you in once I’m inside.”

“Sounds good,” Joe said, tossing the oar into Mac’s boat. “Let’s hurry.”

Valerie gripped the side of the boat and everything unfolded just as she had explained. When she pulled herself up, the boat rocked considerably. Mac let out a little yelp of surprise and slid to the opposite side of the boat. This actually helped a bit, as the weight of the boat shifted. When Valerie raised her leg up, Joe used one hand to take her hip and the other to leverage against her backside. He hoisted her up, pushing himself underwater in the process.

When he felt Valerie’s weight leave his hands, he swam up instantly. He was waiting for that monster to attack at any moment, maybe pulling his limbs off like it had allegedly done to that poor dock repairman.

The moment he grabbed the side of the boat, he felt Valerie take his hand. Noticing the plan in action, Mac also came over to help. The two girls worked together, getting him halfway out of the water. The canoe tilted a bit but not dangerously so. With a careful pull upwards that caused both girls to lose their footing, Joe fell into the boat.

He lay there for a moment, letting the rocking of the boat settle. He sat up slowly and when he did, Mac hugged him in a way she had not dared in several years. It was the hug of a toddler that idolized her big brother. Completely out of the blue, Joe found himself getting misty eyed. He pushed the emotion away as quickly as he could, mortified at the thought of crying in front of Valerie.

“Mac, what were you thinking?” he asked.

“I wasn’t…I mean, I didn’t mean to. I just stepped in and it started floating. I thought it was cool and fun at first but then I was too far away from shore and I…I—”

She started crying then, burying her face in Joe’s shoulder. He noticed the way Valerie was looking at him and knew that there was no need for him to be embarrassed about Mac’s reaction. Valerie was looking at him with the same sort of approval his parents gave him whenever he decided to help Mac with something like tying her shoes or putting a puzzle together.

“I’m sorry, Joe,” Mac said. “I really am. Don’t be mad!”

“Ah God, Mac. It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”

She pulled back to look at him and the sight of the tears in her eyes made him feel wretched. Had she been
that
worried he’d be mad?

“What about your clothes?” Mac asked. “They’re wet. Mom and Dad might get mad.”

“We’ll tell them we found a pier somewhere and I fell off,” he said. “It’s okay.”

“You sure?” she said, still not sure whether to trust him or not.

“Yes, Mac. I’m su—”

Something broke the surface of the water about three feet away from the boat. Joe’s words died in his throat as he and Valerie looked in that direction. All they saw was the splash of water and the briefest glimpse of something going back under. The splash had been a decent one, much larger than the little ripples he had seen on the few occasions where he had seen a small fish leap out of the water.

Just a big fish,
Joe thought.
That’s all. Just a fish. Maybe a bass or a catfish.

“That was a pretty big splash,” Valerie noted.

“Yeah,” he said, still looking at the space in the water.

“It’s just a fish,” Mac said, still wiping her tears away. “Why do you guys look so scared?”

“I’m not,” Joe said, pretty sure that he
did
look terrified.

“Want me to row us out of here?” Valerie asked.

“No,” Joe said. “I’ve got it.”

He picked up the oar he had thrown into the boat moments ago and hesitated. If whatever had made the splash was something other than a fish—if it was indeed that nightmarish thing he and Valerie had been chased by—then an oar in the water might attract it. The alternative, though, was to remain floating out here in this boat until they reached the opposite bank.

“Joe?” Valerie asked.

“I know, I know,” he said.
Just a fish,
he thought.
Just a big fish.

He put the oar in the water and managed to clumsily turn it around. Valerie looked a little amused but said nothing about his struggle. When he finally had the canoe turned around and headed back for their bank, he stroked forward. He looked ahead and their bank looked like some shimmering island. That’s how badly he wanted to be back on the ground. Even the sight of that old shack was like seeing a glimpse of Paradise.

The simple act of re-directing the canoe had calmed Joe’s nerves. He had saved his sister from floating further out into the lake and hopefully his ability to pick up the mechanics of rowing so quickly was impressing Valerie. Aside from having to lie to his folks about why his clothes were wet, this potentially disastrous event had turned out okay.

Feeling the weight and fear slide right off of him, Joe put the oar into the water and stroked ahead, sending the boat gliding closer towards the bank.

He looked back to Valerie and saw that she still looked a little spooked. If he didn’t have the oar in his hands, it would have been a great time to hold her hand and tell her that he would protect her. He could tell her that he’d never let anything happen to her, even when he was back in New York. He’d tell her that he was pretty sure he was falling in love with her and that meant he would—

“What’s that?”

Mac’s voice broke his daydream as he brought the oar up for another stroke.

“What’s
what?”
Joe asked.

Mac pointed into the water slightly behind them and to the left.

By the time Joe saw it, it was too late.

He saw the slithering shape angling quickly towards them. Part of its mottled back had breached the surface, creating a sort of M shape above the water. That shape was only there for a moment because as it drew within five feet of the canoe, it brought its head out of the water.

“Joe…” Mac said.

He heard absolute fear in her voice, the cold sort of fear that exists only in children that are still convinced the Boogeyman is real, that he does live in their closets, and he has a taste for the flesh of frightened boys and girls.

Then he heard Valerie behind him, her voice mingled with Mac’s. “Oh God,” she said with a sharp intake of breath.

When the head of the thing was out of the water, it brought more with it and it propelled itself at the boat. Joe had just enough time for one single thought before it struck the boat.

No, that’s not right,
he thought.
The thing we saw was smaller than this. This thing is almost double the size of what Valerie and I saw.

His attempt at reason died as the monster slammed into the back of the canoe. The collision made a hollow sort of sound and jolted the boat forward. Mac nearly fell into the water, but Valerie, now screaming in terror, managed to catch her.

Part of the thing—the head or at the very least its top portion, Joe assumed—was now in the canoe, coming into the back. Its head was pointed, but not in an angle. It was dulled and had a curve to it. It lifted the upper most part of its body up and slapped around the boat. When it rose up, Joe saw the slit where that dark mouth was. Seeing it again nearly made him freeze in terror but the screams of the two girls standing between him and the monster kept him from losing it.

Knowing of nothing better to do, Joe acted heroically before he realized he was doing it. He stepped in front of Mac and Valerie and brought the oar back like a baseball bat. His arms felt like steel rods as he swung the oar around as hard as he could. It connected with the thing’s head, making a wet smacking noise. When Joe drew it back, a mucus-like substance connected to the oar and the thing’s body. The blow seemed to stun the monster, so Joe drew back again. This time, the thing dodged him and when Joe’s swing continued its arc and hit the side of the canoe, the monster struck out, rocketing forward.

It knocked Joe off of his feet and when he landed on his back, he struck his head hard on the side of the canoe. He saw black tendrils in his vision, but he blinked them away as best he could. He got to his knees and saw that the head of the thing had kept shooting forward. It had wrapped around Valerie’s leg and she was now crying
and
screaming. People in horror movies didn’t scream like this; there was something painful and shrill about it, the type of sound that you expected to hear in an asylum.

Mac was cowering against the other side of the boat, doing all she could to get as far away from it as possible without jumping into the water. Her eyes were wide and unblinking and she wasn’t moving much.

At the front of the boat, the thing continued to pile in. It slithered into the boat quickly and as it filled the length of it, Joe estimated that creature had to be at least seven feet long—and that’s just from what had come out of the water.

Acting as quickly as his overworked mind would allow, Joe managed to get to his feet, drawing up the oar again. The thing’s grip on Valerie was stronger now, having now wrapped itself around her leg up to the knee. She was slapping at it and trying to grab it, but her hands kept sliding off in the slick substance along its skin. She was shrieking and looking at Joe, her eyes pleading for help.

Joe screamed then, and started to wail on the thing. He now lifted the oar like an axe, bringing it down on the thing as if it were a log that needed to be split into firewood. He screamed in fear and fury, raising the oar and bringing it down in blow after blow. He lost all thought and meaning behind the strikes, simply attacking on some primal instinct to save Valerie.

The thing responded by flailing wildly. Part of its rear tried knocking him down again. Joe sidestepped, almost falling out of the canoe, and instantly redirecting his attack.

He started stomping on it, hoping to inflict as much pain as he could. But it was like stepping on a wet floor, the traction on his shoes slipping. He did see that the thing had lost some of its grip on Valerie now, maybe because of the beating he was giving it. Spurred on by this, Joe reared back and delivered the hardest blast with the oar yet. He slammed the oar down in what he thought was its center.

The oar’s paddle splintered into several pieces, leaving Joe with a makeshift spear in his hand. He stumbled as close as he could get to Valerie, now holding the shattered oar like a dagger. The monster squirmed, it head coiling around in search of him as it was preoccupied with Valerie.

“Joe,” Mac said, her voice in a high-pitched whisper from the far end of the canoe. “I want to go home. Let’s go home now, Joe…”

Still, she was unblinking. It killed Joe to see her like that. He felt the fury and desperation mingling into a ball of raw emotion in his guts. That energy radiated through him, soaking into his muscles.

He gripped the broken oar and dropped to his knees again. Beside him, Valerie continued to struggle. She tried to form words but each one died in a scream of panic, each one punctuated with the certainty that she was about to die. The thing was all the way up her leg now, starting to wrap around her waist.

From his knees, Joe brought the jagged end of the oar down onto the body of the thing. He had to give an extra thrust once he made contact, but he managed to bury the splintered wood into the thing’s greenish-grey hide. When the wood was in, Joe jerked it left and right. A black substance came out of its body, spilling out in a thick pool under its body and along Joe’s knees. This spurred Joe on and rather than bringing the oar up for another blow, he held it down, pressing it hard into the bottom of the boat, ensuring that he had the monster pinned down.

The reaction was slow, but the thing finally responded as most creatures with the will to survive usually do. It released its grip on Valerie and instantly started to retreat. Only, when it tried to slip out of the boat, it was trapped by the oar. For a single moment, Joe thought he had bested the damned thing. He had pierced it and now it was trapped on the boat. Joe could do as much damage as he wanted to now.