Fangtooth (6 page)

Chapter 12

Erin’s lungs felt ready to burst. She
simultaneously hit out with the flashlight at the creature swimming towards her
and withdrew the knife from the sheath on her leg.

In the swirling mass of bubbles and semi
darkness of the deep, Erin couldn’t make out what she was looking at. There was
something vaguely familiar about the monster, but she didn’t have time to
consider it. Not when the creature was trying to kill her. Over four feet in
length, it fixed her with its close-set eyes the colour of mercury. Its head
was larger than Erin’s, but narrower. Its dark skin resembled the pitted
surface of an orange, and when it opened its mouth, the real terror erupted in
Erin’s brain. Lined with needle-sharp teeth, its jaws resembled a Venus
flytrap. The bottom teeth too long to fit comfortably in its mouth, she could
only assume that they slid into pockets in the roof of its mouth.

She stabbed out with the knife, slashing
through the water in a demented, determined way. What the hell was that thing?
The blade met resistance like steel. She had struck the beast, but it seemed to
have little effect. Terrified, she shone the light at the creature, causing it
to shy away. She watched it swim into the dark. The beam illuminated dark
scales and spines along its back. In the moment before she lost sight of it,
she thought she saw something even stranger about it. Something her brain
couldn’t rationalize…

She thought she had seen arms protruding
from its sides.

But that was impossible. She must have
imagined it. Fear and panic playing tricks with her brain.

Even though she could no longer see it,
Erin knew the creature hadn’t retreated. That it was waiting on the periphery of
the beam. Waiting to attack.

Without wasting any more time, she swam
towards the vessel she had seen. Fear propelled her along with the speed of a
rocket. When close enough, she swept the beam across the object to discover it
was a fishing boat. It sat on the ocean floor, stretched into the darkness
beyond the beam of light, its tattered nets draped over the starboard side.
Silver
Queen
. The boat that had gone missing a few weeks ago

With no other
option, she swam towards the wheelhouse. Currents of water swirled at her side
and she swept the light beam towards the source; saw a shape flash by in a
terrifying blur of speed. The rate of its passing disturbed her swim pattern,
threw her off course. She smashed into the side of the boat, jarring her skull.
Momentarily disoriented, she shook her head to try to regain her equilibrium.
Pure, unequivocal terror coursed through her veins, seeped through every pore
of her body. She had to get inside the boat before it was too late.

Kicking furiously,
she swam towards the wheelhouse. When she was within reach, she grabbed the
sides and pulled herself in through a broken window.

Disturbed by her
presence, pieces of debris drifted in the boat. A map floated by, followed by a
small bag.

With no time to get her bearings, she
swam towards what looked like a trapdoor in the far corner. She shone the light
beam over it.

Sensing movement to her rear, she
pointed the light back and almost choked as something rushed towards her face.
Her heart stopped. She kicked out, realizing at the last minute that it was
only a small fish come to seek shelter in the wreckage of the boat.

A cold sweat broke out across her body.
She shivered. Her sudden movement moved the air around inside her suit, and
like a marionette, her limbs moved in directions she did not intend them to go.

To regain control, she released some of
the air through the valve in her arm. A geyser of bubbles gushed out and danced
on the ceiling. A quick check of her air pressure revealed that she didn’t have
much time left. She needed to get to the surface–fast.

She looked back towards the broken
window, and was horrified to see the creature, clawing its way in with spindly
arms tipped by wicked claws. Its large baleful eyes looked towards her, and it
opened its mouth to reveal long, vicious teeth.

Erin wondered whether she was dreaming,
whether she was trapped in a nightmare, but she knew she wasn’t. This was all
too real.

The previous cold sweat intensified to
freeze the very marrow in her bones. She needed to escape through the
splintered trapdoor, but the displaced air in her suit still had control of her
limbs, making movement difficult. She kicked furiously and scrambled with her
hands, reaching for something, anything, to pull on to propel her forward.

There were now so many bubbles in the
room, it looked as though the water was boiling. The creature was seconds away
from her, its mouth open in anticipation of the bite it wanted to deliver.
Unable to accept her fate, Erin’s feet struck the ceiling. Without hesitating,
she kicked out.

The motion was enough to propel her to
the trapdoor, and she grabbed the frame and pulled herself through, feeling the
displaced motion of water at her rear as the creature bit down where her foot
had just been. The flashlight dangled from a strap on her wrist. The wildly
swinging beam revealed she was in a short corridor, and using the narrow walls,
she pulled herself along.

The beat of her heart thudded inside her
ears, making hearing difficult. Although she wanted to look back to see where the
creature was, she knew she couldn’t. A second’s hesitation could lead to her
demise. A short flight of steps at the end of the corridor lead down. Erin
followed them to another door. It was shut. She reached out and pulled, but the
door didn’t budge. It was probably the weight of the water holding it tight.
Putting all her reserves of strength into it, she yanked the door open and a
bulbous figure emerged, arms reaching towards her. Erin recoiled. Air rushed
past her lips and streamed from around the regulator. The figure’s face was
blue and swollen, the eyes like golf balls in the fleshy remains of its eye
sockets. Disgusted, Erin clawed past the figure, sending it floating along the
corridor behind her. She risked a quick glance back, saw the creature bite down
on the carcass, saw skin and bone severed as it ripped its way through the
corpse, shaking its head in frenzy. Bits of shredded skin hung suspended in the
water like paper at a tickertape parade. A sick feeling climbed Erin’s throat.
She fought it back down and swam on into the room. Once inside, she turned
quickly and pushed the door shut. She was finding it hard to breathe, and a
quick check of the gauges revealed that she was out of air, now running on what
little remained in the tanks. Her vision was blurring, the edges of her sight
going dark as though the world was shrinking.

There was no lock on the door, and when
she turned to survey the room, she realised she was trapped in the boat’s
galley. There was nowhere else to go. The sick feeling returned. Drown,
suffocate or be eaten alive. What a choice, she thought.

It reminded her of
when she’d accidentally locked herself in the cupboard under the stairs as a
kid. The same feeling of claustrophobia. The same feeling of panic. Only this
time it was intensified a thousand times. She cast her diminishing gaze around
and noticed a wrench on the ground. Thinking she could use it to barricade the
door, she swam across and picked it up. As she straightened, she noticed a fire
extinguisher on the wall. She grabbed it, hoping that she could utilize it to
cloud the water to allow her to escape. Every action made her lungs burn as she
eked out the last of the oxygen.

She needed to act
quickly, but what was the point? She was going to die anyway. Exhausted, Erin
put the fire extinguisher on the table and floated buoyantly in the water at
its side. It seemed ironic that the sea she loved and tried to preserve would
become her tomb.

Before she had
time to ponder the situation further, the creature crashed through the door.
Although incapable of expression, she was sure the creature was grinning. It
opened its jaws, drawing its razor-sharp teeth from the sheath of its mouth
like daggers.

Heart beating like
a jackhammer, she picked up the wrench and held it ready, one last defiant act
in the face of adversity. Time seemed to stretch out, seconds drawn painfully
into minutes. The creature glided towards her, trailing its strange limbs as it
thrust its grotesque head forward.

Then an idea sprang into her mind.

It was crazy, but she didn’t have
anything else.

She needed to time it perfectly as she
only had one shot.

She waited …waited until the creature
was five feet away, then she smashed the wrench down on the valve of the fire
extinguisher with all her might and prayed to God that it would work. The valve
shot away, and the fire extinguisher sped towards the creature like a torpedo,
trailing white foam in its wake.

Blinded by the trail, Erin could only
hope her plan had worked. She swam out into the milky depths, feeling her way.
She expected any minute to feel the creature clamp its jaw down on her arm, and
a cold dread nestled in the pit of her stomach. Her failing sight made the
situation worse, and her burning lungs threatened to pump their last breath at
any minute.

Up ahead, the water was clearer, and she
could just make out the creature lying sprawled against the wall, the fire
extinguisher at its side. Thinking it was dead, she swam across it towards the
door, when the creature’s mouth twitched.

She raised the knife
in her hand, then stabbed it into the creature’s eye. A milky liquid gushed out
and the creature slashed out with one of its clawed appendages. Erin forced the
knife as far as it would go; putting what remained of her strength into the
thrust. Blood replaced the milky film. She watched it seep out and drift around
her like a strange fog.

Exhausted and giddy with lack of oxygen,
she swam out of the boat and started her ascent, going as fast as she dared,
which didn’t seem fast enough.

Despite knowing the creature was dead,
she couldn’t help feeling that something was out there in the inky blackness,
watching her.

But before she could think about it
further, the edges of her vision blurred and then darkness pervaded.

Chapter 13

“Why didn’t you answer your phone?”
Bruce asked.

“Chill, dad. It’s not as if I could have
gone far.” Jack patted Shazam on the head, and the dog reciprocated by licking
his hand.

“That’s not the point.”

“What’s the big deal?”

“There was an accident earlier. A man
was attacked in the sea. Some people think it was a shark.”

“Cool.”

“
Cool
? Jack, someone’s died.”

“Did you know him? Did I know him? No,
then what’s it matter? People die all the time.” He could tell by his dad’s
face that he wasn’t happy, but he didn’t care. At least they were now both of
the same frame of mind. He’d only come home because he was hungry, and now he
had to listen to this.

“If your mother heard you speak like
that, she’d—”

“She’d what? Turn in her grave?”

The slap came without warning, knocking
his head back with the force. Jack rubbed his smarting cheek. Shazam barked and
then turned and padded away into the corner where she slumped to the ground,
watching with puzzlement.

“Jack, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do
that.”

Jack fought to keep the tears from flowing.
“Tell it to someone who cares. I wish it was you that had died. I hate you.” He
didn’t mean it, but he could see that his words had hurt his dad more than any
physical blow.

Bruce bowed his head, turned and started
to walk out of the room. “I’m really sorry, Jack. I’m doing my best.” Then he
was gone.

Jack stood rubbing his cheek for a while
longer. It was typical of his dad to make him feel guilty. This was shit with a
capital S.

Well fuck him.

Jack picked up his jacket. “Come on
Shazam, let’s go.”

Shazam barked eagerly and followed Jack
out of the house. In a village where nothing much happened, Jack assumed a
shark attack was probably big news.

There was a crowd of people on the
beach, looking out to sea. Jack couldn’t see much from where he was, but there
didn’t seem to be anything happening, so he continued towards the harbour.

Shazam ran on ahead. Before the high
street, she sat down and waited, looking back with her tongue lolling as though
saying hurry up.

Jack took his cigarettes out of his pocket
and lit one. When he reached Shazam, he indicated she could cross, and then
followed behind.

There were a couple of boats in the
harbour. On board
Storm Bringer
, men were busy mopping down the deck.
Jack sat on the harbour wall and watched them. At his side, Shazam sniffed the
air, muzzle pointed towards the boat and her hackles slightly raised.

“What’s the matter, girl?”

Shazam barked once, then sat down and
used her hind leg to scratch behind her ear before settling on the pavement.
She looked up at Jack with big, sad eyes. Jack wished he knew what she was
thinking.

He exhaled a cloud of smoke and stared
at the trawler. Rusty streaks ran down the sides of the pilothouse, above which
antennas protruded like sea anemone tentacles. Large booms protruded from the
deck.

“Hey, you haven’t disappeared yet then?”

Jack turned to see Jen standing behind
him on the road. A hot flush spread across his cheeks. Dressed in a pink crop
top with the words
Sexy
Beast
emblazoned across her chest, and
three-quarter length green pants,
she looked cuter than ever. Even the
way she chewed her gum looked sensual.

“No, I’m still here. The house hasn’t
gobbled me up yet. No boyfriend around today?” he asked, peering
surreptitiously along the road to see if he could spot him.

“Nah. I’m a free agent today. So what
are you doing?”

“Heard something about someone being
attacked in the sea, so thought I’d come see what’s going on.”

“Yeah, I heard
about that. Someone on their holiday. News travels fast in the village. One
whiff of scandal and the local gossips spring into action faster than the
Marines. You’ve never lived till you’ve seen eighty-six year old Mavis Bench
with a bee in her bonnet. Quicker than a fuel-injected rocket. Something about
a shark, I heard. It’s the first time I’ve heard of one attacking anyone in
this country, never mind around here before.” She shrugged, and Jack couldn’t
help staring at her chest which jiggled slightly. “So you’re a voyeur?”

“What, sorry, I
didn’t mean ...” He looked up and blushed.

Jen grinned. “I
mean about the attack. You know, like one of them people that slow down to look
at car crashes on the motorway. What did you think I meant?”

“Nothing. That’s
what I thought you meant.”

“Sure.” She
giggled.

Jack felt stupid. “So what are you up
to?”

“Same as you. Thought I’d see what was
going on.”

Jack nodded. “Smoke?” He offered her the
packet.

Jen shook her head. “Nah, them things’ll
kill ya.”

“If the house or the sharks don’t get me
first you mean.”

Jen laughed. “The shark would probably
give you a miss for someone with more meat on their bones.”

Jack tried not to show it, but her
comment hurt, drilling home the insecurity about his weight.

“I don’t mean you’re skinny,” Jen said
as though she had read his mind. “I just mean there’s probably plenty more
people they would like to eat first.”

“Like Rocky, you mean?”

Jen wrinkled her nose. “That’s not very
nice.”

“I’m sorry. Just don’t know what you see
in him.”

“I should hope you wouldn’t, not unless
you were, you know.”

“Hey, I’m straight as a gun barrel.”

“I don’t doubt it. You want to get
something to eat?”

Jack cocked his head to the side. “That
a dig at my size again?”

“Nah, I’m just hungry. But if you don’t
want to...”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t interested.”

“Good. Come on then.”

“Is it okay if my dog comes too?”

Jen peered over the harbour wall. “Sure.
At least then there’ll be someone intelligent to talk to.”

As if in agreement, Shazam barked.

“See what I mean.” She leaned over the
wall to stroke Shazam’s head. Jack reluctantly looked away, embarrassed that he
might get more of an eyeful.

“So where we going?”

“Well, you might have noticed the
village isn’t awash with McDonalds or Burger King, so we can grab a bite at my
house.”

Jack nodded. “Sounds great.” As they
started to walk away, he said, “That boat,
Storm Bringer
. You know much
about it?”

“That’s Trent Zander’s boat. Local
nutcase. Every town and village has one, but I think we’ve got more than our
fair share.”

“Nutcase. How?”

“He’s just someone you wouldn’t want to
mess with.”

Jen lived in a house just off the high
street. Her parents were both at work and her grandmother was out, for which
Jack was grateful. He hated meeting people’s parents. Especially a girl’s
parents. A girl’s father had that way of looking at you as if to say, ‘if you
hurt my princess, I’ll cut you into little pieces’.

They sat at a small rectangular wooden
table in the kitchen cum dining room. The large front window looked out to sea.

“Nice house,” Jack said.

Jen shrugged. “It’s okay, I guess. What
would you like to eat?” She opened the fridge and pulled out a plate. “Ham
sandwich?”

“Ah, I didn’t tell you did I?”

“Tell me what?”

“I’m vegetarian. Sorry.”

“No problem. You eat cheese?”

Jack nodded.

“Cheese and onion sandwiches okay then?”

“That would be great.” Shazam whined
softly from under the kitchen table and licked her lips. “I don’t suppose you
could give my dog some of that meat. Unlike me, she’s a carnivore.”

“No problem.” She started to place some
of the ham onto a separate plate. “Oh sod it. You can have the lot.” She piled
the ham back on the original plate and placed it on the floor. “There you go.
Enjoy.”

Shazam slinked out from under the table
and stood over the food, her tongue lolling from the corner of her mouth. She
looked up at Jen and then back at Jack.

“It’s okay, you can eat it,” Jack said.

Without further encouragement, Shazam
started to gobble down the meal.

“She’s well
trained,” Jen said as she sliced the cheese.

“House trained,
just like me.”

Jen giggled.

To accompany the sandwiches, Jen poured
two glasses of Coke and filled a bowl of water for Shazam, who noisily lapped
it up. They ate the sandwiches in silence. Knowing she had a boyfriend made
Jack feel awkward, and whenever he looked at Jen, his eyes inadvertently
strayed to her bosom. He couldn’t see what the hell she saw in Rocky, but he
sure saw what he saw in Jen.

The sound of a siren filled the silence.
Jack and Jen looked at each other across the table. Then they turned and stared
out the window. Jack could see a small boat speeding towards the harbour, where
an ambulance was just pulling in.

“Looks like it’s all go today. You want
to see what’s going on?” Jen asked.

Jack swallowed the bite of sandwich he
had been chewing. “And to think I thought this was a sleepy village.”

They left the house and quickly made
their way back down to the harbour. The ambulance waited with its lights
flashing, the paramedics standing beside it looking out to sea. A small crowd
had already gathered, and among them, Jack noticed Rocky. When Rocky saw Jen
approaching he waved and grinned. Then he saw Jack at her side, and his grin
became a scowl.

“What the hell you doin’ with him?”
Rocky growled.

“We were just talking,” Jen said,
stepping between them and kissing Rocky on the cheek.

Shazam stood at Jack’s side. A low growl
emanated from her and she bared her teeth.

“You better hope that mutt don’t come
near me, otherwise it’ll be dog meat.”

“It’s okay, girl,” Jack said, patting
the dog on the head. He stared at Rocky. “I know there’s a bad smell around
here, but I’m sure it’ll be gone soon.”

Rocky clenched his fists. He looked
ready to start trouble.

“Cut it out you two,” Jen said. “So
what’s going on here?” she asked Rocky, pointing towards the fast approaching
boat.

Rocky held eye contact with Jack for a
moment longer then turned to Jen. “I dunno. Did you hear about that man this
morning?”

Jen nodded. “Yeah, it’s awful.”

“You can say that again. It got the
wrong person.” He glared at Jack.

For Jen’s sake, Jack decided not to rise
to the bait. He watched the boat as it sped into the harbour. There were two
men in it from what he could see. When they reached the quay, one of them
jumped out and moored the vessel up, while the other crouched down in the back.

The paramedics rushed down to meet the
boat, carrying a stretcher. They boarded the boat, and moments later, they
hurried back to the ambulance carrying someone between them. Jack peered
through the crowd. He caught sight of the person on the stretcher; recognised
her as the girl that he had given a light to in the bar. She wasn’t moving.

“Do you think she’s dead?” Jen
whispered.

Jack bit his lip. If she wasn’t dead,
then she was sure as hell as close as she was going to get.

“Well I’m out of here,” Jack said.

Jen turned and looked at him. “You don’t
have to leave. Stay.” Rocky’s expression said otherwise.

“Nah, guess it’s time to head home.”

Jen lowered her gaze. She kicked at the
floor and then nodded. As he walked away, Jack couldn’t help thinking that he
had seen something in her expression. Something that said she really wanted him
to stay. He smiled. Perhaps there was hope yet.