Asa claimed, she told him when she regained consciousness later that evening, that a sea monster, similar to the Loch Ness monster, lurked in the lake nestled in the woods behind their castle. She had never seen it herself, but Asa told of a huge, rounded body, a long, thick neck supporting an ovular head, and, what stood out most to him, he said constantly, its smooth tail that had supposedly risen from the depths of the lake and thwacked their small wooden boat, sending splintered shards of the boat's side flying.

"There are many fish in our lake of considerable size that could have done that," Althea said softly, staring out the stone window of her bedroom where she was graced with a perfect view of the deep blue lake. "Until I see the monster for myself, I don't believe in it."

Since first regaining consciousness, her demeanor seemed to have completely shifted. When she was awake enough to realize who Vlad Plasmius was, and, to remember what he had done to her, she became frantic, panic-stricken. He explained calmly to her, keeping his English voice soft, that he had come to his senses; he told her that Asa was currently healing Danny and that he had been appointed to take her to her bedroom. After commenting on its beauty, she seemed to relax, very trustingly he noted, not without helpless pleasure.

I think she trusts me, he had thought, and then, I think she has taken to me, and after this, his smile fading, Stop it.

And while he forced himself to stop, he knew that she must care for him enough to trust him, if blindly, if dumbly, if like a child, but what other reason did she have?

He commented next on the beauty of her home, trying to shift his focus. He mentioned the lake, saying it looked like it would be wonderful to swim in.

"Oh no," Althea had said, "Asa won't let me. He tells of a monster that lurks in the depths." And Vlad, being uncannily attracted to the idea of unholy monsters lurking in bodies of water since he'd been a boy, had immediately inquired.

Now, he said, "You've never seen it?"

"No," she said slowly. "Once, however, I saw something quite unnerving, though I don't know if it has made me believe any more than I did before I saw it. You see, Asa and I had taken the boat out one quiet day; I remember the water was perfectly still. Asa was fishing—he doesn't allow me to fish but likes that I come out with him to prepare the bait and serve him lunch—and I was looking down into the water. We had stopped in the middle of the lake, which is, naturally, the deepest area, and we could not see the bottom. But the water was clear as crystal, so much so Asa didn't need to attach a plastic piece used to tell when fish are biting."

"Like a bobber?" Vlad inquired, causing her to look at him in confusion, and he realized that she'd obviously never heard such wording. "That is what we call that piece of plastic where I come from."

"Then yes," she said. "Now, Asa and I have to sit on opposite sides of the boat so as not to capsize it, so he did not see what I saw. I was looking off into space—while still staring down at the water—when something caught my eye. It was an eye. It was only a few feet from the boat, still slightly beneath it. It was huge—the hugest eye I think I've ever seen, and it was red, a hellish, burning red. The head attached began to appear and I shrieked and staggered backward, and this caused the boat the rock and the…thing, or whatever it was, to swim away—it was so large, whatever it was, that I could feel it swim beneath the boat and displace the water, propelling us slightly upward. Asa shoved me to the other side of the boat before it could capsize."

Vlad sat, completely transfixed. Since he'd been as young as nine years old, he'd dreamt of being a sea captain whose primary goal is to discover those hidden creatures that lurk in the depths—every sea serpent, Jaws, Kraken, and most importantly, Loch Ness monster that had gone previously undiscovered.

He remembered watching a program on the Loch Ness monster at the tender age of nine and having this desire immediately instilled in him. When the program was finished—and the researchers exhibited had come up empty-handed—Vlad Masters decided he would go to Scotland and find the monster himself. He got up from where he had been sitting in front of their small television and raced into his father's study, where the large, bearded man was taking a swig of beer from a brown colored bottle that reminded him of the containers his root-beer came in.

"Dad?"

His father turned to look at him with drunken annoyance. "Kiddo, I'm busy," he growled, his voice roughened by alcohol, intoxication.

Nine-year-old Vlad Masters did not think reading the funnies and alternately drinking Bud Light and energy-drink really qualified as "busy", but his father did—in fact, he claimed it was his new work—work he did online—because he'd lost his job at the factory months ago for showing up drunk too many times. But Vlad knew that his father did nothing more than play poker on his computer when he sat in his study for hours on end, while his mommy worked two jobs to support their family. And though he wanted to, he never dared to suggest such a thing to his father, and neither did his harried mother. And, as he usually did, he nodded in compliance. "I know, Dad, I know you're working, but I got a question."

"What's that, baby?"

"I saw a show about a monster in Lake Loch Ness in Scotland. His name's the Loch Ness Monster."

"I heard about that," his father said, eyeing the comics drearily. "It's a fucking hoax."

"It is?"

"Of course it is, Vlad," his father said, setting down the newspaper and glaring at him questioningly. "How stupid are you?"

"They said it was real on the History Channel."

His father scooped him up and placed him on his knee, drawing him so close Vlad could smell the alcohol on his moist, warm breath. "You can't believe everything you hear on T.V., kid."

"Oh."

"You can't believe anything you can't see either, kid. Loch Ness Monster? Bullshit!" he exclaimed, spittle flying out of his mouth and resting on his coarse lip hair and landing on Vlad's face, causing him to grimace. "But, I did see one of those monsters."

His grimace disappeared; he stopped trying to casually wipe his face on his shoulder. He stared at his father in wonder. "You did?"

"I did. When I lived in Pennsylvania, I met this kid who had family in Vermont. We became good friends, close as could be, like two peas in a goddamn pod. When he went to visit his family there, I went with him. They had a house on a big lake called Lake Champlain. The first time I went there and wanted to go swimming, his parents told me I had to stay out of the water. When I asked why, they said, "Because Champ's in there!" and I said, "Who's Champ?" and Ronny—that was the kid—told me that Champ was America's Loch Ness."

Vlad stared at his father with wide, starry eyes. "…America's Loch Ness?"

"Yes indeed, kiddo," his father said, ruffling his hair.

"And you saw it?"

"Yes indeed. I didn't care what Ronny or his family said. See, it was hot as hell that summer day, and I wanted to cool off. I got on my swim trunks and as I was walkin' down to the water, I saw the thing. Huge body, long neck, oval-like head, and a little smidgen of tail stickin' up out of the water. Before I could call Ronny or even take a closer look at it, it disappeared. I think it was one of those if-you-blink-you-miss-it things."

"Wow," Vlad said, momentarily utterly astonished, unable to say anything else. Then, he seemed to shift into whining-mode, a mode he did not enter much since his father took up alcohol. "Daddy, can we go? Please, can we go? I want to see Champ!"

"We don't have the lettuce for that, kid. Not since I got laid off."

"Oh, please Daddy!" Vlad cried, staring up at his father with huge, shimmering puppy-eyes.

His father drummed his fingers on the desk. "Well, your birthday is a few weeks away."

"And we can go?" Vlad asked, exclaimed gleefully.

"Well, I'll see what I can do. I'm going to have to try to find another job."

Vlad threw his arms around his father and kissed his cheek lovingly. "Thank you Daddy!"

"Okay, okay, calm down kiddo. You need a shot of Xanax. Maybe a cocktail."

His father managed to pull together the money and scheduled the trip to Vermont—by car—for the day before Vlad's birthday. On this morning, a Tuesday morning, they found Mr. Masters dead in his chair at his desk, hunched over an online game of poker, buried in beer- and energy-drink-cans.

He had died of alcohol poisoning.

Althea noticed this look of undiluted sadness that had shaped Vlad Plasmius' face suddenly, noticed how his eyes and mind seemed to have drifted.

"Vlad," Althea said softly, drawing him back to reality. "What is it?"

He looked up at her, startled, distraught, momentarily unable to comprehend where he was. "H...huh…?"

"What's wrong?"

Then, he re-composed himself, pulling his lips into a sullen frown and his eyes into a cold stare. "Nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"All right, if you're sure…I should be getting to work. Asa will require my assistance. Please excuse me," she said, and abruptly left, leaving Vlad to stare out at the deep blue lake.

"Ah, Dad," he moaned softly, resisting the urge to shed tears. "Dad, how can you be sure? If anything, you can't disbelieve something until you've seen it. Maybe...maybe there really is a monster in Lake Champlain. I won't ever know, but I do know you wouldn't lie to me…and if there really is one, that doesn't mean that there can't be one in Lake Loch Ness…or here, for that matter…"

Staring at the lake intently, he said, his black eyes shimmering determinedly, "Maybe…maybe I go exploring…it might take my mind off things…or it might not…"

Even with this doubt floating in front of his eyes persistently, he turned and left the room, his destination, the middle of the lake.

A/N:

How do you write a chapter like this? Listen to Holy Diver repeatedly until you finish. That's a fish song, and that's what I did ^_^