Chapter 16 In the Darkest Depths of the Lake
I'm back again, back again, its great to say hello (hello hello hello). Back again, back again, its see you all (you all you all you all). What? Don't like my singing? Well, darn you! Anyways, yes KHUnknown, I will pray for you and your family. And yes, Won is just a... flat out evil person as lijay7 described so well. Why do you think I made him the main HUMAN antagonist in this story? Okay, this chapter is good, and I think it is quite creepy in nature, but creepy in a different way than what wev'e seen so far. So sit back, relax, read, and LEAVE ME A REVIEW! Enjoy.
Popuri was by far one of the most cheerful members of the town. Rivaling even Ann, she always had an optimistic view, and rarely ever became depressed. The only times she became depressed was during the fall. At the end of summer Kai would leave the island, and travel all over the world. This moment was always heartbreaking for Popuri, for she wouldn't see him for four months. Sometimes she began wondering if Kai had a girlfriend or a wife back where he came from. Maybe he was living a double life. Maybe he was known by a different name outside of Mineral Town. But Popuri could never ever believe these strange ideas which she received every once in a while.
Rick on the other hand was a different story. Rick often accused Kai of doing exactly what Popuri refused to believe happened. In fact, it was Rick who came up with those ideas originally. Rick hated Kai. And if he was granted one wish, it would be that Kai would leave Mineral Town and never return. Rick was a strange man. He had long brownish hair which reached down to his shoulders, and big round glasses. He was relatively likable, unless you aroused his anger. Kai had. And Kai regretted that, because Rick had never forgiven him for that.
Rick nursed a deep grudge against Kai. And no matter how hard anyone tried, his anger would not be appeased. Who knew why. Maybe it was because Rick found it hard to give up his bad feelings for people. Maybe it was because Kai really had been that bad of a person. Or maybe it was because Rick spent so much time with Karen, his childhood friend, allowing easy access to him from a certain dark being.
That was where he was going now. To see Karen. The two of them had agreed to meet by the Harvest Goddess' fountain. It had been Karen's idea. Rick walked down through the forest, thinking about long ago, all the times he spent with Karen, playing out here in the mountains. They were fond memories, ones he would treasure forever. Unlike certain memories with Kai in them.
But there were other memories which haunted Rick's mind. Memories of his father. And the very fact that his mother Lilia, was dying of some unknown disease. Rick didn't think about either of those two memories very often. He would rather think about Karen. He would rather talk to Karen. She was waiting for him there by the Goddess Spring.
Rick entered the clearing, and pushed his glasses up to his eyes, and brushed back his long blond hair.
"Hey Karen," Rick said as he entered the clearing.
He stopped to toss a sacrifice down to the Goddess, and then sat down next to Karen on the grass.
"How are you today?" Karen asked Rick as he sat down next to her.
"I'm okay," Rick said. "How are you?"
"Same here," Karen said quietly. "How is Popuri doing lately?"
Rick smiled sadly.
"She and I got into a fight earlier today."
"Really, that's too bad. What were you fighting about."
"We were arguing about my father," Rick replied.
"Have you heard from him lately?" Karen asked.
"I haven't," Rick said as a lone tear formed at the bottom of his right eye. "It was so terrible of him to just go and leave my mother like that."
"But he left to find a cure for your mom's illness," Karen pointed out. "He's just trying to protect his family."
"Yeah," Rick said. "You're right. I'm sorry."
Karen smiled at the boy next to her.
"It's up to you to take care of things at home while your father is away," Karen went on. "Cheer up Rick. You were never this pessimistic back when we were five."
Karen chuckled at this, and even Rick smiled.
"C'mon," Karen said cheerfully. "Lets head home now."
The two of them stood up, and left the Spring area. But they didn't leave in time to prevent a certain spirit hovering around Karen's head from delivering messages to the Harvest Goddess.
After the horrific incident with the Spirit, a few pleasant, happy weeks passed by uneventfully. Ann and I spent more time together than ever before, and Doug sometimes joined us. Kai and I began meeting every once and a while to discuss biblical and spiritual matters. I didn't see Won for a long time, for he apparently was avoiding me. And I was avoiding him.
My land was stocked full of Pineapple plants, which would soon be ready to harvest. Yep, the island had the right climate for growing Pineapples. And boy did they sell for a lot. By the end of the summer I would have more money than ever before. I was happy with my farm, and my life. It felt like God's hand was on my farm, protecting it from all evil forces. For the Spirits had quieted, and left me alone since I had commanded Spiritloosener to Hell that one night.
I felt like I would be okay now, since I could now fight back the demons which hunted me. But I still wondered what the Harvest Sprites were. How was it that they were physical beings when there brothers were spirits? To my knowledge Satan and his demonic slaves were unable to create life. Or at least true real life. Sure, they had created Caenumens, but Caenumen were not truly alive.
Cliff and I eventually got over our disagreement about the voice which he listened to. I still believed it to be a demon, but I knew that it might be wrong to try and perform an exorcism on someone who did not want their demon to leave. And I still did not know if Cliff was really possessed by a demon. For I knew, he just spoke with a demon, or had a friend who was a demon. I didn't know if this demon actually resided in Cliff's body. But I didn't know.
But then the stalemate stopped, and strange things began to happen again. I heard noises outside my house at night. One day I caught one of the Harvest Sprites, the red one, snooping around my farm. When I asked him what he was doing, he freaked out, and ran away. I didn't understand what was going on. What were the Sprites trying to figure out?
I still wondered what the "creature of the mountains" was. I had not figured this out yet, and was a little worried about what the answer could be. The twin mountains seemed larger, and powerful. They seemed dark, and unnerving. The similarities between them was so exact, it was eerie.
The mountains reminded me of the Spirits. For weren't they described as the Spirits of the Forest and the Spirits of the Mountains? But there were no Spirits of the Hill, or even Spirits of Mother's Hill. Maybe that was why I felt comfortable on that hill. But I couldn't prove that.
Things were going well. Except Kai seemed to be facing a moral dilemma. Apparently he was trying to explain his faith to Popuri. But she didn't seem to understand how he could accept a religion which was contrary to the Harvest Goddess religion. Poor girl. The only belief, the only faith she had ever heard of before was the Goddess religion. Poor little girl. So easily taken by Satan's power.
The deep dark depths of the lake were full of many strange creatures. But none as strange as this one. Deep at the very bottom, it thrived in the darkness, feeding off of the large fish which swam around it. Dark shapes reached up from the bottom. The long stretches of aquatic weeds, and grasses, reaching for the surface. Like hands, trying to grasp as much sunlight as they could get. But deep in the darkness, strange things thrived. The Kappa was one of these strange things.
It lay dormant at the bottom of the lake, slowly breathing in, and out. Water pulsed in, passing into its mouth, and then exiting through its gill slits on the sides of its neck. Then a disturbance, unlike the gentle movement of fish, pulsed through the water. The puffy, fish like eyes opened, and the Kappa awakened. The source of the disturbance was isolated immediately. A red and white bobber floated up on top of the lake, and a long string of fishing line reached down from the surface. The line reached down deep into the lake, ending in a hook with a worm impaled upon the point.
The Kappa's yellow eyes glared at the source of the disturbance. The Kappa did not like being disturbed. The deep green humanoid creature began swimming up towards the line with its webbed claws. It pushed the water aside effortlessly as it cut up from the dark depths towards the surface, ready to put an end to this disturbance.
The Kappa encircled its claw around the fishing line, and tugged gently, like a small fish trying to take the bait. The owner of the rod became excited, and began attempting to real in his catch. But the Kappa held on tight. The Kappa smiled evilly as it continued tugging on the string. The man kept trying to real in. Finally the Kappa pulled with all of its might.
Suddenly the fishing rod was pulled right out of Zack the shipper's hands.
"Hey!" he leapt into the lake after it, in an attempt to save it.
Fishing rods were hard to come by on this island, and he didn't want to lose it. The rod continued moving out into deeper water, and Zack swam after it, unaware of how deep he was getting. But as the rod moved out into deeper waters, it began moving downwards. Zack swam down after it as it neared the dark depths of the lake. As he swam, the water pressure became stronger, causing his ears to pop. Zack closed his eyes in pain, and swam on. Suddenly something tapped against his forehead. Zack opened his eyes, and saw the fishing line floating right in front of him. It had stopped. Zack looked down, along the string towards the bottom of the lake, which was concealed by darkness. It was there that he saw two eyes peering up at him from the darkness, in the direction the rod was traveling. Two bright, yellow, alien eyes glaring up from the dark depths. The yellow eyes then blinked, and vanished. With that, Zack grabbed the fishing rod which floated right in front of it, and attempted to take it.
But when he grabbed the rod, it was jerked violently towards the floor of the lake, dragging Zack with it. Suddenly Zack was grabbed roughly by something, and wrestled around in the water. Zack opened his mouth and released the oxygen which he held inside his mouth. His eyes flashed open, but through all the chaos he could not see who his attacker was. A sharp claw slashed his chest, and the water turned red. Then, a scaly hand grabbed Zack by the neck, and threw him roughly away from the attacking beast. Zack crashed violently into a rock, and was partially dazed. But when he saw some creature shoot up at him from the bottom of the lake, he regained control and began swimming as quickly as he could for shore. But as he swam, the creature gained on him. He looked back, and saw the glowing eyes of his attacker, slowly growing larger and larger. Then suddenly, they were right behind him. Zack felt something cold, slimy, and dark touch the skin on his leg, making it crawl. Then, the eyes vanished, and Zack was the only one their in the lake.
Zack gasped in horror, wondering how his attacker had appeared and disappeared so quickly. Zack threw himself onto the shore, and crawled as far from the water as he could. Zack then turned, and looked back out into the lake. What was that thing? Those definitely weren't the eyes of a fish. Those eyes were right next to each other, staring in the same direction, just like human eyes. Binocular vision. Fish did not have that. Something was definitely wrong here. Zack began wondering what really was going on this island.
Deep underwater, the Kappa sank down back into the depths were it made its home. The Kappa pulled the fishing line along with it. The lake creature swam down to a small cave, stocked full of a vast array of objects. It was filled with everything from ancient Samurai swords to large reptilian bones to personal belongings of humans. The Kappa pushed the fishing pole down into the cave next to a Samurai helmet.
The frog like lake creature swam towards the dark bottom of the deep lake, serpentining deeper and deeper. It moved like a sea turtle, moving its arms and legs back and forth. The creature set its fish eyes on the ocean floor, and continued peddling through the water like a crocodile.
A large grass carp swam along the bottom of the lake, feeding off of the grasses and plants. It was large, nearly four feet in length. It looked intimidating, swimming slowly and sinisterly through the waters, like a shark. But it was a vegetarian, and was quite harmless. The Kappa, however, was not. The Kappa eyed the fish with hunger in his eyes. Then, moving stealthily, like a wraith, the Kappa swam down towards the hapless carp.
The carp then saw the predator which was descending upon it. The fish shot off like a bullet with the Kappa in hot pursuit. The carp was fast, but the Kappa was faster. The lake creature caught up to the Carp, and impaled it upon its claws. The fish shuddered, and began thrashing about as its life poured out all around it, turning the water red. Then it hung limp, dead. The Kappa opened its mouth in a large grin, revealing sharp, pointy teeth. It bit into the flesh of its prey, crush through tendons, muscle, and bone. It savored the taste of raw meat, and loved the taste of blood.
The creature of the lake devoured the rest of the fish, leaving only the bones. And he kept a few of them too. They went into his collection of items in the cave. Everything the Kappa had ever owned was there. All the things it had stolen, created, received, and killed for.
The Kappa was a creature of violence. Whether it was drowning children in Japan, or killing gigantic fish from all parts of the world, the creature lived off of death. Some could call the Kappa a sentient, intelligent being. Living proof that we were not alone in this universe. But the Kappa was the only one of its kind in existence. It had no morals, or ethics, and was a slave to itself. A slave to its greed. Feeding off of the suffering of others, and not because it had to. It wasn't like a spider, killing because it needed food. It was like a murderer. Killing because it wanted to kill.
But it did follow another. And it was not the Goddess. The Kappa closed its eyes, preparing to fall back into a state of hibernation. Its hibernations lasted anywhere from only a couple of minutes to hundreds of years. The Kappa was a creature of change. Its roles changed as time went on. It would hibernate, until the word of its master entered its mind, awakening it from its long sleep. Had it not been for the disturbance, the Kappa would still be asleep. The Kappa elapsed back into unconsciousness. Suddenly the voice of its master entered the mind of the Kappa. The Kappa immediately awoke, and listened to the message.
'Awaken. Your long hibernation is over. I have a task for you.'
Awaken, your long hibernation is over. The alarm clock is ringing. Bacon is frying in the skillet. Eggs are on the table.
Okay,
so that was stupid, I admit it. I'm talking about that sentence I
wrote up their. Yeah, please review now, and hope the Kappa
doesn't live in your lake. And if it does, don't go swimming
their, ever. Call a priest, or a soldier, or a policeman.
Call Steve Owens (crocodile hunter) and get him to get the dang
creature out of there. So, you like me making the Kappa
evil? Actually, the Kappa is a real mythological creature in
Japanese Mythology. I looked it up on the internet, and you will
see more of this as the story progresses. I will disclose what I
have learned, so don't go google it yet. So, where do you all
think this story is going? I would like to know?
