Title: Sanrio Knights
Author: Acerbic
Time: Post Chosen / NFA
Rating: PG-13 (A swear word or two)
Part 9 – Sushi?
Table Rock Lake, Missouri
June 10th, 2007
A shrill, terrible ear-splitting monster shriek rent the air as the hideous monstrosity-
-Oh wait! Is that me?
My jaw snapped shut, stifling that god awful sound, and for a split second, I was horribly embarrassed. I'm supposed to be the Original Slayer's Sister, yanno? Which means that vampires and demons are run-of-the-mill. Yawn-worthy even.
It's weird how in the split second following a disaster there's nothing but absolute stillness. Time froze, and the setting around me clarified, a thousand tiny details that I'd failed to register previously. The sickle shaped moon overhead.
The sweet sticky heat of the Missouri night. The way the lake lapped against the boat, causing it to bob with gentle rolling motion. Lightning bugs. Starlight. The bottle of gold nail polish had spilled. I wondered if we would get our deposit back?
Oh yeah, the surge of adrenaline cleared up my head real fast. However, my reflexes were a whole nother matter, and my muscles remained paralyzed even as I registered that Spike had grabbed an axe from the floor of the boat. The others around me were likewise in motion even as I remained obscenely frozen in place.
Another tentacle rose up out of the water, moving with the deadly precision of a cobra toward my face. It was thick at the base, slender at the tip, the width gradually tapering from two feet to three inches. Sucker cups lined the ventral side, and the dorsal flesh had a thick rubbery consistency. To all extents and purposes, it resembled the arm of an octopus.
Giant.
The tip of the tentacle whipped toward my face, and I just sat there, lacking the sense to be terrified cause my mind was too busy analyzing the monster's anatomy. Luckily for me, Spike wasn't so foolishly preoccupied.
Spike caught the lashing appendage with his left arm, grabbing with his hand and wrapping it once around his wrist just like a rope. Then he swung the axe and lopped off about three feet of tentacle.
"Here," he said, and dropped his trophy into my lap. The severed tentacle continued to writhe and twitch, viscous blood oozing forth from the cut.
Promptly, I shrieked, recovering my ability to move, and dumped the squirmy thing on the floor. Around us, the others were likewise engaged in fending off tentacles, and there was no sign of Ling Ling.
"This is wrong," I said. "This was supposed to be a typical plesiosaurs dating to the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, a pre-historic dinosaur trapped in an inland body of fresh water as the oceans retreated. They're shy herd creatures who've evolved invisibility that protects them from being seen the vast majority of the time. It's so effective that when they're photographed, they appear to be a log or overturned boat, or they generate imperfections in the actual photo process, which makes the picture appear to be a hoax. Except of course when certain astronomical alignments occur, or large quantities of alcoholic beverages consumed, which enables people to glimpse them, but such sightings are typically attributed to drunken hallucinations-"
Okay, yeah, I do tend to babble. So sue me. It's something they do to you in Watcher School: techno-babble implant.
"What's yer point, Bit?" Spike demanded, hacking higher up along his tentacle.
"This creature is a cephalopod of an order similar to Octopoda, only it's a giant species! It was probably somebody's pet that got too big for its tank, so they dumped it into the lake!"
"I'm going in after Ling Ling!" Peggy shouted, and dove over the side, clutching a twelve-inch knife between her teeth, freeing her hands up for swimming. Galvanized, Sasha and Blake promptly followed suit, disappearing into the water before I had a chance to finish.
Thank God, Spike thought that what I had to say was important enough to delay. "Point, Bit?"
"Aim for the eyes!"
Spike didn't nod, but I knew that he'd heard me. He disappeared over the side along with his axe, joining the others in the water, and leaving me alone in the boat. For a minute, the water was totally placid without a hint of my team or the monster. It was the freakiest, scariest moment of my life as I sat there in that empty boat, envisioning all of my friends drowning, twined in the clutches of an overgrown appetizer.
Except Spike, of course, because he didn't need to breathe so he couldn't drown. That knowledge, and having him there, provided me with an infinite amount of comfort until first air bubbles appeared and then heads began to surface. The gasps for air were loud and startling in the otherwise quiet lake night.
"It's dead," Spike's distinct voice announced. "I got the eyes."
"Anyone up for sushi?" said someone too weak and breathy for me to identify the joker.
"Head count!" I shouted. "Blake!"
I am not biased because I started with Blake. No, I am not…"Here!"
"Peggy!"
"Yo!"
"I'm here!" Sasha shouted, skipping her place in role call, which was totally okay with me.
"Who's got Ling Ling?" I demanded, frantically rounding the boat, counting heads, looking for one swimmer to be supporting our poor Pandapple. Only…there were single swimmers with empty arms. No Ling Ling.
"Who's got her?" I yelled, flying into a panic. The boat became a cage with invisible walls as I flew round and round, scanning the dark water for any sign of bubbles or body.
"Everyone down!" Blake called, and there was another round of loudly drawn breaths, then kicks and splashes, as the entire team went under.
Frantic, I kicked off my shoes, and dove off the side of the boat, joining the search.
I am no longer drunk. Sheer, blind terror has sobered me up.
End Part 9.
