Chapter 4 Blood in the Water
My sleep was restless. At midnight it felt like a cold hand had clutched my heart. I was not fully conscious at the time. But at one o'clock I awoke, and felt a dark presence around me. My dreams were dark ones, visions of evil, visions of demons. Then, before I knew it, soft sunlight was pouring in through my window, and birds were chirping happily outside. The morning had come.
"It should be sunny today, but tomorrow it will be partly cloudy with a slight chance of rain."
I sat up in my bed, letting the radio play on.
"Forget-Me-Not seems to have been having some disturbances with electrical signals. Some have attributed this to the recent amount of supernatural activity in the region. But so far there is no evidence to support the idea that there really is a ghost in the valley."
I stopped, listening closely to the radio.
"On the same subject, recently there has been a dramatic shift of religious opinion on Mineral Town. The majority people there have suddenly given up their beliefs in the local belief in a Harvest Goddess and have converted to Christianity. A violent struggle happened last month where in the process the Pastor of the Goddess' Church was killed, and a zealous Goddess worshiper was murdered. John Formal from Cassius Island speaks his opinion, and I quote: "It really is sad what people do for there religions. In the crusades the Islams and the Jews were persecuted, in the Inquisition they were persecuted, and now a group of Christians rapidly converts an island and take away the people's belief in the Harvest Goddess. If only they would learn to be accepting of other's beliefs. And they even killed the Priest.""
I shook my head. Stupid religious wackos.
"It has been found that the Priest was killed by a man named Won, guessed to be a part of the Christians. But he died in the chaos as well. Many people in the town say that Won was a major Goddess worshiper, but that doesn't make much sense."
I turned off the radio, and slowly started getting dressed. I thought about the previous day. Celia was nice, but she had a look in her eyes as if she wanted to say something to me, but didn't know how to say it.
I shrugged, and stepped out of my home. The sun was just barely creeping up the sky. It was still early. I milked my cows, and watered the crops I had recently planted. This farm work was already taking its toll on me. I had started getting up earlier, working in the mornings and evenings, and taking the afternoons for breaks, due to the heat. I occasionally went to the bar for a drink, or went down to the sea for a swim.
I'd gotten to know some of the town's people. Today I had to stop by Vesta's farm to pick up some seeds. I also hoped to pick up a certain girl who lived there. I finished my morning chores, before mounting the horse which Takakura had ordered for me, and riding off in the direction of the plantation.
The horse walked down the path obediently, walking slowly. Its silver horseshoes clomping against the ground. I had yet to find it a good name. I patted the horse's chestnut flank and it snorted in response.
"Chestnut," I said. "That's what I'll call you."
"A good name for a good horse," I looked up in surprise to see Flak walking down the path from the forest towards me.
"Flak?" I said in surprise. "What are you doing? I thought that you didn't leave the forest?"
"I don't leave the forest unless I really need to," Flak said. "And I feel that I really need to now. Someone needs to face down the dark presence within the swamp. I fear it grows too strong."
I sighed, and looked away.
"Did you hear?" I said. "Some guy claims that the power which has settled upon the swamp is really good, we just had misunderstandings with it."
"Not misunderstandings," Flak said. "This is no good creature. Believe me when I say that to you."
"I don't know what to believe," I turned, and rode off towards the plantation.
I knew that Flak was trying to do what was right, but his over acceptance of the supernatural kind of scared me. Sure, I had seen the ghost's face, but hadn't many people? What if people had misinterpreted its meaning. I had heard many say that all creatures supernatural existed, that all religions were right in their own way. If that were true than this could be a god. A god come to help us. And it was obvious that the gods of the many religions worked in different ways, so this one may have thought that I was bad at first and tried to kill me. I didn't know. It was twisted, and I still didn't understand. What if it was evil? A demon. A dark creature from some ancient religion.
I shook my head and cleared out all thoughts of the ghostly creature. Right now I was going to see Celia, so I wanted to be calm by the time I got there.
An island of questions, floating on a puzzle of a sea. Near it stood a shining beacon, but the island did not see the light. But somewhere on that island, a tiny piece of darkness throbbed, like a heart. It stretched, and then grew, swallowing up a small part of the land with it. No light shone to make it flee, no light made it disappear, and it got larger. Nothing could stop the encroaching shadow as it moved across the doomed land and began to claim it as its own. It was taking the land. Making it no longer land, but a dark domain. Evil was coming.
"Oh Celia?"
Celia looked up from the book she was reading.
"Celia?"
"Yes Vesta?" Celia replied.
"There's some boy here to see you!"
Celia stopped. She knew who it was without even going down to see. It was Josh. He had come to see her. She stopped. The relationship between the two of them had not developed much since the time Celia found him standing by Turtle Swamp, and she wanted that to change.
"Coming Vesta," Celia turned to a mirror, and straitened her hair out before turning for the stairs.
"I'm not Celia's mom now, don't you go thinking that," I just smiled as Vesta kept speaking. "Her mother and father sent her to live with Marlin and I in hopes that she would find a good husband out here."
Vesta winked at me when she said this. I blushed. She hadn't stopped talking since I had arrived.
"Her parents are trying to set her up with this guy they know who they think would be a perfect match for her. But Celia's unsure of this."
I sighed happily. I didn't know Celia very well, but she was a petty girl, and I hoped that maybe...
"Coming Vesta!" I stopped when I heard Celia's voice.
"Ah, here she is now," Vesta said with a grin.
Celia came running down the stairs.
"Ah," Vesta said. "Celia. This gentleman is here to see you."
I smiled.
"Hi Celia."
"Oh, hi Josh," she said, smiling prettily.
"I was wondering if you could help me with something," I said.
"What do you need help with?" Celia asked.
"My crops," I replied.
It was true. I didn't know exactly where to plant them and when.
"I don't know what crops to plant," I said.
"Well its spring," Celia said. "So you should plant tomatoes and watermelons."
"Thanks," I said. "I also just came to say hi."
Celia smiled at me pleasantly.
"If you'd like I'll help you plant your first batch."
I nodded.
"Thanks."
"Come on then," Celia walked over, took my hand, and started walking in the direction of my farm.
This sudden display shocked me, but I realized that in a small town like this such a thing might be common, holding a girl's when going places with her regardless of whether you were dating or not. So I tried to conceal my embarrassment and continued walking. When we arrived at my farm I showed her my field and my tools. Celia spent the next half an hour helping me plant and water my crops.
"Always make sure there is enough space between the crops," she said as she instructed me as to how far apart they should be. "Never plant them too close together or they won't grow as tall."
I nodded, listening closely as she showed me how to use the hoe to break up the dirt and finally how to plant the seeds. Soon I was using the hoe to break up the soil and putting seeds in it. Celia clapped as I finished planting my garden. I wiped the sweat off of my brow and smiled over at her.
"Not bad," she said smiling back.
I nodded happily.
"Thanks for the help," I said.
She flushed lightly, and smiled.
"Come on," she said, gesturing at me. "Lets go to the Bar. They have parties outside at this time of night."
"Parties?" I cocked my head to the side.
"Yeah," Celia nodded. "This area was populated heavily with Irish immigrants escaping the potato famine way back in the past. Much of their culture has stayed with us. Griffin is rather proud of his Irish ancestry, so he plays Irish music outside at night."
"Irish music?" I asked.
Celia nodded.
"Come on," she said. "Take me dancing."
"Okay," I smiled slightly, took her hand, and started walking back towards the town.
'Thirst. Thirst for blood. Feed us, we desire blood.'
The moonlight on the silent ripples in the swamp cast a spooky glow on the floor of the swamp.
'To live we must feed. Devour, feed us. More. We need more.'
A man walked along the shore of the swamp.
'Food. We crave food. Blood. The blood that drives us.'
The man knelt beside the lake.
'Food.'
Suddenly a decayed hand shot up from the waters and grabbed the man by the neck. He didn't even have time to shriek before the hand pulled him forward into the swamp. He struggled in the water as it pulled him under, shrieking and splashing his arms everywhere. More decayed swamp hands shot out, latching onto him, dragging him down further. The water muffled his desperate screams. Unreal! There was a cry, a dead screech, then the water of the swamp turned red. The man's body lay still, lying face down in the swamp. Then he sank down into the water, as if pulled by an unseen hand down into the maw of a monster. They swallowed their prey, taking in the pleasure, but it didn't quench the thirst.
'More... more... more...'
The Irish band played through the night as we danced around the fire, Celia and I. Its glow cast a feeling of warmth on the surrounding area, the music enveloping everything. I was vaguely aware of a sound as we danced, a sound like someone screaming something. It must have been one of the instruments. All that mattered was I was dancing with this beautiful girl in the firelight as life passed by, beautifully moving, transforming, dying.
Freaky? Yes? It'll get freakier. Romantic? A little, it'll get more romantic. Enjoyable to read? It'll get better.
