53

The Deep Ones

"Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise. Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men." – H. P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthuhu"

Ken was standing in the dark, feeling that something was wrong. His eyes were slow to adjust to the dimness, but his ears could hear clearly the sound that surrounded him. It was a ceaseless rushing and whispering noise, like the flow of a swift but smooth river flowing on through black tunnels below the earth. Was that where he was? It would explain the darkness. Meanwhile, the whispering sound and the darkness were not the only things troubling him.

He was wearing something on his head. It was a familiar feeling. A strap ran around the back of the head, while in the front something was situated over his eyes. In the beginning of the dream, his false sensations took a while to organize themselves into a recognizable environment. Was he blindfolded? No, he could see massive unmoving objects in the dark, clearer now than when he came to his senses.

Then the vagueness of the dream solidified into a new reality, and he realized what he must be wearing. He brought his hands up – he had gloves on – to tear it off his head. At first it wouldn't come loose. The strap seemed to tighten even as he tugged on it. He dug his fingers into his unusually wild hair, trying to loosen it. There was a weight like shackles around his wrists, but he knew it was just part of the gloves.

Finally the glasses slipped off and he flung them away from him. He could see more clearly without the tinted lenses, and now realized that he was in a cave of some kind, surrounded by gigantic stalagmites. How had he gotten here? He had no memory of what had led up to this moment, unlike that day in the forest, when Hikari and Miyako had come in answer to his screams.

But that didn't matter at the moment. If there was enough light to see by, there must be a way out, and near. He began to move forward, cautiously feeling his way ahead. Though he could see to an extent, he didn't want to stumble on the irregular floor.

He was fully aware of how he was dressed. The feel of the Digimon Kaiser's clothing was as familiar as if he had never stopped wearing it. It made his skin crawl, despite being comfortable. Comfortable! He would have cast it all aside like the glasses, but the cave was cold and wet, and he had no other options. He was almost certain now that the constant mindless whisper was rushing water, but he saw no sign of it.

Was this real light he was moving towards, or just an imitation? He knew of a place where the sun was not needed to see. "Real" or not, it was growing brighter, or rather the darkness was lessening. Almost before he knew it he had found his way out of the cave, and a slate-colored sky stretched above him.

It brought him little comfort. The walls of uneven rock swept off to either side, leaving a bowl-shaped depression like a crater in solid rock. He could see something up ahead, and though he had nowhere else to go, he liked the look of it less the closer he drew to it.

Its shape was something like an archway, or a segment of Stonehenge. The material that made it up couldn't be determined from a distance, but was almost sure to be the same dark-colored rock that made up the floor and walls of this strange arena.

As Ken continued to advance, he found his progress impeded by twisted outcroppings that had a strange habit of remaining unnoticed until he was almost up against them, and several times he stumbled on rocks and in depressions hidden by the omnipresent monochrome of this nightmare place. The problem was exacerbated by his reluctance to look down and see himself.

At last it seemed as though he had made it almost to his destination. He came up short, partly to rest and partly because he didn't want to get any closer. One of the two vertical parts of the structure was nearer to him than the other, and he thought he could make out a rough-hewn staircase spiraling upwards, cut out of the rock.

His eyes ranged up this and began following the horizontal beam that it supported. There was something, there were several things, suspended from its center, but with the height he couldn't be sure…

A sudden movement in his peripheral vision caused him to twist his head quickly to the side. Something was making its way slowly down the stairs. Almost the same instant he noticed it, another shadowy shape stepped out from behind one of the stalagmites. This one he could see clearly.

From such a short distance Ken could make out every detail, not that there were many. It stood higher than he did, about the size of a human adult. Human, however, it was decidedly not. The skin was an inky, glistening black – in fact, the only spots of color were the pale, expressionless yellow eyes, staring out of dark pits in the face like the sockets of a skull. That face protruded in a blunt snout, though Ken could detect neither mouth nor nostrils in it. For the rest, the creature was almost featureless. There were spines protruding from the top and sides of the head like those of a venomous fish. The long arms ended in hands with five pointed fingers. The torso bulged at the waist, and the short legs stood on large, apparently webbed feet.

Is this a Digimon? Ken wondered. Almost any Digimon could be frightening when menacing a human, but just by standing motionless this thing horrified him. There was something unclean about it. He imagined it climbing from the muck of the ocean's abysses. Ken expected it to lunge forward and rend him to pieces, but instead it bowed its head deeply. When it straightened and spoke, the voice was sepulchral but understandable.

"Digimon Kaiser, you have returned."

The greeting felt like a punch in the gut. Ken staggered backwards, stumbling over a protruding rock and nearly falling. There had been a time when that name was the only one he answered to, when he had been trying to forget Ichijouji Ken and rise above him. How he had relished the fear in the voices of his victims, "Digimon Kaiser!" He had even liked the sound of it in the mouths of the Chosen Children, with their laughably righteous anger. It had made him feel dangerous, in control. Now the words brought only a wave of nausea.

"That's – That's not my name," he stuttered.

"No other name suits you," the thing answered. "Take it without fear. Our god has forgiven your failings."

"Your god," Ken choked out.

The black thing raised an arm and pointed aloft to the stone archway, where the distant objects hang from the stone.

"We have already done what you asked for, Digimon Kaiser. The executions you ordered are finished."

Ken refused to raise his eyes. He could see other things like the speaker peering at him from among the rocks, but he greatly preferred to look at them instead of at whatever – whoever – was hanging from the arch.

"In their last breaths they cursed you…"

"No…" Ken said. "Back then – I only wanted to beat them! To win the game! I would never – I would never—!"

"Digimon Kaiser…"

The words were repeated all around him. The lurking monsters each took it up like a litany in some terrible ritual.

"No!" Ken fumbled with his gloves, trying to free himself from the Kaiser's accoutrements. One slid off, and the hand beneath was red. The dampness he felt was not that of water. With a scream he turned and dodged among the rocks, shaking his hands to try and rid them of innocent blood. He ran across an open space, passing by the great stone arch, and though he didn't look at it he could hear crunching thuds as the hanging objects fell off to his side.

He had no idea where he was headed, or whether there was any escape from this place. The sound of rushing water, diminished once he had left the cave, was now growing louder again as he approached the edge of the arena. He would gladly throw himself into that river it if it meant being swept away from this awful place.

A cleft in the rock wall opened before him, and he could see sky beyond it. He dashed through without a thought to what might lie on the other side. Too late, he saw that what awaited him was the ocean, a gray desert, and just below him a rushing maelstrom with black at its center. He tried to skid to a halt, but the moist stone beneath him would not allow it. His feet slipped out from under him, and in the next moment he was plummeting towards the whirlpool.

Hikari was swept through the blackness, skidding over and off the surface beneath her and into dizzying free-fall. Her body still couldn't move, but within her there was a violent struggle to hold on to her sanity. She held on to the hope that this was another dream. It was too horrible to be anything real. In the morning she could wake up and find her brother at the table for breakfast, alive and well, and afterward meet up with Daisuke and Sora and Mimi. There was no need to give any thought to what awful things might be happening to Takeru and Yamato as she fell into some new hell. She had to believe that. To doubt would be the end of her.

After what seemed ages, her descent began to slow, and before long she could feel her feet once more on solid ground. The darkness lifted, or rather lessened, leaving her in the terrible place she had dreamed of the previous night. Impossible constructions of black stone towered into the sky, leaning at odd angles, their shapes difficult to comprehend. Every surface seemed almost to ooze, the way a slug secretes mucus, and she was thankful that this time she had shoes on.

What comfort it gave her was negligible, however, compared to her unease. There were no sounds in this strange fortalice, only an utter silence, filled by shadows and the reek of marine things that had haunted all her dreams of the previous nights. She expected the quiet to be broken at any moment by the mental impacts of the last dream, but they never came.

So far, Hikari hadn't moved. She felt that she could now – the keychain had disappeared and was no longer a part of her – but maybe it was better not to move. There was no means of intentionally escaping the dream, and if she went exploring she would only find more horrors. It was hard, though, waiting for something to happen, and after a few minutes she could no longer resist the urge to turn around and make sure there was nothing behind her, ready to fasten its webbed fingers on her arm.

There was no lurking monster, but there was a door. In a place where straight lines and distance meant little, there was no way of knowing exactly how the portal was oriented, but she could see it was made of the omnipresent black stone, set into one of the dark buildings, and bordered by unknown symbols. There was no doubt in her mind that this would be where whatever was coming would make its entrance.

She didn't have to wait long. The door seemed to fold in on itself, disappearing from view and leaving a gaping hole from which darkness wafted like smoke. With it came the smell, not rotting sea creatures but another, much stronger, but like nothing a human being had smelled before. Slowly, Hikari began to back away, but she did not get far. There was a slopping and sucking noise in the black depths beyond the doorframe, and something began to emerge. It wasn't what she had been expecting – much worse.

They came snaking out of the blackness, half a dozen of them, writhing with a grotesque slowness, bobbing like cobras preparing to strike. They were blue, slithering tendrils or tentacles, smooth and without suckers. Each was about as big around as a mid-sized tree's branch, growing thicker as they trailed off into the shadow, back to where their unimaginable owner waited.

Hikari's mouth was wide with horror. She felt like screaming, but the sound caught in her throat and choked her. In the dim depths of her mind she heard something, a greedy, gelatinous sound. It didn't sound like anything, but she was sure it was laughing.

One of the tentacles slid quickly forward and had looped behind her before she had a chance to react. The back of her ankles collided with it and she went down, trying to turn, regain her balance and run, to no avail. The tentacle twined round both her legs in a moment, wrapping itself up to her waist. Her shirt was smeared with ooze, but she hardly noticed, feeling instead the cold, nauseating sensation of the thing's jelly flesh against the bare skin of her thighs.

She tried to pull herself along the ground, away from the pit, but another of the blue appendages arrested one of her arms, leaving her only able to scrabble with the fingers of her free hand at the slippery stone. It didn't matter. Slowly she was being dragged toward the open door. She knew that the thing could have pulled her through in an instant, but it was toying with her. The tentacles could tear her apart without effort, but they were saving her for something else.

"Help!" she managed to shout, but the awful voice in her head only grew louder. A third thick tendril wound around her upper arm and drew it back, pinned it to her side. A fourth drew forward as she raised her head to keep her face out of the slime and covered her eyes, which were tearing up with terror. Hikari wanted to call out again, for her partner – Where is she? – for her brother – But he's—! – but the vision of a tentacle forcing its way down her throat kept her mouth shut.

The stench was overpowering. The darkness was deepening. She had passed the threshold of the door. There was no way to stay quiet.

Tailmon continued to shake her partner, putting more urgency into it as Hikari's groans grew louder. At last the girl was awake again, shuddering violently.

"Tailmon! You're here. Where's my brother? Are they all—"

"It's okay, Hikari," the Digimon answered. "Everything's alright now."

But it wasn't, really. Hikari didn't sleep for the rest of the night, and Tailmon sat beside her all the while, watching as if to keep the nightmares away. The bed seemed very real to Hikari. She was wearing her pajamas again instead of her usual outfit, and the muck had disappeared from her clothes and skin. All the same, she desperately wanted a shower.