Chapter 9
He was out of it. Phillip could not hide his relief. Something was going to happen, now that Quentin was involved, but he, Phillip would not be part of it.
He was moving away, to this town inland. Sent by Vicky to look at a property that she was interested in. Probably live there for a while.
"For we are going to move. I can move my adult classes there, since there is also need down there for what I teach.."
"And leave your students in Collinsport?"
"Buffy can handle them, or most of them. I will be coming regularly once or twice a week, to check on things. But I expect that after she learns a few things she can run the place by herself."
So it was agreed. They would leave Collinsport, make a new life in a place where you did not see the sea, and try to have a normal life...
Still, he had to go to Collinwood once more.
It wasn't right that the paintings be there, he felt. They told lies, they spread evil... How could he be content with going away, leaving Quentin to handle it all? he could to do something about it...
What if it was too much for Quentin? Quentin could fail, after all. And once he failed, who would stop the evil of the paintings?
He had to go to Collinwood...
He was carrying a kitchen knife with him as he entered the mansion. They had not given Carolyn notice yet. He would do it later, after he dealt with those lying paintings...
Would a knife be enough? Maybe he should burn them with gasoline. Destroy them utterly...
But getting in a can of gasoline might not be as easy as sneaking in a knife. A knife should be enough.
He reached Adam's studio and faced her, the lying mermaid. She looked at him straight in the eye and dared him to try to stop her. She was of the sea, and held power over him.
No, no more. He would be stronger.
Nausea filled him. And then a sense of pressure, of being underwater... already gills were opening in his neck, already his skin was being covered by scales...
No, he would not go back. He would not let her do that to him.
And again the thought. All he had to do was go away, as Vicky wanted. He could let the things go on, without concerning himself. Why not take the easy way out?
Because Barnabas had never taken the easy way out when it came to him. Because he could do no less.
He slashed at the canvas with the knife. But the knife cut only air. It did not touch the painting.
She was stronger, then...
No, she was not. She was not! He lifted the knife again, concentration all his willpower on keeping his hand steady. Let that beautiful face be destroyed, let her lies be destroyed.
Then a hand grabbed his wrist.
"What are you doing, Phillip:?'' Adam asked.
Phillip opened his mouth to explain, to warn Adam that something was wrong, very wrong, but Adam's fist got there first.
"You were going to cut her, weren't you?' Adam asked again, beating on him. "Is that what you wanted to do? Tell me! Tell me!"
The Gorgon slept still. She would awaken soon. She would awaken hungry and ready to mate. there would be food, and there would be an eager male when she came out...
Should there be no food, the male would be devoured...
That's why the human diver was needed, to feed the female's hunger and allow the male to mate with her.
After the mating, the male would leave, quickly, and she would lay her eggs and stay there, protecting them. She would gorge on the fish small enough to be prey, and she would petrify with her gaze any predator large enough to threaten her eggs or her hatchlings...
But the time was not there yet.
The male was attracting fish and tying them with kelp. She would still be hungry after mating, and were the fish not ready, she might yet turn on the male...
If the male's sense of self-preservation was any stronger, he would flee the area and avoid all contact with the ravenous female. But the mating urge was strong in him, Only his cunning in attracting a human to serve as the female's prey allowed him to live and mate...
A couple of weeks after the mating the eggs would be laid, and months later they would hatch. The hatchlings would then be subject to diseases and predators, protected only by their mother's petrifying gaze. For a number of them that protection would be enough. Most of them would be slender and weak males, which would be driven from the nest early on, to survive as best they could, and a few females, who'd remain with their mother till they too acquired the petrifying stare that would defend them and their own progeny one day...
And so it had been for centuries, since the first Gorgons had been spawned.
"What happened to Phillip?' Vicky tried to get answers.
"Adam beat him up badly." Carolyn sighed "He caught him trying to slash his paintings and he reacted.."
"He had no right to do that!" Vicky said.
"I told him that. He said that I did not understand what his work means to an artist. "
"It was the mermaid. It was the sea." Vicky sighed. "That's why I want to leave Collinsport."
"Leave Collinsport? Why? I thought that we were friends, Vicky."
Vicky sighed. "Carolyn, it is not you. It is the sea. Looking at the sea does Phillip no good. It brings him back to... to what he was... Remember when Barnabas got him in, and you had to fill your swimming pool? Remember what he looked like?"
"Yes." Carolyn could not repress a shudder She had seen what Phillip looked like. She had despaired of his ever being restored. But he had been.
"We were told that the sea might try to claim him again."
"Yes. I was told of it. How he could not have a view towards the sea, nor anything that reminded him of the sea while he recovered."
"Well, he might have been released too soon. Or maybe it was not a good idea for him to stay in Collinsport. There is sea everywhere. And Collinwood was such a nice view of it. A big expanse of sea as far as the eye can see. It is not easy to get away from it."
"Yes. I recall, He did not want to look out of the windows, nor linger outside."
"It was bad enough. But he must have thought that he was safe within four walls. Until he saw Adam's paintings."
"The mermaid?" there was a hint of jealousy in Carolyn's voice. Adam spent much more time with that mermaid that with his wife.
"The mermaid at the bottom of the sea. Phillip saw far more sea that he wanted to. It made him really afraid of having a relapse... That's why I want to take him away, to a town inland, where there is no sea to be seen."
"And that would mean leaving Collinsport."
"Yes, it would."
"I I will miss you..."
"I know you will. But I have to think of Phillip."
"I know that I am not the best friend in the world."
Vicky sighed. "No, you are not. You got a lot to work on in the friendship department. But at least you know how it is done. Make new friends. It becomes easier with practice."
"Is there anything that I can do? I feel responsible. It happened with my husband, under my roof."
Vicky saw Barnabas come in. He did not look happy...
"How could Adam have done that? " he said.
"Artist, you know. Try to destroy one of their works, and they get real mad. At least there is nothing broken."
"Still I want to have a word with Adam."
"Adam does not listen to anyone these days." Carolyn sighed. "though maybe he will listen to you."
Barnabas was about to answer when Quentin came in. "Come" he said, grabbing Barnabas by the sleeve."
"What is it?"
"We have to talk. About Phillip. and about Adam."