We kicked around and splashed each other for a while and then settled down for some dinner. While we were eating my buddy Conrad pointed out a little island about 100 or so yards out from our camp. It didn’t look that far so me and him decided to swim out to it and poke around. We had nothing else to do and the women didn’t want to join us for a night swim so we blew our kisses and swam out there.
The moon was bright even though it wasn’t fully sundown and it seemed as though we were disturbing something silent. It wasn’t until we got there that Conrad pointed out as we left the water, that there were no ripples on the lake.
The Island was small but seemed to have enough mass that it took us 30 minutes to travel all the way around it. The night was dark now, and the stars looked like glitter sprayed onto a black canvas. We stood in the water looking at how the moons intense reflection lit up the entire lake.
I was in awe when I felt a sharp pinch on the bottom of my right foot. I lifted it quickly and kicked as if to dislodge something like a sharp rock. But as I stepped forward and placed all my weight on that foot I fell in instant pain. I hadn’t dislodged anything and now it was in my foot.
I barked out in pain and grabbed for my foot. Sure enough it was a rock, but something looked weird about it. As I pulled it out with great discomfort Conrad jumped back as it began to glow a dull green. I dropped it instantly in the water, and like a flame the green glow was gone.
“What was that thing man?” asked Conrad in a shaky tone.
“Some sort of rock I think” I replied eerily equally as shaky.
I stood quickly and then bent back down, favoring my foot, and scooped for the rock again. Handful after handful presented nothing. And now not feeling so safe I suggested that we head back to camp.
“Aw are you ok babes?” my girl was asking as we stood in the water at camp and told the story.
“Its ok doesn’t even hurt now to be honest.” I said trying to act tuff, but in truth it really didn’t hurt.
“Kinda freaked me out at first, when it happened I saw the water cloud up and I thought I saw blood on my hand but I don’t know. Let’s get dried off it freezing out here.”
I was already favoring the foot to prevent me from stepping on the wound that I felt was there, and yet as my foot left the water a stabbing throb began to pulse through my foot. I winced and limped up to camp to settle for the night.
The fire was hot; I mean I couldn’t even sit within seven feet of that sucker. When I did get close it felt like my skin was burning and would begin to itch like it was dry. I mentioned this to Conrad and asked how he felt thinking that I might have caught some sort of swimmers rash. He was fine and snuggled up next to his lady by the dancing flames. Even the smell of the smoke was choking and I felt a little short of air at times. By this time the throbbing pain had spread up to my thigh and I could feel a sensation all over as if I my joints were locking up.
My girl came over to check on me and sat on my lap, which hurt like hell but I wanted the attention. I told her about the pain in my joints and she reached for my hand as if to kiss it but stopped before her lips touched his skin. She didn’t need to say anything because I saw it too. Under the skin, between my fingers, something was moving.
She fell off my lap and crawled away real fast, I think she was screaming, im not sure. I was suddenly hypnotized by something out in the lake. The island seemed to have a faint green aurora about it like a fog or haze and I could see things sliding from the smooth water and standing on shore. They looked shapeless and seemed to move like shadowy ripples, and then they began to sing.
It was loud and to my human ears it sounded like rushing waters flooding my mind. I jerked and fell out of the hypnosis and began to scream in pain. I looked at my hand and saw my skin begin to tear and leak a dull green fluid as three writhing tentacles broke through. And then with the last memory of my sapient mind I looked down to my injured foot and slipped in to a terrific oblivion as I took in the sight of a long slightly scaled tentacle.
I was something else after that, my mind new it and I felt it. I could feel myself leaving my old skin and attempting to support myself on my new limbs. As I shambled to the water, I looked back at the three faces that I once knew. My vision was blurry and I could not make out their expressions, but I heard with my new ears, what sounded like a brutal gurgling through water from both the females. I looked back to the lake and the moon and began to understand the song, and as I slid into the dark still water, I again felt safe.
~DJL
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