Eldritch bride

   I never knew my great grand father, never met him, I was pretty sure he died when I was like one. My mother never talked about him, and the subject never came up so I never even thought of the man. Him and most of my extended family was just never a part of my world. My world was my few friends in our small town, my mother, her husband (my step dad) whom I always had a tentative relation with because he had a daughter from a first wife who lived out on the West Coast, who would come to visit for three weeks each summer. His daughter ending up hanging out with me and being very distrusting of him, from what little my young ears would over hear his ex liked to say nasty things about him and his anger issues didn't make that any better when she came to visit. Naturally when she was old enough she stopped visiting all together; without telling him though I kept her in my friends list on social media.

   I guess this being the internet I should be clear, my name is Lucy, I'm a girl, and according to the geneology project I had to do in high school of Irish descent. Which brings up something. Aside from the family drama; which in its self isn't really unusual, heck even in our small Arizona town at least two of my friends were from divorced families; no what I want to bring up are oddities. So as not to be another run on sentence, my mother about freaked out when I asked about our family history but calmed down when I said it was for a school project. What she told me was weird. My mother was born in Boston Massechusets, and after marrying my biological father had moved north to Maine as he was a crab fisherman. She showed me on the map, and it was as far apart as our town from Flagstaff, really hits home the different sizes of the states. So it wasn't a long trip to see her family. She took out a photo and showed me my biologial father; keep in mind I was 15 at the time and this was the FIRST time I'd ever seen a photo of the man, there were three men around him, which were my father's brother, an uncle I'd also never met, my father's father (my grandfather), and my father's grandfather (my great grandfather) who at the time was already in his 70's. They were all fishermen.

   My mother didn't say much more about them, other than that they all four died in storm out at sea. Although that did for me at 15 explain another oddity my mother had, severe hydrophobia; more for me than for herself. She never took me to the pool, our house didn't even have a bath tub, just a shower; and with a curtain. My mother was terrified of those sliding door ones thanks to movies that would have you beleive they can actually fill up with water and drown you. Although this geneology project did also reveal something else, something that had bugged me. See when I was little, like most little girls, I loved fairies and mermaids; but my mother refused to buy me anything related to either, not even The Little Mermaid and Tinkerbell stuff; she just remarked they were really evil creatures that stole children and ate people and all sorts of stuff like that; but she's quickly drop the subject and go onto whatever else we were doing at the time, like in the store or what have you. But at 15 thanks to this project it occured to her to explain it. Her family, and my biology father's families were descended from Irish immigrants, in fact both her great grandfather and my biology father's grandfather supposedly knew each other back in Ireland before moving to America in the early 1900's. They were also very superstitious and explained how in Ireland; at least to their families, they took fairies very seriously, especially ocean ones like mermaids...I also learned here that mermaids were apparently I type of fairy which would steal from and kill people along the sea shore.

   My mother cut that short though and said after the accident and due financial problems she opted to take me and move away from the sea, not so much as far from it as possible geographically (California and the Pacific Ocean and Sea of California not far away), but visually and culturally...so Arizona desert it was. Her own family she just showed me pics, she was an only child, mother and father (grandparents I never met), she didn't go into detail but just said she had a falling out with her family over deciding to move away. I was 15 at the time so both didn't want to pry, and second didn't care; this was for a school project and I just wanted it done. Like I said, these people in the photos weren't part of my world, they were strangers; even though my mother knew them; until this they never came up. In fact I wouldn't hear about them for several more years.

   When I was 17 I went to the local community college, which had an indoor pool, and I took up swimming lessons. I always loved the water and wanted to swim, like I said I never in my whole childhood even had a proper bath; just a shower. I loved it, and my instructor was surprised how quickly I took to it. That was until one day while swimming after class I heard my mother screaming. She was an hour early to pick me up, I didn't have a car yet, and someone told her where I was. She burst in there screaming her head off, not angry at me, she was in a panic. She was screaming, "Someone save her, don't let it get her, get her out," and stuff like that, that made no sense at the time. I got out and with the help of some life guards managed to calm her down. She was pissed, I thought maybe she thought there were sharks in the pool and told her it was a chloranated swimming pool, there's nothing in it to get me. This seemed like it calmed her down. Later that evening though we had a talk, she told me she SAW my biology father's death in a dream the day before the news came of the boat being found crashed into the rocks under a light house with no sign of the four of them who had been on board, save for a half eaten body that washed ashore believed to be my great grandfather.; in her dream a mermaid had dragged my biological father down and drowned him before eating him.

   Yeah, it sounds silly, but she was clearly traumatized, losing her husband she'd known her whole life while she was pregnant, bad dream, even going so far as to move clear to Arizona just to get away from the sea. Although it kinda felt there were pieces missing, as the math would have said I was three when we moved here. But I didn't pursue it, I was able to convince her that its a pool inside a building, in Arizona. Despite that she made me promise I'd never go swimming in a lake or a river, or the sea. I promised her, it was a lie of course, not that I had many oppertunities for any of those things.

   At around 19 I decided I wanted my own place, it seems young by today's standards, but I really needed my own place. Its not like my mother was alone, she had my step father, and as I was getting older and looking more like my mom; I don't want to accuse the guy of anything but him accidently mistaking me for her like four times one month was...yeah...I'm just going to find my own place now.

    Of course being a small town my place wasn't exactly far from my mother's house. She didn't like I chose a place with a tub but seeing me sit in the thing showing that I can't even stretch my legs out in it seemed to calm her down. Guess when I was a baby and tubs were big to me was her reason for not wanting one.

  But...um...oh, there was nothing odd about that house or anything; well there was this one time after I graduated from the community college a few friends of mine took a day trip to a lake up north, a four hour drive and other stuff to do, didn't tell my mother. There was something odd about that trip. The lake was gorgeous, clear water, sandy bottom, a little island in middle. All that water against the dry landscape was so alien. Well while swimming I noticed there was one head too many. She looked like a Native American woman and was keeping her distance; no one elsed seemed to notice her as she just swam so silently. I made eye contact with her and she was giving me this like "confussed" expression. She swam away from us after circling around for a bit, but it was really strange she swam so fast but her arms and legs never emerged from the surface of the water, no splashing like she just glided quickly away towards the small island and dipped under the surface. I never saw her come up. I mean my friends distracted me and...why am I...I mean later I was worried I saw someone drown...and...I...I was telling the park ranger but then I saw her fine by the lake and...who are you people?

  *The drugs are wearing off. How are they...

  *Don't whisper that into the mike. Quickly ma'am, why did you bring up your grandfather at the beginning?

  Wh..why? He; he's not dead, a lawfirm out of Boston called me recently, said I was in his will. Th...that he died recently, like this year...in his 90;s...and....who the fuck are you people? Why am I locked in this room?!

  *It wore off.

  (Lisa continues to yell at the one way mirror as two men in suits and sunglasses with black hats dressed like steriotypical Men in Black, watch on. One turns to the other, "Is this lake a concern?"

   "No," says the other, "Its a Code White and Green; a station observes it for possible Code Siren or Dragon activity given local legend. None ever occurs, entity sticks to its self. Its getting close to this group coupled with the letter we intercepted from that lawfirm lead us to this girl. Her great grandfather is an ex member of the Paranormal Control Agency, officially lost his son and grandson during an assignment, written off as bad weather in official records, cultist activity in our records. However the conditions are in conflict with this girl's story. The report is murky, but there is an unnamed sacrificial victim by the cultists their group is credited with saving just a few months prior, a woman. We need to bring this girl's mother in, question her too."

   -A loud shriek shakes the chamber, Lisa's scream has become something inhuman and high pitched-

   "Gas the fucking chamber! Knock her out! Code L.E.H"

   A pink gas floods the chamber and Lisa falls over unconcious on the floor. The man turns to the other, "Send the call, bring in the mother, Lauara Mallery."





 Subject: Laura Mallery
Married to Ben Mallery
Daughter: Lisa Mallery
Maiden Name: Laura Smith

*Not very Irish*

Maiden Name was legally changed to Laura Smith, matching the legal name of her first husband Joseph Smith; which was its self a legally altered name from Brian McLoek upon joining the Paranormal Control Agency.

*Unexpected*

Laura Smith was previously known as "Jane Doe", techniques at the time unable to find her original parents. It would seem our subject was abducted as a young girl from parts unknown and sold to a cult intending to raise her as a sacrifice to a sea monster.

  *Fish People or other?"

Going by the records other, although Fish People may have been part of this cult as well. We interviewed Laura Mallery already, she didn't show any resistance to the truth gas like Lisa Mallery did; however we did fill a few gaps. She was kept at a cultist compound in the Appalachian mountains, however she has little memory of this seems one part due to every day being almost exactly the same as every other day with little social interaction and kept in a pen like enclosure furnished for a person with minimal contact except from handlers and another part being kept on a mood controlling drug; which was confirmed at least as late as her rescue from the cult. Thankfully we have access to Paranormal Control Agency records or we'd be missing a large piece of this puzzle.

  According to the Paranormal Control Agency records the cultists moved her from the Appalachian compound to Massechusets; and this adds a disturbing element, the older couple we found in the photo album her daughter mentioned, we have identified them as cult leaders that had contact with the Fish People colony in Boston Harbor. They took her in for what was four years, accoring to Laura Mallery's testimony she was told these were her parents and authorities had found her and brought her to them. However we know otherwise, this couple's only children were also cult members, one of which runs the Appalachian compound.

  *Runs? Present tense?*

  Yes, the cult is still in operation today, however about twenty years ago they cut ties with the Fish People and made ties with the Dark Dwellers in the appalachians; switching gods from...what the Paranormal Control Agency named a Cephalopodic Psycho-morph to a Forest God; the whole cult moved into the moutains, where we; the Society, in that region do have contacts with them; which we are sending agents to speak with them for more details on this matter regarding this subject and this whole sacrific situation as the timing is indicating a falling out with the Fish People over the loss of the sacrifice.

  *Go on with the details where you left off before. The subject was taken from the mountains to cultists raising her for four years pretending to be her parents*

  Of course, according to Laura Mallery they didn't give her a name, but continued to call her "girl" or used a pet name. At the time she was twenty years old and tried to escape only to be drugged and taken to a cold wet dungeon like cave that she was forced to live in for an unknown length of time. Here the Paranormal Control Agency's records indicate that the cult was being investigated by Agent Joseph Smith, along side three other agents. They learned the subject was to be sacrificed to a "sea god" being worshipped by the cultists and by Fish People. There is even a description of the thing and the sacrifice.

   (The cultists, both men and fish men alike were adorned with brown robes and hoods, dragging a naked grown woman by leather straps binding her wrists. The woman's gate and gaze indicating she was heavily drugged. It was a scene from a monster movie as she was taken to a large subterreneon cathedral with a large barrel wide hole in the floor before the alter. The woman was tied to the alter as the cultists chanted. Our team was able to get into position as the chant summoned up something from the watery hole in the floor; no doubt a long tunnel to as yet another cavern. The creature was a worm of somekind, its body covered in thick white fur and having a head with no visible eyes or any openings save for a gaping beaked mouth. The upper and lower parts of the beak being shaped like those of a small bird only with a serration along the edges, it also possessed two insect like hooked prongs on either side of the beak giving it more of an insects mandibles apperance. The cultists chanted and two of them even came forward, one human, one fish man, to untie the binds; seemingly following orders being given telepathically by the creature as it turned what passed for its head one way and another and made slight hissing sounds seemingly directing individuals in the group. They stood her atop a stone tablet with a strange marking on it, tilted her chin up and stepped back. The creature opened its mouth wide, clearly intent upon consuming her. Unable to retain our composure any longer our team opened fire as I grabbed the woman and pulled her to safety. The creature retreated into the hole, no clear evidence present how much if any damage we did to it. We could not identify the creature at the time, nor even ascertain its full size as it never fully emerged from the hole.)

  The record goes on to describe them taking the woman to their local base, ascertaining what we already know, that her past was fuzzy at best, being abducted by the cult at a young age and kept in isolation. They transfered her to a hospital, and over a period of about a year fell in love with the man who saved her. Her name was legally changed to Laura Smith, she liked the name Laura is all the reason for it. The records look faked that indicate their marriage as she moved with him to an outpost in Maine.

   The Paranormal Control Agency's records at this point are missing gaps in time, likely due to inactivity; however they indicate there was an incident involving this Cephalopodic Psycho-Morph, although they give no description for it. Only the belief it was connected to the cult out of Boston as a series of the creatures they official dub at this point "Angels of the Sea Goddess", appearing. They give a full description here.

  (Resembling an eel measuring forty feet in length with soft elastic and fully prehensile bodies seemingly able to stiffen or soften as the need requires. They possess many small flipper like appendages along their thick white fur covered bodies; these flippers able to either press so firmly to their sides that they appear to vanish or else able to retract them. They possess also a large leaf like purple fin at the tip of the tail. The creature's heads as previously indicated in our records from an earlier encounter have an armored and serrated beak with hook like peircing mandibles on opposite lateral sides of the mouth.)

  Basically the records indicated these creatures were navigating the water ways and even drainage of the shore line town with the singular intent of hunting down our subject here. We have no records however of how they knew this, how they were tracking them, or even what happened other than that the four agents opted to move her to a light house with protective runes per an operation whose details look be scrubbed from the database beyond those points and that afterwords Joseph Smith, his brother Nathaniel Smith, and one agent Markus Bates were all killed; the oldest individual who may actually have been Joseph Smith's grandfather survived the ordeal and took Laura to a mental institution that was just a cover for one of their out holding facilities. There is no record of her state; however; here is where her and Lisa Mallery's testimony bridges the gap, over twenty years ago around the same time the cult had its falling out the facility was hit by what the records describe as a breach in security, allowing several of their containments to escape. There is a whole list here of about twenty individuals and creatures, most of which were recaptured, but Laura Smith was among the list that was never recovered; until today.

  *There is something wrong about these records*

  What is that?

  *The daughter, where is the daughter in the records?*

  What...(flips through file), there is no mention.

  *Do the math, the cultists supposedly took her to be sacrificed at around 20 or 21 years old correct. Well the record indicates it was a further one year before she was released to these agents' custody under the pretense of being one's wife. The time stamp of these records indicates a further five years, so she was 25 or 26 years old before even being taken to this asylum containment site of theirs, with one more year, so 27 years old when she escaped. We have no records on how long it took her to reach Arizona, and we already have conflicting reports from the daughter as to wether the mother was pregnant or the girl was three years old. Given the record has no record of a daughter, I am inclined to believe she became pregnant just prior to the asylum escape and took her three years to reach Arizona where we do have records of her and her daughter taking up residence and her marrying this man, Ben Mallery. Lisa's testimony of events are likely off simply due to the fabrications of Laura Mallery to appease her daughter; however, answer this; if she had no daughter till escaping from an asylum which she was kept in after a botched operation from the Paranormal Control Agency after years of protective custody from cultists and their sea monster masters...then how does she now have a photo album that not only has photographs of these agents in them, but also of the cultist couple that kept her prisoner for four years, that she was rescued from during a ceremony to summon a sea beast to eat her. How, does she, have, these photographs?*

  I...I don't know. That doesn't make sense.

  *What all was she interviewed about?*

  Well, her testimony this morning was stricktly over her youth and the cult, we were getting so little out of her and the gas's effect on ordinary humans knocks us out after only about twenty minutes, less if you only weight 110 pounds like she does. The rest of this we pieced together from the records we could bring up. We sent a call to our West Virginia division to contact the cultists and see if any remember her and what happened with this falling out we never got many details about before other than they'd rather not worship a sea monster that wants to eat them and fish people who would rather sacrifice humans than their own kind disproportionatly. However we also brought in Ben Mallery, our records on him don't show anything special other than he moved to Arizona from California 20 years ago after leaving the coast guard and...married Laura Mallery the same month they both moved to the same town at the same time...well if that's not a red flag.

  *Something happened 20 years ago, the Paranormal Control Agency kept terrible book keeping on these incidents; or scrubbed out specific details for unknown reasons, I am more inclined to believe the former given what details remain; possibly to avoid direct connections via the time stamps to their facilities and activities should any records become public. Its not as though we keep many records in one place for the same reasons. However, the falling out of the cult, the security breach, and then; well let's leave any further speculation till we finish up these interviews.



  ****
Part 3

  *It has taken affect, the subject is human so no need for a single question and isolation session.

  *Laura Mallery can you hear us?

   Yes

   *Last time we spoke you told us about the cult, we left off where you were taken to live with an elderly couple.

   My Parents.

  *They were your parents?

   Yes, the police found me and took me to live with them; but, they were also in a cult. I don't know if it was the same cult. I was an adult so I left them, I married and moved in with my first husband; Joseph.

   *Okay, how long did you know Joseph before you married him?

   I don't understand the question.

  *Its alright, how did Joseph pass away?

 A fishing accident, he, and his brother, father, and grandfather had gone out to collect their crab traps despite the weather. They cost so much you see; but...I'd rather have had him.

  *What is she *shush**

   *Laura, did Joseph's grandfather, hold on, repeat who all was out on the fishing boat that day if you could please.

  My husband, his brother, their father, and their grand father.

  *Jospeh Smith is your husband, Nathaniel Smith is his brother, and Markus Bates is their grandfather?

  Who is Markus Bates? My husband's father's name was Richard Smith and their grandfather was Mitch Smith. All Smiths of course. Mitch had one son that was my husband's dad, and he had twin boys my husband and his brother.

  *One moment.

  -Microphone off-

   -Why didn't we notice the number of names and number of people in the girl's story were off-

  -Microphone on-

  *Laura, what was Josephe and Nathaniel's mother's name

  I don't understand, the, I'm feeling tired (YAWN).

  *Just a few more questions, were you with them when the accident occured?

  No, I was at home.

  *Who all survived the accident

  No one, I...it...no one survived. I couldn't handle it so I moved to Arizona.

  *Did you see Joseph's death

  Yes, the boat was sinking as they came into the harbor, I saw them, Joseph jumped out and swam but..he was...god...the blood, he was torn up from the traps in the storm, the sharks.

  *I thought you were at home, there are no houses on the harbor for fishing boats. Did they call you to say they were coming in?

  Of course not, everyone else had gone overboard, Joseph must have tried to get back.

  *The boat was smashed on the rocks, how did that happen.

  The storm of course, the ship crashed on the rocks, no one survived.

  *But you saw Josephe's death, despite not being there, how did the boat sink in the harbor and crash on the rocks.

  The storm of course, the ship crashed on the rocks, no one survived. It was sinking when coming into the harbor, Joseph jumped out, everyone else was overboard, he tried to swim for it, but he was too torn up, my god...the blood...the sharks.

  I...I...(YAWN)

 (Laura slumps onto the table asleep)


*She wasn't this incoherent when we interviewed her last time.

 *Where is the girl?

*She has been kept sedated per your order sir

 *Good...bring me the Paranormal Control Agency's creature files, I want to see just what a Cephalopodic Psycho-Morph is.



  part 4:

   *State your name*

    Heh, really? You arn't the Paranormal Control Agency, so who are you...hmm...let me guess, you're those upstarts with the unoriginal name, The Society, that or someone new.

   *Who are you?

   Don't you know, Ben Mallery, ya'know I have a little girl too, well she's a grown woman now. Havn't seen her in years. I know she stays in touch with Lisa. Feel sorry for the kid, I mistook her for her mother a couple of time; pretty sure I freaked her out. The old creepy step dad trope never leaves ya, even if you've raised the kid since she was a toddler.

  *Why isn't the gas affecting you? What are you?

  Not asking the right questions, so I'll give you some hints. You ransacked the house right? Found the photographs? Do you know who those people are? The old couple? The men, I have to say those photographs were some nice work on my part; photoshop, police records, and aging techniques, except the one with me in it of course; that's real...except I had to smudge my face in the photo...so its a copy of a real photo.

  *Wait, who are you?

  (The man smiles): I'm Joseph Smith, or rather Brian McLoek

  *Why are you telling us all this?

  Ben Mallery died, his daughter was only three when it happened, and he was already divorced. Simple enough to slip into his life with my skills, and cut her off. Alter her memory of my face, a few well placed conditioned responses and all set. How do you think she escaped the asylum, I couldn't let that thing have her, Markus that bastard left me for dead back on the island, Nathaniel and Richard didn't make it, Markus took her to the asylum I overheard him making a deal with that monster. I had to bide my time, when it went for her, I took her, implanted an intense Hydrophobia in her. So how'd you find her after all this time?

  *The gas is affecting you. Your a telepath, always affects your lot weirdly. Dumping your guilt out rather than answering our questions. Okay, we weren't looking for her, we don't even have all the details. We picked up the girl, Lisa, because our men over an unrelated matter detected an anomaly with her when she passed through one of our guard stations.

  A telepath I take it, figures. But you can't figure out what it is about her can you that set them off. They just sense something is off. Not unlike Ben Mallery's daughter, she never saw his face since she was two but she figured out I wasn't him; her mother it was simple enough to smudge her memory and expectations so she saw him when she saw me, but the kid, she seemed to just know. I always thought it was Lisa's influence. You won't figure it out. You have me in here, you have Laura and Lisa. So what do you have? A kid who doesn't know anything, a woman with half her life stolen by a cult, her memories smudged by multiple psychics, once before being sent to the asylum in the catch and release program, then me. Granted they wanted to keep her for at least a few more years; Markus' deal with that thing expired sooner than he thought. I wander if that bastard tried to expidite Laura's treatment to get her out of there; probably would have looked suspicious if he did. I doubt he ever realized I was still alive. Expected monsters to clean away the bodies, so no bodies to count.

  *What is the girl? Are you the father?

  A pregnancy normally only lasts 9 months, that thing inside her must have been really maticilous because it took three years to be born, good thing she was traveling across the country. Never questioned the money I put in her account, of course she thought she was the widow of a crab fisherman, and as far the government was concerned she was. The Paranormal Control Agency must not have considered her a high priority. Of course from what I hear at the time they had a whole mess of problems just land in their laps, been falling apart ever since. And now the final straw. Word is they picked a fight with the wrong eldritch abomination, stole and locked away her precious psychic princess I hear, and poked and poked and poked at a nest of monsters...and now your lot, the little rich boys club who thinks their secret is still a secret. No one gives a rat's ass about your ancestors making deals with those ridicilous goblins. The Paranormal Control Agency overlooked you feeding people to them because...well, it helped us cover up stuff to.

  *If you're done, you've told us all we need to know, your ranting won't accomplish anything. We'll talk again when you're sober.

  -stronger gas floods the room and the man, Joseph or rather Brian is knocked out-

   ****

   *******

   *Something wrong sir, you look disturbed.

   *Why did we bring that girl in? What was the actual cause. We didn't even know about the Code White/Green until she mentioned it.

   *Checking sir

   (tapping at a computer)

   *A grab order by; Markus Bates, newly acquired personel, for interrogation of any oddities in her life under suspicion of contact with an elemental spirit and immediate transfer to the Maine facility.

   *We arn't sending her, and have Markus Bates report to me immediatly, under suspicion of conspiring with an unknown paranormal party, and where that file on these Cephalopodic-Psychomorphs.

   You'll never HAVE HER!

   (The two men stare in surprise as Brian stands up from a dead sleep and screams before falling to the floor. Three guards in gas masks walk in, *He's dead*

   *Sir...Lisa Mallery is already on a transport truck, report shows, left three hours ago.

   *Contact that truck, full turn around, get me that file, and get me Markus Bates.



   Part 5:
   Revelation

    Once upon a time, there was down in southern Florida a little girl living in her little world. One day at the age of three she snuck out of the house, all alone, and went to a nearby neighborhood park. It was so early in the morning no other kids were around, no parents; no one. That is no one save for the men in the windowless van. They told the impressionable child some lies and took her away.

  These men took the child and kept her trapped in the back of that van as they took pictures of her, and sent those pictures over fax machines to their contacts. The child was put up for auction, yes sold. It wasn't a bidding war, a caucasian blond child back then especially was guaranteed to end up on missing posters, milk cartons, have local authorities searching. The whole thing had the potential as several cases had before to explode into a media frenzy. Locally it did, but back then with so much to distract the public it never exploded into a nation wide mystery. The people bidding in these auctions were the worst people, wealthy individuals with political and corporate pull, certain organizations, international slave traders, and several inhuman creatures whose wants for those being sold could even be seen as a mercy compared to what some of the human organizations and individuals had in mind. The child ended up being sold to a cult and taken away to West Virginia, kept at the small compound of the cult in a room fashioned out of a pen for livestock.

   The child was early on, spoiled by the cult, given a comfortable room, a television, fed, and select individuals who always wore robes and masks took the child to exercise. The child never saw another human face that wasn't on the television for over a decade. Her memories of her family faded away as she was kept on a "zoom and sleep" schedule to control her. A strict schedule indeed of daily planned activities. None of which however included learning to read, write, arithmatic, or any useful skills. The tv she was shown was controlled, in truth it was VHS tapes chosen and vetted by the cult's elders to insure they had zero educational value, and even to frighten her of what was outside the compound. It is only due to the regular activities she even retained the ability to speak, but otherwise her demeanor due to the monotony was almost sheep like. Any divergence would be punished, what little she had could be taken away at any time. In her early teens they began to drug her food to keep her subdued even further.

  Then, something changed. The original intent for raising this child had been to be a suitable sacrifice to their god. However they learned their god did not want a mindless meal, it wanted a bride. She needed to learn real tasks and have a sense of hope in her heart. So a convoluted plan was devised, they would use members of their cult in the Police Force to fake a rescue, their political connections to forge documents, and a couple at just the right age closer to the alter site near Boston Massechusets would pretend to be her long lost parents. So it was when she was 16 years old she was "rescued" and taken to the outskirts of Boston. However, without the drugs, and thanks to what little she remembered from the tv shows; over a period of 4 years it became increasengly clear to her something was wrong. No photos of her as a baby, she was to only call the couple mom and dad; and they never called her by a name; only as child or girl. In truth they were trying not to get attatched, and she picked up on their distance. So she wanted to move out, she insisted, she wanted to go to school, to learn. It was forbidden. She realized at the age of 20 she was an adult, and the "parents" were getting panicky as neighbors noticed her, someone had to be overhearing their arguments which became ever more heated. She attempted to run away; the cult however was never far away. As she had no idea where anything was, how to read a map, or even how to get a map for that matter; they quickly intercepted, abducted, and drugged her.

   It was near the time for the sacrifice, so they took the girl to a room in the underground cavern that was home to their fellow cult members; their non-human cult members. The girl now a woman was drugged and kept in that room for nearly a month before the ceremony where she was presented. The great beast that is their god, the master of those caverns, known to mortal tongue as Sil'loethra, sent one of her little angels to collect the bride; however something was amiss, the angel detected something foul and wrong afoot and demanded a closer inspection. It was then that those who claim to protect humanity from the dark; yet never pool their resources against the very humans that also benefit from such arrangements and commit far darker sins, made their move.

  One could say they abducted the girl themselves. For now they had taken a woman with no past beyond blurry memories and a life of domestication in the manner of a farm animal. She ended up being observed by four men whose covers were as fishermen; and we suppose from here my little victims you know the rest don't you? Oh you don't; too many memory smudging telepaths in the stew is there? Of the four man team three had already been stationed in a little town on the coast of Maine under the names "Joseph Smith", "Nathaniel Smith", and "Richard Smith"; the fourth man had been undercover in the cult, Markus Bates. Of course a cult that worships a real god, one whose blessing give real visible results; how can one be surprised that he became a true devout follower; well...almost. His training made him a negotiator, not a blind follower; a true missionary who speaks with their god.

   Nathaniel Smith and Richard Smith didn't see it, Markus knew; Joseph was a telepath and was using his powers to subtetly make the girl fall for him as she was taught how society works, slowly learned to read under their Agency's tutors. However she was still kept inside or else was escorted everywhere by Joseph as she was still under their protection; they legally changed her name after a year to Laura Smith and the cover story of her being Joseph's wife. Markus however using  a sacred tablet had called to Sil'loethra, who sent her angels. Some kept the agents busy while others seeked a way to contact the woman who had chosen the name Laura. Joseph may have projected hydrophobia into her, but let's clear her mind so she may tell you what really happened beyond this point in her own words.







    Part 6:

   (Lights flicker in the white room, the plaster on the walls peeling and an inch of weirdly warm water across the tile floor. Where a one way mirror would be there is nothing but a broken out window showing the adjacent room. Two men in suits are seated at one end of a table, the man known as "Markus Bates" is sitting beside them, and the other end of the table is Laura Mallery; a defeated look on her face as she stares at the table.The wall behind her is unlike all the other walls, covered in a white shaggy fur or algae like substance that undulates from time to time. Small fish swim in the inch deep water, usually over by the debris collecting by the walls.)

   "You wanted to know about Maine," says Laura breaking the silence that otherwise would only be disturbed by the sound of dripping water, occassional splashes, and a sound like something massive shifting its weight, "Fine, now that I'm not being affected by that sh..shiiiit; and him."

   ******

   You know everything right? Everything up till I was taken to Maine. My whole life I was a prisoner; and this was no different. I went from being the prisoner of one group of assholes to another group of assholes. I could tell Joseph had a thing for me by the way he leered at me, the same leer I would catch from the old man who claimed to be my father and strangers on the street. It made me wish for the masks. They took me despite my protests to Maine, a small house not far from the sea. They called it a safe house and told me they were going to protect me; but I couldn't go anywhere without one of them with me; my only time alone was while in the house. The house was a prison, the windows and doors locked from the outside; if there had been a fire I'd have died. They never left me alone for long; at first.

   At first I didn't notice it but, when Joseph was around I started to feel...love; I loved him, wanted him, always wanted him around. But, not long after he'd leave that feeling went away; the; I guess, difference became so great that it was no different than the drugs the cult would give me. I hated it. I hated him; when he was away I hated him; when he was in the house I loved him. It was maddening. When they would take me into town the towns people thought I was simple, soft in the head they'd say. I couldn't read, I couldn't write; I knew nothing about money or denominations of money, religons, politics, the world, the names of every day things. Yes the cult let me watch some tv, so I knew what a cannibal was but not who was president or what a govenor was, or anything like that. I knew the names of imaginary creatures; I didn't know what things were make believe and what were real. And to be honest given all that had happened to me I realized neither did they. When people think you are simple they talk around you. I learned, I studied people. What's more, she came to me.

   When I was alone in the house I started to hear voices. A woman talking to me, through the sink drain, the shower drain. A singing that came one day as I was having a break down, I had had enough and was planning to smash out a window when the singing came, it came from the bathtub's drain and up through all the pipes. She talked to me, taught me things, told me about the people keeping me, and how her angels were looking for me.

   Did he tell you? Joseph was the only one there when it happened. Well, not at first. One day the voice told me the front door had been left unlocked; I followed the voice as evening was coming down to the ocean. There she was in the water. A mermaid, pale as moonlight, tale was covered in a thick white fur, her hands and fingers like she had shaped crabs and their legs into something resembling human hands. Her face was like a wedge with gill slits along the nose, thin jellyfish tendrils for hair that flickered with the colored lights of a rainbow, she held her arms out to me, she smiled. Her smile was too wide and her teeth were a mismash of shark's teeth and fragments of sea shells. She wasn't like the mermaids in the stores, she was like; something else that had seen those images and tried to copy them with the body parts of various sea creatures. I hesitated; but, not because of her. I was mere feet from the edge of the dock when an intense fear came over me, not of the mermaid but the ocean its self. I am certain she noticed, as she looked back and forth around her. She blinked her eyes and I saw they were the black eyes of a shark, I was certain moments before they had been human. My head hurt, and Joseph grabbed me from behind. I blacked out and woke up in the bed, I had cold sweats just thinking about the ocean and those waves and thoughts of sinking and drowning. I had never feared the ocean before; although I did never learn how to swim, but, I knew somehow they had implanted that in me, to keep me away.

   The strangest thing was, the more I thought about the mermaid, the creepier she became in my imagination. Joseph and the others never left me alone after that, but something was happening; and here...here is where my memory becomes fuzzy. What I told you before, at least I think that was you two; i mean why else would you be here right now right? Its like a dream where obviously contradicting things are happening but you just accept both as real, something happened and then; I was in a place where I was kept locked away, I came to my senses after some time had passed and I was...my first clear memory after believing that the ship had sank and Joseph had been killed by sharks on the same boat somehow...was me standing by a cliff in the rain screaming at the sea, naked as several men in combat gear were standing over me shooting at an angel...so long, so big, it was reared up out of the sea like twenty feet below at least, it vanished. They wrapped me up but, then...so much commotion, screaming, fire, weird things running around. I ran, and I ran.

   *ugh* my head, my memories arn't clear, my head was full of voices, constantly arguing, fighting for control. It faded the further I got from the sea, until I just felt a drive, a need to go to a spot I somehow saw in my head, like a map...I know it was Joseph, my head's clearing up now, all these years. Ben...was really Joseph, somehow he made me see that town, drew me a mental map, and called me there.

  "If I can interrupt please," says one the men in suits watching the undulating wall behind her, "but do you not know how you became pregnant, when did you give birth. What about Lisa Mallery"


  ***YESSS, WHAT ABOUT MY DARLING CHILD***

   The wall spoke,  ****WHERE IS MY DARLING CHILD?****

   ***TELL USSSSS, TELLL USSSSS, WHERE AM I?****


   "It wants to take her away," whispers Laura, "Always has, I read up on mermaids, I figured it out. When I came to on the beach, a siren's call, the song, she must have learned me out, and...put her child in me, Lisa's voice was one of the voices in my head arguing."

  :Laura stands, shoving aside the chair, "Lisa doesn't want to be taken away? What was the point of even giving birth to her if YOU just wanted to take her back to the sea?!"

   ***PURPOSE, PURPOSE NO MORE, WORLD NOT SAFE, WHERE AM I? WILL NOT FEEL THIS, WILL NOT HAVE THIS,****

   The men in suits exchange a look, and one whispers to the other, "Do you think this creature knows about what happened in Nevada?"

   *YESSSSSSS!!!!*

   The whole building shakes, *FELT IT, FEEL THEM NOW, FEEL HER, FEEL ME, NEED WHOLENESS, WHERE AM I?***

   "Lisa," says Markus standing up, "Is an avatar of this creature, a parasite implanted in you, this thing gave birth to its self, this thing isn't even awake. We're talking to a piece of a sleeping mind, a dream, Lisa is also a dream. Different parts of the same dream, keep them apart, we keep the world safe from this thing waking up and passing judgement on humanity."

   Markus smiles, "and we can keep her alive, and always asleep and dreaming. We've done it before."

   ***FOOOLS! THEY COME! WHERE AM I?****

   The entire building shakes, the walls crumble as the fuzzy undulating wall pulls away revealing a massive drop off to a black ocean and a storm covered sky, ruined buildings jutting from a dark sea as obelisks with glowing green and red ruins dot the sea of crashing waves. Markus turns pale, from this sea fifty or more long white fuzzy tentacles wave about just outside, each tipped with a beaked mouth.

   "The sea angels," says one of the men in suits, "but..."

   "Part of her," says Laura glaring at them, "avatars right? angels are machines made of meat...it told me that, told me they'd carry me safely to her if they swallowed me; that...that's what happened, they...i remember now...under sea palace, giant clam shell bed, the sex, an ovipositor...I remember everything now...my god..."

   One of the tentacles leans down to the opening, opening its beaked mouth wide, from within a white torso emerges as the beak dissolves into the flesh, the humanoid upper torso of the pale mermaid, it embraces Laura.

   "Stop it!" shouts Markus as it pulls her from the building to the massive bundle of tentacles, they wrap around her like a ball, blue lights appear like a giant sigil under the waves as the tentacles decend with her and vanish, the light fades away.

   "Where are we?" asks one of the men.

   "The Dark Waters," says Markus, "Find stairs, find anything that goes up, just not a roof access."

   "What? How,"

  "Forget logic," says Markus, "that's what the report says, we have a climb ahead of us, and no weapons between the three of us, pray nothing hungry lies between here and where ever on Earth we might find ourselves."

   "Hold up," says one of the men, "You worship this thing, you had the girl transfered, you are the obvious answer as to who lead it to that woman. We're not going anywhere till we get answers."

   A loud shriek outside and what looks to be something the side of an airliner made of tentacles and wings flies past.

   "On the way," says the man, 'you can explain on the way out of here."