The Moon, chapter 29: Calm

Calming down proved to be quite the obstacle. Every inhale Susie took felt strained and every exhale left her breathless. This was really happening. The boat rocked slightly as she leaned over the side in fear of bile rising from her stomach. Her tired, nauseated reflection stared back at her, as did the murky shallows of the water below. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of souls rested here. Though, perhaps “rested” wasn't the right word to use. There was no way someone would find solace in this place, burnt to ash and labeled as a mistake. No one deserved this fate.
“...Susie? Are you okay?”

No response. The question wasn't repeated. Instead, after a couple minutes, the boat pulled up  to the shore of an ash island. Susie averted her eyes from the waters for a moment and saw that Napstablook and Suze hopped out, bringing a stake with a rope tied to it that led to the back of the boat. Using a hammer Suze brought onto shore, she hammered the stake into the ground. The island itself held a half destroyed brick building on it's surface, and looked to be one half of a larger structure. It's left side was lacking a wall, and it's right held nothing but a door and a couple windows. There was a rectangular sign above the door that Susie suspected at one point told viewers the name of the building. Now, it's blank, wind-worn face told nothing. Besides this small group, however it had no one to tell anymore. It's purpose was complete.

Besides the building, there was little of note on the island besides a few ashen hands reaching out of the heap. This, however, was a trait nearly all of the surrounding islands had. Napstablook took one of the hands into his own, and attempted to pull whatever it was attached to out of the ground. Instead, the hand simply turned to dust at his touch, crumbling into smaller and smaller pieces until it was indistinguishable from the rest of the ash that surrounded it. Susie decided that was a good time to look back to the water. Suze called out, and almost said something about how she should come onto the shore too, but Napstablook quickly shushed her. He probably understood what Susie had to process. It was... unnatural. The way Suze smiled. Anyone would be overcome by sorrow in a place like this, but was Suze, a perpetually young soul, really this desensitized already? So used to the death that surrounded her? How would you even begin to let that not affect you? It made Susie sick to her stomach.

Susie knew she would have to get used to it too, if she was to stay here. Hopefully she wouldn't for any large amount of time, but if it had to be that way, so be it. She could get used to it, right? She looked from the water and up to the cube, to where she saw the figure drop. She was a bit closer now, and could see the ripped elevator cables dangling from the hole in the cube in more detail. She remembers the figure that dropped from the elevator shaft, and suddenly feels just a little less safe. The possibilities filled her both with fear and intense curiosity. Susie turned toward the pair on the island and yelled to them.
“So when are we heading over to the cube?”
“Probably pretty soon, not finding much here.” Napstablook replied.

Susie took a deep breath. She hoped that perhaps this would go by faster than she thought it would. She turned back toward the water and froze stiff, daring not to move a muscle. There, floating on the water's surface was the top half of a human head. It's sickly wet, bald head reflected off the water, as did it's gray, lifeless eyes. The face seemed to be completely lacking a nose. Not as if one was removed, but as if it never had one in the first place. It's mouth was affixed in a blank, emotionless expression. As for if the human was living or dead, Susie had no idea. But she was just as shocked to see it either way. She yelled back to the group, but didn't turn her body away from the head.
“Guys... There's a body or something here, come take a loo-”

Suze's scream resounded through the air, and Susie barely had time to react as a gigantic, twisted hand shot from the water beside the head. It's palm impacted the boat just after Susie jumped from it, the boat shattering to splinters as she fell upon the island's shore. Her back stung a bit from the fall, but she didn't think much of it. She crawled back a bit before stumbling to her feet. The head, as well as the hand, stayed still despite everything. The hand, and the arm it was attached to, was incredibly large, and almost bulbous as muscles struggled to stay beneath it's sickly wet, pinkish skin. The arm was grotesquely twisted in many areas, and was long enough to lead back towards the head, and underneath the water. Perhaps the most disgusting part of the limb was it's fingers. They had some semblance of fingernails left, but were horribly disfigured and pulled back, revealing a dark red, infected looking layer of skin beneath where the nail should stay snug to the skin. The tip of each finger was covered, or otherwise stained in a dark red substance akin to blood.

Soon, another arm shot from the other side of the water near the head, and slammed down onto the shore. This arm, however, had something else attached to it besides a hand. A large, curved blade that resembled a fish hook, and was almost the size of Susie herself, was haphazardly attached to the end of the arm with a mixture of rope and barbed wire. This time, Susie was sure that the red stains on the blade was that of blood. What she wasn't sure of, however, was it's origin. It could have been from the terrible way it was attached to the arm, or from one of this creature's victims. Napstablook and Suze joined Susie on either side, and looked on with as equal a mix of fear and disgust as her. Then, in unison, they began to back away.

“What the hell is that?!” Susie blurted out.
“I-I don't know, I've n-never seen it before.” Napstablook responded shakily.

Just as Napstablook finished his statement, the creature began to use it's arms to slowly drag itself towards them. The head finally moved, as more and more of it's abhorrent body was exposed to the air. Besides it's arms, from the chest upward it's body was that of a normal, human's. Below, however, was a giant tangled mess of pale organs that had long since served their purpose, and merely acted as dead weight behind the abomination. The organs tapered off into what almost looked to be a tail, making it's lower body almost snakelike in appearance. The head, however, kept it's blank expression. It didn't even seem like it was taking pleasure from stalking it's prey. It simply moved towards them nonchalantly and near-lifelessly. Defeating this thing would be incredibly difficult, and Susie wasn't even sure where to begin. But she hoped that, if nothing else, Napstablook and Suze would be able to help somehow.

Though, depending on how ferocious this creature would end up being, maybe hope wasn't enough this time.