The Deep 2015.06.23

by Michaelbrent Collings

  Tim looked at Haeberle, his eyes telling of his fear, asking, "Do you think everyone's okay?"

  Haeberle grinned. Tim would probably take that as encouragement – the guy was dumber than most of the creations in Haeberle's world – but it was really just security. Of course the people would be all right.

  If they were dead, who would there be to play with?

  Her. She would still be there. Waiting.

  The dream of/in dream intruded. Hands beckoning, beauty waiting.

  Haeberle felt himself grow aroused.

  His smile grew wider.

  Tim pulled him up. Drawing him close as he kicked his way around the side of the capsized boat.

  There would be plenty of people left. Of course there would.

  He surfaced a moment after Tim. His stupid creation had already spit his regulator out, and now Tim shouted, "Hey!"

  A face appeared over the top of the boat – what had been the hull until just recently.

  Sue. A pretty piece of meat, a toy just waiting for Haeberle's pleasure.

  He saw Tim's face and almost laughed. What kind of fool would think she was interested in him when Haeberle was around?

  Still, there was no mistaking the relief in Tim's voice when he said, "Thank God, you're alive."

  For a moment Haeberle imagined – it must have been imagination – that Sue was actually glad to see Tim.

  No. Just me. Just waiting for my touch.

  Well, you'll have to wait, little girl, little ripe peach. Someone else –

  (hands reaching, body ready, mine just mine just MINE)

  – will receive my ministrations first.

  But your time will come. It will come.

  Cal's face poked into view as well. Then Raven.

  Prick. Can't wait to kill you. Right in front of the treasure you hoped to have, I'll slit your throat and then maybe take my time… enjoying the corpse.

  All of them – Sue, Cal, and Raven – sported bruises and bumps and cuts. Lucky –

  (Blessed. By me.)

  – to be alive, but it was clear they hadn't come through the pounding of The Celeste unscathed.

  He thought Sue's abrasions made her, if possible, even more lovely.

  So ripe, so ready. You'll have to wait.

  But soon.

  Sue reached a hand toward them. So did Cal. Tim pushed Haeberle toward the older man, then let Sue help him out of the water.

  Getting Haeberle out was harder. He could have helped a bit, he supposed, but it was fun watching Cal grunt and turn beet red as he struggled with the bigger man's mass.

  He smiled.

  This will be… so. Much. Fun.

  EYES

  ~^~^~^~^~

  Cal barely managed to pull Haeberle out of the drink.

  And when he saw the man's eyes, even through the droplet-coated mask he still wore, he nearly dropped him in and let him sink.

  Only an innate sense of right and wrong kept him from doing it. That and the fact that Tim would undoubtedly just dive in after the guy, gaining nothing.

  So, yeah, if Tim hadn't been here, Cal would have dropped him in the drink.

  Because of Haeberle's eyes. They were pinned on Sue, watching her every movement. And the look wasn't just ugly – it was so evil, so wicked, that Cal in that moment absolutely knew the man wanted something dire for his daughter. Something as deep and powerful and utterly dark as the sea far below them.

  He wouldn't let that happen. He couldn't lose another daughter.

  She was all he had left.

  RAFT

  ~^~^~^~^~

  Sue got Tim up to the hull of the boat. Knowing what he was seeing: her, her father, Mr. Raven. Mercedes, still unconscious and shuddering as whatever strange thing inside her wove its way through her internal organs. All in shock, all looking as wet and bedraggled as they could be.

  Movement as Mercedes shivered. Sue had marveled that her father managed to get the dead weight out of the cabin before it flooded. Marveled, and admired.

  But there was also a small portion – so tiny she could almost deny its existence – that wished he hadn't.

  Mercedes scared her. Whatever had happened to her, whatever made those thin black filaments dance below her skin… was it as bad as capsizing? Was it worse?

  But that was a ridiculous question. It was the capsizing. Whatever was doing this to Mercedes was the reason they had gone down in the first place, the reason the seabed had changed… it was everything. All of it tied together in a gruesome bow, covering a present that she feared would end them.

  "Why aren't you all in the life raft?" asked Tim after he had shed his gear.

  Mr. Raven answered, his voice heavy with sarcasm. "Because we all got hit with idiot sticks." He waved at the ocean, as if to say it wasn't his fault they were here, so nothing else could be his fault, either. "We've been a bit busy here. And none of us have scuba gear on, so we couldn't dive without risking getting trapped."

  Sue looked askance at Tim. He sighed. "The life raft is stowed in the storage room. Not the place I would have picked," he added, with a meaningful glance at Mr. Raven. "But no matter where it was, it's likely that no one could have gotten to it, I guess. It was made for circumstances other than sudden capsizing."

  Mr. Raven smirked, then turned to a rope he had managed to snare off the side of the boat. He had tied it to the propeller and tossed it over, and now drew it up. There were a series of knots in it. He looked at them.

  "I was right," he said. "We're definitely sinking."

  "Can someone goddam untie me?" said Haeberle suddenly. But the angry words weren't matched by his tone, which was strange and dreamy. He sounded stoned.

  "Why's he tied up?" said Sue's father.

  Tim shrugged. "He didn't want to come back up." He turned to Haeberle. "Why didn't you want to come up?"

  In that same strange voice, Haeberle said, "I don't know why this asshole tied me up in the first place." He looked at Tim, his eyes hooded by half-shut lids. "Didn't you see her?" he asked.

  "Her?" Tim looked baffled. "Her who?"

  "The woman." The dreamy look on Haeberle's face somehow managed to intensify. It gave Sue the creeps. "The same one I saw last time I went down. But this time she was naked, man. Waiting. Real dish, real ripe peach. She was between the boats. Calling me. Calling…." His voice wafted away on the gentle breeze that blew over the sea. "She wanted me," he said suddenly. "I could tell." He turned his head toward Mercedes, who still shivered, arms still wet and sticky beneath their shed skin. "I can always tell when they want me."

  Sue felt dirty in a way she had never felt before. Not even if Haeberle had looked at her that way, not even then could she have managed the sick feeling that swept through her. She suspected – knew – that it didn't matter to him that Mercedes was unconscious and grossly maimed.

  He would enjoy whatever he was thinking of doing all the more.

  A wave hit the boat. Not the gentle, slapping waves that were normal –

  (Yeah, but normal took a time-out some time ago, Sue.)

  – but a rolling surge that sent everyone lurching across the hull of the boat.

  Mercedes started to slide toward the water. Sue didn't think, just jumped. A leap that carried her forward and down like she was the world's biggest penguin slipping across the ice.

  She caught Mercedes' leg. Wondering if the skin would pull off in her hands. If the woman would shred to pieces below her palms.

  She didn't. Her flesh held.

  A moment later, Sue's father was there as well. Grabbing Mercedes' other leg, pulling as hard as he could, hauling her up to the boat's keel again.

  She saw Mr. Raven as they both pulled. He didn't move to help them, just watched it all with an expression of severest distaste, his every muscle saying "Why me?" loud and clear.

  "Well," he said, "we can't stay here." He turned to Tim, who was sitting quietly, still burdened by the many pounds of gear he had taken with him after Haeberle. "Yo
u're going to have to go under and get the emergency life raft."

  Tim sighed. But he didn't even appear to think about it. Just nodded.

  "It's probably a two-person job. I'll need help," said Tim.

  "Well, obviously I'm not going," said Mr. Raven. "So that leaves –"

  "I'll go," said Sue's father. She looked at him sharply. She hadn't expected that. When they had left on this trip he had made it extremely clear that he had no intention of diving with her; that he considered it a waste of time. But he was stepping up now. And not just that, but…. "And you stay," he said to Tim. "I'll take Haeberle."

  Tim's jaw all but fell right out of his head. Sue knew what he was feeling. Who would volunteer for a job with that guy? He was obviously unhinged, giving her a more serious case of the willies every time she talked to him.

  "I don't think that's a good –" Tim said. But Sue's father cut him off.

  "Listen. We need the emergency raft. We need two people to get it. I'm not about to let my daughter go down there and get it –"

  That riled her a bit. She knew he was coming from a good place, but still. "Please, I –"

  He ignored her. Steamrolled her speech. "– and I'm not about to let this scumbag stay up here with her, either," he said, with a cursory gesture at Haeberle. The nutball just grinned at him. "So that means he goes down, and so do I. You look out for everyone up here," he said, and looked hard at Tim. Sue knew what her father was really saying to him: Look out for my daughter.

  For a moment, she felt like things might be all right between her and her father. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But he wasn't bad. He worried about her, he had helped her come here even though he never believed in the trip. He had even come with her, for crying out loud.

  Tim wasn't giving up. "I can go with him. I –"

  Sue's father would have none of it. "You need to off-gas and rest. You're so tired you can barely move."

  Tim appeared to think about this. Then he nodded. Started stripping off his gear. "There's enough air in the tank for another ten minutes or so," he said.

  Sue's father nodded. "That should be fine. Just tell me where to go."

  "Galley storage."

  Sue saw surprise flit across her father's face. Tim shrugged. "Yeah."

  He glanced meaningfully at Mr. Raven, who glared. Sue wondered what kind of cost-cutting could have motivated him to put it down there. It probably meant he could fit another paying fare onboard or something. She resolved to punch the man in the nose if and when they got out of this.

  "Well, it is what it is," said Sue's father. "Will the life raft hold us all?"

  This time Tim glanced at Mr. Raven. "Sure. It should."

  And Sue knew Tim was lying. Lying, and planning to be the one who would n't stay in it. Because Mr. Raven had cheaped out on buying a raft big enough for everyone.

  She also noticed Haeberle. He grew suddenly alert, suddenly tense.

  He knows, too. Knows, and intends to be in the raft when it's ready to go.

  No matter what.

  The boat chose that moment to shift. Sue already had a grip on Mercedes, but even so the dead weight of the woman nearly dragged her off the side.

  "Better than this thing, at least," said Tim.

  Sue's father moved to Tim. Began helping him shed his gear.

  "Dad?" she said.

  Her dad started. She wondered why. Then realized: she hadn't called him that – hadn't called him "Dad" – in years.

  And she suddenly realized that it wasn't he who had stolen their relationship. That it wasn't he who had ripped them apart. He had always been there, ready to help at a moment's notice.

  It was her. All her.

  "Be careful," she said.

  And he beamed. So happy for that simple, basic, human expression of concern.

  She felt shame burn within her. Painful but also cleansing. Like with this moment bridging the gap between them they might be able to build a relationship again.

  Her dad winked. Warmth flowed into her. Her dad was going to save them.

  Then she looked at Haeberle. Saw his grin, that wolf-grin, shark-grin. The look of a creature about to feed.

  The good feelings drained from her. Fear replaced them. Not just for herself, but for Tim and her dad and everyone in the man's range.

  He was, she realized belatedly, not… right. Everyone else was terrified, total fear lurking just below calm surfaces. And what lurked below the smiling surface of Haeberle's expression?

  She didn't know.

  She feared knowing.

  BETRAYAL

  ~^~^~^~^~

  Things were getting fun.

  The woman under the water had been a promise. A pledge of future pleasures, and a reassurance that no matter what happened, this universe would bend itself to Haeberle's will. The laws of physics were nothing next to the desires of a God.

  He had no doubt that he could survive without the raft. But why should he? When there was a pleasant way to float along and wait for the Navy vessel? They knew he was a criminal, it was true, but he had no doubt that life would present a way for him to sidestep incarceration, just as it had when the first Haeberle presented himself.

  Besides, the raft would present the perfect opportunity to spend some quality time with Sue and Mercedes. Yes, that meant that Tim and Cal and Mr. Raven would have to die, but there really hadn't been much chance of their making it through all this. They were weak, they were boring, and above all they were his to play with.

  Just as Sue and Mercedes were his. Sue especially. Mercedes seemed a bit… broken. Maybe he'd just dump her over the side of the raft and watch her sink. That would be almost as fun as using her up.

  Yeah. He'd do that.

  But first things first. Get the raft. And if it was light enough, he figured there was no reason that Cal had to come back up with him. He still had the knife he'd tried to use on Tim down below. It would work on Cal just fine.

  They swam under the boat. The water below had shifted into an obstacle course of tangled lines, clotted masses of debris.

  Cal looked at Haeberle. Haeberle gestured: "After you."

  Cal shook his head, looking a bit exasperated, which made no sense to Haeberle because after all, he'd only been polite.

  He decided to cut the other man somewhere painful. Maybe the stomach.

  Cal swam carefully to the salon door. It looked strange, hanging above the wheelhouse instead of situated below as it always had been. Vertigo gripped Haeberle. Surprising because he hadn't known he could be affected by something like that.

  Tangled lines draped across the open doorway to the salon. Cal drew a knife from a sheath on his thigh – must have gotten it from Tim when they shifted gear – and began slashing away at the spider web in front of them.

  Haeberle joined in. He saw Cal look at his knife. Saw the other man's worry.

  He had to keep himself from laughing around his regulator.

  When the way was more or less clear, the two men swam into the salon. Again, Haeberle was struck by a sense of wrongness, a weightlessness that he imagined must be similar to an outer space adventure. A deck of playing cards had exploded and hung in "midair." His Playboy flapped gently in unseen currents. He kind of wanted to look at it, kind of wondered if it would be as sexy underwater as it was dry.

  But Cal was already moving. Kicking his way to the stairs that led "up" to the space belowdecks. Pulling himself along the stairs.

  Haeberle followed. Still holding his knife.

  Into the galley storage.

  It was a wreck. Food, boxes, cans. Some of the boxes and cans had ruptured, creating strange clouds of gunk in the water. Haeberle looked through it all, peering about for the raft while Cal did the same.

  He suddenly realized that Jimmy J's body wasn't here. Wondered where it was.

  And then knew. It was below. With her. How it had gotten there, he wasn't sure. But things were strange, and delicious in a way he'd never known. And he was sure t
hat after he killed Cal in here and the others above, he'd find out the answers to everything.

  So. Much. Fun.

  Cal suddenly kicked up toward the floor of the galley storage. Haeberle followed, and both broke into an air bubble trapped there.

  Stuck in one of the metal racks was a yellow bundle with the letters "EMRGCY RFT" stenciled in red on its side. Cal grabbed it and started pulling it toward him.

  Haeberle spit out his regulator. "How heavy is it?"

  Cal spit out his, too. "Not too heavy. Mostly awkward. Here, grab this –"

  Then he froze. And Haeberle knew he saw his doom. Cal turned to him. Leaving the raft behind. "This raft is probably on the small side," he said. His voice quivered. "I've seen the way you look at Sue. The way you act around her."

  And Haeberle felt something pinch him. He looked down.

  Red clouded the water around him. He looked up at Cal. The older man continued. "I know you were planning on getting her alone, one way or another."

  Cal moved, and the knife embedded in Haeberle's gut dragged its way up to his breastbone. The water was suddenly alive with writhing eels.

  Not eels. My guts. My guts....

  He felt himself start to drift. Not in the water, but in the world. Felt the universe start to bleach of color. "It wasn't," he murmured. "Wasn't… wasn't supposed to…."

  "You're not touching her," said Cal. He twisted the knife. Fire erupted in Haeberle's center. "Or anyone else."

  Cal pulled the knife free.

  This can't happen.

  "You'll all die," said Haeberle. "If you kill me, this all ends. You'll all –"

  Cal buried the knife in Haeberle's neck, cutting off the words. But the thoughts continued.

  They'll all die if I do. Doesn't he know that? Can't he see that? Can't he… see…?

  He saw Cal yank the knife free. Saw the other man cut himself, a thin gash on his cheek.

  Then saw nothing.

  Don't they know? Don't…?

  Then he was gone.

  DESPAIR

  ~^~^~^~^~

  They watched the water where Cal and Haeberle had disappeared, and Raven wondered why the universe hated him so much. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. Wasn't he nice to people? Didn't he pay taxes every year? And here God was being such an absolute prick in return.