The Water Seer

by HMC

  Parents on the street watched me as we ran across the road. The people at the bus stop looked at me, confused. Aidah and the child were on the other side of the main highway, on their way to the beach. To the water. Aidah stopped and turned to look at me. It wasn’t Aidah’s face looking back.

  It was mine.

  I stepped out into the street and dodged several cars. There were horns and yelling, and extended fingers. I stepped around a white station wagon.

  Aidah stopped in her tracks, and her own face returned.

  ‘You will not harm the child!’ I screamed.

  Her mouth grew impossibly wide with a wicked grin. I moved closer to them. Aidah opened her mouth and the black space became even wider. Water poured out of it, and the highway under my feet filled up like a small bucket. It was up to my knees in seconds. People in cars jumped out and waded to higher ground. Parents with panic-stricken faces screamed to unbuckle their children. The smell of the ocean wasn’t so soothing now. I didn’t know what to do.

  The water was up to our necks in a matter of moments, and Aidah held the boy’s head under. Her eyes were wild, and a deep satisfaction spread over her face. The boy thrashed about. She was killing him!

  I knew I couldn’t overpower her, so I did what came to me first. I dived under and shoved the ankh pendant into the boy’s mouth. He gasped and spluttered and opened his eyes. He could breathe under water. Aidah let out a deafening screech. She let go of the boy as if he were on fire, and then flames surrounded me like I had jumped out of the pot and into the frying pan.. Smoke engulfed me, but I didn’t suffocate. My throat didn’t burn. I moved freely.

  Colours became saturated and heavy shapes merged together. I was inside Aidah’s living room. The place was falling apart as flames licked the ceiling and the roof came down around me. Aidah was screaming and came tearing into the room to stand before me.

  The screaming stopped. Her chest heaved. ‘Ojo por ojo,’ she said.

  I understood. An eye for an eye. She grabbed me by the face and pulled me down into the flames with her. I felt the heat, but I didn’t burn.

  Aidah did, though.

  Her face melted before me like wax down a multi-coloured candle, and her hands ran onto my arms. She melted onto me.

  Hamish came though the flames. I couldn’t hear his words. I understood the sadness on his face. He’d lost his mother. She’d burned to death in my arms.

  Then …

  … I was back.

  I was back on the sidewalk out the front of the school, looking over the road, and Aidah was gone. Hamish was gone. The flames were gone. And I was holding the boy from school far too tight. I pulled away. I’d left a horrible red mark.

  ‘Let him go!’ one of the onlookers shouted.

  ‘That woman was taking that boy away.’

  What? I looked down, and tears were streaming down his terrified face. He looked as if he’d wet himself at the sight of me. Oh no. What had Aidah done? What had I done?

  A woman with purple-flowered bellbottoms shouted and pointed at me. ‘Call the police. Someone grab her!’

  ‘No, I’m a teacher here. This boy was in danger.’

  ‘From who and from what?’ said Bellbottoms. She led the distraught boy away, never taking her eyes off me.

  I kept my head down, and made my way into the school gates, and straight to Anna’s office. We’d just had a pissing contest with Aidah. She’d won.

  ‘Mouse? It was Aidah, wasn’t it?’ I sat across from Anna again. I could hardly look up at her. My throat was hoarse. ‘One minute I was in the yard for recess. The next, I was over the other side of the road holding a random boy’s arm.’ The tears came in sobs. I cried so hard and so suddenly I couldn’t breathe. There were days of built up tension in my sobs. Anna was by my side in a heartbeat. ‘It’s okay. It’s okay,’ she whispered as she put her arms around me. Carla came in with tea for the both of us. When she saw my crying, she apologised and let herself out.

  ‘It was my fault. I stirred Aidah up. I shouldn’t have,’ said Anna.

  ‘We did the right thing,’ I said, wiping some tears away. I sipped my chamomile tea. ‘It is what Cat would’ve done. We needed to know if she could get to us, to the kids. Well, she can.’

  Anna nodded. She sat back down across from me and I told her about the water, how I used the ankh to save the boy, and then the fire.

  ‘Bruja del agua,’ Anna whispered.

  ‘What?’ I breathed.

  ‘Water Witch, Mouse. Aidah is a Water Witch.’ Anna shook her head. ‘So was Sacmis. I looked further into it. She was found by the Nile, bruised and battered. Remember? There are traces of her all over the place. I’ll show you.’ Anna opened her laptop. She turned it around so I could see as she scrolled down. There were several links and documents.

  ‘Please, just tell me the most important part.’ I was too exhausted to look at her evidence. I didn’t want to put faces to the suffering. I just knew it had to stop.

  ‘She’s like you in that she uses water for power, Mouse. It’s why she’s here, on the coast.’ Anna stood. ‘Bruja del agua drowns her victims. This one, in particular, uses an ankh to resurrect them. It’s why the ankh worked in your visions.’ Anna was pacing the room. ‘It was a vision by the way, honey. None of that actually happened, except that you took a little boy over the road. She made you see something that wasn’t there. The part that concerns me was that she took over your mind so easily.’

  ‘She made me see. Like Cat did for you and Mum. This is just great,’ I said. I took some tissues and blew them to smithereens.

  ‘Don’t give up now, kiddo. We’ve got this.’

  ‘I don’t feel like it. Not even a little.’

  Anna held my by the shoulders and looked into my eyes. ‘Modesta Castro, have I ever let you down before?’ she said.

  ‘No, you haven’t,’ I said. ‘There’s one thing I don’t get, though.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Why would she resurrect them?’

  Anna paused for a moment, then shook her head. ‘I dread to wonder.’

  ‘Mouse?’ Sonny’s voice woke me. A cold blue hand reached out and ran itself over my arm. It was slimy. My skin prickled where he touched it. ‘Mouse?’ he said. He shook me. His voice was low and gurgling, as if he had a mouth full of water, and when I looked at him – he did. It trickled down his chin. His skin was bloated and pieces of it dangled from his face like seaweed.

  ‘Sonny.’ I touched his hand, but it was goo. Bits of it stuck to me as I drew my trembling fingers away. His eyes were sorrowful. Tears welled in them. His small hand motioned for me to follow.

  My poor Sonny. I’m coming.

  The house was lit up with green and aqua-blue lights, like a kiddies’ disco party. I followed Sonny through the corridor, out the door and into the night. I shivered in the night air – it was so cold, even though it was supposed to be summer. Sonny kept turning back to make sure I was coming; his little legs moved faster than I would have thought possible for someone with pieces of dead flesh dropping from his swollen body with every step.

  We arrived at the beach. Sonny stopped and looked down at the water, so I did, too. There was movement in the blackness. Sonny pointed at it. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but when my eyes made it out, I didn’t want to see the ghastly scene before me anymore.

  Hundreds of people floated to the surface and emerged from the water. And just like Sonny, they were falling to pieces – eyeless, water-ravaged corpses, their bodies full of holes, silently came toward us with drooping skin.

  I don’t want to see your faces.

  Sonny looked up at me, somehow aware that I was about to run for my life. With impossible strength, he clasped my hand in an iron grip and made me stay.

  They surrounded us.

  Some of the drowned children tugged on my shirt. Black objects pierced the septums in some of their noses. Ankh. Not all of them had it. Just a few.

  One of the adul
t’s skin was sagging so badly at first, I didn’t recognise her. She opened her mouth. ‘Modesta,’ she whispered, and as she did, the small leg of a blue-ringed octopus slithered out. It was searching for me.

  ‘Mum?’ Tears streamed down the corpse’s face, and mine, too. I shook my head, ‘No, Mum!’

  My own scream woke me.

  Mum’s face loomed. She was alive, and normal. I’d fallen asleep on the couch and she was bending over me.

  ‘You okay, Modesta?’

  I reached up and kissed her. ‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘I am now. It was just a bad dream.’ I sat up on the couch and Mum slid in beside me.

  ‘They say the dream is the place where your deepest fears come true to the surface,’ she said.

  ‘I’d believe it after that dream.’

  ‘You like some tea?’ Mum said.

  I smiled. ‘Not just yet, thanks.’ Anna had sent me home ‘sick.’ I wasn’t, but I felt like I’d been hit by a truck, and that sufficed. Great impression for my first day of internship. Ms Lawson was fine with it, though, and associated it all with the shock of what happened to Megan. She was partly right. ‘Mum?’

  ‘Sí?’

  ‘Cat died in a fire,’ I said.

  ‘Yes.’ Mum nodded.

  ‘She could make you think things. Do things, like Aidah can?’

  Mum nodded again.

  ‘Are we all the same?’ I brushed some damp strands of hair from my face.

  ‘Sí, Modesta. In many ways, you are the same. There is somethings your aunty, she used to say … like is attracting like. The same is wanting to be near the same, you understand?’

  ‘Yeah. I do.’

  ‘Catalina meet with other witches, too, you knows? Is how she lost her fingers, she tell you?’

  I shook my head. ‘I asked once, but I never found out the whole story.’

  ‘A witch burned her hand.’

  I frowned. ‘She said it was water. ’

  ‘Yes.’ Mum shuffled in her seat.

  ‘I don’t understand. Agua is … safe for us. I always thought fire was the enemy – the opposite element. Aidah burned in my vision today, so I was kinda hoping it was the answer to our problems.’

  ‘Catalina wanted something that was not belong to her. She was always taking the things that were not hers.’ Mum rolled her eyes. ‘‘Specially if it had the magic. So, of course, she try to steal from a witch. The witch caught her. Luckily Catalina did not die this day. But her hands was badly burned with water. She could stop her pain, but not bring back her fingers. She never steal from a witch again, I tell you now!’ Mum elbowed me and I chuckled. ‘The water, she say was so hot, it explodes. Right on her hand. Terrible. She laugh about it later, but not so funny at the time.’

  I thought for a moment. ‘I’ve heard of this in physics,’ I said. ‘Superheating. The water doesn’t look hot, but it’s heated so fast it explodes. Something about bubbles not forming.’

  ‘Your aunty had to learn how to do it, of course. You knowing her, she always had to be the winner. To know everything. She did it, too. Catalina made water explode in the kitchen sink. I never saw anything like it. Almost killed me two times.’ Mum put two fingers up to emphasise the number of impending deaths.

  ‘You’re joking, I hope. But this is genius, you realise? This superheated water was able to hurt Cat, so it could hurt Aidah as well. All I have to do is figure out how the hell she did it,’ I said.

  ‘Watching your language or I be getting soap.’ Mum patted my knee. ‘Well, I am not sure how to explode the water, but I can boil the kettle for tea. You sure you okay?’

  I smiled at her – my sweet, sweet mother. ‘I’m better now,’ I said.

  Just don’t go near the water, Mum. There’s an octopus waiting for you. Would everything haunt me now? Octopi, tongues, green pants, and frilly dresses. ‘Peppermint tea for me, please.’

  I made my way to the bathroom and splashed some water over my face. Then I filled the sink and stared down at it, concentrating with everything I had. I stood back, just in case it worked. I tried this superheating trick for over half an hour, but the water didn’t even hit luke-warm. ‘How, Cat? How do I do this?’

  I wanted to talk to Anna, but she would still be at work for the next couple of hours. She’d given me a little hope when she’d dropped me off out front in her Fiesta. ‘Try to remember that each time you’ve found yourself in trouble, Mouse, you’ve known exactly what to do. That’s not just good luck, kiddo. You’ve got powers beyond belief on your side,’ she’d said. ‘I’m not worried. We’re gonna be all right.’

  I had hugged her. ‘That’s what I said to you last night.’

  ‘You did,’ Anna had said. ‘And you were right. We’re gonna figure this out. Everything we need to know will come to us.’

  ‘Everything we need to know will come to us,’ I had repeated to her. I stood up, returned to my water in the sink, and I repeated it now in the mirror. ‘Everything I need to know will come to me.’ I looked down at the sink. ‘Come on, water, boil, you bastard!’

  Nothing.

  I noticed a bag sticking out from under one of the clean towels. It was the mugwort, cinnamon, and star anise Anna had given me the other night. I’d dreamed of Hamish before I’d met him. It had given me answers, then. It was worth another look. I grabbed the bag and ran a bath. ‘Mum,’ I called. ‘I’m going back under.’ It wasn’t long before I was out.

  The phone rang, and I answered it before the second ring. Without even a ‘hello,’ Trent cried, ‘Mouse, Sonny’s gone!’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I can’t find him!’ Trent shouted.

  ‘Oh, no.’ Please no. I rubbed my eyes. ‘I’m going over there.’

  ‘Going where?’

  I hung up.

  I pulled on my pants. I held onto my ankh. And I ran.

  I was standing before the Armstrong house. Weeds wound their way up to the roof. Cream paint peeled like filo dough. The weatherboard was falling off in chunks. I’m not sure anyone else could see the house the way I saw it, if the way it looked was real to anyone but me. It was falling apart. Surely no one else could smell the miasma of stench that overlaid it like ground fog, or the police would’ve been called to check for dead bodies.

  Aidah was at the window. She looked worse than ever – skeletal – like she’d been starving for months. She was the spiritual embodiment of every childhood nightmare, the thing crouching in the closet, the bogeyman hiding beneath the bed.

  ‘Let me in,’ I called. ‘I know you have him, you cow.’ I jumped the fence in my usual spot and thumped on the front door. Fear and adrenaline kicked my heart into overdrive and made my blood pump so loudly, I could hardly hear myself. ‘Give him back. You can’t have him!’

  I shook the handle and it broke off in my hand.

  I moved back to the window. Aidah smiled with black teeth, and the hideous smell from the decay was stronger, even though the panes of glass. She curled her mouth into an ‘O’ shape and sucked in a huge breath.

  Then the screaming started.

  The screaming of a child.

  Sonny!

  I smashed the broken door handle against the window, but it bounced off.

  I cast about for something heavier and when I looked up again, crimson mist filled the air around Aidah, before she began to change. Her face filled out, her hair softened, and the lines around her eyes disappeared.

  The house changed, too.

  It repaired itself. The weeds shrank away.

  And still, the screaming. Sonny’s screams.

  I spied a good-sized rock, snatched it up, and hammered away at the window. It finally cracked. Aidah, who had clearly cast a strengthening spell on the glass, stood unwavering. Still inhaling, and still growing younger.

  Sonny, sobbing, screamed, ‘Mummy, help me!’

  ‘Don’t worry, baby, Mouse is coming,’ I cried. I punched a hole in the glass at last. Aidah stopped her mouth hoovering, and that’s when the sc
reams suddenly stopped.

  I was too late.

  The rock fell from my hand.

  The new Aidah gazed at me through the hole in the window and smiled.

  The rock was too slow. I gathered my strength and rammed the window with my shoulder. The whole thing shattered and Aidah laughed. She pulled me through it, needle-sharp glass shards raking my body and cutting my stomach and legs.

  Her fingers clenched my wrist and burned it like five drops of acid where they dug in. Her slimy wet tongue dug into my ear and filled my head with a horrible sucking sound. It felt like she was syphoning out my soul – feeding on me without biting down—like she’d just done to my Sonny.

  I grabbed my ankh. I searched for words to stop her, but nothing came. It was as if she’d drained away my thoughts and rendered me as pliable as a sparrow.

  This time I’d die.

  I pulled at my ear where her tongue stabbed in and out, and screamed and thrashed.

  The energy was leaving my body, my life force was disappearing. I knew then and there, this was how she lived forever. She’d draw out my soul, and then she’d store me like an old dress in a closet for a while, then revive me, and do it all over again. An eternity of inescapable torture. I’d be one of her dead coterie. One more who walked from the water, haggard and sopping wet, with octopus arms flailing from my mouth.

  Like Sonny.

  Like Mum would be if I didn’t stop this now.

  And I knew I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. The strength and the will to do it were nearly gone.

  ‘Get off her!’ Hamish screamed.

  Maybe I wouldn’t die today, after all.

  ‘Mum. STOP IT. PLEASE!’

  Aidah relented. I took a breath.

  My vision lit a fire within me. Mum had gone to work, and Anna was still at school with Sonny. I thought of calling Trent, but he would be at his internship. I had to take matters into my own hands.

  I put on my shoes, locked the house, and made my way to Christine Avenue. I didn’t stop for a second. I was out of breath when I jumped straight over the fence, this time landing on my feet, and I made my way around the side of the Armstrong house to what I was pretty sure was Hamish’s window. There were security screens over it. At least if Aidah came to the window, I’d have a little time to high-tail it out of there before she could get to me. I knocked on the screen.