The Conqueror Worms

by Brian Keene

  Nate sidled up beside me. He’d been quiet until now, keeping his distance and eavesdropping on us.

  “You believe that shit?” he asked. “The old man has clearly lost his mind. Don’t tell me you buy into that fish story?”

  I shrugged. I didn’t care much for Nate. He was pompous and arrogant, and even after all this time, still carried himself as if he were better than most of us. Somehow, the fact that his fully tricked-out Audi, brand new condo, and enormous expense account were gone hadn’t fully settled on him yet.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Probably not, but then again, I never believed the story of Noah, either, and now look around us.”

  His laughter was sharp and brittle.

  “I’m guessing you don’t believe him?” I asked.

  “Of course not,” he said. “For Christ’s sake, Kevin! A giant tentacle with mouths for suckers? The rain is one thing, but that? It’s crazy.” He shook his head.

  “Stranger things have happened, man. And you heard what Lee said yesterday. There are such things as giant squid. This could be some sort of genetic mutation or something.”

  “Maybe. But it’s more likely that old man is just nuts. Alzheimer’s, I’m guessing. And if he is, then what’s to stop him from hurting himself—or one of us? Are you willing to take that chance? What if he snaps and goes after one of the kids?”

  “Oh, come on!” Anger welled up inside of me. “Senility doesn’t make somebody fucking homicidal.”

  “He’s talking crazy, Kevin!” He snorted, clearing his sinuses, and then spit out over the roof. We watched the falling wad of phlegm as it dropped toward the water below.

  “So,” he said, changing the subject, “let’s get back to you and Lori. Tell me this—is she any good in the sack?”

  “What the fuck? Does everybody need to know every minute detail between the two of us? Are you people that starved for gossip?”

  “Chill out. I was just wondering, man.”

  “It’s none of your fucking business, dude.”

  “She’s a cute one,” he continued, as if he hadn’t heard me. “Like I said, I was going to make a play for her myself, but—”

  Suddenly, Nate cocked his head sideways and jumped as if startled. He dropped the fishing rod and picked up the rifle. “Did you see that?”

  He stared out at the water, craning his head back and forth. The tide tugged on his fishing line.

  “What was it?” I asked.

  “Nothing.” He sounded embarrassed.

  “Dude, what the hell did you see?”

  “It’s nothing! I thought for a second that I saw a woman out there. It—it sounded like she was singing.”

  It actually wasn’t that farfetched. There could have been somebody out there. Another castaway, stranded when her vessel overturned or her dry patch got flooded out. I scanned the ocean but saw nothing. Even the dolphins and the seagulls had mysteriously disappeared.

  “A singing woman? You sure she wasn’t shouting for help instead?”

  “No,” His eyes seemed troubled, his voice barely a whisper. “She was singing, man. I’m sure of it. It was—beautiful. Very soft…”

  “Well, she’s not there now.”

  He didn’t seem to hear me. “She was naked. She had long blond hair, like Sarah’s, and a huge pair of…” He held his cupped hands out in front of his chest, then stopped.

  “A naked, singing blonde with big tits.” I giggled, unable to help myself. “Was it midnight on the water? Did you see the ocean’s daughter?”

  He stared at me, uncomprehending.

  “ELO, man! Electric Light Orchestra? Didn’t you ever hear that oldie, ’Can’t Get It Out of My Head’? Midnight on the water. I saw the ocean’s daughter?” I sang a few more lines, but he turned back to the ocean.

  “Fuck you, Kevin.” He put down the rifle and picked up his fishing rod, reeled in the line, and walked farther along the rooftop.

  “Hey,” I called after him. “Now you’re the one that’s talking crazy!”

  “I know what I saw,” he said over his shoulder. “So knock your shit off.”

  He stalked to the other side and cast the line out again. His shoulders were tense, his jaw clenched.

  I stared back out at the water again, but all I saw were the raindrops coming down and the waves rising up to greet them.

  I went back inside and looked for Lori, but she was busy doing laundry with Lashawn and Sarah, and I didn’t want to intrude on them. Even now, I still wasn’t sure how to act around her—especially since it appeared that everybody knew about us. I wondered if Sarah and Lashawn were giving her a hard time, the way the guys had given me.

  Later in the day, Mike, Juan, and I went down to the lower levels, searching for materials to build another boat. The lower levels always gave me the creeps. If you stood still, you could feel the ocean pressing against the sides of the building. It was eerily quiet. The only good thing about the stillness was that since we were below the surface, the constant sound of the rain was noticeably absent.

  We’d found a round, wooden coffee table that looked promising, and Mike and I were lifting it when he suddenly stopped.

  “Too heavy?” I asked.

  He didn’t reply.

  “Mike?”

  He sat his end of the table down. “Did you guys hear something?”

  Juan shrugged. “Not me. Why, what did you hear?”

  “Voices,” Mike whispered. “Or a voice.”

  “Down here?” I asked, sitting my end down as well.

  “I’m not sure.”

  All three of us listened, but heard nothing.

  We picked the table back up, struggling to move it. Damn thing was heavy. Mike started humming “Riders On The Storm” by The Doors.

  Juan opened his mouth to speak and then froze.

  Somebody else was singing, too.

  The voice was beautiful. Melodious and faint and definitely female, that much was certain. I couldn’t understand the words, but I felt them. As I listened, my grief for Jimmy disappeared, along with everything else. I forgot about Lori and the rain and our predicament. The voice made me feel good. Alive. It had a calming, hypnotic effect. I wanted to get closer, so I could understand what was being said. Mesmerized, I shuffled forward.

  “What the fuck is that?” Juan whispered.

  “One of the girls,” Mike guessed, “playing a joke on us? Sarah, maybe?”

  I shook my head. “That’s not Sarah. Whatever it is, it’s coming from the other side of that wall.”

  “What’s on the other side?” Mike asked.

  Juan and I looked at each other.

  “The ocean,” I said.

  “Bullshit.” Mike shook his head.

  “He’s right,” Juan insisted. “Think about it. We’re at least fifteen feet below the surface right now.”

  The singing grew louder.

  “So then what the fuck is that?”

  “Somebody’s in the water!” Mike shouted. “It’s a chick’s voice. There’s a woman out there.”

  “A castaway?” Juan asked. “How’s she singing underwater?”

  Mike stepped around the table. “I don’t fucking know, man! But you heard her, too.”

  “Maybe we’d better go see,” I suggested.

  “Good idea,” Juan agreed.

  I remembered what Nate thought he’d seen—a naked blond woman, singing in the water. I started to tell Juan, but he was already running for the stairs. Mike and I dashed after him.

  The others came out when they heard us thundering up the stairwell and we told them what was going on. They all followed us up to the roof. We ran through the door and into the rain. We startled Salty and he almost dropped his fishing rod.

  Nate whirled around, his rifle at the ready. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”

  “Have you seen anything?” Juan asked.

  “It’s been raining,” Salty chuckled. “Oh, and some birds flew overhead, looking for Alka-Seltz
er. But other than that, no.”

  “What’s going on?” Nate asked again.

  Juan and Mike ran to the edge of the roof and looked out over the water.

  Salty frowned. “What are you lads doing?”

  “We were down below,” Juan said, “and we heard a woman. Sounded like she was outside, in the water.” He turned back to the group. “Were any of you down on the lower levels?”

  They shook their heads.

  “I knew it!” Nate stomped his feet. “I told you I saw something out there, Kevin!”

  Juan glanced at me. “What the hell’s he talking about?”

  “Earlier today,” Nate told him, “when Kevin was out here, I thought I saw a woman in the water. She was singing. And she was nude.”

  “Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Lee scoffed. “First Salty with his mother of all squids and now this?”

  Nate’s ears turned red. “Listen asshole, I know what I saw!”

  Lee refused to back down. “Be rational, man. Even if there were somebody out there, how long would she last? Do you have any idea how cold that water is or how rough those seas are?”

  “You calling me a liar?” Nate stepped towards him, his fists clenched.

  “Back off, man,” Lee warned him.

  “Or what?”

  “Keep it up and you’ll find out.”

  Juan stepped between them. “That’s enough, both of you. I don’t know what’s going on, but I want the watch doubled. Taz and Ducky, you guys relieve Salty and Nate. Sarah, I want you and Lashawn out here with them.”

  Little Malik stepped forward, clutching Anna’s hand. “It’s the fish lady.”

  “What?” Juan asked.

  “The fish lady,” the boy repeated. “I see her sometimes at night when I sleep. She sings to me.”

  “Me too,” James echoed. “She makes me miss my mommy. She used to sing to me at night, too.”

  Juan took a deep breath. “Okay. Taz, Ducky, Lashawn, and Sarah, you guys are on watch. Everybody else, head down to the common area. We need to talk about this in detail.”

  “Yo,” Taz called, “what do we do if we see this naked bitch?”

  “I know what I’m gonna do.” Ducky grinned, rubbing his crotch. “I’m gonna get me some pussy.”

  “Great,” Sarah muttered under her breath. “Juan, why did you stick me with these assholes?”

  “Hey!” Taz protested.

  “Because Christian and Louis aren’t back yet,” Juan told her. “If they don’t get back soon, I’ll send Kevin or Mike up.”

  Dripping, we followed him downstairs, shrugged out of our rain gear, and took our seats.

  “Okay,” Juan said, shaking the water from his hair, “anybody else hear or see this mysterious woman?”

  Nobody spoke.

  “All right. Nate, give me a rehash. Tell us exactly what you saw.”

  “Kevin and I were out on the roof, talking about what Salty said last night, and I heard somebody singing. When I glanced out at the ocean, just for a second, I saw a woman.”

  He paused, lost in thought, and then continued.

  “She was beautiful. She had long, blond hair, and even though she was far away, I could see her eyes very clearly. It was weird. Felt like her eyes were looking right through me.”

  “And she was singing?” Juan asked.

  “She was singing. Then she vanished beneath the waves.”

  “And that’s all?”

  “That’s it.” Nate glanced at Lee, but Lee didn’t challenge him this time.

  “Kevin,” Juan said, turning to me, “did you see this woman, too?”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t see anything. To be honest, I thought Nate was full of shit. Now, I’m not so sure.”

  “Apology accepted,” Nate grumbled.

  Juan knelt down and looked at the kids.

  “James. Malik. What did you guys mean up on the roof, when you said you’d heard a lady singing to you?”

  They stared at the floor and shuffled their feet nervously.

  “Go on, boys,” Anna urged, “it’s okay. Tell us.”

  “The fish lady,” Malik began, not looking up. “I dream about her every night. She sings outside my window, and tells me to jump in the water. I…I tried, but I’m not strong enough to get the window open. I’m too little.”

  The regret in his voice was almost heartbreaking. The windows weren’t designed to open, so that Baltimore’s elite wouldn’t take a swan dive after a bad day on the stock market. But a kid like Malik wouldn’t have known that.

  “Malik,” Juan prodded gently, “why does she want you to jump in the water?”

  “She said that she would teach me how to swim. And when she talks, I can’t help it. I have to do what she says.”

  A shadow crossed his face. When he spoke again, his voice was choked. “She’s a nice lady—but scary, too.”

  Juan turned to James. “You’ve seen her as well?”

  He nodded. “Yes sir. At night. I heard Malik talking to her through the window. That’s when I first saw her. She said if we came down, she’d give me a big hug like my mom used to.”

  “We tried to—” Malik began, but the older boy shot him a warning glance.

  “Tried to what?”

  Malik was silent.

  “Boys,” Juan sighed, “you’re not in trouble, okay? But I need you to tell us the truth. What did you try to do? Open the window?”

  Malik shook his head. “No. When we couldn’t get the window open, we tried to sneak out onto the roof one night. She said she’d be waiting for us, down in the water. We didn’t want to go, but we couldn’t help it. So we snuck out of our room while everybody was sleeping. But when we got up to the roof, Taz and Ducky were standing guard and they told us to go back to bed.”

  “And those idiots never thought to mention it to the rest of us,” Juan muttered. “Boys, when did you first start seeing this lady?”

  “Just a few nights ago,” James whispered. “Malik’s seen her four times, and me only two.”

  “Danielle,” Sarah interrupted, “have you seen this lady too?”

  “No,” Danielle picked up her doll and began combing its hair. “Girls can’t hear the fish lady. Just boys.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because that’s what she told Malik and James. They told me, and I thought they were making it up to play a trick on me. So they asked her and the fish lady told them I couldn’t see her.”

  Lori spoke up. “So why do you guys call her the fish lady?”

  Malik said, “Because she doesn’t have any legs. Just a tail like a fish.”

  None of us knew what to make of their story. It was impossible to tell where the truth ended and childhood imagination began. But Juan, Mike, and I had all heard something, and Nate had seen a figure in the water.

  After dinner, Lori and I went back to my room. I checked the garden while she lounged on the bed, reading an out of date issue of Cosmopolitan.

  “So what do you think, Kevin?” she asked.

  “I think this houseplant is going to do fine,” I said, gently fingering the leaves, checking for brown patches. “I just wish I knew what it actually is. I’d love to find a book that identifies plants. We’ll have to wait a few more days to see what happens with the seeds I planted.”

  She rolled up the magazine and swatted at me. I grabbed her arm, pulled her off the bed and we collapsed to the floor, wrestling with one another. Our laughter turned into a kiss—long, soft, and lingering.

  “I’m not talking about the garden,” she said with a smile, lying on top of me. “I’m talking about this ’fishlady.’ What do you think?”

  “Well, if it was just Nate, I’d say he’s cracking under the strain, and if it were just the kids, I’d say they were having bad dreams. But all of them together, plus what happened with…” I glanced at the mound of dirt covering Jimmy’s head. “With what happened yesterday—I don’t know anymore. It’s like reality and fantasy are blen
ding, you know? I can accept the rain, and I can accept the Satanists. I can even consider the possibility of Salty’s giant sea monster. But mermaids? That’s pretty fucking hard to swallow.”

  “Yeah,” she whispered, her breath tickling my ear. “It does seem a little far-fetched. But these days, I’m willing to believe just about anything.”

  She pointed to the skylight. The rain drummed against it, obscuring the sky.

  “A year ago, I wouldn’t have believed that it would just start raining one day and never stop.”

  I looked into her eyes. “A year ago, I wouldn’t have believed I could be with a girl as beautiful as you.”

  She sat up on top of me, her pelvis cradling mine. She grinned, gave me a playful squeeze, and then got to her feet. “So you really think stuff’s going to grow in here without direct sunlight?”

  “Sure.” I shrugged. “It’s worked pretty good so far.”

  “Yeah, I’ve got to admit, it has.”

  She flopped back down on the bed and opened up the magazine. I turned back to the plants.

  “When were you born, Kevin?”

  “September twenty-second. Why?”

  “I’m reading the horoscopes.” She scanned a few pages and then smiled. “Hey, you’re a water sign. That’s pretty appropriate, isn’t it?”

  “I guess so. A little fucking dark though, don’t you think?”

  She giggled.

  I tilled the surface soil with my fingers, carefully avoiding Jimmy’s resting place.

  Lori was quiet for a moment, and then she made a small sound in her throat.

  I turned. She was frowning.

  “What is it?”

  “Nothing.” She snapped the magazine shut.

  “Come on, Lori. What is it?”

  “The magazine. It—it said that we’re destined for a doomed relationship.”

  “Really? It says that?”

  She nodded, chewing her lip.

  “Who the fuck writes those things? Jesus—I thought they were just supposed to tell you good stuff.”

  She gave me a weak half-smile, and I pressed on.

  “Come on. Who cares what a year-old magazine says anyway? I don’t think we’re doomed. Do you?”

  She hesitated before she answered. “No.”

  Brushing the dirt from my hands, I lay down next to her, stroking her hair and gazing into her troubled eyes.