Hell And High Water

by Angela Blythe

  ’So, let me get this right we have the mystery spawn, a Kelpie and a Shellycoat and whatever Jim saw on his boat,’ Terry said, who was trying to piece it all together. ‘Is that the full list?’

  ’No, there is something else going on,’ Bob said in a quiet voice.

  19 Shoal

  From the Northwest of England, specifically the Port of Liverpool, the ghostly pirates drifted further up towards the Melden Triangle. At night, anyone who possessed a special gift would be able to see them. An army of wraiths floating about six feet above the river.

  They appeared as they had at death. Many were missing parts of their body. Several were disembowelled – a favourite execution by pirate law. All had open holes where their eyes used to be, phosphorescent blood running down their faces. Eyelids still showing the teeth marks of long-dead fishes.

  All were covered with tendrils of seaweed, which floated behind them. Many of them had chains attached, where they had been put over the side of the boat to sink, hands tied. Luckily the river ran in many desolate places, as the sight was horrific and terrifying. They moaned and growled their way up towards Friarmere, perhaps they would journey even further on.

  From the East, they came through the Estuary of Hull. These were mainly soldiers and those unfortunate to be on ships that had sunk. These travelled in the river, beneath the surface.

  German soldiers from the First World War, British soldiers from the Second World War and a group of forlorn French sailors from the 17th Century. Up they glided. They did not know why but they were compelled to come.

  Along with them came the murders, the suicides – anyone who resided in a watery grave on the way. Lakes and reservoirs, tributaries and drainpipes, all held their sinister secrets.

  They drifted under the water, laying down like lovers for their evil ends. The essence constantly drew them.

  Waiting for them in Moorston was a whole host of nasty creatures. Lee had been very lucky to escape the monster that resided under the bridge. Lee hoped that it had been his imagination. How could he think that such a thing was in the river? But the giant Bishop-fish was real and had now consumed two cats and was just about to trap his first dog.

  The Borda had done even better for herself. Blind, but not at all disabled because of that, she had hunted an old man on his journey back home after the Pub.

  She always blindfolded them. Death soon followed. The dirty rags she used as blindfolds were wrapped around her waist, covering the sores on her body. Always fatal, she put her large mouth over their mouth and nose, sucking out the air inside them. She sucked until their lungs squashed flat. The Borda dragged this man back to her marsh, where she would consume him.

  There were no rats, fish or newts left in Moorston either. The lumps of spawn in Moorston had begun to be whittled down too. It only took one boy to find it. He had been the one that would not share it with his sister. The boys of Moorston flocked to the river. Each taking a healthy portion back to their homes.

  Underneath the riverbed, the creature that the Fellus described as a God, could see even more now. It was learning about its new prey. Soon it would need some sacrifices.

  Ivy had arrived just before Jim had left. Julia had made a concoction of beef, mulled wine and stewing vegetables in her slow cooker, which Jim, Julia and Ivy would be having for their tea. This was as a thank you to Ivy for helping. Wee Renee had given Julia the recipe, which she called ‘Saddy Beef.’ Ivy had to admit to never having it, but she enjoyed it very much.

  When she arrived, there had been no noise from the cupboard. Ivy didn’t want to ask to see it but in some ways was desperate to. She hadn’t seen anything exciting yet.

  The minute Jim had gone, the noise had started. It was quite loud, especially on the silent canal. Ivy’s eyes shot open.

  ‘Bejesus, we are going to have to quieten her down,’ Ivy said.

  ‘We can’t tape up another hole,’ Julia said. Ivy didn’t want to ask what that meant.

  ‘Just her mouth then,’ Ivy said.

  ‘She’s got two. A front one and a back one,’ Julia said.

  ‘Can’t she breathe through her nose?’ Ivy asked.

  ‘We never thought of that,’ Julia said.

  ‘Let’s have a look at the culprit,’ Ivy said.

  ‘Gather yourself, before you see her Ivy, she’s a right sight,’ Julia said.

  Julia opened the cupboard to reveal the Kelpie. Ivy was shocked to see her. She seemed to be a cross between a horse, a fish, a lizard and a human.

  ‘She is … very unique,’ Ivy commented.

  Julia wrinkled her nose and picked up the Kelpie’s hair to show her where the blowhole was. The Kelpie’s eyes were wild, scared she seemed to be panicking.

  ‘She’s hyper,’ Ivy said.

  ‘Calm down,’ Julia said to the Kelpie in a loud voice, but the noise got louder.

  ‘I think she’s having a panic attack or some kind of a freak-out. Who knows with something like her,’ Ivy said.

  ‘I mean if it was a human, you’d give them a whisky,’ Julia said.

  ‘She is part human look at her. She’ll die of a fish heart attack if she carries on. Tip some booze in her blowhole. We can’t cover that noise up,’ Ivy said.

  They bent her head forward. Ivy held her head while Julia tipped what was left out of Jim’s whisky bottle into her blowhole. It seemed to spit little bits out, but in the main, it got filtered in.

  ‘Don’t tell Jim about that,’ Julia said. ‘He wouldn’t mind you drinking it, but he would her.’

  ‘I wished I’d had a swig before she guzzled it all,’ Ivy said.

  Within a minute or so, the Kelpie started to calm down. Five minutes later, she was asleep.

  Ivy and Julia were very lucky that Julia and thought of it. There were more screeching blowhole noises outside in the distance. They had received her signal, but it had stopped and now didn’t know where to find her.

  Julia grabbed hold of Ivy’s arm, catching her breath.

  ‘Shh! And turn the light off,’ Ivy said. Julia did as she asked. Ivy opened the curtain. On the dark canal, her face was invisible to the figures on the grass.

  The dark was also beneficial to them. Ivy could see no features only slight shapes. They called again but got no reply. It would be a long couple of silent hours until Jim returned.

  ’I might have known you would be involved with this,’ Sue said. ‘Bob, you told me the other day that you hadn’t got any. You haven’t got another mystery key you’ve not been telling me about either have you? Your Father’s only just got the house straight after the last Monster rampaged through it.’

  ’No, it’s nothing to do with me Mum,’ Bob said.

  ‘Yeah we’ve learnt our lesson about stuff like that,’ Adam said.

  ’Tell me what you know,’ Wee Renee said.

  ’It’s about the spawn,’ Bob started. ‘The same as you are on about. A few days ago, this lad, one of my mates, Callum …’ Sue nodded at him. Callum was a respectable boy, with good parents. She wondered where this was going.

  ’Callum got some of the spawn from the river. Just three eggs, because they’re quite big aren’t they, and all he had with him was a coke bottle to put them in. The next day, two of them had hatched and were at the bottom of the bottle. They had eaten the other one. That’s what Callum thought, he didn’t see it happen,’ Bob told them.

  ‘What do they look like?’ Terry asked.

  ‘They are like these mini-squids. Sort of a little octopus. Callum had just two left in the bottle and he showed them around. Of course, everyone wanted one. That night all the lads out of our class were collecting their own portion of spawn at the river,’ Bob said.

  Adam took up the tale.

  ‘That all goes okay for a few days, but it becomes a kind of craze in the school and loads of lads are getting them. That’s fair enough if they haven’t become infected by something, isn’t it? But they have!’ Adam exclaimed.

  ‘We watched the
m today. These lads are acting weird. They don’t mix with anyone that hasn’t got a squid, but they’re not even talking to one another about the squids,’ Bob said.

  ‘Like a club?’ Gary asked. Bob and Adam shook their heads.

  ‘It isn’t like it’s a club, as they’re not talking to each other at all. What they are doing together is staring at everyone else that hasn’t got a squid. These lads kind of drift around the School in a massive silent gang and we even said they were like a shoal of fish, as they weaved around the playground. It’s not just boys in our year either. Their younger sisters and brothers have got them now and are joining this weird thing where they don’t speak. They kind of hardly blink either. Plus, none of them ate lunch. I’ve never seen anything like it,’ Bob said.

  ‘You know what else, they’ve got the spare mini-squids in a bottle in their bag for some reason,’ Adam said.

  ’This is a little worrying,’ Wee Renee said. ‘Not only in its own right … I can’t say yet, but there seems to be another case of this in Friarmere. Your stories are very similar. Children acting out of character and in a pack. I’m going to find out more tomorrow night. If I am allowed to tell you after, I will. You’ll know what I mean when you hear it. It’s clear that groups of children are acting strange. With each other and worryingly against other children.’

  ‘You keep your cards very close to your chest, don’t you Rene,’ Pat commented. Wee Renee didn’t answer her. However, she continued to speak.

  ‘From what I’ve heard about this other group they sound exactly like what you have described, Bob. I’m going to get some more of that spawn and see what happens. I’m not into wet pets, the only thing I’d like, if I ever had one, is my own wee curly seahorse. So, I may need your advice on them. Anyone’s,’ Wee Renee said. ‘I’ve already killed two.’

  ’At least we know that they can die if they have to be killed,’ Gary said.

  ’Yes. Death by lube or sweet chilli sauce. That’s going to be a bit difficult to achieve with so many eggs in that river,’ Pat said.

  20 Windlass

  All the screeching wanderers, as Ivy called them had gone well before Jim got home. When they couldn’t get a location on the noise, they slowly drifted back to the water by Black Island.

  That night, so that Julia and Jim could get some sleep. Pat and Jackie agreed to stay awake all night, guarding the Kelpie.

  Ivy and Julia had experienced no more noise problems with the Kelpie in the cupboards. They had not told Jim how they had achieved this.

  Ivy went home when Pat and Jackie arrived with their overnight bags. Julia put the kettle on, which seemed to awake the beast and she began her panicked noise again. Jim put the radio on quite loudly and then watched from the deck of his boat for movement.

  The Kelpie seemed to get tired quickly this time, and her screeching wound down in volume until it totally stopped. Julia had the idea that she was still half drunk. Whether she was actually sleeping, or unable to function due to alcohol, Julia didn’t know. The quiet spells usually lasted about fifteen minutes before she would start again with full force screeching out of the blowhole. Perhaps the others were asleep too as there was no invasion, during the louder periods.

  Jim and Julia relaxed and went to bed. Pat and Jackie were whispering at the table about the current situation.

  ’I don’t know how anyone is going to communicate with that thing the cupboard. It doesn’t speak English. It doesn’t speak sign language,’ Pat said.

  ‘You’re right. I’ve not heard it speak at all. Although it must do, if Jim has heard it sing,’ Jackie replied.

  ‘Ah, have you considered what it's singing out of? It’s mouth? That blowhole? What other holes has it got that we haven’t got?’ Pat said. Jackie thought for a short spell, while Pat blew her nose and rearranged her bra straps.

  ‘If it won’t speak, apart from it not attacking Jim, there was no reason to capture it. And what if we manage to keep her alive. It probably needs to get wet soon. Or feed. If we send her back to the water, she’ll probably want to kill humans even more. I hate to say it, but we would probably be better just rubbing her out on that reasoning,’ Jackie said.

  ’It’s harsh but true, Jackie. These things, they come from a different world than us. They don’t have our rules or cultural language. They are much more brutal. Primordial. And we have to fight fire with fire, unfortunately,’ Pat said.

  Jim and Julia were still trying to get to sleep. Apart from being worried, the Kelpie’s occasional screeching, and Pat and Jackie whispering, there was no reason why they shouldn’t be able to sleep! Needless to say, they were finding it very hard.

  It was a warm night, and the windows on the boat were open, they sometimes heard movements in the water, which was natural. What wasn’t natural was the rattling of the door handle to the boat.

  Jim jumped up out of bed immediately. Pat and Jackie stood up, their hearts beating fast. There was a scrabbling sound on the boat, a heavy couple of plops in the water, and silence.

  ’Come on let’s look outside,’ Jim said picking up his torch.

  He and Pat flung open the door and went out into the night. They could see nothing immediately out on the deck, so shone their light across the water and over at Black Island. Its beam did not go very far, but Jim could see that it was indeed inhabited. There also seemed to be figures making their way across the grass away from the canal. Back to the safety of the river, after trying to storm Jim’s boat.

  ‘Swine off!’ Pat shouted.

  ‘Let’s go over there, Pat. Show them that we’re not afraid,’ Jim said. He passed Pat the torch and he picked up his lock windlass, which was a bent metal bar, used for opening the locks on the canal.

  ‘I’m with you Jim,’ Pat said.

  ‘They are over there by the river,’ Jim shouted to Jackie and Julia. ‘Me and Pat are going to show them you don’t mess with big Jim.’

  ’All right,’ Jackie said. ‘We’ll stay here and watch the one in the cupboard.’

  Jackie walked up to the other end of the boat, past the cupboard where the Kelpie was stored, to where Julia and Jim’s bed was.

  ’Are you awake?’ Jackie whispered to Julia.

  ’What do you think?’ Julia replied sarcastically.

  ‘They’ve gone to chase them things away. There must be others like her. They must be able to hear her or smell her,’ Jackie said.

  Pat and Jim were nearly at the riverbank. In the warm, clear night, they could still see several figures on Black Island. With none on the grass, they must either all be swimming or on the island. An ominous sense of dread came over them both. At the side of them, Jim heard the shells rattle.

  ‘This hasn’t been a good idea at all,’ Julia said.

  ‘Me and Pat were just saying that it would probably be best for everyone if we did her in. After all, she’s just a fish,’ Jackie said.

  Julia was about to answer when they heard arrivals. Footsteps on the boat again. Hard footsteps, which sounded like hooves.

  ’Jim! Jim!’ Julia shouted shrilly. There was no answer from Jim. Jackie and Julia’s eyes grew huge and fearful as Julia turned to look past Jackie up the length of the dark boat. A mass of bodies was silhouetted in the doorway. Several of them rushed forward towards the women, their hooves loudly clattered on the wooden floor.

  The original Kelpie shouted even louder, now it was very wide-awake, her rescuers were here.

  Two of the intruders who looked like male Kelpie’s, grabbed hold of their sister and yanked her out of the cupboard. Pushing past their companions, they began to take her off the boat. The smell of green pond water was overpowering. The others growled at the two women on board. Julia was at least six feet behind Jackie.

  Jim had heard the shout and could see that the deck of his boat was teeming with Kelpies. Pat could see more of them crawling out of the canal. The two rescuers ran over as fast as they could to help their families.

  Inside the boat, three of the
Kelpies grabbed Jackie, their sharp claws, which protruded out of each webbed finger, cutting into her upper arms.

  With their incredible strength, they pulled her up off her feet and dragged her on deck. All the new Kelpies seemed to be male. Two more walked forward to try and take Julia.

  When Pat and Jim reached the boat, Jim started bashing them about their bodies and heads with his lock windlass. Pat wished she had her club hammer with her, but instead was punching Kelpies, as fast as she could.

  She looked around and saw them disappear with the captive Kelpie. They dropped into the canal, swam the few strokes over the width of it, and then immediately got out again to pull her over the wet grass between the canal and river - back to safety. She was shocked to see that her sister was about to go the same way. Jackie was holding on to the boat as three of them tried to pull her into the canal.