Lawrence University Creative Writing Club Spring Serial Story
If Lennerd still needed his lungs to breathe, they would be burning. No matter how far he swam past the ramshackle neighborhoods of stone and silt, he still seemed no closer to the smoke-shrouded spires that Granny Coelacanth claimed to be Davy Jones’ castle. She prattled on about it like a tour guide who hadn’t seen action in decades. Part of Lennerd found her enthusiasm endearing, but the other part really needed a break.
Lennerd ducked into an alley, mouthing “verontschuldigen” at two anglerfish children caught in his wake. They didn’t acknowledge him. Their bulbous eyes stared over Lennerd’s shoulder. The lights dangling from their heads trembled.
Something slick wrapped around Lennerd’s forearm, then his waist. Outside the alley, Granny Coelacanth kept rambling.
“—takes nerve t’approach King Jones, sonny, ‘specially for a surfacer like yerself. Jones hates the surface, y’know. Lack o’ pressure shoulda killed him up there, but he survived hell n’ back. ‘S why they call ‘im Davy Jones the Unbroken… Lonny? Levi?”
Lennerd had no time to correct her before two massive tentacles dragged him into the dark.
Lennerd only retained a slit of vision between his captor’s tentacles, but it was enough. The twinkling city streets blurred into empty sand tinged a sickly blue from the light of several massive comb jellyfish. The rushing water stung Lennerd’s eyes. Just before he decided to look away, something broke the sand’s gloomy expanse: a bone. Then another. More bones, some warped into shapes Lennerd didn’t want to recognize, some all too familiar. When his captor finally let go, Lennerd almost tripped on a human skull.
Lennerd looked up— and immediately wished he hadn’t. Whale ribs towered around him like the spires of Davy Jones’ castle, but instead of the castle’s colored smoke, hundreds of jellyfish swarmed in clouds around the bones. Deep-sea creatures of every kind scuttled beneath the eerie blue light, gnawing at scraps of flesh that still clung to the whalefall.
Some had more than scraps. Lennerd counted four creatures bigger than the rest, long and gangly, their slick grey torsos almost passing for human before morphing into the bodies of viperfish or octopi. Their bald scalps and round black eyes gleamed as they sank rows of sharp teeth into decaying human limbs. Lennerd watched one creature tear into a tattoo-wrapped arm, and his stomach sank. He had come to know that tattoo well. Out of love for his ship, Lennerd’s captain wore a permanent mark of the mighty sea dragon. The Zeedraak.
His captor’s tentacle knocked Lennerd to the ground— a small mercy from the sight of his devoured crewmates. Then they spoke, and Lennerd realized they were one of the grey creatures, this one with the body of a giant squid.
“We found him, Sister Carmilla,” hissed the squid-creature. “The lost… what was that surface word you called him? Ah, yes. Sheep.”
“Well done, my brother.” A figure swam from the shadows. At first Lennerd took her for another squid-creature. The tattered strips of fabric swirling around her legs resembled her “brother’s” body, but no, this woman was decidedly human. That is, aside from her greyish pallor and the fangs that punctuated her rapidly stretching smile.
Sister Carmilla circled Lennerd slowly. “Poor little lamb. It seems our pet Kraken missed a spot. But no matter. You’re home with us now, and you get to be the guest of honor!” She raked a fingernail down Lennerd’s cheek, releasing a plume of blood. “So what’ll it be? Will you eat or be eaten?”
“Neither!” Lennerd spat. “You and your godverdomme mermaids are eating my crewmates in front of me, and you expect me to join you?” Not even Granny Coelacanth would suggest such madness.
Sister Carmilla laughed, high-pitched and sweet. “Oh no, little lamb. Mermaids stopped eating humans centuries ago. Something about surface flesh being an unsustainable diet. But those cowards didn’t have a surface-dweller to teach them how it’s done.” Her smile threatened to split open. “I granted my siblings eternal life. And judging by whatever pathetic sea magic is keeping the breath in your lungs right now, you won’t be alive much longer. Perhaps you should reconsider my offer.”
Lennerd pretended to pause. “No thank you.”
“Fine, then.” Sister Carmilla turned, and Lennerd got the chilling sense that she was hoping for this outcome. “We can’t have you swimming back to Davy Jones and spoiling our secrets, can we? Eat him.”
The no-longer-mermaids descended upon Lennerd all at once. In a burst of adrenaline, he dove to the sand, thanking the ocean pressure for going easy on his joints. The skeleton lying next to him still wore a silver anchor pendant, and Lennerd clutched it while waiting for his end. I’d give anything to see my mother right now. Even Morga would be nice. Or the drowned ghosts, or Lumen, or Granny C—
“LIIIIOONEEELLL!”
As if summoned by Lennerd’s thoughts, Granny Coelacanth’s voice crackled through the deep. Something massive slammed into the not-mermaids’ claws mere inches above Lennerd’s flesh. Another something barreled into Lennerd himself, scooping him up with such force that the dead sailor’s necklace snapped and came with him.
“Jones the Unbroken’s Special Forces reporting for duty,” said Lennerd’s rescuer.
Lennerd looked down at the shrinking whalefall behind them. Amid clouds of sand and blood, he could just make out a squad of deep-sea sharks battling Sister Carmilla and her cult. A few of the sharks had evidently stayed behind, as Lennerd was currently balanced on one of their snouts.
Before Lennerd could ask how they had found him, Granny Coelacanth tackled him as fast as her geriatric fins would allow. “Lyle! I almost didn’t see ya leave, but these two anglerfish, bless their fins, they told me all about—”
The shark who had rescued Lennerd cleared his throat. “Thank you, ma’am. We have everything under control.” He shoved Lennerd with his snout. “You. Surfacer. You’re under arrest for fraternizing with wanted criminals.”
Lennerd pinched his nose. It seemed law enforcement was the same everywhere. “I think you are mistaken, sir.”
“We’ll see what King Jones has to say about that.” The shark nudged Lennerd in between two of his compatriots. “And you will see the king without putting up a fight.”
Lennerd let himself be escorted towards the castle. “Don’t worry, sir. I came here seeking an audience with King Jones.” He squeezed the sailor’s necklace tighter. “I think he will want to hear what I know about the Kraken.”
Days of oxygen left: 4