by A.L. Davidson
They did not foresee the rain.
Harsh weather was an inevitable factor out on the open waters. Crashing waves and rising tides. Rain as intense as what the skies brought as of late did not place high on their list of worries. Especially not as biblical and cataclysmic.
The journey was long-planned. Every minor detail was accounted for, belongings were sold and jobs were left. A round-trip adventure across the globe, just the two of them, however long it took with no real destination in sight. Rations aplenty and warm comforts to hide in when the nights rolled in.
Johann never considered that night would not leave once it settled. That the stars would flicker out. Lost behind a dark, hazy curtain of clouds. Clouds that roared with unholy lightning and stretched on for an eternity.
Their small vessel, The Endeavor, softly bobbed through the endless horizon of navy without direction. The rain was light, more akin to a drizzle, so the young couple took the opportunity to stand on the bow of the ship and look out upon the strange, drowned world around them. It had been a long while since the turbulent winds died down enough to leave the cabin.
Who could have known the heavy rains would overwhelm it all so rapidly? That the oceans would rise to levels that buried cities with resounding crashes? That their little floating home would become the only refuge left to stand upon? No one could have foreseen it.
“It’s cold,” Johann noted with a soft tone as he sipped his lukewarm tea.
“Yes, it is. Wonder where we are,” Marcus mused as he slid his hands into the pockets of his hoodie to find his lighter. The bitter winds nipped at his knees, rustled the red fabric of his gym shorts and pushed his chestnut-hued locks to the side.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore, does it? We could feasibly be anywhere and it would all look the same.”
Marcus nodded, “That’s true. Guess we’re lucky we haven’t hit any mountains. It would be easy for us to capsize against one.”
Johann turned his deep blue eyes toward his partner and smiled. Marcus was so pessimistic, so analytical and worried. It was logical to be aware of the imminent danger that surrounded them on all sides. He was right to be so critical. Johann, however, simply wanted to observe.
How beautiful and strange and entrancing it was, a world overwhelmed with water, saturated so deeply that the foundations of humanity crumbled. How hypnotizing the blur of the horizon line was against the waves. How eerie the surroundings became when the bodies of those who could not outrun the event floated by.
The River Styx was let loose upon Earth and Chiron was nowhere to be seen. He did not wade through the waters. He did not peer over the edge of the luxury liners. He did not hide in the fog or the ripples of the rainfall. No one came to collect them. The bodies continued to float onward to an unknown destination. Bloated and blue and buoyant.
He wondered where they were heading. Wondered if they should follow.
Johann fixated his gaze upon his partner as Marcus lit up one of his last cigarettes. His eyes honed in on the flicker of amber that illuminated his tan skin as he indulged in his vice. A small light in the darkness. He swore it could be seen for miles.
Warm colors were rare. The survivors always stopped to take notice. A glimmer of hope, often defeating in its reality, would beckon all still-mobile ships out into the ever-present night. People took notice of the light. It meant life still existed out there in the blackened unknown.
It was a unique situation when two boats crossed paths. So many of them had long since run out of fuel and simply floated by, being carried by the onward rotations of the Earth. This way and that way with little care. The waters below were too deep to drop anchor. The metal hooks would risk catching on once tall skyscrapers, sunken oil rigs or land masses, becoming lodged so forcibly they’d never release and often pull the vessels under. The newly formed dredges that hid beneath the cool hues were unfathomable.
So, they floated on, proverbial and literal ships passing in the night. The conversations with other sailors and tourists always seemed too chipper in comparison to the situation. Humanity still lived on as best it could, sailing into the uncharted new world aboard their water-bound homes. The planet was peppered with buoyant sanctuaries, micro-countries of metal and steam rose to power. The boats, the yachts, and the cruise liners ruled, but they were few and far between.
Johann liked the quiet, liked the isolation and inability to return to the life he once knew. His new world, dark and dangerous, was liberating. He feared it. He craved it.
He wondered how long he could stomach it. What pushed the occupants of many of the boats that passed by to give up, to litter their decks with rotting flesh and rolling bones. What limit would push him to that point, push his lover to that point. He often pondered it. The universe left him with an excess of time to muse over scenarios. Both good and bad.
The horrors, the unfathomable terrors in the shadows, and the catastrophic shifting of the universe in flux made him feel so small. So breakable. He cherished the silence all the more for it.
“I had a beautiful dream,” Johann noted as he pulled himself to the present.
“Oh?” Marcus asked with a small yawn. He set his chin atop Johann’s shoulder.
Johann could smell the comforting scent of real tobacco slip through his lips. Feel the warmth of it brush his cheek like the soft hand of a lover.
“I was watching the world flood through our apartment windows. Watching the fish swim by. It reminded me of our first date. At the aquarium?” Johann asked sheepishly.
“How could I forget? That image of you standing in the tunnel when that dolphin swam by is burned into my brain. The moment I saw your eyes shimmer like that I knew I was a goner,” Marcus teased.
Johann laughed and leaned back against Marcus’ body. Trembling, he brought his mug to his lips to try and stave off the chill. His much taller, stronger partner wrapped his arms around his waist and held him in the light drizzle. The breeze was a welcome change from the stuffy cabin of their small, humble yacht. They hoped the rain would lessen for a while. The choppy waters left them queasy. It was hard to tell what caused the rocking. The waves, the corpses, or the unseen creatures of the deep stirring from the shift in the planet’s ecosystem. Any and all were plausible.
It was hard to stay upright in this scenario. When up and down were merely black blurs and everything was in constant flux. Accented by an absence of light that he never knew was possible.
As scary as it had initially been, Johann’s fears of the situation lessened as the days rolled on. Watching planes crash into the waters after running out of fuel. Locking terrified gazes with damned souls trapped behind the metal of their cars as the waters rose. At first, it had been too much. Now, it didn’t frighten him. Being at the mercy of the waters was simply how life was. Humanity would live and die by the tide, and the quicker he accepted it the quicker he found solace in the expanse.
He felt like an astronaut, floating through the endless voids of space without an orbit to tether to. Experiencing the end of the world on the forefront was terrifying and beautiful. The shifting shapes below would steal their breath away. Monstrous eyes would gaze up at them from the murky unknowns, the waving hands of the long dead beckoned them to an early grave, and the vague outlines of a once industrial world lingered under his feet. Sometimes close enough to touch.
Selfishly, he hoped he’d live long enough to slowly roll to the many sides of the world. Brush the top of Mount Fuji, prick his finger atop Lady Liberty’s crown, and see the Antarctic icebergs in all their horrifying glory.
To see the world he gave up everything for months ago when he set sail.
Marcus exhaled a plume of tobacco that drifted off into the darkened sky. He could see Johann’s wide eyes flutter in contemplation. His lover was deep in thought. He pulled his cigarette from his lips and pecked his scruffy cheek. Johann’s unruly blonde curls bounced in the breeze, dampened by the drizzle. His Breckenridge sweatshirt clung to his frame from the moisture in the air and he could feel the slight thinning of his frame beneath his fingertips.
A soft thud brought them out of their quiet moment. Marcus peered over the side of The Endeavor. A bulbous body, tinged blue and milky-eyed, bounced off of the side of the ship. The flesh stuck to the edge and peeled away in chunks before it dipped back down beneath the waves.
He tapped the cigarette, watched the ash disappear against the darkness below. Something massive swam beneath them. The noticeable shift of the endless ocean caused his eyebrow to cock and he prayed that the hidden beast would be distracted by the corpse and leave their vessel be.
Marcus felt his body tense when a low, eerie sound broke through the silence. It groaned out through the patter of rain, noticeable and vile. With daylight, warmth, and visibility diminished, he found himself noticing the pitches and tones that broke through the ever-present melody of rain. He was acutely aware of every small noise. That sound, though, he swore it was following them.
“What… is that?” Johann asked wearily.
“What is what?” Marcus questioned.
Johann pointed out into the distance on the starboard side, his body moved instinctually to the railing. He nearly dropped his mug during his frantic movements. Marcus snatched up his arm and pulled him back before he tumbled off of the edge. That’s when he saw it. What it was, he couldn’t be sure, but the unusual color against the harsh, endless blue nearly caused the cigarette to fall out of his mouth.
It blinked, like a massive eye attempting to purge itself of an irritant. As quickly as it arrived, it vanished. Johann and Marcus threw each other cautious glances.
“Back up,” Marcus begged as he tugged on his arm.
“Sorry,” Johann whispered. He took a few steps back.
“That’s a helluva big light.”
“It’s… moving.”
They watched it reappear, its glow broke through the dense atmosphere like a cleaver through flesh. It rotated, yet it stayed still. Never bobbing or shifting from its place in the distance.
“It’s like a lighthouse,” Johann said with disbelief.
“It can’t be, there’s no way a lighthouse would have survived the rising water levels,” Marcus reminded, gesturing widely to the world around them.
Johann turned to look back across the terrifying endless nothing. He titled his head heavenward as the sky began to scream out with another onslaught of storms. Lightning rippled through the dense clouds like raging dragons. Against the thick wall of haze and flickering lights, a form moved.
“Marcus…”
“So strange…”
“Marcus!”
Johann grabbed hold of Marcus’ head and forced him to turn to the horizon. He felt his partner’s jaw drop in disbelief against his palm as the unknown mass shuddered in and out of view against the choreography of nature. The waves in the distance grew in size, The Endeavor shifted against the sudden force of the unsteady world below. Even from miles away, the massive object forced the drowned earth to move with cataclysmic intensity.
“We need to move,” Marcus mumbled.
“Can we afford the fuel?” Johann asked nervously. He shakily let Marcus’ hand slip from his own as his partner raced toward the navigation equipment above them.
“That wave is going to crush us if we don’t get some distance!” Marcus shouted as he clamored up the stairs. “Get inside!”
Johann nodded and walked toward the cabin. The waves sloshed up upon the deck, sending a few wayward fish and a dismembered arm tumbling across the cold metal surface.
The engine roared to life with some resistance after sitting idle for so long. The Endeavor groaned and attempted to turn. Johann looked out of the small window at the storm-front barreling toward them. The unholy figure writhed. His trembling hands pressed against the chilled glass, his lips parted in disbelief as the ship finally turned and he lost sight of it. A heavy, almost pained exhale forced itself through his mouth.
The rocking waters kicked up several bodies that lingered in the tide. They must have been near a once-heavily populated area. The murky graveyard they drifted into was a boundless one, no doubt filled with predators below waiting for the optimal time to feed. Swollen with an overabundance of meals, the monoliths of the ocean were growing in size.
“Marcus!” Johann screamed.
His voice was lost to the roar of the storm. He felt his feet skid across the floor as the small ship pushed forward, kicking up enough speed to slice through the dense waters. His eyes turned upward instinctually, drawn to the last spot he saw his lover, until they were forced elsewhere. The blinking light swept by, sending his harsh, cascading shadow shooting across the bedspread and the back wall before vanishing. Over and over again.
Marcus turned them toward the light.
Through the small porthole window he could see the hellish weather approach like a landslide behind them. The horrid sound that plagued them as of late droned on. A low-wailing siren of agony and wear. The hellish chorus seemed to follow them, gaining speed with each closing mile between them. Each second felt like an eternity.
A wall of rain shot down through the night. The Endeavor rocked as the wave beneath them hoisted the yacht up harsh force. The fin of a large creature crested the water beside the vessel in an attempt to flee the rapidly changing landscape. Johann felt himself grow lightheaded, felt his body tilt with the arc of the ship. Dizzy from the repeated illumination of the unknown light source breaching the interior of the sacred safety he called home.
The race against the elements came to an abrupt halt as the engine finally stalled, jerking forward as the unsteady waters turned its bow starboard, throwing its trajectory off course. Johann rotated as his body continued to stumble, dazed from the panic and anxiety. He scrambled toward the short staircase.
“Marcus!”
“Johann!”
Johann watched with terror as Marcus’ body skidded across the deck. Gravity ceased to exist for a brief but damning second. The bow of the ship was forced downward and blackened waters rushed over the deck. Lightning rippled, amplified by the intense whipping of the beacon. The bodies in the curved wave were silhouetted against the sharp illumination. A flash-frame of corpses and creatures became suspended in a crystalline portrait before it all came crashing down.
Marcus was tossed into the air, floating effortlessly with terror in his eyes for what felt like an eternity as the panic registered in his features. Johann slid forward as the slick ground forced him toward the front of the ship.
His hand shot outward, reaching for his lover who was engulfed by the shadows with fear in his whiskey-hued eyes. The maw of a drowned Mother Earth opened to swallow him whole. Johann scrambled forward until his stomach met the railing. His hand snapped hold of Marcus’ wrist, the forward momentum pulled them both into the darkness.
Marcus’ fingertips were bitterly cold. Much like a corpse.
The Endeavor slammed into the water and corrected itself, rocketing back out of the breach as a flurry of debris and cadavers shot out of the tainted murk. Johann grabbed hold of the railing as Marcus’ frame flew over the bow.
Marcus’ stomach collided with the frigid metal and brutal waters, the impact was so harsh he nearly lost his hold on Johann’s hand. His bare feet slid as he attempted to scale the side of the boat.
“Don’t let go!” Johann screamed as he tried to hoist him up.
Marcus exhaled painfully as he attempted to catch his breath. He tried to grab hold of the railing post. His cold, startled fingers struggled to grasp on. Johann pulled with every ounce of strength he could muster until Marcus clamored up onto the deck. He fell into Johann’s arms as a shocking wave of icy water crashed over them.
The two men scrambled into the cabin and frantically shut the door. A flurry of household trinkets and limbs, fish and broken trees swept over the deck. The horrendous sound breached the closed-off chamber, it rumbled beneath them, vibrating the ship with deafening intensity. Johann, arms wrapped tight around Marcus’ body, felt him stumble.
“M-Marcus?”
Marcus collapsed. Johann lost his grip from the saturation and heft of his much larger frame. He tenderly lowered him to the floor and cupped his face in his hands. Marcus’ eyes were glazed over and his body jerked.
“No, no… not now,” Johann mumbled nervously.
As he tried to stand, he felt another wave hit their ship. They were at the unrelenting mercy of the tides. All he could do was pray that they moved out of the trajectory of danger enough to survive. He quickly raced to the nightstand and tore open the drawer, searching for a glucagon shot to curb the oncoming seizure that threatened to wrack his lover’s body. Snatching up the red case, he shakily loaded the syringe and tried not to topple over as The Endeavor was shoved forcibly to the left.
“Hang on,” Johann sobbed as he injected the needle into Marcus’ leg.
After he administered the shot, he tossed the needle to the side and lifted his lover’s limp body into his arms. Marcus was chilled and dazed, head laid heavy against his clavicle and breathing ragged. The intensity of the terrors drove his system to desperation as anxiety and the instinct to survive overwhelmed him.
Johann softly brushed back Marcus’ sopping wet locks and kissed his temple.
Slowly, The Endeavor evened itself out and bobbed gently in the calming waters. Johann lifted his eyes to the window. The flashing, warm light that broke through the darkness clipped the cabin’s interior with rhythmic rotations on the port-side. The unnatural stilling of it all, the silence, felt like they had fallen into the eye of a hurricane. A deadly calm.
The ship rocked on the starboard side, as if a heavy weight pressed up against it. Johann watched as tendrils broke through the choppy waves, rising into the darkened sky around the frame of the vessel. He turned his gaze slowly to the side and felt his breath catch in his throat.
His pupils dilated and blurred, the black color slipped out across his blue irises as he locked gazes with the once-sleeping giant that pursued them through the night. The massive eyeball nearly eclipsed their small boat as it peered inside. The ungodly, otherworldly horror studied the small, insignificant creature with curiosity and intrigue.
Blood pooled in Johann’s eyelids and ran down his cheeks. His lips parted in horror and a sharp, aching pain shot through his temples. Yet he couldn’t look away. Hard as he try, he couldn’t look away. His mind was torn asunder, drawn to unthinkable places, and he felt himself become lost to the ether.
Marcus, coming back to the moment, blinked unevenly as he tried to wake himself up. He saw Johann’s panicked, frozen expression and felt his blood run cold. He set his hand against his cheek and tried to turn his face away. For a brief, harrowing second, he looked in the direction Johann was staring, only to quickly shift his vision away.
“Johann—”
“It… hurts,” Johann mumbled.
Marcus set his hand over Johann’s eyes. He felt his lover’s body release some of its tension as the connection was broken. Marcus was fearful this would be their end. He didn’t want Johann to see it, to look so heartbroken and anguished. What this entity wanted, he did not know, but the aggression in its approach and the intensity of the droning sound rattled his bones. The creatures of the deep were beyond comprehension. Truly, they must have been buried beneath the depths for a reason. Gazing upon them was to sin, and his lover had done so tenfold.
“I’m here, baby,” Marcus soothed with a bit of unease in his voice.
“I love… you,” Johann mumbled.
“I love you, too. It’s okay.”
Marcus slid his hand across Johann’s face and held it up to block out his field of vision from the creature. His bloodshot, trembling eyes struggled to focus. A trail of blood ran down his slender jawline form his ear and dripped down onto his lap. Droplets of watery blood fell from his nose.
“I’m here,” Marcus repeated.
Johann once again turned his eyes to the left and gazed out into the night, his mind reeling and desperately looking for the creature. Whether in fear, desperation, or not of his own accord, Marcus could not discern.
He watched that one light in the darkness, watched it flicker in and out of existence. It was a blur, moving so rapidly he could hardly focus on it. Though the ship remained mostly still, he swore that warm energy was growing in intensity with each rotation, as if it were barreling toward them.
“It hurts,” Johann whispered again, losing out to the pain and blood loss.
The Endeavor shifted as the creature started rising out of the water. The small cabin dipped in and out of darkness as the frantic pulsating light continued its rotations. Johann couldn’t pull his vision away from it, the edges of his left iris seemed to tear, his pupil spilled out into the white of his eye. Marcus choked back a pained sob.
“Don’t look,” he pleaded as he wrapped him up, pulling his face into the curve of his neck to hide his weary eyes from the terrors.
Marcus held on tight, kept his own gaze away from the ancient creature that aimed to drag them down to a watery grave. Slithering tentacles exploded out of the depths like spikes. The proverbial bars of a cage meant to ferry them to the afterlife. He saw the overwhelming light grow in intensity, its spiraling approach mirrored the siren-like call of the ocean until the cabin was drowned in light. The screaming wail hit a frantic high, then all fell silent.
The Endeavor rocked as the creature slunk back down into the depths. Geysers of water shot up around the sinking tendrils as they retreated, illuminated briefly against the lightning-like strikes of the unidentified glow.
And all at once the world became still. The wall of wind and rain swept by them quickly and left clear skies in their wake. The ocean rocked as the heft of the monstrous being’s mass dove down into the depths. The Endeavor slowly sailed forward with the tide to yet unknown places, leaving the young couple shaking with relief and anxiety in its interior.
Marcus kept his eyes locked on the horizon line. Their guiding light vanished alongside the beast. Impossibly, the massive moving illumination simply ceased to exist. The horrible nightmare felt like a fabrication of his mind and he couldn’t conjure enough sanity in the moment to discern fact from fiction.
“I can’t see.”
Marcus felt his body tense.
“Marcus? It’s dark… I can’t see,” Johann whispered with a quake in his voice.
He steeled himself, swallowed hard and slowly pushed Johann up. He cupped his face in his hands and looked into those beautiful blue eyes. Blue eyes that shimmered so brightly in an aquarium so many years ago, blue eyes that beckoned him to safety in his darkest days. Blue eyes now stained and slashed black, fuzzy and wounded from an encounter with something otherworldly. Something that no man should ever have faced.
In that darkness, he saw a light. A rotating, small light that bounced over the darkened seas that rested in his eye sockets. Over and over again. Something shifted within the soul of Johann, within his eyes and mind. Marcus couldn’t fathom what those eyes had witnessed when they stared into the pitch black of hell.
Johann’s unsteady hand lifted, desperate to touch Marcus, to reassure himself that his lover was still here. Marcus took it, guided his fingers to his cheek, to let him ground himself to something tangible in this disastrous moment of fear.
“It’s gone,” Marcus soothed.
“I’m scared,” Johann sobbed.
“I know. I’m here.”
“It’s dark.”
“I’ll guide you through it. I’ll be your light in that darkness.”
If only he knew. If only Johann could verbalize.
It wasn’t the darkness that scared him. No. It was the shadows that lurked there, the faces he had seen, and the unknowns that he experienced that he should not have. No, it was no longer the darkness that left him fearful. It was the creatures that ruled it, and the knowledge that they slept so close to the surface in this world ruled by the waves.
A.L. Davidson (she/they) is an author who specializes in massive space operas and tiny disturbances. She writes stories about ghosts, grief, folklore, isolation, space exploration, eco-horror, the human condition, and queerness. She lives with her yellow-eyed demon of a cat, Jukebox, in Kansas City.
