Walk on Water by September Thomas

Author:September Thomas [Thomas, September]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2019-12-02T22:00:00+00:00

Search for me deep

It won’t be wrong.

Your soul I will keep

Down where it belongs.

Come on in, the water is cool.

You know you want to.

For who’s to call you the fool?

Words laced with spiders and ghosts and hidden crevices and cliffs begging you to jump.

A sound, a poem, a voice I’d never heard before, but one I felt compelled to find. Of their own volition, my feet wound through hallways I didn’t recognize before pausing in front of the clear wall of glass to the indoor pool. That’s where I faltered, barely able to take in the scene before me.

A horse, big as a Clydesdale and dark as chocolate stout, stood in the shallow end. Seaweed and slime dripped from its luscious, shaggy coat. Its mane and tail hung in tatters, tangled with sticks and kelp and broken pieces of shell. Eyes burning bright as the sun glowed from deep inside its magnificent head as it faced the deep end of the pool where a young, blonde woman treaded water. Occasionally she’d slip beneath the surface, face strangely calm, as her strength waned. A trail of clothing similar to the hotel uniforms led from the door of the pool to the ladder.

The horse was the source of the music.

I sprinted for the door. I tugged and twisted the handle, but it wouldn’t open. I slammed my shoulder against the glass, trying to smash it, anything that would get me inside that room. I couldn’t see any ripples across the top of the water, no bubbles, no movement indicating a person’s natural struggle to resurface. I fumbled for my magic but I couldn’t think, couldn’t grasp it, the strands slipping through my hold.

She was going to drown.

Someone was going to drown in front of me. Someone was going to die again, and this thing was responsible. And there wasn’t anything I could do.

A scream, shrill and long and wrenching, ripped from deep in my soul, pulled from that void of blackness I’d thought I’d pushed back. A siren’s scream, as Ryder would later inform me, a cousin to the mermaid that eagerly dragged sailors to the bottom of the sea and cut out their bloody, beating hearts. A shrill scream that, according to legend, shattered glass. And legend didn’t fail me now. The windows surrounding three of four sides of the pool shattered at once, glass spraying in all directions.

Small shards dug into my hands as I pulled myself up, but I didn’t notice the pain. I followed Ryder across the broken pieces. A stream of slick, red blood trailed from one of his ears. The horse’s head turned from the water, fixing me in its unworldly stare. I barely registered the splash as Ryder dived in and hoisted the woman up.

“Whatever you are, you don’t belong here,” I told it, the words sounding broken to my ears. I raised my arm, drawing on what remained of my reserves, finally in control. Water swirled in the pool, reacting to my unspoken command, ready to blast the beast into the next realm.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.