Chapter 6
582words
It stood on a stretch of black, jagged reef. Alone, broken, abandoned.
There was no light at the top. There was only a ring of rusted iron railing silhouetted against the stormy sky.
My car died about 100 meters away. The engine started smoking. The car was done for good.
I opened the door, only to be faced with a stunningly strong gust of wind.
The air was filled with that disgusting stench of rot, much stronger than what I encountered at home. I felt as if I had jumped into a huge tank of rotting fish.
However, the gills on my neck reacted eagerly. They flared open and shut, gulping the foul air with hunger.
I even felt lighter.
Was that the effect of the Deep Sea-fication?
I was adapting to the monster's world. I staggered toward the lighthouse, boots slipping on wet stone.
The front door was wide open. Inside was pure darkness, like a mouth waiting to be fed.
"Dr. Chenowith?" I called out.
My voice echoed inside. No response came.
The only sound I heard was the cracking of shells under my feet.
I turned on the flashlight on my phone and walked up the spiral staircase. The walls were crusted with barnacles and algae. Occasionally, I saw some strange drawings, done by a black liquid of sorts.
The drawings were rather abstract, but unmistakable. There were humans and fish, bodies twisting together into tangled lines.
I understood it immediately.
That was the transformation process.
The humans warping in agony, growing scales, turning into a monster, and finally swimming into the deep sea.
The end of the drawing was a huge whirlpool. At its center was an eye like the one I saw in my dreams.
I finally arrived at the top of the lighthouse. The lantern room was circular and cramped.
In the center stood an enormous, antique radio transmitter. It looked like a relic from another century with cables snaked across the floor like dead serpents.
A man in a white coat, with his back facing me, was working the machine.
"Dr. Chenowith?" I called out tentatively.
The man paused before slowly turning around.
I gasped.
His face was half man, half fish. The left half of his face was covered in green fish scales. That eye was huge and cloudy, lidless, unblinking. His lips had receded, exposing rows of sharp teeth.
"You've made it," he said. His voice sounded like two stones grinding together.
"Quicker than I expected."
"This is the jammer that you said?" I pointed at the machine and asked, suppressing my fear.
"Jammer?" He laughed.
That half-fish face twisted into something nightmarish.
"No. This is an amplifier."
What? My mind buzzed.
"You lied to me."
"If I hadn't lied to you. How could I get you here?"
He spread his arms. Both of his hands were webbed.
He pointed at my neck and said, "Look at you. Your transformation is perfect. Your gills are fully developed. Your skin is secreting mucus. You're perfect."
"Perfect for what?"
"The God of the Seas is too huge. It can't come to shore. It needs believers. Messengers."
Dr. Chenowith's eyes gleamed maniacally.
"We are the chosen ones! We will spread the gospel of the deep seas across this rotting world!"
"You're insane."
I took a step back, fingers curling around the folding knife in my pocket.
"Insane?"
He pounced at an alarming speed and screamed, "This is called evolution!"
