Sun Kissed Innsmouth
Part Ninety Two
“It wants me to hurt the people at Rotary house, it wants me to destroy that place. Is that what it wanted you to do?”
Jacqueline kept on walking behind Felecia, the old woman started doing that back at the beach after the boat and had continued doing so ever since. Felecia wound up leading them to the meadow and then leading them back. The old woman didn’t speak up, not until Felecia stopped and began staring at her.
“Remember what I told you about asking me the obvious?”
“So you chose not to do it. You chose to stay in that cave and read books and make potions and powders instead.”
Jacqueline took out a full water skin and drank from it before choosing how best to respond. “I chose life, girl. I chose my Abe and the future. After that, I chose to survive.”
“Is that why it’s still here though? You gave me the books, told me to read them, really read them, and I did. Are we all so cursed because no one has turned that place to ash?”
Jacqueline took another drink of water, swished it in her mouth and spat in disgust. “Aren’t we all cursed then? Murder ain’t the only answer to a human problem, girl!”
A test? A chance? A way out or worse, a way in?
Jacqueline’s view of the world seemed obvious; it always had been. Trying to view the world through the old woman’s eyes wouldn’t do though. It felt impossible to try and view the world after her meeting with the creature of the deep, Felecia was just as confused if not more so than before that fateful day.
They walked back to the cave and deposited their gear in the usual place before retiring to the bed they still shared. Jacqueline laid down and grimaced and grunted as her ancient body settled into the straw and feathers. She traced along the familiar and narrow book case above her head before her fingers traveled over to the larger, longer set of musty tomes beside them as they both laid there. The old woman pulled a significant volume and placed it gently at Felecia’s feet. “This one is about plants, more plants than you know about now, it tells you how to use them all. This one you can’t just read through, you gotta go find the plants and make the recipes yourself.”
Felecia looked down at the massive tome and shrugged. “Why bother, none of this matters, not you or me or the animals in the swamp, not even the thing out in the waves. We are all temporary, when we die, there is will be nothing left but grave markers and tin types to say we were here.”
Jacqueline opened up the book she had been reading, one of the ones written in the nonsense burble, gurgle language and spared a look at its vanilla scented pages before she shut it. “So its legacy you’re worried about then?”
Felecia thought about the question but ultimately shook her head. “I’m young still, I know that, maybe the want to leave something behind only comes with age. I’ve never worried about legacy, or what comes after, not before today.”
“How does today change things. There is nothing beyond this. It showed you the reality of this world. Shouldn’t that make you want to do all you can, here and now?”
Felecia wanted to go back to their previous conversation, she wanted clarity from Jacqueline knowing full well that she would never get it. “Just be honest with me, do you think that thing sticks around because neither of us said yes?”
“That thing, is a god. Gods don’t waste time dabbling in favors or making requests. That thing, isn’t going anywhere, regardless of what you do, and how dare you for assuming it would. That thing, is part of our heritage, the sooner you accept that, the sooner you can move on to doing what you were meant to do from the beginning.”
Felecia nudged the thick tome she had yet to pick up, “Don’t tell me, I was meant to read this and do as you say.”
Nana would have smiled and said yes, Nana would have given Felecia the easy win by showing her teeth and at least pretending to be pleased. It was hard not to use old tactics on Nana’s doppelganger. Jacqueline only grimaced and opened up the thick tome she had been trying to read before Felecia interrupted her. “Hell no, I’m no master, not of you or anyone else. You’re meant to do whatever the hell you want to do. None of this matters anyway, remember?”