Sun Kissed Innsmouth
Part 150
“Jacquo.”
Felecia nearly whispered and the youth ducked away from the word as if slapped by it.
A few moments of silence were left in reserve while Felecia waited for the youth to say something, anything.
“Jacquo.”
“What is it. He keeps on saying that word and then talks to dead people or the walls besides for hours.”
Felecia didn’t know how to answer that question. There was no explaining the monster that waited out in the bay, no describing how it fed on the soul, on the mind, how it supped on ones consciousness until there was nothing left to suck at or chew on. One had to bear witness to the tentacles, eyes, and teeth beyond all counting.
There would be no helping Phillip, there was no helping Jacqueline, no saving themselves or herself besides. Only either doing the monsters bidding or not, either playing her part in the endless droning play or listening to the screams besides.
“Give me an hour, I need to gather some things.”
The youth didn’t ask after the mystery name or argue the reason for Felecia’s sudden change of heart. Phillip’s boy was a boy all the way, stubborn, dull witted, singular both in purpose and intelligence. The youth was getting his way, that’s all that mattered to him.
Felecia wasn’t though. She began preparing her things and packing up her plants and fungus both fresh and dried with all the zeal of a sulking teen being forced to pack their once loved toys up in a box to be given away. The cave wasn’t much, hell it was next to nothing, but it was hers, she had fought for it and done so without playing the monsters game. Suddenly she was giving in, and not just a little, this was all the way. Felecia didn’t need to wonder when she would see the cave again, she knew she wouldn’t.
Most of the small tools and materials left around could be replaced, some dearly but none the less made or bartered for once again, with that in mind Felecia packed what she needed and what couldn’t be replaced. Most of her pack was old books, some impossibly old and even some of the heavy woodcuts besides. The old knowledges were the one she knew she couldn’t find in the library of the Big House, not anymore. Three of those books included the ones written in the ridiculous burble gurgle language. She refused to look at the things but she could never bring herself to throw them out and she suddenly knew why.
All the herbal knowledge and lay of the land aside, all the knowing of the tides and the phases of the moon aside, the ugly magic, Jacqueline’s tricks, the monsters careless lessons offered to the shaved apes that dared to walk the land, all of it would be needed.
The moon was at its zenith and already daring to disappear behind the tree line as they walked out of the swamp before the youth dared or thought to even ask.
“You sounded like your mind was made, why decide to come back with me?”
Felecia looked up at the countless stars in the sky and considered how many nights she had spent looking up at that same sky. “I finally realized I can’t avoid it, and if I try, it will just be worse.”
The youth stopped and fixed his weary eyes on Felecia as she continued to stare up at the sky. “I don’t get it.”
Felecia shrugged and walked ahead as they went deeper into the woods toward the village and Phillip’s hut. “I don’t think you’re a freak by the way, or anything unnatural. You’re a boy as far as I’m concerned, always were, always will be.”
The youth found a patch of dirt to fixate on as they walked, “Thanks, that means a lot.”
Felecia sighed and continued further along, “It wasn’t a compliment.”