From the Abyss part.01

   The research vessel bobs up and down on the waves of the gulf. The day’s weather had started off perfectly calm. The captain, a typical sea faring man of many years, including his beard that he only wears to fit the look despite his somewhat youthful age picks up the radio, “it’s starting to get choppy up here and there’s a storm rolling in, you guys will need to come up now.”

 

   The woman and the man standing nearby are not happy to hear that as they monitor the screens coming from the submersible.

 

   Deep below the research vessel tethered to it by a line another man and woman, an oddly gender even group of scientists not counting the kid who is still in the cabin from being sea sick who only came along for college credit and the captain plus three deck hands; receive the call.

 

  “Five more minutes,” says the man below on the radio, “you guys have to see this,”

 

  He pans the submersible’s cameras to a passive underwater pyramid.

 

  “The laser grid says its larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza,” says the woman down there.

 

  “That’s nice docs,” says the captain, “and I’ve marked this spot on the GPS, but there IS a storm coming in and unless you want the boat swaying about to smash you lot against Atlantis,”

 

   “Please don’t say that word,” says the woman on the boat, “if our backers heard that they’d pull out in an instant.”

 

  “Yeah,” says the man, “its an instant funding killer. People hear Atlantis and they suddenly fear for their reputations. Its more like a lost civilizations of the Mezo Americans that ended up underwater as sea levels rose…although, the sea should have risen over this area much longer ago than there were people around here. This find could,”

 

  “Here comes the clouds,” says the captain as the heaving boat knocks some equipment around,

“I’m pulling you lot in.”

 

   He switches channels to the deck, “pull them in boys,”

  “Say goodbye Liz,” says the man in the submersible, “you know how it is with these deep sea finds, we might never see this place again, not if the storm keeps up for tomorrow, and knowing the Cuban government.”

 

   Liz turns on the external speaker, “Good bye, hope we meet again,” and gives the professor a smile. As her voice rings out into the open sea a pink flash zips by the window and the submersible suddenly shakes back and forth.

 

   “it really is getting choppy down here,” says Liz.

 

   ******

 

    “What is that thing?” asks the college student coming from his room pointing at the submersible as it is lifted from the water, Liz and the professor already on board.

 

   Squirming from the top of the yellow submersible is a pink gelatinous mass covered in tentacles about the size of a soccer ball.

 

   “Some kind of Sea pig?” offers Dan, the scientist who had been onboard the ship.

 

  “No,” says Frankie, the other female scientist who had been onboard the ship, “look at its tentacles, its definitely some kind of cephalopod, but…I can’t make out a head, and oh my god did you see that?”

 

  It is retracting some tentacles into an unseen mass and producing thicker ones as it climbs down the side of the submersible. It *plops* off the submersible onto the deck and inflates a bit like bubblegum before letting out a horrid fart of a noise and smell.

 

  “The pressure,” says the professor, “it must have latched onto the submersible while we were submerged, a shame, it looks like it could be a new species.”

 

   “Get the net,” says the captain to his two men, “put it in the pressure tank.”

 

  The four scientists and the college student give him a questioning look.

 

  “This is a research vessel,” says the captain, “normally the university sends out ichthyologists to study sea life and bring back live samples. I’m sure they would appreciate it, even if this was an archaeological mission, if we brought back a live specimen of a new species and not just another dead one to rot away in formaldehyde for them to ponder over till a live one can be studied.”

 

   The two deckhands scoop the creature up as it writhes about in the net and transport it below deck to a pressure tank all ready for deep sea life.

 

   “Huh,” says Liz, “that was convenient.”

 

  The creature starts to squirm about, the two men barely able to hold it as they dump it into the tank. In the water it sinks to the bottom as they all watch it, it starts to swim about like a corkscrew of tentacles as the boat suddenly heaves.

 

   “Freak show’s over,” says the captain, “we have to get back to shore.”

 

    ******

 

       That night as they head back to shore the scientists celebrate, a bit of bubbly with the crew minus the captain over finding and tagging an ancient ruin and the hopes of coming back soon. They don’t see as one of the crew mates slips something into their drinks. Before long they are talking about feeling tired and heading off to sleep in their bunks.

 

   Not long after they are asleep in their cozy bunk, the overly lavish sleeping quarters for the researchers complete with computers and personal cots in this oversized research vessel, the two crew members are talking to the captain.

 

   “We should dump them over the side,” says one of the crew.

 

  “They have disturbed the temple of Ichthurga, the mad god no doubt sent that monster to kill us all in our sleep.”

 

    “Think,” says the captain, “if we kill all five of them, it will be impossible to make it look like an accident. No doubt that shoggoth was just something awakened by their disturbing the temple. The high priest will know what to do about this. We just need to make a little detour there, say the weather knocked us off course, leave the details to the high priest on how to handle the heavens.”

 

     ******

 

    The lid is tight on the pressure tank, not so tight that something doesn’t start to silently ooze out the side of it. Slipping like wet mucus, pressing its body nearly as thin as paper it oozes out the side, although nearly the whole side seems to be covered in a thin layer of pink goop it still appears as if the whole body is inside the tank. The thin membrane starts to thicken up near the tip into a tentacle that smashes against the controls the crew used earlier to seal the tank. It releases the seal and quick as a whip slurps its body back into the water. It crawls from the tank slowly and *plops* onto the floor. It unravels its tentacles and starts to inflate and *farts* just as before. It takes in more air and moves its body as though breathing. The tentacles unfurl into ten tentacles with a bit of webbing between them like an octopus arranged in a circle like a shirt around a wrinkled up pink almost brain like squishy mass. It drags its self along with the tentacles and actually opens the latch handled door. It squishes up against the wall and compresses its body as it moves silently over the deck towards the rear of the ship.

 

     It stops before the door to the bunks below and stretches out a tentacle that tests the knob. Locked. It squishes a tentacle into the key hole and releases the tumblers opening the door. It pauses a moment at the entrance. It extends four tentacles that stretch and grow in size down the stairs while latching its self in place with rear suction cups. They move as though they can see through the cabin and wave about, the suction cups puckering as if somehow tasting or sensing the air in some alien manner. Sleeping on the left side of the cabin are the girls. A tentacle hovers over Liz’s sleeping body, moving silently under and over her, wrapping around her waist. Another wraps around her legs, a third under her body holding her arms up and helping support and balance her. The fourth is poised like a snake ready to strike at any movement, guarding the moving cargo.

 

   The pink mass trailed by tentacles carries Liz in her sleep clothes over the deck ever so silently. It sways her about to match the movements of the boat causing only a moment on the deck as if to contemplate where to take her or perhaps confused that no one has awakened yet. It takes her to the most secluded and silent part of the ship, the same room it had come from with the pressure tank. It lays her on the floor, its tentacles shrinking down in size to those of a giant octopus. It crawls over to Liz and crawls over her waist. She squirms a moment. The creature raises its body up impossibly for a cephalopod so its body is above her waist but not on it, propped up by the tentacles. Via some front tentacles it splits Liz’s night shirt open exposing her early 30’s chest tucked away in a white lace bra to the air, then pulls the shirt open. Two new tentacles are produced by the mass and reach out and encircle Liz’s breasts, undulating with a massaging motion as the other tentacles pull the night shirt free of her arms, Liz protests in her drugged sleep. Two new tentacles emerge below the body and crawl into Liz’s pants and push under the straps of her panties. The thick wet pressure on Liz’s labia makes her moan out, “not now fred, I’m sleeping”

 

   As one pair of tentacles pulls her pants down another behind them wraps around her legs, twisting so the suction cups fasten to the floor under them. Another pair moves under her back and criss-crosses over her abdomen the tips of them pulling down on her bra freeing her nipples which harden in the cool air. The tips of those two tentacles hover over her tits as another outside pair reaches out and wraps around her arms, a thinner pair than around the legs, or at least shrunken down as such. The wrinkled mass changes, like clothes being unfurled tucked into its self, or a balloon being inflated or some odd mix of the two. It expands into a shape like that of a human, the head a caricature of human with no hair and a face with no openings, the shape is clearly feminine, and breasts expand on the body including imitation nipples but all uniform in color. Human arms with human fingers unfurl and stiffen to match the shape and definition of Liz’s well exercised physique.

 

   The two tentacles above the nipples lower and suction onto them applying a constant gentle suction as if trying to milk her empty breasts. The creature lowers its body and fastens its self to the floor over her waist. Something else, like a tentacle without suction cups rubs against her clit and labia. The constant probing wet thing and the suction on her breasts is more than her drugged mind can take and her eyes open, slightly. She sees the fuzzy image of a woman over her.

 

   “Frankie?” she mumbles, “what…mmm…wha…what arou…are you…do…oh…right there…”

 

   She shakes her head trying to clear it as the sexual pleasures on her body, odd feeling of being bound, and drugged mental state confuse her. As she stares into a hazed blank she does not see that the face of this creature is breathing in and out, hardening under the skin, as is the upper body taking on a more stable human shape, imitating ribs, jaw structure, skull shape, the mouth and eyes slit open, pouring out a clear fluid that drips like tears. With an intake of breath nostrils pop into existence sucking in the flesh. Something moves inside the body making it huff and heave about, this added pressure makes the odd tentacle slip into Liz’s pussy past her neither lips.

 

   This sudden intrusion makes her gasp in surprise followed by a loud moan as the suction cups tug on her tits, the other tentacles massaging the underside and sides of her breasts as they do. The thing inside her vagina squirms about making her drugged body writhe in pleasure even as her mind tries its best to become lucid. Teeth, very sharp needle teeth form in the creatures new mouth even as its takes on human lips which redden unlike the pink body. The new eyelids open to reveal eyes although not human eyes, they are the rectangular eyes of cephalopod. The back of the head splits open like some odd mouth and numerous small pink suction cupped tentacles squirm out and the neck like some crude imitation of hair.

 

   The creatures squirms its body, like shaking its hips as the tentacle inside Liz’s pussy thickens and begins to pump in a rhythmic fashion matching the suction cups on her nipples. Liz huff’s in unison with the rythem, “huh….huhhh…huhhhh,” faster and faster before reaching that final orgasm, “yessssss!” So loud that the captain and the crew members heard it, yet the thickness of the internal hulls keeps the sound from being too loud in the bunks.

 

   The orgasm is so strong that it actually shakes Liz awake, her mind dreamy for a moment thinking it a dream. The thing in her pussy is still there, and still thick, only now not moving. The suction cups on her nipples release them and hover above them.

 

   Liz opens her eyes blinks, and screams. She tries to struggle, but she is securely fastened to the floor. In a flash two things happen, the creature bends down, revealing to Liz that its body is easily double her own in size, and puts its hand over her terrified mouth making a *shush* motion, and second the captain and one crew member appear at the door. The other crew member is at the bunks pointing a gun at the now awakening scientists and accompanying student.

 

   The captain and crew member bow their heads, “great god of madness Ichthuga, we did not know it was you our lord.”

 

   The creature smiles and gestures for the crew member to come over to her as she straightens her body up, stills fully fastened to Liz on the floor. It fondles one tit with a now clawed hand and lets a long tentacle of a tongue, clearly a tentacle minus suction cups acting as a tongue, snake from its mouth with a *hiss* and encircle her other breast.

 

   The man walks over and the creature faster than the blink of an eye, at bullet speed opens its mouth insanely wide, pulls the tongue back in, and snaps onto his upper body. It drags his bleeding flesh, pierced by the extending needle teeth into the air. Liz is horrified as its head and neck expand while pulling the crew mate’s body into her own in pulses. Liz wishes she could run especially as with each pulse of pulling the body in, that phallic tentacle pulses against her womb.

 

   Liz stares in wide eyed horror after the body fully falls into what she imagines she an organless cavity inside the body as the man is still alive and struggles against the stretchy walls. This horror is short lived, followed by another as the creature corkscrews her whole body, except for the tentacles and lower structures, back into the ball mass, the sound of a body being crushed under intense pressure is all too obvious. The creature then unscrews its upper body back into the humanoid shape, much faster than before, almost instantly, as if before it were just wakeing up and is now fully stretched out…and has had her breakfast. Liz worries that she is next.

 

   “Noooo,” blows out the creature like the wind.

 

 “I..Ichthuga….sp…spe….speaks,” says the captain terrified yet not running away.

 

  The creature turns to him, “language, I ate his language,”

 

  It smiles at him, “knowledge,”

 

  Liz notices despite her situation that the lips don’t match the words, more like how a parrot speaks than a human, coming from the throat not the mouth, teeth, and tongue.

 

  “Not…Ichthuga…ate…Ichthuga….”

 

  It smiles at him, and gestures for him to come over.

 

  The captain shakes his head and backs away.

 

  A long tentacle shoots out from the body and expands behind the captain.

 

  “Help!” screams the captain, “get me…”

 

  The creatures knocks him against the wall with a *thud* knocking him out.

 

  The creatures looks sickly a moment and fully releases Liz who tries to stand tripping over some retracting tentacles, and the slippery floor. Liz sees that the creature is backing towards the door and does her best to move to the opposite end of the room, mental images of octopi taking crabs from jaws coming to mind with the words “nowhere to hide” leaping about her cranium.

 

  The creature vomits by the door, a chili like chunky mass that used to be a man.

 

  “Gross,” says the creature, “nasty human, want fish…”

 

   Liz vomits loudly at the sight before her.

 

  It looks at Liz, “want milk…”

 

  “I…I…” stammers Liz trying to move opposite the creature around the pool as it moves only for something to occur to her at the last and too late of a second as a tentacle wraps around her. As the creature moved in one direction, it extended some tentacles in the other.

 

 

   It pulls her over and lays her back on the floor wrapping around her the same way as before, this time with Liz fully awake to experience the oddly sensual binding sensation of this warm yet slippery creature.

 

   As it hovers it tentacles over her tits Liz notices that the suction cups open up like small mouths as they lower.

 

   “Wait!” screams Liz, “I don’t have any milk!”

 

   “What the fuck is going on in here?” screams the last crew member as he comes around the door.

 

   “No more interruptions!” yells the creature, its arms stretching out like a tentacle, barely

missing the man as it grabs the door and slams it shut. Its fingers are smashed in the door, however they simply flatten and pull free.

 

   In the dim light of this room the creature begins to glow in various colors.

 

   “biolumi…oh god,” as Liz is talking the phallic tentacle inserts its self again.

 

  The suction cups lower on her breasts again. Liz can’t be certain she isn’t going crazy from some drug she was slipped as the creature resumes its previous fucking, which is all Liz can assume it’s doing.

 

   “I…oh god…I…I…stop….oh god…I…don’t….sweet jesus….I…no….milk.”

 

  The creature stops and bends down and says in a serious tone, “why…not.”

 

  “I’m not pregnant,”

 

  “Don’t need to be, just need right hormone.”

 

  Liz shakes her head, despite her situation she just stares wide eyed at the creature. This creature, obviously what they found earlier, that is rapeing her like a Japanese cartoon character (yes she knows about this stuff), that shape shifted, killed one, possibly two men as the captain has to have a concussion and is unconscious with it, apparently eating…

 

  “Knowledge…” says Liz, “you ate that guy’s knowledge…right…he, oh dear god,”

 

  It pushes its phallic tentacle in further and wider and begins to pump a fluid into her.

 

  “No,” says the creature, “knew…biology…already…just needed…language…”

 

  The phallic tentacle pumps vigorously, as what feel like tiny tongues come from the suction cups and lick around her areola as they pump on her.

 

   “You will,” says the creature, “make milk…in…a…few…”

 

  The creature is clearly enjoying its self and writes about on her body, “daysssss.”

 

  The phallic tentacle pulsates a few times, it feels like its shooting something else into her. The creature releases it tentacles from Liz’s breasts and arms, but keeps her body and legs pinned down as he bends its humanoid part down and lays its breasts on Liz’s own and apparently goes to sleep on her.

 

   “Seriously,” says Liz, “what the fuck.”

 

  She squirms a little trying to get free.

 

  “Island,” murmurs the creature, “food, milk….isles and isles of milk…and women and men…”

 

  Liz is just dumbfounded as she lies there, wandering not just what is happening with this creature, but with this strangely innocent, albeit terrifying creature asleep on her she feels a little safe as she realizes the captain and crew must have drugged her and intended to kill them all for something called Icthuga. She wanders what has come of her friends.

 

    ******

 

   A moment earlier the crew member returned to the bunks where the college student has been holding everyone hostage at gun point.

 

   “Where is everyone?” asks the college student.

 

  “Icthuga woke up hungry,” says the man, “the captain and Juan didn’t make it. If we had know we would have dragged this bunch in there while they slept.”

 

   “where is Liz?” asks the professor.

 

  “Did I say you could fucking talk!” yells the college student.

 

  “Justin,” says Frankie

 

  “What is teach?” says Justin, “want to talk on and on about ancient civilizations? You don’t know shit about what’s down there, where the Great Old Ones sleep.”

 

   “Those are just stories,” says Dan

 

  “Not just stories,” says the crew mate, “only part of the story, bits and pieces interpreted by a single man, no one man can know the whole truth, only parts are revealed to us. My people, before the white man came to our islands, we knew about Icthuga, who sleeps in the sea. Oh yes, its real. We thought it was just a monster from the temple, but I saw it, it ate…it ate Hamenez, he would be glad to give his life for our god, the captain was dead, oh…and it was in the process of eating your fellow heathen.”

 

   Frankie gasps and turns to Dan in tears. Dan and the professor glare at them.

 

  “Glare all you want,” says Juan, “when we get to the island, you will see the truth.”

 

  “Guard them,” says Juan, “I have to stir the boat.”

 Justin smiles, “you talk you die, I don’t want to hear shit out of any of you, oh and we took the satellite dish down, so no calling for help.”

 

   He shuts the door to the bunks and stands outside. His eyes wander though…down the deck towards the tank room, where he was told right now and ancient god, a creature of stories and rituals done around pentagrams with his cult back in college, is right now. His cult had been approached by the real deal when they managed to actually summon something, something that started a fire that killed three people. Coming here was for that, the sunken temple of the Hyperboreans, the age of magic and living gods, when demons roamed the Earth. Now something from that age was right onboard this ship, it had come up from the sunken city, and was inside that room no more than twenty feet away. It is a huge expensive boat for a research vessel, Justin assumes the money is part cult part university. But that is something he wandered like a week ago, now he is just trying to distract himself from wanting to see what a real Old One looks like.

 

    ******

 

    In the bunks Frankie stops sobbing, “maybe…maybe they are pirates, and were just trying to scare us,” she offers through tear filled eyes, “so that means Liz…Liz could be…what do they plan to do with us?”

 

   Dan says, “It sounded like they think that animal that we dragged up with us is some kind of local god or something, what was Justin spouting on about though.”

 

   “Lovecraft,” says the professor, “from the sound of it, it sounds like he thinks that animal was some fictional creature dreamed up by a writer from over a century ago.”

 

   “that’s right,” says Frankie, “he told me in class once that’s what got him interested in archaeology, the stories about human civilizations from before written records. He believed humans might have had civilizations a lot further back than we currently believe. But I could have sworn he said he didn’t believe what was in those books word for word.”

 

   “kid fell into a bad crowd probably,” says Dan.

 

  “No excuses,” says the professor, “it sounded like that animal attacked two of the crew members and Liz, or these cultists sacrificed her to it.”

 

   Frankie just stares at the professor in disbelief.

 

  “Sorry,” he says, “but we have to keep our heads on straight, no trying to relate to our captors, no excuses, none of that Stockholm syndrome bullshit. We need to assess the situation rationally and not do anything to antagonize them until we can find a way to either get free, call for help, or their bosses ransom us off.”

 

   Dan and Frankie just blink at him.

 

  “Not my first time being kidnapped by pirates while in the field. This job can take you to some dangerous places and situations sometimes, just…didn’t think this would be one of them.”

 

   “Hold on,” says Dan, “its only two guys, we have them out numbered,”

 

  “three scientists,” says the professor, “two middle aged, one a senior, are going to take down a twenty something kid, and a seaman, both of whom are armed? No, stick with…”

 

   They hear something scrapping against the door that draws their attention, thoughts of a giant squid on the hull run through their minds.

 

   “There’s nowhere to run,” says Justin from outside, “so don’t even think to try and get out.”

 

  “I think he just jammed the door shut,” says Dan.

 

  “Why bother?” asks the professor.

 

    ******

 

    Justin sneaks his way down the side of the ship to the tank room. He as silently as he can turns the wheel unlocking the room and steps inside.

 

   “Shit!” he exclaims as he slips on something on the floor and falls on his ass.

 

  He looks around, there is no creature, no Liz, only this foul smelling red chunky gunk on the floor now caking his pants and back of his shirt and the captain lying nearby.

 

  “Captain Ron,” shouts out Justin getting up and rushing over.

 

  A soft, “shhh” escapes the captain’s lips followed by a whisper, “get me out of here,”

 

  “What’s wrong?” asks Justin followed by the captain *shushing* him again, “it’s still in here,

other side of the tank, it dragged that woman away, pull me out of here, quietly.”

 

   Justin starts to drag the captain towards the door, the captain grimaces and nearly shouts forcing himself to bite onto his lip so hard that he draws blood.

 

   “Oh shit,” says Justin noticing the captain’s leg is bent in a very un-natural way. Justin pulls out a rag and says, “bite onto this sir,”

 

   The captain takes it, his fingers barely responding and his wrist swollen and gags himself with it.

 

  “Where is Hermenez?” asks Justin in a whisper trying more to distract the captain as he drags him over the threshold of the door.

 

   “You’re wearing him,” growls the captain through the rag.

 

    “holy shit,” thinks Justin trying not to vomit.

 

    As Justin drags the captain out of the door Juan comes around the side, “what the fuck are you doing?”

 

  Juan stops seeing the captain glaring up at him, “Sir! Your alive!”

 

  “Close the door,” says the captain frantically after spitting the rag out and his legs are clear,

“close the door, close the door, close that fucking door!”

 

  Juan rushes over and slams the door and locks it tight.

 

  They don’t see the eyes of the creature shooting open from the sudden sound and it holding its hand over Liz’s mouth as it smiles.

 

  “I thought the shoggoth got you,” says Juan.

 

  “Not…a…shoggoth,” huffs the captain in pain, “get me…to the infirmary, and get one of those fucking doctors before I pass…out again.”

   

 

    ******

 

     “I’m not that kind of doctor,” says the professor as he is held at gunpoint in the infirmary onboard the ship, a small nurses office really.

 

   “I better try,” growls the captain.

 

   A moment earlier the three scientists had been met at gunpoint by Justin demanding one of them patch up the captain, who apparently was alive.

 

   “I…okay, I did do some field work and know a few things, no more than you guys should really,”

 

   “I can’t patch myself up,” says the captain lying his head back.

 

   “Well,” says the professor, “If I had to guess I’d say given that bump on your head you at least have a mild concussion, clearly a broken leg, and a sprained or broken wrist, and if what you say is true,”

 

   “It is,” practically hisses Juan who is holding the professor at gun point.

 

  “Then,” says the professor, “I’d go to a real hospital and see a real doctor as soon as possible because you likely have something wrong with your back and probably a few other bones and internal organs.”

 

 

   “splint my leg,” says the captain to Juan, “Justin, escort our guests to the tank room and lock them in. Our prized guest can have a little snack during the trip.”

   

     ******

 

     “You don’t have to do this Justin.” says Frankie.

 

   “Shut up and walk teach,” is all he says.

 

  The professor gestures to Frankie to be quiet.

 

  “Open it,” says Justin pointing his gun at Dan.

 

  After Dan opens the door he gestures for the three scientists to enter. As they walk inside, Justin right behind them they don’t notice a rippling, something strange above the door against the darkened ceiling.

 

   “My God,” says Frankie, “what is that smell,”

 

  “Dead guy on the floor,” says Justine, “that monster ate Hermenez and spit his crushed up body back out. Have fun with the Deep One…oh, before I go.”

 

   He smiles as he backs up, “the captain said it was fucking Doctor Carter, so have fun with that…Frankie.”

 

   A sudden motion, a rippling in the air smashes into Justin throwing him forward into the three scientists knocking them all onto the floor, quick as a flash they hear the door close and lock. Dan not thinking makes a grab for the gun as it rolls across the floor. He grabs it up and aims it at Justin.

 

   “Don’t shoot that in here,” says the professor, “the bullet could ricochet off these steel walls.”

 

   “I won’t miss then,” says Dan.

 

  “Hey…” says Justin backing up to the door, “come on guys…it’s a joke see…nothing…”

 

  The door wont open and a massive tentacle bangs against the outside visible through the

porthole.

 

   “Holy fuck!” shouts Justin backing away from the door.

 

  “What the fuck was that?” asks Dan.

 

  “She…” says Liz coming around the tank wobbly legged, “heh…oh man.”

 

  “Liz!” shouts out Frankie rushing over and hugging her, “I thought you were dead,” tears rolls down her face.

 

   “Paramalia,” says Liz who sits in a chair by a monitor against the wall.

 

   “What?” asks the professor, Dan and Justin are having a staring contest as Dan holds the gun.

 

  “That’s her name.” says Liz with a forced smile, “Paramalia, daughter of Echidaria, granddaughter of Albiornesh, she who was unleash onto the ancient city of Taban, who ate the fish god Ichthurga and was sealed by the cosmic ones in his place until the seal was worn away by the passage of time when the awakening of the forgotten gods would begin.”

 

   “What?” asks Frankie.

 

  Liz smiles, “oh…oh boy, she told me her life story.”

 

  “It speaks English?” asks the Professor.

 

  Liz turns pale, “It…she…at that guy, she said she learned our language from eating him.”

 

   “Guess it speaks Spanish too then,” says the professor whose non-chalant tone disturbs the others slightly.

 

   “A lie,” says Justin, “I’ve never heard of any Parama whatever or Albiore net, they aren’t in the mythos and they aren’t in the expanded pantheon revealed to me by the faithful, ergo they don’t exist.”

 

  “The dead guy on the floor would disagree,” says Liz, her eyes filled with hate towards Justin.

 

 “Hold on,” says the professor, “it…can speak? I am still getting my head around that, so it’s intelligent, that means we can reason with it.”

 

   Liz tugs on her loose clothing that she had scooped off the floor earlier, “speak…yes, intelligent….hell yeah…reason with it…I doubt it…it…they.”

 

  “We know these guys tried to sacrifice you to it,” says Frankie putting her hands on Liz’s lap trying to reassure her, “so,”

 

   “No,” says Liz looking her head in the eyes, “they didn’t…it…she, came to our bunks on her own, she took me asleep from the room on her own, brought me back here to the most secluded part of the ship and….raped me in my sleep…” she tugs her clothes and oddly blushes, “and again when I was awake…”

 

   Liz looks queasy, “while it killed that man, I could…” she remembers feeling the motion above her, of the pressure of the man’s last breath and body being crushed. She lunges from the chair and dry heaves on the floor before puking up a little bile.

 

    ******

 

    The captain is trying not to sleep as the boat rocks about, the storm starting to come in. Through blurry eyes he sees the shadow at the door.

 

   “Juan?” he asks peering through squinted lids. He speaks no more as he is grabbed, neck broken among other bones in the blink of an eye and his body tossed unceremoniously overboard

via a window broken by his corpse.

 

   “Captain!” yells out Juan actually releasing the wheel as he runs in the direction of the sound. He sees the monster, the creature called Paramalia, this impossibly huge thing practically filling up the infirmary.

 

  “By Azathoth,” says Juan, “die Deep one! Traitor!”

 

  He pulls his gun out and fires.

 

  Paramalia flinches at the unfamiliar sound. The bullets however do not even pierce her sponge like malleable flesh and merely bounce off. She is bewildered but a moment as she tastes the desire for violence in the air. With a single whip smack of a tentacle she sends him flying through the door and over the side into the rising waves.

 

     ******

 

     *ka clink*

 

    The door to the tank room opens, in slides Paramalia.

 

    “Shit, shit, shit, shit,” says Justin over and over again trying to keep his distance going around the tank.

 

   “Dear god in heaven.” The professor

 

  “Die tentacle monster!” yells out Dan, the words feeling funny in his mouth in this surreal moment.

 

  He doesn’t have time to pull the trigger as a whip lash of movement strikes his hand sending the gun flying across the room over the tank.

 

  “Ah,…gah….maa….” a scream doesn’t even escape from Dan’s mouth, his body more in shock than anything as he hugs his hands against his body, his fingers twisted and broken from the force of the impact.

 

   Paramalia rises up, expanding her body to a terrifying size. She reaches back with a tentacle and closes the door, smashing the tentacle in it. The part outside is able to hold its shape to lock the door and still be able to compress and squeeze through the nearly water tight space.

 

   “Incredible,” says the professor despite himself.

 

  Paramalia flares out her tentacles and opens her fang filled mouth wide.

 

  “Please don’t!” yells out Liz, “Paramalia…please, they’re my friends,”

 

  Paramalia shrinks her mouth down to its human like state with a rolling growl, and stares at Dan and the professor with her cephalopod eyes, “too weak,” she says looking at the professor, “ too polluted in spirit and mind,”

 

   She looks at Dan, “filled with hatred, tried to attack me,”

 

  She rolls a growl before saying, “they are unworthy of me as priests or….fuck toys…no…”

 

   Paramalia looks confused, the terms she wants is not in the language she learned.

 

   A gunshot rings out and the professor falls over. Frankie and Liz scream.

 

     “Everyone just stand still,” says Justin, “you…you too,” he stutters looking at the massive monstrosity before him, “deep….deep one…or I’lll….”

 

   He turns the gun towards Liz and Frankie, “I’ll shoot your mates, that’s right, I can’t hurt a deep one, but you want to breed with human kind right? Well unless you let me out of here…ahhhh!”

 

   A sneaky tentacle grabs around his ankle, it had camouflaged its color along the floor, and knocks his head against the steel floor and drags him over to her. He drops the gun as he is dragged.

 

   “young and virile,” says Paramalia, “a bit confused like that other one was.”

 

   She lifts him in the air with a tentacle around his ankle.

 

   The Professor spurts up blood as Frankie and Liz try to life him up.

 

   Dan can’t even feel his hands anymore, his whole body is feeling cold.

 

  Paramalia rips off Justin’s pants with her claws as she lifts his waist to her head height.

 

  She slices into his flesh slightly, the wounds are shallow, like paper cuts or cat scratches. As she dangles him there her tentacle for a tongue snakes out and licks around his ball sack, circling around between his legs and pressing into the soft flesh. The sudden warm pressure makes Justin erect. In one quick slurp she takes his entire member easily into her mouth. Her tongue wrapping around his dick. Her suction is so strong and her tongue so forceful he is afraid she is about to rip it off. She steadies him with her hands as she sucks on him.

 

     Frankie looks at Liz in bewilderment, as if Liz has all the answers.

 

   “Please,” says Liz speaking to Paramalia, “we have to help them, Dan and Professor O’Bleck, I…please…” she starts to cry.

 

    Paramalia pulls her head back releasing Justin’s dick from her mouth, but not her tongue’s embrace and speaks from within her throat, “why?”

 

    “Why?!” shouts out Liz, “because they’re human beings, good human beings, they don’t deserve to die like this!”

 

   Dan is on his side gasping for breath and turning pale.

 

   Paramalia turns her head, still not releasing Justin’s dick which she now just holds with her tentacle tongue.

 

   Paramalia eyes Dan and says, “weakling, I have seen men’s arms ripped off and they walk away, arrows and spears embedded in their bodies…how soft and frail this man is.”

 

   “That’s not the point!” yells out Liz.

 

  Paramalia looks at Liz and her eyes move over to Frankie who is trying not to look at her and only at Liz in hope.

 

   “come to me willingly,” says Paramalia surprising Liz.

 

  “both of you, come to me willingly, give me your bodies, minds, and souls, be my priestesses and concubines…yes, that is it, and I will save these men, they too must serve me.”

 

   Liz looks at Frankie who in turn looks at the professor and Dan and whispers, “how is this willingly? Its this or they die.”

 

   Justin says in hardened breath, “don’t stop bitch.”

 

  Paramalia withdraws her tongue and drops him on his head giving him a sprained neck and knocking him unconscious.

 

  She turns completely and says directly to Frankie, “you will live, they will die, or you will live and they will live, it is not a choice less bargain. Either way you will be mine.”

 

   Frankie takes a deep breath, “fine, Liz…” she looks at Liz for comfort.

 

  Liz hugs Frankie tightly and whispers in her ear, “it’s not that bad…she is nice, in her own way, she’s just a hundred thousand years out of touch.”

 

  Liz nods at Paramalia.

 

  “The bargain is struck,” says Paramalia as her body glows white, the room filling with the ethereal light. The light expands, ignoring matter as it glows over the ship.