Drown
Danny knows what his parents are. He’s seen things people don’t tend to see. He’s grown up around the arcane and unrealistic.
Doubting it’s reality was never something he did. Not the way his sister always tried to.
But then, Jazz had spent her early years in house, going to school and having friends, ignorant as the people they passed by. All Danny remembered was traveling.
Danny’s earliest memories were of the RV, of his parents doing government work.
That’s why Danny knew without a doubt, monsters were real. Every kind was strange and spectacular; Danny wouldn’t have minded the idea joining his parents professionally if what they did didn’t always end up so violent.
He thought of a writhing black thing, a cat with too many tongues and too many teeth, caught in a glowing green net.
He thought of seals strung up like butchers meat, skin pulling in places like a slow-falling coat.
He thought of a hydra’s fallen heads twitching, a harpoon thrust through their body.
Danny’s parents were hunters, and they hunted monsters.
This wasn’t something Danny was too-strongly opinionated about.
Sure, he didn’t like the way people would look at his parents like they were insane sometimes, and he always tried to avoid staying near the RV when things got messy. But, he got to see a lot of places. And he didn’t really feel like he was missing out on much, being homeschooled.
Really Danny’s life is good. Everything is fine.
Or at least, it was.
It was, before his parents took a boat out on sea, the shore still relatively close.
It was, before his parent caught some massive scaled thing that looked a little to human for him to be comfortable with, and he couldn’t go far as it’s screeches grew quiet, because they were on a boat.
It was, until Danny gone to the railing and focused on the waves, knowing from experience he wouldn’t throw up if rode out his nausea.
And then all of a sudden it wasn’t, because the boat was rocking, and Danny had tipped over the edge, and something much bigger than whatever his parents had caught was dragging him down, down, down.
If he didn’t panic, he might have lasted longer, but he thrashed and struggled and tried to swim up.
It was no use.
And the water filled his lungs. And the pressure filled his ears. And his throat burned as he tried to scream between each intake of water.
His eyes stung, both from the water and unshed tears, as his vision darkened.
He got one good look at the one that had pulled him down to this fate. A woman, he thought, with a salmon hide and green skin, and matted white hair.
“A child for a child.” She might have said, voice like venom.
Then everything went dark.
oOo
Danny dreamt.
He Dreamt of magic and moonlight making him new.
He dreamt of waking up, his eyes too round, taking in a world of darkness like it was made from light.
He dreamt of feeling every wave and fish around him through the twitch of whiskers.
And in that dream, he swims with flippers and tail, contorting through waters until he remembers the blinding shore. All blurry shapes and sand and sharp smells as he drags himself up.
And then he wakes up.
oOo
Danny will wake up and draw a too-far line of what were and weren’t dreams.
He will wake up and see himself shivering on the sands of a shore, his parents boat not too far in the distance, and he will think washed up on the beach after falling off the boat.
He will let himself think it was only an accident and will try to keep tears from his eyes as he thinks of drowning.
He will hug his coat comfort, only to realize he hadn’t been wearing one.
He throw the garment away from himself reflexively for its too-close resemblance to the seal skins his parents seemed so eager to destroy.
He will struggle to his feet, and try to stop turning back to see if the coat is still there, unharmed and safe.
He will receive help calling his parents back to shore, will face comfort and relief that soothes him.
He will think of how much more soothing the coat would be.
He will be wrapped up in the RV and be safe and tended to, inexplicably not sick, but he will still feel like there are a thousand grains of sand pricking his skin.
He will listen Jazz argue with their parents, unable to mediate or reassure, because all he can think of will be soft furs on a beach and a dream that felt too real.
He will wait until the dead of night, the day before they’re set to leave, and he will return to the beach.
He will dig for hours until he finds his coat.
He will feel hands running down his own skin as he gently dusts its furs clean.
He will see the spotted pattern ripple underneath his fingertips.
He will wear it and look to the sea and consider.
He will decide.
He will wrench himself away, and hide the coat so deep in his mess of clothes it’s suffocating, and try to never think of what happened to every seal his parents caught, to every cloak his parents found.
He will try not to remember dying.
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