Chapter 11

  "Can I just say, I'm really sorry about what happened in the alley last night." Before I could even sit down across the table from the creepy fish dude who just saved my life, I aired out my regrets. I should probably stop internally thinking about him as creepy fish dude if I really wanted to make it up to him.

  After the chaos outside had settled down, Deep Juan had escorted me into his home. The interior consisted of a table, two chairs, and a mattress on the floor. It looked like any single guy's first apartment.

  "We both did things we regret. In your defense the only time you actually hurt me was the tackle, and that was protecting your friend. It was your friend who did all the real damage." Just to air it out there, even with my Eldritch Whisperer ability, Deep Juan's voice sounded like a person gargling gravel mixed with what you would imagine a bullfrog would sound like if you stepped on it. No matter how well-spoken he might have been, it was sadly physically difficult to listen to.

  "I mean, my earlier attacks did a little damage."

  "Would it make you feel better if I acted like they did?"

  "A little..." Only a few seconds into our conversation and my pride was already reeling from Deep Juan's honesty.

  "I should apologize too. Even if you started it, I really lost my cool. It would have ended badly if you hadn't stepped in." Deep Juan, tried to make eye contact, but he discovered very quickly that avoiding eye contact is one of my god tier abilities.

  "It's not like me stopping you really benefited you that much. I mean, as much as I hate to admit it, you kind of had good reason to eliminate us... We started it and weren't letting up." When I woke up this morning, I did not imagine I'd be arguing that the creature who nearly killed Joan and I last night had reason to kill us.

  Deep Juan's fish eyes opened wider than normal, which was pretty damned wide. "You're wrong Mr Clay! If you hadn't stepped in... You saved my family, Mr Clay." Juan bowed deeply, nearly smacking his scaley forehead on the table."

  "Woah, slow down." I had never been great at receiving praise. This was even more extreme since I honestly had no idea how dots were connected to make tackling him in an alley equate to saving his family. I felt like he expected me to solve the puzzle on Wheel of Fortune when only two letters of the puzzle were filled in.

  "Yes, I guess you might be missing some information." Raising his head from the bow, he looked as if he'd be blushing if he wasn't a fish creature. "What do you know about what is going on?"

  "Assuming you're just talking about the disappearances and the existence of this settlement?" After a nod from Juan, I continued. "I know Mayor Night has been working with the people of this settlement. I know that the disappearances are really just Deep Ones leaving Marblehead to come here. I know there must be some kind of non-aggression agreement between Mayor Night and the people of this settlement. I know that when I confronted you last night, you were fleeing and had done nothing wrong."

  As I listed off the things I had pieced together on my own, the Deep One sitting across from me nodded in silence. He waited until he was certain I had finished before responding.

  "I'm surprised you figured as much out on your own. You're still missing some pretty big things, but you really found this much out without anyone telling you?"

  "I mean, I had a lot of help from the stabby lady. But we managed to get lucky on a few things during our investigation." I really hoped it never made it back to Joan that I had referred to her as the stabby lady.

  "From what I understood, it was a very well protected secret. Only town mayors and doctors were made aware. I was told not even the sheriff knew."

  "If he did, he was really good at hiding it... And even better at sending me on a wild goose chase." I all but confirmed his understanding.

  "I only really learned about this a few days ago, so I might be missing some bits of information, but every thirty years or so a couple dozen residents get a very specific illness... It's probably more accurate to call it a curse." Juan itches as his scaley arm as if remembering the events leading up to his transformation. "Nobody really knows what caused it, but normal townsfolk are transformed into... Well, you can see the results for yourself."

  I might have had my suspicions, but hearing directly from one of the victims that the disappearances had been due to humans transforming into Deep Ones still made my skin crawl. I couldn't imagine the emotions Deep Juan had experienced in the last few days.

  "If the disappearances were transformations, that would explain why the families were unaware of the situation. I had thought it might just be Deep Ones hiding within the town in disguises... But I guess that doesn't make sense because of the language barrier."

  "Mr Clay, I was actually wondering... How can you understand our language?" Juan leans forward, hoping to get an answer to something that had been bugging him.

  "It's kind of hard to explain, and I don't really fully understand it either. There are a few other humans in town called players, the stabby lady is one of them. We aren't from here." I wasn't comfortable diving into the whole transported from a different world part of the explanation. Mostly just because I wanted to keep the conversation simple without having to discuss too many pointless things. "We have different abilities given to each of us. One of my abilities allows me to speak to different creatures. I didn't even know I had it until just a few minutes ago, so you can imagine how confused I was when you started talking in the alley last night."

  "I'm sorry, I really don't understand. But I can't deny the fact you can communicate with me, so I guess it's easier to believe you than try to make sense of it." I was surprised by how down-to-earth Deep Juan really was. If he had been this way as a human, I believe we could have gotten along well. Even if he was an NPC, even as an eldritch fish monster, I could see myself being Juan's friend.

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  "So... If I'm putting things together properly, the doctor would discover your curse, refer you to the mayor, and they would arrange to have you leave town when you transformed? I'm guessing the non-aggression agreement was to keep the victims from trying to interact with the townspeople after you changed? And it's not like you can talk to the townspeople, so you couldn't really just convince them you used to be one of them."

  "Not just that... The consequences for breaking the treaty were very one-sided. Not only would our safety be at risk, but our families we left behind would be harmed if we disobeyed. That's why I said you saved my family, Mr Clay. If you hadn't stopped me, I fear Mayor Night or someone connected to him would have brought harm to my wife and children. Poor Widow Template K, I can't imagine how hard this must be for her."

  "Widow Template K? I have questions... No, you know what, that's a very pretty name." Even I could tell that allowing myself to be flabbergasted over the name that god had given her out of laziness would just come off as being rude.

  "If they knew what happened to me, or if I hurt any humans other than in self defense, my family would have been hurt. Of course we both know that if any of us Deep Ones harmed a human, we had no way of claiming self-defense. It was a guaranteed guilty verdict. So the best we could do is stay silent, and stay away."

  My heart ached the more I heard. Sure, I didn't really have any loved ones that I'd have left behind... But I could only imagine how lonely Riff's mustache would be if I just disappeared one day. I had to fight back tears at the thought.

  "Deep Juan, when I get everything squared away, I could figure out a way to fix things. I might not be able to change you back, but maybe I could get you in contact with your families."

  "Mr Clay..." I was certain I could see his eyes tearing up at my offer. "You are kind. But it would only cause pain. They wouldn't want to see me like this, and I wouldn't want to see their faces if they saw what I became."

  "What if I can fix this curse?! It's not fair to just leave things like this!" In my heart I knew that fixing this curse wasn't part of the investigation. The curse was nothing more than an explanation for the disappearances. If solving the actual curse was a possibility, I would have found something related to the curse before this point. That god's cruel intention was to leave these poor souls transformed and suffering as nothing more than a means to push the investigation forward. Not a single thought had been made about the ones who would suffer.

  "I couldn't expect that of you. But I appreciate your kind words, Mr Clay."

  "If you don't want me to find a solution, what did you want to talk to me about?" I had enjoyed our conversation, but aside from acting as a plot device to fill in the blanks, I couldn't see why Juan had pulled me aside and not just sent me off.

  "Aside from wanting to talk to a human one last time... I wanted to make sure you understood the danger this settlement is facing. No matter what you choose to do with your information, please..." Deep Juan's sentence was cut short.

  The space of the room suddenly felt very wrong. All at once I felt as if I was pulled to and repelled from the nearest corner of the room. Turning to the source of the discomfort, space itself seemed to curve and spiral through my vision. My mouth watered as my nausea grew with each moment. Everything was wrong, the temperature was both hot and freezing at the same time. The lights had not actually dimmed, however a darkness covered every aspect of the room. Although I knew I the floor beneath me was stationary, I felt as if I was being twisted into something no longer human.

  Then came the dark mist, a sort of miasma bleeding into the room from the corner nearest me. I couldn't move, completely frozen in my seat as a few feet away, some unfathomable presence was about to make itself known.

  Slowly the miasma started to take form. First were the piercing red eyes, hanging in the darkness as if prepared to attack at any moment. Then the muzzle and impossibly sharp fangs. The four legs and body took form, less a solid form than a mass of condensed miasma. Tendrils of miasma bled from the edges of this beast that now mostly resembled a ferocious eldritch dog. But it wasn't alone. Three more were already appearing next to the first one. All looking at me as their prey.

  When given the option of fight, flight, or freeze... I involuntarily chose freeze.

  The fangs of the first dog beast widened as it leapt for my neck. From my seated position, I had no chance of escape. A single blink and things would be over.

  The beast's fangs ripped into the throat, bringing instant death...

  ... But it wasn't my death. It wasn't my neck.

  Deep Juan had leapt across the table, standing between me and the eldritch predator. His action had given his life for mine.

  I wish I had time to process what I saw, but his sacrifice caused my flight response to finally trigger. Pushing past the man who had sacrificed himself for a complete stranger, I burst from the small house, into the main area of the settlement. My Pathfinder ability was still not working properly while I clumsily fled as quickly as my 18 dexterity would take me. Other members of the settlement turned in confusion as I ran past them, likely discovering the terrible reality too late to save themselves. I could hear the monstrous paws of my pursuers thudding on the ground much closer than I would ever be comfortable with.

  To a very ethically uncomfortable mixture of relief and horror, I could hear the bloodthirsty mutts brutally killing any living creature near their path. Complete and utter indiscriminate murder. And I was leading those beasts straight to their prey, even if inadvertently, I was responsible for the deaths they spread in their wake.

  Although I hadn't made the connection immediately, I knew what these creatures were, Tindalos Hounds. They were a creation regularly connected to the Cthulhu mythos, but they were actually a creation of Frank Belknap Long. Unfortunately, understanding the true nature of my pursuers only made the situation more hopeless. These creatures literally ignored the laws of physics. Hiding was nearly impossible. They were the universe's ultimate hunter. Able to travel through time and space, Tindalos Hounds only needed the corners of rooms to act as a doorway. I couldn't remember the exact specifications, but pretty much any corner around 90 degrees would work as a portal to exit or enter our time and space. Once a person was targeted, it was only a matter of time before they would be ripped into a mushy puddle of bone fragments and viscera.

  My best option was to flee as far from man-made structures as possible. The angles in nature had much less chance of meeting the specifications to work as a portal for the hounds. Of course, that made the highly unlikely assumption that I would somehow be able to break free of the three who were nipping at my heels. The likelihood was exponentially lower since I still had no idea where the exit of this settlement was even located. My feet barely touched the ground, only focusing on creating distance. And the only actual distance that was created came about due to innocent Deep One settlers being made into unwilling sacrifices for my escape.

  I was the absolute worst. I was weak. I was cowardly.

  How many more would have to be sacrificed just for me to keep living? I wasn't worth it! But even though I knew my life wasn't worth any amount of sacrifice, I couldn't stop my cowardly legs from dragging more senseless death into my wake.

  It didn't take long for me to reach a dead end. Pinned against one of the walls of the settlement, the hounds spread out wide enough to cut off any chance of escaping along the length of the wall. With my back facing the wall, I raised my hands in terror.

  "Stop! Please just leave me be!" Absolutely shameless. I was a completely worthless disgrace. After so many sacrifices, forced into a corner, and my choice was to beg for my life.

  The hounds slowed, stopping a few feet away from me, looking confused. The light in their eyes no longer reflected death but instead revealed some of the same cowardice I projected while begging for my life. It was almost as if all three were struggling with some sort of inner turmoil. The more they moved to attack, the more their body fought against them.

  I kept my arms raised while I backed into the metal wall directly behind me.

  Metal?!

  Briefly glancing to my right, I saw a lever. My back was pressed against the only exit to the settlement, and the likely method to open it was within my grasp.

  Keeping my left hand extended toward the Hounds, my right fumbled for the lever. My eyes never left the miasmic canine terrors. Even in the darkness, I could see the blood and gore dripping from their mouths showing evidence of the countless lives they had taken during their pursuit.

  My hand finally located the lever, pulling it upwards with all of my strength. Suddenly, the metal behind me swung upward, leaving me stumbling into the bright world outside. As I stumbled backwards, my hand lost grip of the lever. With me no longer holding the lever, the door slammed shut behind me.

  Seated in six inches of sea water, I stared at the door in complete and utter terror. My body wouldn't stop shaking. My mind was shattered.

  I wanted to die, but I didn't have the courage to let it happen.

  I didn't even notice the slender hand petting my head, whispering words that my mind was in no condition to comprehend. The action was gentle, the words seemed reassuring. I didn't deserve them. But the woman in the sunflower sundress provided them anyway.

  As I stared at the door, my mind could only focus on the lives trapped on the other side of the door. The ones who had nowhere to run. The hundreds of sacrifices that had been made so that I could sit here and be comforted by a goddess.

  There was nobody I hated more in this universe than myself.