Beneath the Surface

Windy sat on the edge of the pier that ran out over the lake that bordered the property of her parents’ home.  She had cried all the tears she had and now sat there looking at the moon’s reflection on the surface of the lake.  The small waves being stirred up by the evening breeze caused the moon’s reflection to appear as if it danced across the water.  Tonight the waves seemed tamed compared to what they usually were.  Of course the little pier she sat on was set in a little cove from the main body of water.  Out there on the main body the waves would be much larger.
Windy couldn’t imagine life getting any worse than it was at this moment.  The man she loved, the one she had been engaged to for six months and been in a relationship with for the past two years had called her to tell her that he was ending the engagement.  The ass hole hadn’t even been man enough to come home and face her.  He had met someone else while traveling with his job and decided that he was in love with this other woman.  Of course he had offered her all his regrets and apologies and ending with the bullshit statement that he was sure she would find someone worthy of her.
Really, worthy of her.  If she was such an all fire prize why was he dumping her for someone else?  How are you in love with someone one moment and the next, oops I made a mistake and I love this person over here?  Windy felt the anger build inside as she sat there on that pier.
***
Below the surface something moved with silent and deadly intent.  It too was angry but for different reasons.  It had been asleep for a long time but something had called it.  Something had needed its’ services and it didn’t like having to do the biding of another.  It was old, as old as time itself.  It would rest for hundreds of years and then wake up and bring havoc only to return to its long slumbers when it was bored with the creatures that walked the face of the earth  The last time he had been called it had been about a hundred years ago  He had not had enough rest.  Now the same one had called him back but she no longer breathed air.  She had ceased to breathe just before he had returned to his slumber or he would have ended up taking her himself.  He had been denied that satisfaction when she had called him before but he would not be denied this time.  He would claim her when this was finished.  He didn’t know how she could again be calling him but she was and this time it would be different.
He was distracted by the two tiny female feet dangling in the water.  They were so small and delicate he thought.  It made him wonder what the person was like that those tiny little appendages were attached to.  He would find out.
***
Windy continued to stare out at the water.  The silence of the night was broken by the sound of a fairly large motor boat that cut through the water toward the middle of the lake.  The sound seemed to irritate her more than it should have especially when she heard the trailing sound of a woman’s laughter that has been caught on the breeze and blown in her direction.  She couldn’t have told you whether it was the sound of the boat that had disturbed her self-absorbed misery or the fact that it was a woman laughing and right now she hated nearly every one of her sex outside of her mother and her sister.
She would have to start sending out notifications tomorrow regarding the wedding being called off.  It was in three months.  No it was supposed to have been in three months but now it wouldn’t happen at all.  Mindy closed her eyes and tried to shut out the thought of the embarrassment that came with cancelling a wedding.  What was she supposed to say?  I was engaged to a low life son-of-a bitch who started cheating on me then dumped me for his whore?  She actually thought of putting exactly that on the cancellations especially on the ones that would go to his family.  Wait, why should she be sending anything to his side.  Shouldn’t that be his job?  She thought about the money she and her parents were already out over this and she knew one thing she was going to do.  She damn sure was sending that bastard a bill for the whole thing and if she had to she would sue his sorry ass.
***
He slipped under the pier stopping just short of the tiny feet.  He watched them as they seemed to become more agitated.  He watched as the surface became choppier from something that had disturbed the surface.  He thought the tiny feet would be pulled up out of the water but they remained as they were, kicking lazily in front of him.
He reached out a clawed digit and gently tapped one of the feet.  It stopped its movement for a moment but didn’t withdraw from the water.  If he had been able to smile he would have.  People didn’t pay attention to warnings.  He thought about repeating his action but decided he didn’t want to take a chance of the feet being removed.  Oh he could take the person attached to those feet as easily on land as he could take her from where she was but he really didn’t like to leave the cover of his watery world.  No it was much more fun to watch the look of surprise take over their faces under the surface rather that above.  When you took them from above it usually involved them opening their mouths and harsh loud racket would escape from their air-breathing lips.  No when you pulled them to you underneath then yes their mouths still opened widely but it only resulted in them expelling blast of bubbles as they let out air from their lungs.  They really started fighting then and he liked it when they fought.  It was so much more satisfying. 
***
Mindy had become still when she felt something brush up against her foot.  She knew there could be anything down there in the dark but she felt sure that it had been nothing more than a curious fish that had gotten too close to her.  Her foot had probably scared it more than it had scared her.  Her feet went back to their gentle movement as she continued to think of ways to hurt that ass the way he had hurt her.
All thoughts of the cheating fiancé were swept from her mind when she felt something take hold of her ankle.  She was taken so much by surprise that she didn’t even scream when she felt something tug hard at her ankle pulling her to the very edge of the pier.  She fighting hard to keep from falling into the water that her brain didn’t even think to scream as the second hard tug came and she was pulled into the water and jerked underneath.  When she opened her eyes and saw the thing staring at her from eyes that glowed green with slits of black down the center it was the first time she thought of screaming.  It was too late for it to bring help.  Her voice was muffled by the water that she was now completely submerged in.  The last thing she saw was this horrible thing open its mouth just before it pulled her toward that gaping maw and shove her head and shoulders inside.  The last thing she felt was when its long sharp teeth clammed down on her severing her upper body from the rest.
***
He like all living things had started out small but had grown over the millenniums and continued to grow.  He had no name really but he had been called many things by the humans.  Once he had lived in the sea but he had been trapped in this body of water long before the first human was ever born.  Some humans had learned how to call on him and get him to do their bidding but they always paid for their arrogance.  This time this one would be no different.  Of course his taking a member of her blood would serve till then and it would leave her thinking about what she had done.
He finished off the tasty little morsel before he went back to the area of the lake he reclined in.  He had been around since the beginning of time.  He knew there would be others before he caught the one who had called him.  He would take her but he would feast on the bodies of others until that time.
 
Copy by Cathy Pace Matthews 2016