11
There was only land in sight. No water as far as Vivi could see. She watched people raise their hands and cars stopped. But she didn’t dare go into any of their jaws, not without Psi next to her at the helm.
But he wouldn’t be next to her. Not ever again. He’d let her go. He’d said trapping her was the last thing he wanted to do.
Why did that hurt more than any other rejection? She was centuries old now. People came and went in her life all the time. Rarely did anyone seek her out. And if they did, it was only to use her for transport across a water ley line, just like one of those cars across the asphalt.
Only a handful of people had ever touched her. No one had ever held her. Or called her beautiful. Or looked at her with hunger in their eyes that didn’t involve chewing or blood spilling.
The air was warm on the outside of Psi’s home and outside of his embrace. Vivi shivered without his body heat next to her. Her shoes pinched her feet as she walked onward. She wasn’t used to feeling the pain. She’d never walked this far before.
She didn’t dare complain. Walking was the dream of her life and it had finally come true. But this long and lonely walk was starting to hurt.
The air began to moisten as Vivi continued on.
She perked up with the knowledge that with moisture in the air, there must be a body of water nearby.
She hurried towards it, eager for the first time since she’d started walking on her own to take her shoes off.
But when she came to the waters, her smile melted as the foulest stench she’d ever inhaled hit her nose.
Living in a body of water, Vivi was privy to rotting fish carcasses, even rotting human carcasses.
Both of those smells together paled in comparison to what hit her nostrils from this water.
But it was water, nonetheless. And all water, whether from the sky, from the city, or from a river, eventually led back to the seas and oceans. So, this was her way out.
There was a metallic-linked fence that separated the waters from the street.
Vivi looked first in one direction and then turned her head in the other direction of the street.
She’d learned her lesson of crossing roads all too well earlier this evening.
It took several minutes before she felt confident that no car would zoom down the street in either direction and crush her.
With the first hurdle of crossing the asphalt accomplished, she looked at bridging the next.
Vivi had never climbed a fence before. She gathered it was more easily done with bare feet or boots.
She couldn’t take her heels off because then all feeling in her legs would dissipate and she’d be left crumpled on the floor.
Like she’d been back at Psi’s place when the demon had stepped out of the fire.
She hooked first her right foot in the nook of one link and then the left. Reaching up, she hefted her body higher. Luckily, she had a lot of upper body strength having had to use her arms and torso to maneuver through the water for centuries. Climbing the fence wasn’t as hard as she’d thought.
She made it over to the other side and came to the water’s edge. She spied more metal in the water along with pipes and barrels and tanks. The water moved like sludge and she saw why. It was filled with rotted food, feces, and chemicals.
Vivi shook her head. Humans the world over were notorious for tossing all manner of refuse into the seas. She knew humans believed the waters would cleanse all of their sinful behaviors away.
The sea did have its own form of cleansing itself. But not at the rate that humans filled it. Still, Vivi knew where this refuse was headed and she prepared herself to follow its stream.
She sat at the water's edge and slipped her shoes off. The relief from the pinching was only momentary. Once the magical shoes were off her feet, Vivi felt nothing. She wished the curse of her deformity had been placed on her heart instead of her legs and feet. She wished that the moment she’d left Psi’s embrace that she no longer felt anything.
But she did.
It was no matter. She couldn’t process these brand new emotions right now. She had to get out of here first.
She pulled up a protective bubble around herself and floated into the water. Turning, she reached for her shoes. But before she could get a hand on them, the current gave a mighty tug.
There was more sludge in the liquid than actual water.
Floating by her, Vivi saw all manner of paper and plastic.
Solid oils and animal fats bumped into her bubble until it burst. She flailed, unable to gain any purchase or summon any magic that wasn’t corrupted by the waste that pulled at her waist.
She was being pulled away from her shoes, away from the ground. She tried to use her arms to push the thick fluid out of her way, but to no avail. It was as though moving through quicksand, only thicker.
Vivi turned, searching for something to grab onto. Something to stop, or at least slow, her momentum. And that’s when she saw it.
Up ahead were giant metal teeth. They opened and separated with a mighty, creaking yawn. Then they clamped down hard, making a terrible clanking and ripping sound. The current pulled Vivi’s body steadily towards the teeth. They opened wide, ready to swallow her whole and eat her.