Chapter 49
The sky darkens and the rain falls slanting its way under our rain jackets and hoods.
I yank up the zip on my jacket that I never leave home without anymore. Tabitha has a hoodie she’s burrowing under. I throw her a tarp I find in the cubby hole. “Use this,” I shout.
Rain pours into my mouth. I’m forcing myself not to think about the hurricane and the terrible rain and wind I survived just months ago.
“It will blow over,” Tabitha shouts.
“I hope so.” But the sky is black and heavy. The rain pounds the boat and us. Like thousands of small never-ending hammers on my head. I want to run and hide but we’re exposed.
I pray the wind doesn’t pick up. It’s the wind that I fear. It can be a bully picking up trees and even boats and tossing them wherever it wants.
“Please God, no wind,” I pray.
The lights we are shining on the cave are useless under the dark torrent. I hope they are safely inside the cave protected from the storm.
Five minutes later, I hear a terrible sound. Like a man screaming in pain. I poke my head out of my hood. Tabitha’s eyes are bright in the darkness.
“Did you hear that?” she asks, her voice shaky. Gone is the glamorous goddess. In its place is a scared woman.
My heart is frozen with fear. “It sounded like Keston,” I shout over the rain.
She shakes her head wildly. “Or Kelley. I couldn’t tell.”
I shout over the rain. “Are you okay?”
No answer. Just the incessant drumming of rain on the boat and the striking of the lagoon’s water.
I’m starting to breathe easier when I hear it again. This time the sound is horrific. It’s Keston and he’s in pain. Above the sound of the rain I hear the word, “Help!”
Tabitha grips my arm. “What are we going to do?”
I look around wildly. Keston’s ever-present machete is at the side of the captain’s seat. I grab it and jump into the water.
Tabitha screams, “What are you doing?”
Lord alone knows. But I must do something. That is my Keston out there.
I doggy paddle with the machete in one hand, my legs pumping away. Rain stings
my eyes. The water is murky. The luminous blue lights have disappeared.
My hood blocks my vision, so I push it back. Between the rain and the lagoon’s waves, I hope I don’t drown.
I finally reach the rocks. I lay the machete in a crook and pull myself up after it. I may be forty, but I’m fit from hours of treadmills and spin cycles. Although nothing here resembles a nice cozy gym and cushy machines, which I’d kill for right now.
“Keston!” I shout at the top of my sore lungs.
“CJ!”
It’s Kelley. I run in the direction of his voice. Well, not run. Crawl is more like it.
The jagged sea rocks forged by wind and waves are cutting my hand and knees. I’ve seen the island men and boys walking barefooted on rocks like these to fish or search for whelks sticking to the side of the rocks.
My walking on them is out of the question.
“Where are you?” I shout.
“Here, but don’t come close.”
Kelley’s voice, usually cool and calm, ricochets with fear. I swallow my own fear and call, “Where’s Keston?”
No response. I start praying. “I’m coming.” I put as much bravery into my voice as possible.
I finally reach the edge of the rocks and look over into a blue-green pool of water surrounded by more rocks.
The rounded cave opening is being pummeled by rain and waves. It does not look like a place for any woman to give birth. I curse Pirate Kipson in my head.
It looks like an easy leap from my rocky outcropping to the water below. On the other side, Kelley clings to a rock with both hands. One of his legs is leaking blood that the rain is quickly washing away.
I can’t tell if he cut himself on the rocks or on something else. Holding the machete above my head I scoot my butt across the rocks. Thank God I’d changed into my jeans before leaving the villa.
“Don’t come any closer,” Kelley shouts. “Stay there.”
“Where’s Keston?” My teeth are chattering but not from the cold. It isn’t cold. It’s warm, too warm for nighttime even in the tropics. Which means a storm is brewing. I learned that on No Man’s Land.
“He’s in the water,” Kelley’s voice is weak. “The cave.”
How much blood has Kelley lost?
I peer into the water, swiping rain from my eyes, my heart in my throat.
“CJ!”
Oh my God. It’s Keston. His voice is far away as if coming from underwater.
“Babe, where are you?”
“Go home.” His voice is fainter now.
“Don’t be an ass. I’m not going home.”
A swift sudden movement in the blue-green pool splashes water on me. I scream and yank my feet up. “What the fuck is that?”
Another swirl of water, a great big splash and something as large as me twists and turns in the water.
“Ahhhhh!” I scream. “Is that a shark?”
“Leave,” Kelley says. “It’s a . . . .”
Before he can finish, the thing leaps out of the pool, its mouth opens wide, and sharp, needle-like teeth snap at my foot. It looks about nine feet long.
My leg kicks out and I scramble back so fast I hit my head. The machete clatters next to me. The sea monster drops back into the pool and swirls its long green tail before disappearing.
My breath is ragged. I can’t believe what just happened. I must be dreaming.
“Keston?” I cry.
Kelley is still clinging to the rock, but he inches his way up slowly, his right foot dragging as if broken. “Go back, CJ,” he struggles to speak.
“Keston? Are you there?”
The worst thing in the world is knowing that the person you love is in danger. All your adrenaline kicks in because you’re not going to leave him. No way. And if you must kill a goddamn sea monster, so be it.
“What is that thing?” I shout.
“It’s got to be a moray eel.” Tabitha pants behind me. She’s crawling across the rocks like I did after having swam from the boat. I never thought I’d be glad to see this woman, but I am.
I point to Kelley on the rocks on the other side of the pool. “He’s hurt. Keston is in the cave,” I whisper, pointing to the cave opening that you can only get to by jumping into the pool.
“Why are you whispering?” Tabitha asks.
“In case that thing can hear us.”
I realize how dumb that sounds, but she didn’t see the alien monster that rose out of that pool.
“Their bite is extremely painful,” Tabitha says. “It looks like one bit Kelley. We must get him help.”
“How many are there?” I squeal.
“They live alone or in groups. Could be more than one that’s been living in this cave for a long time.”
I wipe rain from my eyes. “I must find Keston. I think he’s hurt and trapped down there.”
“We should go get help,” says Tabitha, also wiping her eyes.
“I’m not leaving him here in the middle of the night with that monster. Plus, a storm is coming.”
As if it heard me, the moray eel leaps out of the pool again, it’s snake-like body glistening with slick mucus, jaws open so wide we can see down its throat. Tabitha and I scream and scurry back.
“Fuck,” Tabitha says. “That’s the biggest eel I’ve ever seen.”
“CJ,” Keston calls. “Baby.” His voice fades away. I can’t hear what he’s saying.
“Honey,” I shout. “Hold on.”
“This is impossible,” Tabitha cries. “We can’t help him.”
“We can and we will.”
I grip her shoulders. “I’m going to need your help.”
She stares at me with frightened eyes. “How?”
“First, you’ve got to kick fear to the curb.”
I give her the pep talk I gave myself when Keston and I were in danger on No Man’s Land. “Fear is a big bully trying to take control. Don’t let it.”
She mumbles the words to herself.
“Next, I need you to focus.”
She nods, still mumbling the words, about fear being a bully.
“I’m going to have to kill this monster, although I hate to do it. We’re invading its home. But he’s already injured Kelley and I think Keston, too. Now it’s coming after us. It’s got to go.”
“Got to go,” Tabitha repeats. I worry she’s in shock.
“I’m counting on you Tabitha,” I say after relaying the plan.
“I got it. I’ll do it.”
With the machete firmly in one hand, I step over the edge of the rocks. “Here goes.”
I begin inching my way down the rocks that lead into the pool. I guess Kelley and Keston jumped in and were greeted by the beast.
I’m taking the quiet approach. Bit by bit, my feet find footholds while getting scraped raw from the rocks. My free hand holds onto the crevices for dear life.
I should have tried that rock climbing wall at the gym. Too late now.
The water is quiet below me. The eel can decide to leap out at any time and bite me in half.
I’m hoping I can attack first. Injure it enough to give us the space to get out of here. The beast and his posse can have the damn treasure.
“CJ!” Kelley calls. “No.”
He’s inched his way to the top of his rock, blood still dripping from his leg.
“Shhh,” Tabitha calls out.
When I reach almost halfway, I sense movement in the water. I grip the machete with all my might. My heart thumps so loudly I’m sure the monster eel can hear it.
“No fear,” I mutter. “No fear.”
The water parts and the moray eel pokes its ugly head up.
“It’s coming,” yells Tabitha.
“Now!” I shout.
Tabitha aims some rocks we’d picked up at the eel’s head, causing it to leap higher. The slimy body hangs suspended between heaven and sea, and that is what I aim for.
With my feet wide apart to gain purchase on the rocks, I raise the machete high above my head.
Like a character in a video game, I swing it hard, using all my body strength. The machete slices through the eel’s body, through the slime, the flesh, the guts. I yank it out fast and strike another blow to its mid-section.
A rush of adrenaline flows through my veins. “For Keston!” I scream at the top of my lungs.
I wield Keston’s machete two more times, four in total. The beast’s wounds are deep. How did I go from being squeamish about a kingfish thrown into our boat at the pirate regatta to killing a massive eel with a giant knife?
Although I doubt my stab wounds are fatal. Hopefully it will dive deep down and go lick its wounds somewhere far away.
All the fear I’d chased away floods my brain and I begin to tremble. That was nuts, I mutter.
My hands and feet are soaked with blood from the eel. I tell Tabitha to throw more rocks down in case there’s another one waiting in the wings. She does but no other eel shows up.
My stomach feels queasy. I vomit on the rocks. So much for being a video game hero.
When I feel it’s safe enough to go into the water, I drop down off the rock ledge and swim/run to the cave’s entrance.
Keston is lying in a heap right past the cave opening. Blood leaks from several bite wounds.
“Honey, it’s me,” I croon, stroking his hair and cheeks. “It’s going to be okay.”
From the pallor of his face, he’s lost a lot of blood. Good Lord, if these brothers are both bleeding, who’s going to donate blood?
First things first. I help Keston to stand and move him carefully to the water.
“Look, CJ,” he whispers.
I look at where he’s pointing. “What is it?”
“A rock shaped like a ship’s prow. The treasure is buried under it.”
I gaze around the cave, at the blue lights sparkling in pools of water. At the cathedral of rocks rising to a high ceiling.
“It can stay here. We don’t need it. But it’s beautiful.”
Keston clings to my arm. “So are you.”
“Let’s go home, baby.”
He croaks. “To your villa?”
I shake my head, my wet curls dripping in my eyes. “No. Your home.”
“Our home,” he corrects me.