The tsunami rolled in, one wave after another, roaring in our ears and pushing us inland. Debris piled up everywhere, splashing over what remained underwater, until all eleven square miles of Newport looked like one massive network of rapids. Trees got uprooted and the ocean rocketed through the harbor from getting bottlenecked between two landmasses. A few landies got seasick all over the deck but I didn’t care. They were alive. They would hate me forever, but they were alive. My crew was alive, and they squeezed everyone on the stern since I was dripping blood all over them.
And my hometown was gone.
By the time the tsunami finally lost momentum, we were probably halfway to Providence. I dropped to my hands and knees to catch what breath I could, until the ocean began pulling everything out to sea. I stayed on my knees and use both hands to direct the water to swing the boat around. I needed to see what I had to deflect from putting more holes in my hull.
Within minutes, the tsunami receded, laying bare a featureless landscape that was now Newport.
My heart broke. That was it. Everything was gone in minutes. Thousands of lives changes forever, including my own. I reached over and pierced a wheelhouse window with a claw, then released the anchor once we were where the Wyndham Wharf was supposed to be. I was shaking all over and aching with the need to revert back to human. I was spent, emotionally and physically. My hometown was gone, my last link to my humanity. So many people had lost their lives because of me. This day was all my fault. And I’d even transformed in hopes of things turning out better than this.
The anchor found the bottom of the debris-choked harbor and I waited for enough rode to be released before locking the line, and then I collapsed on the deck and watched Newport wash away, just watched while my mind numbed with shock. The sea monsters departed with the water and debris.
Several pairs of footsteps drew closer. I dragged my head around. Jessie, Ed, Ted, Cancer, and Rammus approached me, their faces forlorn. They stopped near my snout, which was surrounded in a pool of my own blood. “Cancer, don’t bother patching me up. Just throw me in my lockdown container. I’ll see all of you after I revive, and we’ll have a lengthy discussion about what we’re going to do from here on out. I don’t want to put any of you in harm’s way like this ever again.” My body began to steam and tingle, and I began to shrink back to human. I looked at all of them and my eyes stung with tears. Their injuries and my destroyed home left me so thoroughly brokenhearted. I looked at each of them in turn, Jessie last. “I’m so damn sorry.” I closed my eyes as the pain of my injuries set in. Shortly after I was back to human, I passed out and died again.
When I came to, I was back in the cave full of nereids and naiads. I was floating in the pool again, lying face-up, with a greenish glow filling the empty space. I was wearing the scaled skirt thing Poseidon had conjured for me the day I’d spoken to him. At least that would be easy enough to grow out of once I built up the will to escape.
My home was gone. My town was gone. The last link to my pure human past was gone. I’d done everything I could and it hadn’t changed the outcome Amphitrite had aimed for.
Strangely, the water around me was completely still, the air full of pregnant silence and the smell of plants and moisture. I lifted my head, started treading water, and waited for them to attack, but they didn’t. They did nothing but watch me forlornly, sitting on their haunches or treading water at the pool’s edge, all of them saying nothing. I wanted to ask them why they weren’t torturing me, but I quite honestly didn’t want to goad them if they were going to give me a reprieve. I deserved their torment, though, after all that happened.
I looked up at the black hole in the cenote. Creatures lines the walls, all of them looking down at me.
One of them said, “Demon pet go back. Mistress waiting for you.”
My heart sank anew. She’d broken me like she’d promised. I had no will left to fight anymore. I didn’t want to deal with her for a long time. I’d rather quietly accept my curse for a while than have any interaction with her.
I swam to shore and heaved myself out of the water. The nereids created a pathway to the wall. I gave them a suspicious look.
“She waits.”
“No tricks?” I asked.
“No tricks,” it said with a shake of its head. Others echoed the declaration. None of them cackled. Instead, they fell silent again.
My hopes wanted to rise but I refused to let them get dashed again. I more tiptoed than walked to the vine-covered wall and touched it. They didn’t taunt or attack, or anything; just watched on as others cleared a path up to the opening. I looked around one more time, then, seeing no reason to just stand there, made my way up. I climbed steadily, not enthusiastic about escaping. It was just something I had to do. I was prepared to go demon if I had to. I wasn’t entirely sure they were going to leave me alone, half expecting them to attack at the last second right before I could make good on my escape.
When I had just a few feet to go, I paused. The entire cenote splayed out before me, all of them looking up and watching on. I gazed into the void, which looked like a starless night without clouds, and climbed into it.
I came to inside the pitch black of my lockdown container and took a few minutes to orient myself back to reality. I was lying on a cot sticky with probably my own blood. My body was whole again, and I was tired from the repair process my curse had made my body undergo. I sat up and my head started pounding in my temples, probably from dehydration. I winced as I got up and felt my way to the food hatch, and found a jug of electrolyte water and a box of crackers. I hesitated. I wasn’t hungry or thirsty, but if I didn’t give myself sustenance, I would die again, just to be revived again. I drank the water, started feeling thirsty, then guzzled it down until I felt hydrated enough. I opened a sleeve of crackers, then sat down and ate mechanically. They tasted bland. I ate until my brain said I’d had enough, and then I just sat there in total darkness and quiet, ruminating.
Some time later, someone knocked on the container door. I got up and walked over. “I’m back,” I said just loud enough to be heard. I didn’t want to talk, but I owed my visitor a response.
“Welcome back at last, Captain,” Rammus said. “You’ve been gone a long month.”
“How many left?”
“No one quit. We’re all here, all alive.”
I fell silent. I didn’t know how to react to having retained my entire crew. How could they possibly want to be anywhere me after all that?
“You have four more days of lockdown, by the way.”
“How’s the crew holding up?”
“Well on the mend. Just a lot of scabs, bruises, and mending bones left over. Mido had a collapsed lung but it’s fine now. We had to go to Providence to find a hospital so everyone could get taken care of, even Cancer. That was funny watching him boss around the RN trying to tend to his injuries.”
How was he so light and jovial already? All those injuries because of my own stupidity and obstinance. “I’m sorry.” I bowed my head, my heart aching.