Hello! Another new post in the same week. Pretty amazing, eh? Where does all this productivity come from?

This chapter's dedicated to @cloudland , my favourite cover designer in all of Wattpadia. This cover, the one before it and the one for my essay book Does Cthulhu Fart? are all by her.

Definitely do leave her a request. She'll probably accept and get it done for you in a couple of hours. And it'll probably be the most amazing looking cover you'd have ever seen. And she'd be all like "Thank you for doing business with me, I hope you like it."

Psshaw. Some people don't know how talented they are.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter and leave some comments to let me know you guys are all still here. Abuse is fine. Silence scares the shit outta me.

"What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams."

― Werner Herzog

Bubbles and blood and mud arced above my head. I kept my eyes wide open, peering down into the depths to spot her. It was still shallow. Nothing.

I swam, trying to avoid the things fighting their ever more violent battle above me. Metal clanked against metal. Flesh ripped. My mother the monster screamed in an odd symphony of pain and rage.

The metal thing was silent.

And my lover was in there, fighting my last battle for me.

(no no you mustn't think that you mustn't)

I was an undine. I was free. I could feel nothing constraining me. No ripped blue dress, no smelly razor blade, no tail. Nothing. Just me and the water and the water and me. And that felt grand. It felt like the playground. It felt like daisies before they were forever spoiled by mouldy spunk.

I was a kid again.

I was an undine.

I looked down and saw Violet's feet paddling faster and faster.

She was an undine too.

She was a better undine than me.

I dove and swam as hard and fast as I could, trying not to let my breath out.

I could see her. The water was clear here, and though blasts reverberated through the water, there was nothing stopping me from her. Nothing but the water.

And I was an undine. What was water to me?

I gave chase and she knew it and I knew it.

Those strange fish sailed past me again, with the eyes held between their jaws and their spines lined with human teeth. They did not attack.

There was nothing again.

Nothing but me, her and our water.

Bubbles oozed out of my mouth.

I fought.

I swam and swam, struggling against the water that was holding me back more and more the deeper I went. My eyes focussed on her paddling feet and I struggled.

I did not see the ship until the mast hit me.

My and struck wood mid-arc. I stared.

It was not huge. Algae and seaweed cling to it. Panels of wood stretched helter-skelter, frayed on the edges and soft with age. The sails juddered tautly in the currents, holding by some arcane magic against decay.

And there she was, amongst the tangle, finding her way inside.

I found circuitous little byways around the poles and debris.

I kept giving chase.

I found her, in the end, tail in hand, disappearing down the trap-door. I let my breath out and followed her in.

I gasped.

My ears popped.

Breath gushed into my mouth of its own accord and I let it happen.

I opened my eyes.

The room was dazzlingly white, although there was no light source. I struggled to sit up. I looked around me.

There was a table in the middle of the room and on it lay a lady. She was sleeping. She was beautiful Her dark skin was smooth and flawless. Her wavy her was brushed perfectly and arrayed around her. She was garbed in a white frock of some kind. A blue ribbon tied her wrists together.

She breathed.

Violet took the tail and brought it towards her slowly and with reverence.

"No. Please." I whispered.

"What does it matter if I do it or if you do it?" she asked.

"Because I have to get out of here."

She smirked.

She touched the tail to the sleeping lady's lips.

I waited.

Nothing happened.

"No!"

She pried open her mouth and stuffed it between her teeth.

She coughed. She spluttered

She spat out the tail, sat bolt upright and gripped Violet's throat.

She squeezed.

Violet crumpled on to the ground. I looked at the body.

"Soft. Eve kills the Holy Virgin and she lies before me."

I looked at the lady. "You're the Queen of Cats, aren't you?"

She laughed. "No. That's the daughter's shoes to fill, not the mother's. Not mine."

"So you're not where the rotting flesh belongs?"

"No. That would not be me. Because you don't love me. You've never met me. I'm just the mother."

"You're not my mother." I told her.

"And I'm not your grandmother either. I'm your grandmother's grandmother. I slept and I bore fruit and she drank her life's milk from me as I slept. And I knew nothing but I breathed everything and In my sleep I dreamt a great many terrible things. Are they true?"

"I don't know."

"The tribe? How are they? Do they still follow our rituals and traditions? Why are you so confused? They must have told you what to do."

"What tribe?"

"No matter. The world is too far gone for me to understand. I should not have awoken. Finish your job."

"I can't. There's no time left and I don't know how."

"There is. I can smell it. The last day is the most potent. The most powerful." she said.

"So where?" I asked her.

"The end. It belongs where it ends. And it ends with the one you love."

I said nothing.

"Do you understand? You must go back. We must go back together. And we must enter the one we left those years ago. No...we must enter the crawler. The ground lurker. The cat."

"So I touch it to him?"

"Flesh must meet flesh."

"Is there any other way?" I asked.

"Daughter. This is old blood and old magic and we must finish what our forefathers started. We must finish this."

"So I must kill him."

"You must kill him."

(eye shall kill him and then eye shall kill myself)

Hope you liked it! Please do comment to let me know how I can improve.