"ITS sheddings?"

Confusion bloomed on Ríone's face. She dropped the spoon into the bowl of bisque, a clatter ensuing right after its fall. What did he mean by its sheddings? How did he get that?

"Well, I mean, that is what I think it is." Jake scratched his head. "I got it with a stroke of good luck."

"Still, how did you do it?"

Jake gave a dry chuckle. "Oh, it is a long story. You don't wanna listen to it. Plus, the bisque is getting cold." As if to emphasise his point, he took big spoonfuls of the soup and downed it in one gulp.

"I want to know," Ríone said. "That's what friends are for. I know I have not been the best one out there, but I am trying. Would you not cooperate with me?"

"You will not believe me," Jake sighed. "I mean, no one will. It is just too strange to be believed in."

"Trust me Jake, I am ready to believe in whatever you are going to say," Ríone answered. "Ever since I set my foot in Loutham, things have not gone the way I expected them to be. And they were strange. So strange that even my therapist could not believe in my words."

She recounted the events in chronological order: the pale strand of hair in her mouth, the voices that followed her in the streets, the nightmare where she found herself trapped underneath the sea and the vision of Sean's death that she had.

"-after all this, do you think I would not believe you?" She asked.

Something about Ríone's gaze changed Jake's mind. He put down the spoon in the bowl and looked deep into his friend's eyes. "Well, it was just like that nightmare you had. Where you were trapped by the thing. The same thing happened to me too. And I remember struggling against it. During the struggle, I caught hold of one of its, uh, tentacles and pulled hard. I felt it coming off."

Jake had gone white in the face. The muscles in his cheeks had gone taut, his lips a thin red line against his chalky face. Even from her position, Ríone could see how his breaths racked his chest.

"I woke up feeling soaked," Jake continued after taking in a deep breath. "Thought I peed myself. But it was not just that. I was wet all over. Sogging wet. And I still had that thing, the shedding, clutched in my palm."

Ríone bit her lip. Did she to feel wet after waking up from that dream? No. Not as far as she could remember. Neither did she bring back anything substantial. In fact, she remembered being so paralysed with fright that she could not even fight back.

"Y-ou kept that thing?" She asked. Her voice shook a bit.

Jake drove his fingers through his hair. "Yeah, seems so wrong, does it not? Keeping a thing like that with me? Yet I couldn't help it, Río. I had to know. But all I learnt from it was that it doesn't rot and that its texture is like that of squid meat."

Ríone wanted to retch. Her stomach clenched at the thought. She loved eating squid. Not only squid, she liked all kinds of seafood. Never had she been a fan of meat. To think that something like that was compared to it... no, she would never look at squid the same way ever again.

"Also, that thing smells like hell. Like rotten eggs and cabbage combined. To be honest, this comparison does not even match the original scent. You got to smell it and know how bad it is." Jake said, oblivious to how green Ríone had become.

"Jake..." she gave out a weak mumble.

"I tried to boil it. Put stuff like acid on it. The acid experiment failed while the boiling made it softer," he said. "Although I must tell you it was not worth it. The smell got so bad that I had to rush to the loo."

"Goodness, Jake!" Ríone's eyes were widened in horror. "You are making me squeamish with all that description. And acids! Where did you even get them from?"

"Oh, I did not tell you, did I?" A sheepish grin was etched on Jake's lips. "I work in a pharmacy in the next town. I sneaked them from there."

"Goodness..."

Ríone's vision swam. All of this was a bit too much for her. Scratch that. It was a lot to take in. She did not know what to feel about it. Was Jake mad, as the townspeople said? Or was he the only one who knew and was speaking the truth? She still was not sure about it. Sometimes it just gets too difficult to reach a suitable conclusion.

"Well, that was a lot. I hope I did not fully kill your appetite," Jake said after a moment's interval. "Let's finish lunch, shall we?"

Ríone smiled and nodded. Yes, that would be the best. Nothing other than good food can calm a troubled mind. Jake's bisque was the very definition of good food. Before returning to her meal, she looked once more at the mason jar containing a part of the creature behind Jake. For a moment, she reckoned it had twitched. A very slight motion, like the fingers of a sleeping baby brushing against its mother's arm.

Ríone shook her head. No, that could not be possible. After all the things that Jake did to it, it should no longer be able to move. Her eyes were playing tricks on her.

That was it. That was what had happened.