Although dark, the light of the moon was enough to see by, and Bruce spotted a small trail leading towards the cliff edge. He followed it to a meandering path that wound down the cliff face. Without waiting for the others, he started down, using his hands to steady himself. Shazam accompanied him, jumping from rock to rock with the assuredness of a mountain goat.
The drop to his left was precarious to say the least, and he didn’t look in case it turned his stomach to see the water churning below. The tide was at its highest, and he could hear the waves sloshing between rock formations, invading crevices and cracks.
“Jack,” he shouted. “Where are you?”
A moment’s silence, then a voice, “Dad, we’re over here… But be careful. There’s… something here. Some sort of creature…”
Creature? Bruce followed the sound. Jagged rocks pierced the flesh of his hands, but he ignored the pain. He had to reach his son. Nothing else mattered.
Two figures stood in what looked like a recess in the rock less than twenty feet away, but between them and Bruce was the sea.
Bruce looked at the expanse of water, the moons reflection glinting from the surface like a shoal of dancing fish.
“Jack, swim across,” Bruce shouted. Shazam stood on a rock, growling.
Then Bruce noticed movement at the water’s edge, saw something black and shiny that clung to the rocks. Moonlight glinted from its body, and despite the distance and the lack of light, Bruce felt a sudden ray of terror pierce his soul.
The creature opened its mouth, revealing large fanglike teeth, and emitted a keen wailing sound that chilled the marrow in his bones.
What the hell was that thing?
Shazam barked loudly, her tail between her legs as though in fear.
He watched Jack throw a rock at it, trying to drive it away. The rock missed, splashing harmlessly in the water beyond the creature. Jack threw another, which hit the creature on the head, but with no discernible effect.
Rocks skittered at his side, and the next moment, Erin stood beside him.
“What the hell is that thing?” Bruce asked as he looked at Erin.
She swallowed, her face ashen. “I knew I’d seen them somewhere before, but not like that. It’s impossible….” She pursed her lips, shaking her head as if unable to believe what she was seeing. “Anoplogaster cornuta.”
“Can you say that in fuckin’ English?” Bruce snapped.
“Fangtooth.”
Chapter 26
Erin squinted to see through the dark. It didn’t seem possible, but there was no mistaking that pitted face, the hard ridges between the two beady eyes and the teeth… god those teeth, which looked like a steel-jawed mantrap in the chasm of its mouth.
“I don’t understand,” Bruce said. “What the hell is it?”
Erin rubbed her eyes, hoping the action would change the scene before her, but it didn’t, of course it didn’t.
“Well, if it’s what I think it is, they normally only grow to about the size of your hand. But this…”
Bruce pointed at the creature. “My god, it’s crawling out of the water. It’s got arms and legs!”
Erin swallowed to hold in the bile as she remembered Kev’s body bitten in half.
“I’ve got to get my son out of there,” Bruce said. Before Erin could reply, he clambered down the rocks to the sea’s edge.
Erin wanted to follow him down, but her legs were shaking and she found she couldn’t move.
Shazam barked like something demented. The sound drilled into her ears, deafening.
She stared at the creature, almost too afraid to blink. Arms and legs! It wasn’t possible. It was like something conjured in a nightmare. Almost close enough to reach out and touch already, she didn’t want to get any closer. She thought she could smell it in the air, a pungent fishy aroma that made her feel sick.
“Hey, get away,” Bruce said as he picked up a rock and threw it at the creature, striking it on the back.
The Fangtooth turned its head and looked at Bruce, then it raised its head higher and stared at Erin. Her legs turned to jelly. On the verge of collapsing, she tried to control her breathing, was hyperventilating.
Its black eyes seemed to bore into her, and it almost looked as though it were smiling. The spiky dorsal fins along its spine seemed to quiver, then it slowly slid back down into the water and disappeared below the surface.
“Can you climb along the rocks?” Bruce shouted.
Jack shook his head. “There’s no way we can get across. We tried.”
The creature’s disappearance spurred Erin into action. With her legs functioning again, she scrambled down to Bruce. She was still breathing erratically, but at least she didn’t feel as though she were about to collapse. She kept warily glancing at the sea, and was about to speak to Bruce when she saw movement in the water, and the creature’s head broke the surface only feet from where she stood.
Erin staggered back in alarm as the creature started to swim towards them. When it reached the rocks, it scrambled ashore, and with nothing to stop its progress, it moved quickly up the slight incline towards where they stood. Shazam growled, baring her teeth.
Bruce picked up a large rock and threw it at the creature, hitting it square between the eyes, but the creature didn’t even flinch.
“Come on you bastard.” Bruce picked up a piece of sturdy driftwood as thick as his arm and smashed it across the creature’s head. The wood shattered on impact with a loud crack, but the creature seemed unfazed. “What the…”
The Fangtooth opened its mouth, allowing Erin to see inside its cavernous, tubular throat. A rotten stench flowed out, like something dead, then the creature started to advance, using its arms and legs to move in a lizard-like fashion across the rocks.
“Bruce,” she yelled, “Come on, we’ve got to get out of here.”
“I can’t leave Jack.”
“They’re safe where they are, but we’re not. And you’ll be no use to them dead.”
With an almost imperceptible nod of his head, Bruce shouted, “Jack, stay where you are. We’ll go and get help. Come on Shazam, we’ve got to go.” He grabbed the dog’s collar, turned tail and followed Erin back up the cliff.
On the way up, they saw Sara and Duncan making their way down. “Back,” Erin shouted. “Get away. There’s something down there.”
Duncan frowned and shook his head, perplexed. “Are they down there? Did you find your son?”
“There’s something coming after us,” Bruce shouted. “A fucking monster of some sort. I don’t know what it is, but run.”
Sara threw her arms in the air. “Where’s Jen? Is she all right?”
“Yes,” Bruce said. “But we won’t be if we don’t run.”
Erin heard rocks skittering behind them, propelling her to move faster. The incline made her breathing laboured and she gasped to draw breath.
Whether it was the look on their faces or the sincerity behind their words, Duncan and Sara turned tail and hurried back to the top of the cliff. When she reached the summit, Erin looked back down. She thought she saw movement in the jagged shadows of the rocks, but it was getting too dark to see, the moon’s light unable to illuminate the path she had just taken.
“So what do we do now?” Bruce asked.
Without answering, Erin took out her phone and dialled 999. When the call went through, a female operator said, “Emergency, which service?”
“There’s two teenagers trapped in the cliffs here at Mulberry.”
“So you need the coastguard?”
“No, we need the fuckin’ army.”
“I don’t understand. You said two teenagers are stuck.”
“Not stuck really, more like trapped.”