“I would rather chew my own arm off than talk to you.”

“Good to know,” Saphrine replies. “But we have things to talk about, so I’m afraid you have no choice. I’ll tell you what, though – I’ll let you stay in your ridiculous little bubble boat.”

“Yeah great, because a thin layer of plastic will protect me from whatever you’re planning to do to me.”

“I’m not planning to do anything to you, apart from force you to sit there and listen to what I have to say.”

“I guess I don’t have a choice.”

“That’s true, you don’t. But consider this an educational talk. I know how fond you are of learning.”

I wonder how much Saphrine knows about me, about everything that’s happened since the night Rufus went missing.

“I’ll even turn this into a slideshow. Watch the windscreen closely.”

The space around me grows darker, and suddenly the windscreen fills with an oversized image of a horse’s head and neck, rising up out of the water. Instinctively I lean back in my seat, as though trying to get away from it.

“Don’t worry, it can’t hurt you. It’s just an image.” Saphrine’s voice drips with sarcasm. “You know what this is, don’t you?”

“A kelpie.”

“In Scotland that’s what they’re called, yes, although elsewhere they have other names. Shape-shifting water spirits. How do they lure people underwater?”

“They pose as friendly ponies or horses, offer someone a lift on their back, then drag them underwater, drowning them.” My voice chokes on the last word. I want to reach out and strangle Saphrine for making me have this conversation with her.

She nods once. “They’re malevolent creatures, for sure.”

The screen goes dark for an instant and then the next creature appears. It looks like a monkey with a saucer-shaped head, a long nose, and greenish skin. “A kappa,” I say before she can ask what it is.

“Yes, and they have a particular taste for children, pulling them underwater and feeding on their blood. Horrible beasts,” she says fake-shuddering.

The kappa disappears and the boat fills suddenly with the soft, plaintive sound of a woman singing a mournful song. For a minute or so the screen stays blank, and then the outline of a thin woman bent double on a river bank, staring at her reflection in the water appears. She’s translucent, so I can see right through her to the water.

“How well do you know your Slavic mythology?”

“Saphrine, enough. I don’t want to take your stupid quiz.”

“Because you don’t know what this is?”

“She’s a rusalka, a female ghost of a young woman who died in or near that river. She’s haunting that river until someone avenges her death.”

“Very sad, isn’t it, that some people die but they just can’t move on. And of course some people just can’t move on full stop. They don’t have all of the facts, but they just keep haunting something because they can’t let go.”

“Where’s Rufus, Saphrine?”

A shriek pierces the air, and the screen is filled with the upper body of a giant worm-shaped creature, its mouth open wide revealing shark-like teeth, dripping blood. Once again I recoil and Saphrine asks, “Do you know what this is?”

“I’ve never seen it before.”

“Exactly. There are creatures that have made it into the lore, and others that have never emerged from the deep. Who do you think keeps them down here?”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Where’s Rufus?” I ask again.

“Rufus gave you something he shouldn’t have, Thom. He disobeyed my orders, and you have both suffered because of it.”

“What are you talking about? What did you do to him?”

“You have to get it out of your head that I did anything to harm him. What I did was with his full consent.”

“He agreed to be dragged into The Wash? What do you think I am – an idiot?”

“I offered Rufus the chance to become one of us, after I explained who we are and what we do. He agreed, and was given all of the powers we have. He knew it would mean leaving you and his family behind.”

My lower back tingles like a million acupuncture needles puncturing my skin, over and over again. The truth seems to rush up through my veins, my head filling with the words Rufus is a Sentinel.

Saphrine nods, “He is, yes.”

Saphrine is one, too.

“Also true.” Saphrine is quiet for a moment, giving me the chance to absorb the news. “We don’t force anyone to become one of us, Thom. We select people and give them the chance to accept or decline the invitation to join us.”

“Rufus really accepted?”

“He did.”

“But why am I one, too? I didn’t agree to it.”

“That was never in the plan. After I activated Rufus’s powers – which I had to do on land before he could join me underwater – he did something he’d been expressly forbidden from doing. He hugged you, one last time.”

“I don’t remember him hugging me.”

“You were in a stupor at the time.”

“So when he hugged me he passed something on to me?”

“Some of his Sentinel powers, yes.”

“I wasn’t supposed to be like this. I wasn’t born like this.”

Saphrine shakes her head. “Being a Sentinel must be a choice, not something forced on another human being.”

“Sentinels are humans?”

“Originally we all were, yes. But when we agree to serve, and are empowered, we are handed immortality.”

“Rufus is superhuman and immortal?” Saphrine nods once. “Wait – am I superhuman and immortal?”

“You only got a small fraction of his powers. You know about some of your powers by now, but the extent of them will be something new to us all. We’ve never had a Sentinel-by-proxy before. And as for immortality, I’m afraid not. No doubt you’ll live a lot longer than the average human. Five times longer, maybe ten.”

“I’m going to live to be 500? Or a 1000?”

“Maybe. If you’re lucky.”

“But wait – when I read the ancient texts they described Sentinels saving humans from being dragged underwater. They could fly, like albatross.”

“That is an ancient sect. Once, there were land and sea Sentinels. Only we have survived.”

“What exactly do sea sentinels do?”

“As I explained, we keep the creatures of the deep where they belong. They must never break the surface, because once they get a whiff of humans their appetites are forever changed.”

“How do you keep them from surfacing?”

“It’s a constant battle – literally. That’s where Rufus really is right now, trying to do away with a mutant squid population that has developed a taste for residents of Juniperville.”

“Is he in danger?”

“Every minute of every day, all Sentinels are in danger.”

“You said Rufus gave me some of his powers – can I help him?”

“I said he gave you a fraction of his powers. If I sent you into battle you’d be nothing more than squid bait.”

“How many – how many sea beasts are there?”

“Many. I know it might seem incredible, but The Wash is the very centre of sea beast activity on the planet. This terrible place bubbled up from the Earth’s core, and all life forms emerged from this single body of water. Some evolved, some didn’t. Or they did, but they evolved so far beneath the sea that they couldn’t be anything other than monstrous.”

“And they’re trying to get to the surface?”

“They all do, sooner or later. Sometimes there’s heightened activity, a huge swell of them trying to reach dry land – with murderous intent. Some would love to wipe out human life.” Saphrine sighs deeply. “We’re going through one of those periods of activity right now. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen it, in all my centuries as a Sentinel.”

“Rufus,” I breathe, my mind racing with the worst images it can possibly generate, all of the terrible ways Rufus could be injured, maimed, killed. “Wait – if you’re immortal, does that mean you can’t die in battle?”

Saphrine grimaces. “There are ways we can be killed. But usually we’re just taken out of active service – destined to live out the rest of eternity weak, immobilized, useless to help.”

“If the powers can be given, can they be taken away?”

“There is only one way I know of to ease a Sentinel’s suffering, and it isn’t exactly painless, unlike for you mortals. Or semi-mortals in your case.”

Ondine’s face appears in my mind quickly, briefly, and I know there’s something significant in what Saphrine said a minute ago, but I can’t fathom its meaning.

“I want to help. There has to be some way I can help.” I can hear the desperation in my voice.

“If you can help us in any way, it has to be from the land. Your powers aren’t strong enough for you to fight underwater.”

“I’ll do it – whatever it is, I’ll do it.”

“We need to talk to Rufus about all of this first. He might not agree to it.”

“He’ll have to – I’ll convince him.”

“He’ll do everything in his power to keep you away from all of this.”

“But I’m part Sentinel, I have to help.”

“Not by your own choice you’re not. Rufus is fully aware of that.”

“When can I talk to him?”

“When he’s done fighting. For now, you have to go back.”

“Can’t I just wait here for him?”

“No you can’t. He’ll find you.”

“How?”

“He just will. Trust me.”