This is my sixteenth entry in @bananafish Finish the Story Contest. The prompt, or start of the story, was written by one of the bananafish knights and is highlighted below in quotation to differentiate between their work and mine. The idea of the exercise is that I finish the story, and try to do it in 500 words. This week I have failed in that target, but nearly made it in 600 words 😉
The Church
The air was sticky and they’d been drinking for hours. It was late into the evening of the going away party for Ron and Jenni. They’d been good friends to Sean when he first arrived, but since then they’d grown distant. In fact, it had been awhile since Sean had hung out with anyone. He’d arrived to a room full of people he didn’t know, already well on their way to getting drunk.
“It’s so great to see you,” Jenni said, offering a hug. “Sean, oh man!”
Ron offered a handshake. “Hey man, good to see you one last time.”
“Thanks for the invite,” Sean replied. “And sorry to see you going.”
The room erupted with laughter. A man had slipped and fell on his ass and he was rolling on the ground hollering away. “I’m goanna grab a cigarette,” Sean said.
“Oh wait!” Jenni grabbed his arm. “Let me introduce you to everyone!” She proceeded to bring him through the rooms of the townhome they rented for the night’s going away party. There was a Jack and a Royal and a Jeremy and a Kim and a Karen and more and Sean soon forgot all those names anyway. He finally go outside for a cigarette, his heart racing and his anxiety peaked.
“Fucking…” he mumbled to himself. “Too many fucking people in that space.”
“I know, right?”
The voice startled him. He peaked over and saw a girl sitting with pink dyed hair. “Can
I get one of those?”
“You know Jen and Ron?” Sean asked, offering her a cigarette.
“Sure,” the girl replied. “We met a few times at church.”
“Church?” Sean asked. “I’m incredulous. I didn’t know they were Christians.”
“Oh, it’s not that kind of church.” The girl took a drag on her cigarette and the presumed air of mystery she was attempting to paint annoyed him.
“Okay,” Sean said. “Well, then, what kind of church is it?”
The door to the porch opened and the music blared from inside. Ron came outside with a group of other party goers, all drunk and cheering.
“I’m telling you,” one of the guys was saying. “That girl’s totally into me. I’m going to go for it.”
“Do it!” Ron said. “We all believe in you man. Believe in yourself!” Then, turning to Sean. “We’re going for a swim!” Ron announced. He shouted it again, and the group cheered.
Sean glanced over to the girl, whose name he still didn’t know. She was smiling.
.....•• ••.....
They trekked down the dirt road from the pension then through a dirt path. The ground was rocky, volcanic in some spots in that way typical to Jeju. Drunk, most of them stumbled. They passed by a fish farm, the ponds of which were covered in nets. Then a water treatment plant with rumbling generators inside its deep warehouse.
Then they reached a secret, secluded beach. The pink haired girl stripped down, an obsidian necklace dangling from her neck, glowing in the moonlight. She descended into the water.
“It warm and wonderful!” she said. “Come on.”
The group stripped down, and Sean saw many were wearing the same pendant. He began to strip as well, as the idea of warm ocean waters in such a hot night was intoxicating. He went into the water, swimming till it was deep enough to fully submerge.
When he came back up, he heard screaming.
The Church of the Coral Kingdom
The water felt so good, like a warm feral awakening against his skin.
Sunrise peak loomed black in the hazy night, the faint impression of the volcano’s breath a dark smear across the star-strewn sky.
He glanced at the pink haired girl. As she swam toward him, everything started to fade. There was a niggling moment of doubt. A strange background of wailing wind in the depths of his mind like distant screams.
Her eyes caught his attention, the pupils deep black oceans of tar. He bobbed down further in the gentle wash of the ocean to hide the tent in his swim shorts. Her pink hair pooled around those approaching eyes and the dark spot of obsidian bobbed between the islands of her breasts.
Pink bubbles of bloody brine fountained to the surface, a severed arm arched across the face of the moon. Jack gaped at the sight in terror and struggled against the lancing pain. He beat at the ocean’s surface as the razor edged clamp around his ankle dragged him down. As his arms flailed, crystal motes of cerulean luminescence rained down on the blood flecked foam.
Coral hair mingled with his as she slipped lithely into his arms. Her skin seemed rough against him, like it set him on fire with its touch. They joined in the glow of the plankton bloom and he squeezed his eyes together trying to postpone the inevitable climax.
All around the others coupled in an orgy of flesh. Jack floundered beneath Kim as she bore him beneath the waves in her embrace. Jeremy clung to Karen, his mouth clamped on her throat as they crashed together like waves on the distant cliff at the foot of Seongsan Ilchulbong. An obsidian shark fin amulet bouncing against her pale moon-kissed skin.
The scene melted away in fiery bliss as pink hair brushed his neck.
Hot breath. Tickling fingers. Lingering pain from her nails down his arms. The current moving them in the rhythm of their passion. Teeth clenched, his head exploded…. then he drifted on the tide in that final release.
.....•• ••.....
He awoke. Blood mingled with the breath of salt. His mind buzzed in frenzy as he thrashed. Tasting a copper cloud mingling with the earthy choke of excrement, he thrust his tail and lurched forward.
Something crunched in his jaws. His mind reeled in the ecstasy of the blood frenzy. Soft meat melted through his teeth as he thrashed back and forth while the slick fin of the Silky raked against his skin. He looked deep into her black eyes, as deep as the abyss, the pupils black oceans of tar.
She took hold of one end of Royal’s torso, while he bit down hard on the other and they thrashed together ripping the tender organs from the ribcage.
.....•• ••.....
He stretched his arms as he walked up the beach toward them, shedding scales. His body throbbed with power and his skin felt as hard as leather as he brushed the final few scales from his cheeks.
Seongsan Ilchulbong’s crater pulsed a luminous emerald echoing the forests song. The night seemed to sing to him of the eons of the forests slow growth. The song mounted with a deep rhythmic rumble in his bones, the breath of a thousand years of the tide’s caresses. A thousand cycles of the moon washing plankton blooms and coral spawns into the oceans cauldron of life.
He stared at the red haired girl as she held out an obsidian amulet to him.
“You have joined the church, Jeff.” Her smile radiated the spirit of land, sea and the ancient menace of Seongsan Ilchulbong.
“My name is Sylvie.”
The end.
The pictures used in this post are creative commons licence and were sourced from pixabay.com, please follow links under pictures to credit. In the hopes of calming any phobias of the sea that this story may have created, here is a (previously published) poem that casts the planktom bloom in a slightly less grisly light 😉
Diamond Drop Sea
I’ve witnessed diamond drops through lapis sea’s,
Floating right there in front of me. Suspended in perpetuity,
Reflections from the full moons light,
Guiding my way to the surface.
Witnessed a thousand stars,
Flecked between my fingers,
Streaming from every digit.
The light lingers, then fades,
Emptying everything but wonder!
But I’ve always wondered if I could catch a diamond
When dancing in the rain,
To spin around, arms stretched out
And catch those stars again.
If you have enjoyed reading this short story, you can check out similar work on my homepage @raj808. Thank you.
