James Palmer - Shadows Through Time

Challenger drained his coffee cup and refilled it from his flask.

“H-how is this possible?” said Burton.

“I will try to explain,” said Miss Marsh. “But I feel you need further proof. Look.”

Miss Marsh stretched forth her right hand, fingers splayed. There was a definite webbing visible between the digits.

“Most extraordinary,” said Herbert.

“I hail from a small, seaside town in Massachusetts called Innsmouth, unremarkable save for its abundant fishing. But one year, the fishing dried up, and my father, Captain Obed Marsh, made a deal with a race of undersea beings similar to the one you saw earlier. They caused the fish to return and plied the townsfolk with gold, and certain members of our town had to…mate with them.”

Challenger coughed, almost spitting out his valuable whiskey. “What?”

“It’s true,” she said, head hung low. “I’m not proud of it, but I and my two younger sisters are the result of such a union.”

“My God,” Herbert said, sinking into the sofa cushions.

“I know you must think this strange, even blasphemous, but to Innsmouth folk, it is normal. As long as we continued, we would experience abundance not just in this life, but the next. For in old age, those of us born to the Deep Ones can walk into the ocean and swim down to Y’hanthlei, there to live with Father Dagon and Mother Hydra forever and ever.”

“What is this Y’hanthlei?” asked Burton, saying the word slowly, testing it on his tongue. Even with his considerable facility with languages, he had a hard time saying it, as if the word wasn’t meant to be formed by any human lips or tongue, and the whole thing sounded horrid and repellent.

“It is a city where my mother’s kind lives,” said Miss Marsh. “The Deep Ones.”

“There are several such cities located all over the world,” said Nemo. “I have been trying to locate them, but they are very deep. Deeper than even my Nautilus can go.”

“That’s why you were inspecting those ruins,” said Challenger.

The Captain nodded. “Yes. A recent seaquake unearthed them. I hoped they would give me some clue to the whereabouts of another Deep One nest.”

“I daresay you’ve stirred one up,” said Herbert, still shaking. “So there are more of those…things. Down here?” The poor fellow looked around frantically, ready to jump out of his own skin.

“Oh yes,” said Nemo.

“H-how many?”

“Millions,” Miss Marsh answered.

“M-millions?” said Herbert, shrinking even deeper into the couch cushions.

“Here,” said Challenger, opening his flask and upturning the remaining contents into Herbert’s coffee cup.

Burton looked at Miss Marsh. “You said something else. Something about dwelling in this Y’hanthlei forever and ever.”

She nodded. “The Deep Ones are immortal, at least functionally so. I believe they can be killed, but in their present form, if left alone, they will live for eons, never aging, never getting sick, and never dying.”

“So, it was a Faustian bargain your father made,” said Challenger. “All the fish you can catch, and more gold than King Solomon, but you must forfeit your humanity.”

“That is the long and short of it, yes,” said Miss Marsh. “But the thought of life eternal here on this Earth was a boon to some. When they grow weary of this world they’ll walk into the waters of Plum Island Sound, swim out to Devil’s Reef, complete their transformations, and be done with it. Many of them can’t pass for human now and live out their lives in secret isolation. I have aunts, uncles, cousins whom I’ve never seen, residing in one of the fine old houses on Washington Street where the gently bred—including my family—lived.”

“These world-weary Innsmouth residents sound much like our host, eh?” bellowed Challenger.

“But what of you?” asked Burton. “Why are you here, instead of back home in Innsmouth?”

Miss Marsh grinned. “I was just getting to that. I said before that I know how awful this must sound to all of you, or to any sane ear for that matter. But grew up thinking it normal. Until I began to see the real toll my father’s bargain with the Deep Ones was taking on the town. Not only had Innsmouth declined in social relevance, but people were starting to disappear. My father told me the Deep Ones also required human sacrifice in order to keep herding fish into our waters and giving us gold. Obed didn’t want to go along with this, but he knew the consequences of disobeying them.”

Elizabeth Marsh poured herself a coffee before continuing. “I was repulsed. By my heritage, by what my father had done, by what the Deep Ones wanted of us. I wanted no further part in it. The time for another sacrifice came, and certain members of the town were rounded up. Father and the town’s leadership thought it better to choose who should be sacrificed, rather than the Deep Ones. They gathered up the town’s layabouts, outcasts, people whose parents refused to mate with the Deep Ones, and so did not have the requisite Innsmouth look about them, even the occasional outsider. I knew it was just a matter of time before we would run out of such people, and I knew what would happen then. The Deep Ones, my mother’s people—my people—would overrun the town, killing everyone they encountered.

“And why stop with Innsmouth? They could take the marsh road to Ipswich, to Rowley, even faraway Arkham. They could overrun the surface world in days. They were preparing for such a time. Though Father tried to keep it from me, I heard about the things being dragged out of the sea at night and hidden away in the houses that line the beach. ‘Powerful items’ Obed called them. I don’t know what they are, maybe weapons. For all I know, they are still there.

“On the night of the next sacrifice, I ran for the shore, doffing my clothes and diving into the cold water. I swam out to Devil’s Reef, where my father and his men were forcing people off the boats, herding them like cattle toward their doom. I hovered there in the dark water thinking. What was I going to do? I realized I had no idea. How could I stop something so big, that had been going on for so long?

“I looked around as Father and the others herded the poor souls doomed to be sacrificed off the boats, sometimes with force, and an idea formed in my brain.”

“Diving beneath the water I came up underneath one of the boats, emerging beside it and gripping the bow with both hands, rocking it violently. The passengers were frightened by my sudden appearance, and the boat’s pilot, my father, was caught off guard, and he fell and toppled into the water, dropping the oar he had been using as a cudgel against his fellow townsfolk.

“‘Go!’” I screamed. “‘Run! Fight! Get out of here!’”

“They took up the oars themselves and, now free of Father’s presence, began to row the boat away from Devil’s Reef and toward shore.

“‘Elizabeth?’” my father said, sputtering in the water just a few feet away. I ignored him and dived again, grabbing one of his lieutenants and dragging him screaming out of another boat, dashing him into the water beside my father.

“Emboldened by my attempts at heroism, the would-be sacrifices already standing on the Reef began shouting and fighting back against their masters. The fish folk joined in, and received several well-placed blows for their trouble. Whatever happened out on Devil’s Reef this night, there would be no human sacrifice.

“While considering my next move, something grabbed my foot and pulled me down, down, into the dark water. I looked down, and saw two of the fish-fiends tugging at me. I kicked one of them in the head, causing him to release me, but I was dragged down even harder by his associate. There was malice in their inhuman eyes. One of their own had betrayed them.