Everyone remembers where they were on the day of the Revelation, those that survived it at least. I looked up from the old book I was reading, the leather cover and yellow pages brittle, towards Nicole. Her face was buried in her own book, the third one she had read on this trip alone. I leaned, trying to see the title page of this particular book, something to do with werewolves, Lycan Lover or some nonsense. The books she read were the kind that I personally had no interest in, but they made her happy. I had hoped that bringing her on the cruise would have given her a chance to interact with other children of her age, but she had barely left the cabin since we had boarded, let alone speak to anyone else. I sighed and placed my book down, standing and allowing my back to pop.
‘The restaurant should be open now. Want to go and get some supper?’ I asked, giving my watch a cursory glance. Nicole didn’t raise her head. I don’t think she had even heard me.
‘Nicole, I’m talking to you.’ I said, gently tapping her foot with my hand. She finally looked up.
‘What?’
‘I asked if you wanted to go and get some supper. What about it?’
Nicole immediately looked back to her book, her shoulder hunching down, ‘Not hungry.’ she said. I twisted my mouth, then tried again.
‘There is a chance we could be invited to the captain's table! Think about that, supper with the captain. Wouldn’t that be fun?’
‘No thanks.’ is all Nicole replied with.
‘Alright,’ I sighed, giving up and turning for the cabin door and walking towards it, ‘I’ll buy some snacks just in case. I don’t want you to get hungry later.’
I opened the door and stepped through, turning back to look at Nicole once more, her face still down to her book, not another word said. I pulled the door closed with a click. I walked along the corridor, taking the stairs towards the outer decks, where I could spend a bit of time taking in the fresh sea air and watching the waves. The crew had made an announcement earlier that we would be passing the west coast of Africa at this time and if the weather was clear, we would be able to see land from the deck. I joined a dozen or so others on one of the lower walkways, peering out towards the vast and open space of water before us, the setting sun behind us turning the sky a bright orange and lancing long shadows out across the water. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small glass vial I had on me, looking at the contents inside. My late wife's ring, some milk and honey and a sprig of lavender. I held it out over the water and quietly whispered to myself, ‘Come to me, be my best friend forever, show me love and affection, be everywhere I am, so may it be.’
I was out of my depth, I couldn’t do this life alone. I released the vial into the Atlantic ocean, watching as it disappeared into the waves with barely a splash. For several moments I looked to where it had slipped into the water, before hearing the excited chatter of others, pointing towards a distant shape of land.
‘Idiot.’ I said to myself. As if something like that was actually going to work. Now I had to come up with a lie as to how Nicoles mothers ring had gone missing. Thankfully I had over a week to think about that. I turned my attention to the far shape of Africa’s coast, pulling out my camera and started to try and get the focus right, the land being a bit too far and vague for the focus to really work. From the corner of my eye, in churning waves of the sea, I thought I saw a glint of something. Others must have seen it, as they were excitedly chatting and pointing.
‘Is it a flying fish?’ someone said.
‘Maybe it was a dolphin!’ another added. I lowered my camera and looked down to the water. I saw it again, a flash of something bright and sparkling, as though the light was coming from the object itself. A young girl next to me was getting overly excited, so much so her mother had to hold her shoulders to stop her tumbling over the edge. It made me wish that Nicole had joined me, just this once.
‘What is it?’
‘There, there it is!’
‘I think it's…It's…um.’
‘Jerry? What are you doing? Jerry? Jerry!’ The woman's voice started off low but grew to a scream. There was a splash down in the water as the man went overboard, leading to a pause in the excited clamour. The woman screamed and chaos ensued. People grabbed their children and ran, while others rushed for life rings, others looking for the crew.
‘Man overboard! Man overboard!’ they shouted. Moments later, a siren roared over the speakers and a voice echoed, ‘Oscar, oscar, oscar’ as the ship's engines ceased and it started to come to a slow halt. I stared down at the waters, at the foaming bubbles where the man, Jerry, had plunged into the sea, ensuring I knew exactly where he had gone in. The bubbles cleared and I saw yet another flashing glint, almost like…fish scales? Or maybe something metallic? Bubbles exploded to the surface, as though something or someone was thrashing, the water gradually turning pink.
‘Oh my god.’ I uttered. Were there sharks in these waters? Several crew had raced to the railings where myself and several others still stood, Jerry's wife included, her mouth hanging open, her skin deathly pale.
‘There!’ I said, pointing to the pink foam. The water spurted into the air, akin to a geyser, showering salty pink water over everyone close enough, including myself. It was a bad day to be wearing a white shirt. From out of the geyser, almost as if it was floating, came a giant fish, roughly the size of a horse. It was almost comical, a giant fish held up by churning waters, staring towards our ship with wild and chaotic eyes. It opened its mouth and from within a woman emerged, coated in a thin film of what I could only describe as pink grease. Her arms were thin and spindly, while her face was plain and her hair flexed and pulsed like a sea-anemone. The woman's arms flopped about with her body and head, wiggling back and forth and everyone on the deck just stared, transfixed upon the wild and flailing dance. We were the fish, hypnotised by the lure, ready to be snapped up by the predator. The hypnotism broke when a woman stepped out of a door, saw the giant fish and let out a blood curdling shriek.

 

My attention was broken, as was the other passengers, who pushed and shoved and ran and screamed. I managed to step back from the railings as several members of the crew threw objects, from safety rings to radios towards the monster. One crew member, who had arrived with a flare, dared fire it towards the beast, hitting it in one of its googling eyes, which exploded in a shower of goo. The fish and the thing protruding out of its mouth shrieked and plunged back into the sea, the geyser beneath it ceasing. A siren blared through the body of the ship, while an announcement played, ‘Return to your rooms, return to your rooms.’ The engines roared back into life and sent shudders through the ship as it lurched forwards, leaving the fish monster behind. I rushed towards the stairs, where I quickly ascended in order to reach the deck with my room, hoping that Nicole was still there, deep in her book and completely unaware. The ship jolted beneath my feet, causing myself and several others to fall and slam into the ground. I got back upright and staggered towards a nearby porthole. The entire ship was groaning and shuddering, the vibrations surging through my body to a near painful degree. I looked through the glass, towards the ocean beyond and the still setting sun, the light dull orange and moments away from fading. The water near the edge of the ship started to violently bubble, almost as if it was boiling, foaming water obscuring anything beneath.

 

All along the wide expanse of the ocean, more and more things appeared, more giant fish with similar women flapping from their mouths, giant and wriggling tentacles with glowing yellow eyes along their length as well as house sized crustaceans with a dozen or more pincers snapping into the air. In the centre of all the nightmarish beings, something slowly rose into the air, casting a long dark shadow over the ship . A giant head, not human but near enough to be uncanny, wild eyes staring about as its mouth opened and closed without thought, dark and thin hair clinging to its face. From the neck came several long and thin snake like tendrils, the ends of which bore snapping and snarling lamprey heads with rows and rows of yellow teeth. The tendrils darted forwards, slamming into the side of the ship and causing it to shake and shudder, the sound of tearing and squealing metal piercing my ears. I had to find Nicole. I tore myself away from the window and ran down the hallway, finding my key in my pocket, dropping it as my shaking hands tried to get it into the lock. I groped for it, grabbing the key just as the entire section of ship where I had been standing moments before, was torn away by one of the monstrous tendrils, several passengers being taken with it, their screams cut off in an instant. I got the key into the lock, turned it and burst into the room.
‘Nicole! We have to go, now!’
Nicole was still sitting on her bed, but on the edge, her feet on the floor, hands in her lap, back straight and eyes front. She slowly turned her head and looked at me, her eyes blank, her face rigid and pale.
‘Hello father. I am so happy to see you.’ she said, her voice monotone, devoid of life and emotion. All the air left my body. I reached for the old and worn book I had left on the desk, only for my legs to give out as the ship once more lurched beneath them. Nicole stood and walked towards me as I lay sprawled out on the floor of our cabin, stopping above me and slowly moving into a crouch.
‘This isn’t what I wanted.’ I gasped, trying to get any air into my lungs as my mind swam and my eyes turned blurry, ‘I just wanted to make the world more like the ones of myth and legend that you read about and love so much. You’ve been so lonely since mum died, I just wanted you to have some friends, friends that understood you, that would show you the magic and the beauty of the world. That's why I summoned them.’
Nicole’s smile grew and I could see in her eyes, it wasn’t my daughter. It was something else, something that had stolen her away and taken her place. 

‘And we thank you for that,’ The thing that wasn’t Nicole said, ‘For you have set us free. You monsters have been destroying this world while we watched from the shadows, unable to cross over to stop you. You opened the door for us, allowing us to finally cross over.’
The side of the cabin was torn away like it was paper by one of the giant lamprey heads, the monstrous creature with its human-like head and wild eyes coming into view. I just wanted to help my daughter, but as one of the lamprey heads moved towards me, round mouth pulsing, I realised I never should have performed the ritual I had read about in my book.