[Halloween '21] The Hungering Ocean

The air had begun to grow colder. It was accompanied by a thick blanket of fog that hung miserably in the streets that left the pavement constantly shimmering under the harsh light of neon signs and street lamps, only broken up by the occasional fallen leaf from one of the city’s scarce trees. Autumn had arrived in New Miruka, and it was different from the autumn seasons Winters was accustomed to. It felt like a pale imitation of it-- all washed out in grey in contrast to the brilliant orange and red hues of the trees from where he grew up.

It left the aging man in a solemn state, so much so that he barely registered the insistent prodding in his side, just beneath where the edge of his fur met his liquid lower body.

“Winteeeeeerrrrssss,” Dani whimpered, “C’mon, I’m freezing out here! At least lend me your jacket if you plan on brooding out here for the rest of the night.”

Winters sighed and began to walk forward, pulling the collar of his jacket closer to him as if to emphasize he was not about to give it to Dani after the state she returned it in last time, “No, no- you’re right. We should really get going-- Moxie only throws a Halloween party once a year, after all.”

Winters heard the scuff of Dani’s feet behind him as she skipped up to his side, “That’s right! Because Halloween only comes once a year!”

“Uh-huh,” Winters scoffed. Moxie throwing a Halloween party ‘once a year’ was the joke, but he was glad Dani seemed to think she was contributing to it with the obvious addition.

-

Several businesses and apartment windows had advertisements or decorations set up for Halloween. Posters advertising haunted barns and hay rides seemed to be plastered on every surface, and as Dani and Winters turned the corner to the more residential street that led into Moxie’s club, plastic skeletons and pumpkins seemed to manifest from the fog as they passed by doorways.

“I thought murder was ‘illegal’,” Dani frowned, her eyes glued to the first couple of skeletons as they came across.

“They’re not real, Dani, they’re plastic.”

“Oh. That’s quite unfortunate. It’d be much more authentic if they were real. Maybe I should--”

Winters didn’t even wait for her to finish her suggestion, “Absolutely not.”

Dani grumbled a bit in protest, but it was short lived as they approached a familiar set of stairs leading down. Dani let out a short yelp of excitement and charged forward to Winters chagrin, nearly knocking over someone's pumpkin decorations in the process. She had already disappeared down the stairs by the time Winters got to the first step. Winters knew Dani knew the way from here, so he stopped for a moment to look at the decorations Moxie (surely with the help of Cass) put up in the stairwell.

Moxies was a bit of a secretive business, with the majority of the club being a front for underground business, such as the meetings of mob bosses and their clients or being a hub for fixers, but it was still partially open to the public, and as such, Moxie went out of her way to set up a Halloween extravaganza every year. To Winters, it seemed like a bit of a reprieve from the high risk business she dealt in, and from the cobwebs coating the ceiling to the little set up she had of plastic skeletons and zombie mannequins playing poker in the tunnel, she had fun with it.

Winters rubbed the back of his neck, grimacing a bit as he felt the numbed sensation of fungi on his paws. He wondered what his daughter was doing right now-- hopefully she was having some sort of Halloween fun, too.

“Winterrrrsss!!!” Dani’s voice echoed from the end of the tunnel, “Lost in thought again, manthing? You’re going to miss the party at this rate!”

“Coming!” Winters called back, “Just looking at the decorations! Did you even notice them?”

As he began to make his way down the tunnel there was a pause before Dani sheepishly replied, “Of course I did!”

Winters knew she absolutely did not.

-

The party surely did wonders for Moxie’s club. While it usually brought in it’s reliable base of regulars, the spooky decor and one-night only exclusive Halloween drinks drew in new blood. Winters saw several new faces in costume as he and Dani entered the club, most of which he didn’t bother to talk to himself, though Dani seemed to be flitting in between each of the newcomers like a fly. At one point, Winters had to pull her away from bothering a lone patron at the bar. The woman, who he learned was named Caprisin, reassured him that Dani wasn’t bothering her, though the slight edge in her voice told him otherwise.  

Eventually, the pair made their way over to a table of folks they were somewhat acquainted with-- Chaya, Cass, Stevie, Cinder, and Moxie herself. With the exception of Cinder, everyone had worn some sort of costume-- Stevie was in a leopard print dress and had cheesy little cat ears stuck in her hair to match, Chaya was wearing a witch hat, and Cass and Moxie were wearing somewhat matching devil and angel costumes.

Dani slid onto a stool next to Chaya and rested her elbow on the surface, “Looks like we missed the memo, Winters! We’re sorely underdressed.”

Chaya cocked an eyebrow, and Winters watched her examine Dani’s gothic necklaces and dark cloak.

“You’re not dressed up?” She inquired curiously, “I could have sworn you dressed as a vampi-”

Realization dawned on the younger woman, “Oh, right.”

Winters took the empty seat next to Cinder who, like always, seemed on guard. Winters guessed not everyone could easily unwind on the holidays. As Chaya and Dani’s conversation faded into a faint hum of background noise, Winters found himself idly chatting with Moxie, Cass, and Stevie. About the mundane at first-- how business was going, how his daughter was doing, that sort of thing, but as the night went on, and the table indulged in the bars selection, the topics began to delve into a wide array of topics, ranging from personal to fantastical hypotheticals.

Winters wasn’t sure who first brought up telling scary stories, but before he knew it, he was listening to Cass spin a somewhat cliche story about a group of teenagers going out into the woods and encountering a masked killer and getting picked off one by one. He looked over at Dani, whose hands were clenched into fists atop the table and she leaned towards Cass, her eyes wide with anticipation.

When Cass got to the part where the final teenager inevitably turned the tables on the masked killer, Dani screeched in protest and slammed her fists on the table, disrupting some of the drinks, “No way! A pathetic mortal could never best a surely immortal being! This story is fake!”

Cass tilted her head to the side, but offered Dani a polite smile nonetheless, “Did you think it was a true story?”

“Of course! My sisters and I were much like the killer! We need to kill to survive!”

Cass responded with a somewhat nervous laugh, “Oh, sweetie…”

“You should check out some of the old 80s slashers, then.” Moxie cut into the conversation, “You’d love em, they’re exactly like what Cass was describing.”

“Are they all fake? Do the mortals win?”

“Well, usually, but it’s to make us ‘mortals’ feel better about ourselves in light of powerful creatures like that.” Moxie traced the edge of her finger around her glass, scraping up some of the sugar that rimmed it.

Winters leaned back a bit, watching Dani consider this. He knew Moxie was lying, but ultimately he knew this tactic was to ensure she wouldn’t have an angry vampire in her club. It seemed to be working.

Dani nodded, a grin forming on her face, “Ah, I see! I understand- or well, I don’t. I have never encountered a creature that could best me and my sisters. Even Winters-- had he tried to kill us like the mortal ‘hero’ in Cass’ story, we would have bled him dry!”

“That’s reassuring.” Winters deadpanned before taking a sip of his drink.

“Don’t worry, man thing! You’ve earned my favor~ You are in no danger with me.” Dani’s grin widened as she bapped him harshly on the shoulder with her hand.

“Thank you, Dani.”

“Of course! Now--” Dani turne to the rest of the group and tapped her fingers on the table, “I want more entertainment. Someone tell another story.”

The group was quiet for a bit until Winters saw a hint of a grin on Moxie’s face.

“You said you’ve never heard of a creature that could best you, right?”

“That’s right!”

“Then you haven’t heard of the old Waterdog myth of the Hungering Ocean.”

All eyes turned to Moxie. Dani’s eyes widened, and she grabbed her own drink and sipped it dramatically, “Oh?”

Moxie leaned over the table and nodded, “In the olden days, when our kind was young and first figuring out our place, before even you were born, Dani, one of the first groups of sailors would voyage out into the ocean, something that, up until that point, had never been attempted--”

The lights around Moxie seemed to flicker ominously as she settled her voice into a low, ominous tone, her golden eyes shimmering; “--You see, back then, our kind did not traverse the ocean. It was our mother and was to be respected and feared, because surely, if the ocean could grant us life, it could take it away if we disrespected it. As the first sailors attempted their voyages, it did. Ships would come back in disrepair, with one or two members still on board, shivering and wide eyed, babbling like madmen.”

Winters saw Chaya shudder a bit at the thought, and she pulled the hat atop her head closer to her. Cass twirled the end of her braid between her fingers, her eyes glued on her girlfriend as she spoke.

“Rumors began to spread. Many took this as a sign that, by attempting to cross the water, they had angered the ocean, and this was it’s warning. That it would get worse if they attempted it once more. Others-- more rational folks, if you will, just assumed it all boiled down to science. The weather, external forces that affected our oceans over the ocean itself, possibly being malevolent. But the more unnerving of the rumors came from the sailors themselves-- those that claimed that perhaps our origin was wrong, perhaps our kind had not been born from the ocean, no-- that we escaped from the ocean.”

Moxie took a sip of her drink, “They talked of the waves opening up into maws that would swallow their fellow ships and crew members whole-- reducing them to nothing but sand. They claimed that they felt an unnerving sense of being watched when passing by crystalline icebergs, as if the ocean had eyes. They believed that the ocean all along had been this creature that lured our kind into a sense of security so that one day we would feel safe enough to enter it and fall into its mouth.”

Dani grumbled a bit at this, and Winters guessed that the thought had made her think about her old ‘employers’ that had used her and her sisters as a means of getting rid of “problems” before ultimately abandoning them.

Moxie continued, “They also believed that one day, this creature would eventually find a way to rise from the ocean, much like our kind did long ago.”

Chaya squeaked nervously, “I hope not!”

“If that happened, would it hunt us?” Dani inquired.

“If what the sailors said is true, yes.”

Dani fell silent for a moment, then folded her hands together, “I see. I now understand your mortal stories of defeating the undefeatable. Even I do not think I could defeat the entire ocean.”

“Well, so long it stays a myth, you guys will be fine.” Cinder said, speaking for the first time that night as he pulled out a wad of cash and began leafing through it. “Great story, Mox, but it’s really about time I get going. Here’s the bill.”

Moxie took the payment from Cinder’s hand and laughed, “Way to kill the atmosphere, Cinder. And here I thought you would have had your own story to tell.”

“Maybe another time.” He regarded the rest of the group, “See you all around. Make good choices.”

They bid Cinder farewell, and as they did Winters caught Chaya leaning over to Cass out of the corner of his eye.

“That story about the ocean isn’t like… real, right?”

Cass let out a quiet, gentle laugh, “No, it’s not even a myth. It’s a Halloween story parents used to tell their children to make sure they didn’t stray too close to the ocean at night.”

Chaya let out a breath of relief, “Thank goodness. She really had me going.”

Cass patted the young woman on the back reassuringly.

Dani, meanwhile, knocked back the rest of her drink and slammed a fist on the table once again, “Alright then! Now it’s my turn to tell a ‘scary story’!”

Winters pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. The rest of the night was going to be long now, wasn’t it?