Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #12 March 2015 | Page 23

reached out.
“Oh my god,” Marsha said, as she realised the form
lying in the churning surf was a woman. She quickly
covered the rest of the distance and knelt down in the
wet sand.
“Are you okay?”
The woman raised her head, looking up at Marsha.
Her white hair hung down in wet ropes that seemed to
glow in the starlight. Her eyes reflected the minimal
light like an animal’s, flickering from gold to green
to dull red. Her thin lips pulled back briefly, a flash of
white teeth. Marsha knew the woman was smiling, but
it looked wrong, disturbing, as if it was being made
by someone who had heard of a smile, but never seen
one.
“Do you need help?”
The woman’s voice was deep and fluid, a cold current
from the ocean depths.

long column of muscle and grey flesh, like the tail of
an eel.
Marsha slowly sank back to her knees.
“What are you?”
The tail flipped lazily into the air. The woman’s whole
body seemed to glow with a dull, emerald light, like
diffuse sunlight in the depths of the ocean.
“Not God. Here to help. Heard the song of your heart.
It is the same as mine.”
Marsha felt sick. Her mind revolted at what it was
seeing. Ancient race-memories stirred, of dark shapes
moving through primordial forests, red eyes glowing
in the night, all the monsters in every closet and under
every bed. This was something that shouldn’t exist in
the world. She wanted to curl into a ball, stop up her
ears, pull out her eyes.
“This can’t be real.”

“No. You called. I heard.”

“Real. Yes, real. Here to help. You... me.”

Okay, this is getting weird, Marsha thought. Maybe
this chick is stoned. “I didn’t say anything. Look, I
need to get someone. I’ll be back.”

The woman pulled herself across the wet sand, a little
closer to Marsha. A part of Marsha’s brain screamed
“RUN!” but she couldn’t move.

Marsha started to rise, the wet sand sucking at her
knees.

“Let me help,” the woman reached out and touched
Marsha’s bare leg. The touch was ice, the caress of a
thing old and inhuman.

“No mother. No father. No love, no hope. So sad. Such
a strong song. I could hear it in the black depths.”
Marsha stood over the woman.
“How did you know?”
As the water began to recede, Marsha saw that the
smooth skin of the woman’s back was almost translucent. Exposed to the cool of the night air the colour
of the skin began to change, the pale white turning to
light grey. Finally, the water was gone, retreating into
the great basin of the Atlantic. Marsha was shocked
when she saw that instead of legs, the woman had a

“I can help. Pain no more. The world of you, no more.
I can help.”
The words washed over Marsha. The voice was horrible but enthralling. Marsha felt like she wa ́݅э