Briney Logs 3

12th April 2016
I can’t sleep. Too sore. My arm and chest are bandaged up but they still sting like hell from the spikes on the sharks, think I lost blood, I’m feeling lightheaded. Charlotte, Betty and Mum are sleeping somehow, all in a pile in bed, like they won’t let go of each other. Da’s unconscious still, I think… yeah, he’s breathing. Phew, my heart jumped for a second there, he looks so pale he could be dead. Looks weird without his left arm, it’s simple but it’s like his entire body’s off kilter, like a curved pencil or a fish with no tail. He’s feverish, lost a lot of blood. Mum’s done what she can, but she’s a biologist, not a doctor. We need a proper surgeon but there’s nobody. It’s just us, the boat and the sea.
I’m shaking again, I’m still getting over it- I wasthisclosetodeath. A second longer and I’d have been eaten. It’s ridiculous; seconds don’t matter that much do they?! Snap, second gone, Kai gone, fishfood. Nevermind time is money, heartbeats are life. I’ve never been that close to dying before, is this what shock feels like? I didn’t think we’d survive the voyage but I didn’t expect to die young, how does that work?

Charlotte says we’ll reach land tomorrow. The Sea told her. I was below deck, but I saw it- I don’t mean like a voice on the wind, or the roar of the tides or some metaphorical garbage from a poem.
She was sitting on the stern and then it was as if a typhoon just erupted out of the ocean, this humongous solid pillar of water thicker than the boat. It was even bigger than that, there were bits of its tail on the other side, sort of like it was a living current or a river in the ocean in the shape of a dragon completely surrounding us.
Betty started screaming when she saw it, Mum nearly fainted, I almost pissed myself- forget the sharkupines being scary! That thing burnt them to a bloody pulp without any effort. And Charlotte talked to it; beats me how, its eye could crush her!  She said she’d done it before, that’s what she was up to when I caught her on deck at night. Been sneaking up to see the Leviathan- yeah, she even named it, but she doesn’t really know what it is. Does it count as a sea serpent if it’s a serpent made of sea?
At least it doesn’t seem like it’s going to eat us, it told us- told Charlotte- that we’re not on Earth. There’s another world like, parallel dimension kind, which we entered somehow. I’ve heard stories of a magic portal to somewhere before, figured they were rubbish, or didn’t really matter like the black hole machine a few years back. That’s backfired spectacularly, wish I’d bought that Zombie Survival guide I saw back in Darwin, at this rate we’re guaranteed zombies. Dead certain.
I don’t know why I’m laughing, it hurts and I’m in tears, but this is too much. Parallel worlds, two moons, Da’s lost an arm, Betty’s growing things, I almost died, and my little blister’s befriended a living maelstrom. WTF.


13th April 2016
I’m writing this on a beach. We made land!
Well, beached ourselves really, the yacht’s run aground. Partly my fault, but no real damage done and it gives us shelter without having to risk swimming or paddling back and forth. No chance, the sea’s bloody freezing and it’s drizzling.
Da’s woke up, but he doesn’t believe a word we’re saying. Can’t blame him, I can barely believe a word I’m saying either. There’s no sign of the Leviathan since Charlotte spoke to it, hard to believe it’s real without seeing it. He’s half out of it still too, he can’t get up, his organs are damaged and still bleeding out- Mum took some blood from me and Charlotte to attempt a transfusion, she’s doing everything she can with him and Betty.

Explored the rest of the day. It’s an island, just a small one, a speck in the middle of the ocean.
Managed to walk around a bit, maybe a three miles wide and longer, bit of little forest inland. There’s a craggy bluff towards the North West end, cliffs on the other side from us, no sign of anything dangerous. There’s animals too, actual animals, but nothing big here- saw some furry otters or something, hares, squirrel, the biggest things were actually big but weird. Looked like giant versions of those fuzzy snake toys, with fluffy flippers about the size of a dolphin, I ain’t got a clue what they are. There’s birds on the cliffs and crags, albatross-type things, some little grey ones too- I wonder if I can catch some for food? We’re running low on everything.


14th April 2016
The swelling areas on Betty have burst and uncoiled; she’s growing tentacles. It’s horrific, she started screaming out of nowhere when they started popping, there’s blood and… and gross sick stuff everywhere and she’s got four of these foot long slimy wriggly black things growing from her waist like a skirt- there’s more lumps appearing near them, it looks like she’ll grow more… urgh, it just looks wrong, they’ve got suckers and her old legs seem as if they’ll shrink down to join them. Only below her waist though; maybe if we cut them off her upper body wouldn’t change? Just a torso with arms?
No, we can’t, they… they’re just like different legs maybe she’ll end up with just tentacles and a human torso? A … octomaid? Mersquid? Like that witch in the cartoon, the big fat underwater lady! No, yuck, I do not want to compare her to my sister, never mind the tentacles her human half was ugly.
She’s back to sleep now, she looks a little happier with the duvet up over her. She’s pretty when she’s sleeping all peacefully; she’s got this deep chocolate brown hair like mum’s that just goes everywhere and a little dimple on her right cheek when she smiles. She still looks like such a child- somehow she’s not stressed out. Stupid little brat, probably for the better, she’s got a scream that’d make bats cover their ears.


15th April 2016
Betty’s getting better, I can’t tell if she’s hurting less or if she just put on a brave face. I’ve had to deal with her all day, giving piggybacks- that’s freaky as hell. She clung on with her tentacles so now I’ve got slime soaked into my shirt! Weights half a ton too, the tentacles have gotten bigger overnight and it looks like there’s another few developing in lumps like boils, just disgusting.
She just seems glad to get off the boat and get to play in the sea a little- she’s built a load of sand castles already, I’ve been gathering firewood and useful stuff. Mum’s trying everything to help Da but he’s slipping, the wound’s just too big and we’re running out of medicine- he’s bound up with a sheet now but there’s infection. Charlotte     dang where’d she go off to?!

She’s adopted the fuzzy snake things. Somehow. I mean, I guess they don’t look dangerous, they look more like living candyfloss than snakes but they’re noisy buggers, they flail around going “oooooooo”. Betty loves them, she’s giving one braids. I don’t see the appeal, these freaks are morons; I finally managed to get a little fire going tonight and one almost cooked itself wondering what the pretty orange light was!


16th April 2016
The Leviathan came back, appeared near the cliffs and curled up. Da was awake, he thinks he’s delusional. Betty’s hiding under her bed; another couple of tentacles have burst. Charlotte and Mum are going to try and speak to it again, find out more about where we are, or if it knows any way home to earth. They’re welcome to; I don’t want to get too close. I feel sort of guilty; it literally saved us and got us here, but… it’s just scary.
It’s weird, the animals here, like the daft fuzzsnakes, they don’t really know to be scared of stuff unless they’re taught to? Nothing’s afraid of me and I’m probably the most dangerous thing on this island, besides the living maelstrom, that scares the ever loving guts out of me because I haven’t been taught about it. It’s outside my experience so I feel the opposite way than the animals do. I don’t even know what I’m saying, humans are weird creatures?
That’s probably not big news.

Mum says it can cure them. She’s pretending to be happy but Charlotte’s actually genuinely ecstatic, says I should’ve come to see it. Little maniac. I don’t know. Betty’s excited, she wants to have her legs back, makes sense, I can understand. Da might die if he doesn’t, that’s not much choice and Mum’ll have to go with him, he’d slip and drown on his own, no choice there.
I don’t understand why me though! Can’t it heal humans? Can we even trust it?


17th April 2016
There was a bit of a storm last night. It washed a load of fish up to suffocate on the beach, so we’ve got quite a bit of food out of nowhere. Charlotte’s all up in my face saying the Leviathan gave us it all. The prick ruined the firepit I built on the beach.

I’m shaking again. I don’t know what to do. Everyone else is going to go swim, like the Leviathan said. They trust it to fulfil its word. Or they’re just desperate. Maybe they’re the same thing, maybe it’s only trust when it’s all on the line.
Let’s assume it keep its word, do I even want to go ahead and swim? I don’t think so, I’m happy this way, I mean I’m not super fit but all this sailing, it’s put me in pretty good shape. There’s a life back home, friends and Macey and everything, all these possibilities. Right?
Maybe it’s need instead of want. Damn that sounds like what Mum used to tell me to get me to have medicine, or eat broccoli or pull my teeth. Does it matter what’s at home if I can’t even reach there? Like this? The Leviathan said humans were too weak for this sea, I thought it was just being smug but with the storms and the acid and all the sharkupines and Betty’s changes, we can’t fight them. Even if we were a team of Olympians or Navy marines would we stand more of a chance? I don’t know, maybe not. I don’t want to die.
That’s it, I’m going to go with them and swim, and at least if the bay’s entirely acid we’ll die pretty sharpish.

Not acid. Still alive. Feel awful.