Page 56 of Kringle and the Kraken

I worked on Levi’s present until I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore and nicked my finger with one of my carving tools. I cleaned up and hid as much of the present as I could just in case Levi came into the garage.

He only shifted a tiny bit when I climbed back into bed and wrapped him in my arms again. I loved having Levi in my space, and every day we spent together made me want a future with him.

There were questions I needed to ask Levi about what our future would actually look like since he was a kraken with a lifespan far, far longer than mine, but for now, I was trying to enjoy the moment and not worry about what would happen when I was old and gray and he had barely aged.

And maybe it was those sort of morose thoughts that made me wake up with a strange sense of foreboding the next day.

Levi and I went through our morning routine like normal, and we made out in my truck for a few minutes before he went in to open the record store and I drove out to the tree farm, but I felt in my gut that something was off, even if Levi didn’t seem to feel the same.

Or maybe he did, but he was just better at hiding it.

Later, I picked him up, and we made the drive out to my house. More snow had fallen overnight, and the setting sun cast a red-orange glow over the landscape. It was gorgeous, but my hands were sweaty on the steering wheel. We hadn’t picked up dinner because I had said I’d cook.

“Do you want to eat first, or do you want to head down to the beach?”

“The beach, I think, but can we take a walk first?”

Snow had begun to softly fall and it looked like glitter sprinkling from the sky as the flakes fell to the ground. “Are you sure?”

He nodded. “It’s so beautiful, and we’re usually only out here in the dark.”

A walk in the sunset did sound kind of romantic, and maybe it was what I needed to drive the still lingering sense of dread from my head. Plus, I loved walking along the bluff, so I foundLevi’s hand again, and wrapped my fingers around his in a poor imitation of the way I loved to be tangled up in his tentacles. I dragged him back around to my side of the truck and grabbed the extra flashlight from behind my seat, just in case we walked for longer than we thought, then led Levi out along the cliff.

A comfortable silence fell between us, the only sounds the crunching of the snow under our boots, the wind whipping around us, and the waves crashing on the rocky shore below. It was kind of perfect, and I could picture Levi and me walking on the cliff every day as we shared stories about our days and caught up on town gossip. As we walked, the snow picked up, heavy white flakes blocking out the sun and casting the world in watery gray as the sun sank farther below the horizon. What had been pretty flecks of glitter turned into almost a complete whiteout, and I gripped Levi’s hand tightly.

“I think we should start heading back.”

“Yeah. I agree.”

We were at the edge of the cliff, right near where the forest at the end of my property began. It felt like something was watching us from the tree, but as I looked into the evergreens, I didn’t see anything. But I couldn’t shake my unease, and the sense of dread I’d felt all day returned tenfold.

I started to turn, my hand still gripping Levi’s, and several things happened all at once. Like the last of the setting sun was being snuffed out, it went completely dark around us. A howling wind whipped off the ocean, turning the snow sharp as it pelted and stung against our faces, and my feet slid on the slick snow under my boots as I was tugged backward. The flashlight dropped from my hands, flickering out as it hit the ground, and in the now total darkness, the sound of the wind changed until it echoed in my ears like a tortured scream. An acrid scent burned my nose and filled my mouth. The wind tightened around me in eerie tendrils, and I was dragged backward toward the edge ofthe cliff. My feet couldn’t find purchase on the slick ground, and my hand was yanked from Levi’s. It seemed inevitable that I was going over the edge of the cliff to land on the rocks below. I tried to yell for Levi to run, but the breath had been stolen from my lungs, and Levi’s stricken face kept getting farther and farther away even as he reached for me, his tentacles lifting from his body and flailing around him in the unnatural wind.

“The sea claims you. You are mine.” Icy terror slid down my spine as the wind spoke in a raspy, distorted voice that sounded like it was coming from inside my head, echoing against my skull and making my head throb.

And then I suddenly stopped falling, and Levi’s hands were on my face as he held me up, my feet dangling in the air above the cliff. For a long time, I could see Levi’s lips moving, but all I could hear was the reverberating scream of the wind and that terrifying voice.

“Kris? Kris, look at me. Look at me!” Levi’s voice was frantic, and my head was spinning, my stomach roiling like I was going to throw up. The wind and snow were still a swirling tempest around me, and I clawed at the tight bands around my waist, trying to get free until I realized Levi had once again saved me with his tentacles, and he was pulling me into him, to safety.

It was my last thought before everything went black.

A soft touchon my cheek woke me, and I looked up to see Levi’s worried face surrounded by the soft glow of lamplight. Soft cushions cradled me, and a beat later, I figured out I was on my couch. My head felt fuzzy, and my stomach queasy like I had one hell of a hangover, and I couldn’t remember coming inside.

I remembered being in my truck, then walking along the cliff, then the wind…

Sitting up quickly, I almost smacked Levi in the chin with my forehead, but he took a step back just in time. My legs wobbled as I stood, and Levi grabbed my forearm to steady me.

“Levi, what the fuck was that? What happened out on the cliff?”

He sighed and paced in a tight circle before plopping down on the couch in the spot where I’d just been resting, his arms braced on his knees and his head in his hands. “That was a sea wraith. You were attacked.”

“Fuck.” My knees gave out, and I slumped back onto the couch next to Levi. My ears still rang with the sound of the eerie voice that had spoken in the wind, and an unpleasant shudder rolled through my body.

Levi wrapped his arm and a tentacle around me, and I saw deep scratches along the purple blue flesh of the extra appendage, my stomach sinking as I moved to bring it into my hands to survey the damage, remembering what I’d done. “God, Levi. I’m so sorry. I was so confused, and all I could hear was that voice. I thought that thing still had me. I didn’t know it was you. I’m so, so sorry I hurt you.”

He wriggled out of my touch and wrapped himself around me again. “I’m fine. In a couple hours, I’ll be completely healed.” He squeezed me tight, and when he spoke again, I heard the catch in his voice. “I’m the one who should be apologizing. I promised to protect you, and for fuck’s sake, you almost died, Kris.”

His touch fell away, and he shot off the couch, pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace, but unlike the last few nights when his pacing was born of frustration, now there was steel in his spine, and I could see his resolve snapping into place.

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