Queen of Rivers

"Oh no, oh fuck no."

Rob vomited, clutched the toilet while everything he ever thought about eating came up. He gasped, tried not to look at the smear of red, failed, and lost himself to another round of dry heaving and a dribble of bile. "No, this is impossible." The dangling edges of his bleach blond hair, streaked pink from him wiping it away from his face.

His shirt, smeared like a bucket of paint hit him, soaking wet. Dark, almost black across his chest. "Nobody has this much blood in them, none of this is real." Thick, gooey, blood wasn't supposed to be like this. It was all a nightmare and he needed to wake up.

A knock at the door, a soft call with an east-coast accent, tinted with concern. "Mister Brown? Are you all right?"

Oh no, Howard. "I-I-" This was impossible, and why was his face so wet? What was he going to do? The quiet, cheery fellow who ran the place, who had frowned softly when Rob asked tonight not wind up in the register. The man who always smiled and remembered his name, from when Rob worked as a cashier at the grocery store during high school. "It's not...don't...."

"Mister Brown? Rob?" A jingle and scrape. "I'm opening the door."

"N-no!" This was impossible and he was going to prison forever.

Footsteps, and the owner of the hotel walked into view. Howard Blackwater was a tall man in his forties with dark hair, a tightly trimmed goatee, and a sweater vest. "Oh, oh dear." The man's brow creased, frown soft, and he glanced over, spotted him. Blinked. "Rob? Are you all right?"

"I...he..." It was so hard to see, everything was swimming. "Mister, Mister Howard, I..."

The man walked over, crouched down. "Easy now, breathe." The feel of something soft, a towel pressed into his hands. "Rob, I need you to take a deep breath, and tell me what happened."

What happened? He wiped his face, tears and blood soaking into the plush fabric. What happened was the deal went south, they argued. "Tony was going to kill me." Rob had spent months gathering enough product, and stupid Tony tried to cheat him. His voice was climbing, this couldn't be real. "He was...he...I didn't...he threatened me, threatened..." The switchblade, he had brought it to look tough, nonchalantly pick his nails with it or something. Not use it. Not open the man like a damn perch.

Howard's brow rose, but his voice was still calm. "I don't doubt you, Rob, but please, keep it down. You're going to wake my wife, and I don't want to stress her if I don't have to."

Right, Howard's wife, with the funny name. The lady was super pregnant, wasn't she? Shit. "Sorry, sorry, but please, you have to believe me." If it was self-defense, maybe he wouldn't go to prison, maybe this nightmare would stop. "Please, Mister Howard, don't call the cops. Please?"

The man sighed, reached over and put a hand on Rob's shoulder. "Rob. While I believe he might have threatened you, this man is in pieces, and you seem fairly unharmed." Those eyes were so hard to read. "Did you take something?"

"N-no?" He had, they both had, but the product was slow to kick in and Tony got impatient, threatened to walk out. Threatened to tell everyone that Rob was a liar and the stuff didn't work. It still hadn't, or maybe it had, and none of this was real, just a bad trip. A bad night that would fade away when reality came back.

Howard was frowning, glancing from him to over where Tony was. "Okay." The man took a deep breath. "If you don't want me to inform the police, I'm going to need some help dealing with this."

"You, are you serious?" There was no way nice-if-a-little-weird Howard was going to help him. This was all some kind of dream, had to be. Please, dear gods let it be a dream.

"Rob, I really don't want the police here." Howard was looking at him, still with that soft frown. "I don't want them asking why I didn't report you acting oddly, why I didn't have your room on the books. I don't want the Queen of Rivers Hotel associated with gruesome murder, and I really don't want to cause stress for my wife. She's so close to term, and it's been a hard pregnancy, I don't want to take any chances."

"I, I didn't know." Shit, maybe that's why nobody saw the lady much. Rob couldn't really recall her face, only remembered thinking she was way too pretty to marry some old-school geek like Howard.

"I will do anything for my wife, her health." Howard looked so serious. "Anything, for my family. So, I'm willing to make this all disappear, but I can't do it by myself. Will you help fix this mess?"

Rob nodded. Maybe he had been wrong about Howard, maybe the man wasn't some harmless odd duck. Guys would do extreme things for people they loved, right? "I will. Thank you, Howard." He could be at least as calm as this guy, as focused. Deep breaths.

"Okay. First thing, take a shower, put all your clothes in the garbage, I'll bring some fresh with the rest of what we'll need."

Instructions, he wasn't going to have to think about this, he could just follow instructions. It was like a weight coming off his shoulders. He showered, heard the door close, and then open a bit later. The clothes were an old white tee and some flannel pants. "This is like, pajamas."

Howard snorted, and was similarly attired. "It's things easy to dispose of, after. There's a lot of evidence to account for."

Rob supposed the man was right, and it was on TV all the time.

They moved what was left of Tony onto a tarp, though Rob had to pause and go vomit again. Only, they didn't get rid of the body, once it was bundled Howard handed him a scrub brush. "What about, what about Tony?"

"I want this room clean," Howard said. "I can make sure the body isn't found, so this mess is the priority." They stripped the bed, put all the towels and sheets and fabric into garbage bags. There was a bucket of cold water they poured slowly onto the blood, some unlabeled cleaner. "Get scrubbing."

Rob sighed, and attacked the carpet. Weird, he hadn't though Howard would be so strong, the guy had real muscles hiding under his usual button-downs. Still, there were more pertinent things than whether the hotel owner worked out. "Does the water have to be so damn cold?"

"Warm water sets blood stains," Howard said. "I know the stereotype for college boys is you lot don't know how to clean, but I thought everyone knew that one."

Rob almost snarled, but the angry feeling died, replaced with a shudder. College, was he going to be able to go back? Campus, or a cell if he fucked this up any further? He had been so sure he was going to get rich, and never have to worry about graduating or getting a job. Should have stuck to the homework, damn it. Though, this whole situation was still a mess. "So, how do we make sure the body doesn't turn up? What about Tony's car?"

The man snorted, cleaning the edge of the bed. "The car is easy, I'll report it abandoned. People leave their cars in my lot all the time, without ever coming inside. Off to hike the trails, or go fishing. I'll say I saw him get into a jeep with out-of-state plates, and they haven't been back. You know how often people go missing out here. It'll get towed, and that rain forecast for tomorrow night should take any evidence out of the lot."

It made sense, this hotel was so damn remote. Nestled in-between a couple state parks, walking distance from a boat launch on the river, it's why Rob suggested it for the meet up. People did go missing, all the damn time. The hills were treacherous, full of bogs and sinkholes, but the tourists couldn't stay away, the allure of lost treasures too strong to resist. The river could get nasty too, but sportsmen were always coming anyway, too many monster record-breakers turning up in the local waters. Hadn't the news reported another vanished last week? A boat crashed and no body, maybe a mile downstream from here?

Howard cleared his throat. "Is there going to be contraband in that car?"

"I don't know," Rob said. "He was supposed to be taking stuff, not bringing it in." Wait. "There might be money, like a lot of it-"

"No," Howard said. "I see what you're thinking, and no. Did you touch his car at all? Ride in it?"

"No." They came separately, and at different times, to be careful.

"Good, let's not risk adding evidence, shall we?"

A good point. Damn it, that money might have made this whole mess worth it.

"Though," Howard said. "Does that mean you have contraband, and is it in my hotel?"

"Nah, it's not like that." What the hell, he might as well let the man in on it, considering. "So, I'm taking this botany course, right? Professor Karl, he's testing this local plant thing, and he offered extra credit to anyone who would go collect it for him. It's not illegal, cause it's mostly undocumented. Dude said it's unique to the region, and he's trying to classify it. Some kind of succulent." It was almost impressive, how clean the carpet was coming. "So, I decided to score an easy A, and discovered a small side effect. The thing's a damn fucking hallucinogen, like peyote but way better."

"Ah," Howard said. "So this Tony fellow, he was...an investor? Looking into a new market?"

"Something like that, yeah." A dealer looking for a new source of cash. Contact of a contact, from off in the city. "He wanted to test it out, but the shit doesn't hit right away, creeps up on you."

"I see." Howard shook his head. "Next time, please keep your business far away from mine. Fair?"

"Fair." Rob smiled at him. "Though, if I find a better investor, I'll totally get your kid something nice, like a pony or some shit, since you're helping me out."

The man chuckled. "I appreciate the thought."

They cleaned everything, the walls, the furniture, the mess he had tracked into the bathroom. Howard looked over it. "You've done a good job, now for the last bit."

The body. "So, so is he going into the river?"

"No," Howard said. "If he's a criminal element and he turns up hacked into chunks, they'll investigate where they found the car. Better he just never turns up." The man gave him a soft smile. "I suppose since you've trusted me with your secret, I should do the same. This hotel, the basement connects to one of the local cave systems. There's a sinkhole down one of the passages. Poor, unfortunate Tony can be safely deposited in it, and never see the light of day again."

"Seriously?" Rob couldn't help getting a little excited. "How's that happen?"

Howard shrugged. "I suspect the hotel was built to conceal the cave, back during prohibition. The system doesn't appear on any local maps, I've looked. I also suspect that Tony won't be the only soured business partner to wind up in that hole."

It was perfect. They carried the tarp carefully down the hall, though it was tricky managing the stairs. Once in the basement, Howard set down his end of the tarp and walked to the wood-panel back wall. He reached behind some hanging tools, and pulled what seemed to be a release lever. A loud click, and with a light shove the whole center of the wall slid to the side, apparently on some sort of track. A well-oiled one at that, it's movements were almost silent.

The snap of a light switch, and a shop light clicked on. Cool air slid up from a gloomy, narrow passage. After a moment's delay, another snap meant more lights were coming on father down.

"Is it safe?" Rob asked. "Are there bats and shit?"

Howard shook his head. "No bats, and it's safe enough, though try to mind your footing."

The slope was gentle. "It seems kind of warm, for a cave."

"I suspect geothermal heating." The man smiled. "There's water down here, all rather tepid. I've been exploring the caves for some time, and I think humans have been using and modifying them for centuries. Maybe longer."

"Really?" What would anyone be doing with them, outside hiding shit like with prohibition?

Howard raised an eyebrow. "How much do you know about the Starved?"

Rob looked around with new interest. "No way, this is a Starved cave?" No wonder the man kept it secret, if anyone knew it was a site the archeologists would be in here tearing the whole hotel down, eminent domain and all that. "I only know some of the local legends. Lost civilization from like ten thousand years ago, right? Something about curses and angry gods. You find anything? Were they really doing human sacrifices and shit?"

A story seemed far better than focusing on the contents of the tarp, the mistakes he had made tonight.

The man snorted. "I'm no expert, this is mostly conjecture. What we do know is there was a native population in this are some time ago, and they vanished. All the artifacts found are terribly old, and yes they date back thousands of years. We do know that neighboring nations refused to have anything to do with them, and the moniker 'starved' comes from their few stories concerning the lost people's fate."

The passage opened up, and the sparse lights strung on posts showed a wide, circular space with a vaulting ceiling. More tunnels branched from it, their entrances carved like waves.

"Holy shit," Rob said. There were paintings on the walls, partially obscured, but it looked like fish, and people, and...fish-people? "The fuck?"

Howard cleared his throat. "Do you want to take a break from carrying this, and hear what I've made out from the paintings?"

It was so weird, and his answer low. "Yeah, what's going on here?"

"Legend states the Starved once worshiped a water goddess," Howard said, and pointed at the biggest picture. "That, I believe, is the Queen of Rivers."

Rob blinked. "The hotel, did you name it after her?"

"I did," Howard said, smile wide. "Seemed fitting. Half the time she's painted as a woman with dark hair, and the other half she's depicted like this. Note the barbels, and the lack of scales like you see on the other painted fish? Siluriformes are a very old order, found all over the world."

"Slurry-what now?"

"Catfish, Rob." The man shook his head. "Yet, the image is depicted with distinctly sharp teeth, a long, torpedo-shaped body, and a ribbon-like dorsal fin that nearly connects to its more diamond-esque tail. Note the eyespot as well? Those are more indicative of Amia calva, another very old fish." He snorted. "The bowfin, I'm sure you've seen one."

"Yeah," Rob said. His buddies bitched about them all the time, ruining their bass tackle with those gnarly teeth. "Bastards are super slimy."

"A prodigious slime coat, it's true. They're only found in North America, and only the one species remains, though they date back to the Jurassic period. Anyway, the Queen of Rivers, she seems to be an amalgam of species. The teeth are so pronounced, they might be reminiscent of a gar rather than the bowfin, perhaps Atractosteus spatula?"

"How do you know all this fish stuff?"

"I studied as an ichthyologist, back in New England." Howard smiled at the painting. "Did a paper on the bowfin, comparing convergent evolution and lungfish. I came here to study the incredible diversity in the local river systems. Never left."

"Why?" Why would anyone, especially a scientist, wind up running a hotel out here?

Howard's smile was soft. "I met my wife, and she wasn't keen on moving. Besides, I can keep up my research, and I send the occasional study and results back to the university. I still pull a stipend from them, it supplements my business during the off season."

A nice deal. "She's local, your wife?" Weird, he thought Ms. Blackwater was foreign, she certainly didn't look local. Unless, maybe she was really local, with her tan skin and all that wavy dark hair. Maybe that's why she didn't usually go into town with her husband, and why Rob could never remember her fucking name.

"Indeed." Howard took a deep breath. "Anyway, as far as I can tell, the Starved worshiped her, and she kept the rivers teeming with fish."

It took Rob a moment to realized they were talking about the water god again. "So what went wrong?" Only, that wasn't the only question. "Is there somewhere to piss, down here?"

Howard sighed, and pointed down one of the passages. "Try that one, anything of interest that might have been in there was destroyed by the bootleggers."

Well, at least he wouldn't be pissing on important artifacts, then. It was dark down here, and he almost tripped on an old bucket. "Fuck." Fish people, old gods, Rob had had enough weird today. Once they dealt with Tony, and whatever was left clean-up wise, he was going to go home. Order a pizza or something, sleep for a day.

Whispers, and he turned. "Howard?" The man hadn't followed him in here, had he? That would be creepy.

Nothing there. "Shit." Only, there was whispering, or scratching. His eyes blurred, everything smelled weird, and a surge of panic hit his chest.

The damn plant was taking effect. "Shit." He could not afford to be tripping balls, not right now, not down here. "Howard?"

He stumbled back to the big room, and he could hear things, but nothing that made sense. This stuff could last an hour or two, and he wasn't going to be anywhere like in reality. "Howard we've got a..."

The man wasn't there. "Howard? Where did you go?" The tarp, Tony, nothing. The place was empty. "Hello?"

Sound, a voice? He couldn't make it out, but it was coming from another of the tunnels. "Howard?" Had the guy decided he was taking too long, gone ahead? Did he not want him to know exactly where the sinkhole was? Rob staggered forward, didn't care, didn't want to be alone in this place.

The fish were swimming on the walls, the painted people dancing. The shadows were moving, and those voices were getting louder. Waves, water.

Crack. A sharp pain to his head, and Rob was falling.

Water. He could hear water. Slow, easy lapping, like a lakeshore. It was dark, but getting marginally brighter. Flickering orange, torches?

There, people. Men, stripped bare and on their knees, tied and blindfolded. The sound, weeping, the men were crying, shaking.

Water, the torches glimmered off of a wide, quiet pool. Movement further out. The faint slosh, ripples. Something was swimming, something big, and right under the surface.

Rob closed his eyes for a moment, everything hurt, his whole body throbbing. What happened, where was he? He glanced back at the water.

There was a woman. Beautiful, maybe. Curvy and with long, black hair. She was coming out of the shallows, reaching for the bound men. Her hands dripped, and while the drops were clear they were far too viscus to be water.

She touched one of them, slid her thumb along his lip, and he screamed. Only the sound changed, and he grabbed for her, cry desperate and needing. The others drew back, still terrified, while the one touching the woman went at her like an animal.

No, this wasn't right, wasn't here. Rob shook his head, and the vision faded. This was all a mistake, it wasn't really happening. Hallucinations, visions brought on by bad brain chemistry. Movement, he was moving. A scrape, and pain, like being pulled, dragged.

Weightlessness, and he looked around again. Blood, it was everywhere. A broken body, but it wasn't Tony. This thing wasn't human, for all it had stubby legs. Fins, a tail. Wide, lidless eyes that stared into nothing. Another corpse, and another. All broken, torn apart, full of arrows and spears. All fish, but with arms, legs. Webbed hands tipped in claws. Glinting teeth and dripping blood, and he could hear screams, a woman's wail, trailing to an ungodly sound no human could make.

Rob looked away, lost time in the swirling dark and throbbing pain. A nightmare, nothing but a nightmare, and he would wake up, he would. This would all be over.

Once more he opened his eyes, and this time he was pretty sure the room was real. His head hurt, his legs were bent funny and also aching. This room, there were more of those strung lights.

Splashing, there was splashing, and he could feel drops of water. He had such a hard time, turning his head. There, the tarp. The bloody tarp, but there was no body. Tony was gone. He reached, his arm was scraped and smeared with blood and dirt.

There, water. A wide pool. The edges, the stones were covered in large, glistening orbs, each the size of a softball. Dozens, more, it was hard to tell and they disappeared under the waterline.

Splashing, and he could see it. Howard, the man was in the water, and there was something in there with him, something big. It was attacking him, they were rolling, and the creature was huge, a flash of teeth and bulging body.

No, wait.

Howard wasn't fighting, he was sliding his hands along the thing. The man was bare, waist deep in the pool, and the sound wasn't some desperate shout it was soft muttering. He glistened with that slime, it was smeared all over him, caught the light, and he was moving, thrusting. A strangled sound, and he collapsed against the creature's side, breathing heavily.

Holy shit, that sick fuck. What in the hells was going on? He had to get out of here. Rob couldn't get his feet to respond, maybe he was still too full of that damn plant. Didn't matter, he had to leave, and he grabbed for purchase, ready to drag himself until he could walk.

Howard, what the hell was wrong with that guy? Only, that vision. The slime, maybe he didn't know the thing was a fish? Maybe it was fucking with his head?
He looked back. The fish was long, twice as big around as the man, it's skin smooth and patterned in reticulated black and green down its back. Howard stood alongside, caressing it's bulging underside. The yellowy belly contracted, the beast writhing, and there were more of those orbs.

"Easy," Howard muttered, pushing the orbs to where the others were piled, holding them in place. "Easy, we're almost there." All that slime, and the spheres remained in the pile when the man pulled back.

"Dearest," a woman's voice, breathy and low. "Our guest is trying to leave."

Howard chuckled, and when he spoke it was soft, reassuring. "Don't worry, I cut his tendons, he won't get far."

The fuck? Is that why he could get his legs to work? "The fuck is going on Howard?" The man had turned, was walking towards him. "The fuck is that fish? What about your wife?"

Howard blinked, brow creased but smile bright. "That is my wife. Xolrainaka, Queen of Rivers. Of course, you've only seen her wearing her illusions, before." He looked back, expression one of absolute joy. "Isn't she marvelous? Radiant with birth."

The fish opened its mouth, showing off a hundred teeth that could put any shark to shame, framed in thick, trailing barbels. A voice, thick and melodious, slid through the room. "You're so sweet, Howard dear."

Rob might throw up. "That, the slime, it..."

The man laughed, grabbing Rob's bleeding ankle. "Oh, it's quite the potent aphrodisiac, that's certain, but I don't need it." Howard pulled, dragging him back towards the pool. "Nor do I demand she cover herself in illusions when we make love, like those idiots among the Starved required. My wife, I prefer the unmatched truth of her. Such soft skin and pliant flesh, so sensitive to touch, she can taste me along her whole body, it's exquisite."

Rob screamed, clawed at the stone. "What are you doing?"

"Now, now, no need to struggle, there's no point in fighting." Howard's voice was calm, soothing. "My wife, she's so clever. Those idiots that gave up worshiping her, they thought they killed her, but she only hid. A mud sarcophagus, with her estivating inside like Dipnoiformes might during the dry season. I found her, while exploring these caves. Revived her. Such a beautiful, unique being. I loved her from the first, and I still can't believe my fortune, that she returns that affection."

Rob was being dragged by a madman. He turned, looked into that absurdly cheerful smile. "Why? Why are you doing this to me?"

"My dear Xolrainaka, she needs to eat human flesh for her eggs to quicken, for them to have the power to mask themselves." That smile didn't waver. "I told you, I'll do anything for my wife, her health, my family. Your falling out with your associate has proven quite fortuitous, but his corpse alone just isn't enough." The man dropped him at the shore, walked back into the water, pausing to trail his hand along a few of the orbs, fluttering movement inside. "Aren't they beautiful? These were laid last week, will hatch the next night with no moon." He glanced over his shoulder. "For those coming tonight, the last, you'll be perfect, more than enough for her to finish. You did promise a gift to my children, for helping, and this is far more useful than a pony."

The man was going to feed him to the fish. Those huge orbs, eggs, it wasn't real. Rob started to shake his head. "No, please." The movement hurt, why did it hurt and that plopping sound, what was it?

"Careful," Howard said, once again caressing the monstrous fish. "I cracked your skull something awful, you've brain coming out. Not that you were using it in the first place."

This was all impossible. "No." It couldn't be real, only a nightmare.

Howard wasn't even paying attention to him, soft smile aimed at the slimy thing in the water. "Really, Rob, you've little to complain about. You were going nowhere, squandering your education to peddle drugs. Committed murder in my hotel, even. Our children, you'll be able to help them, isn't that a far finer use for your life?"

"You can't bash my head in and claim the moral high ground!" This was all a dream, and he was never going to use that damn plant again. He was going to tell Professor Karl about the damn side-effects, and drop the damn class, stay far away from all this crazy madness. "If I'm a murderer so are you!"

"If that makes you feel better, you can believe as you like." Howard was smiling. "It doesn't matter. All that does, is my beloved family."

The low voice came again. "It's to be such a large clutch, and they'll be such fine children." The tone went dark, menacing. "Those fools in the long ago gave me their weak, and my children could not escape when those ingrates turned on me, spurned my gifts. I am wiser this time, and will not move openly. These will not suffer because I shared my gifts freely with fools, as my children then suffered."

The vision, the dead fish-creatures. "They'll only get killed again, anyone who sees those things will kill them!" Spurned, more like the Starved rebelled, didn't want to kill any more of their people so this creature could make mutant monsters.

Laughter, bright and echoing. "This time will be different. These will have strong legs that will carry them far from the water, and powerful illusions to disguise them. Howard is a fine, strong mate, and an excellent sire."

"Such flattery, dear heart. I only aim to be a good husband," Howard said. "Do you wish to eat now, love? I know you prefer it when your prey is still moving. I don't mind waiting."

"So considerate, I think I will. Don't worry, it won't be long, and we can finish what we started."

Rob screamed, was yanked into the pool, and while it was certainly a nightmare, he would not be waking from it.

Fin