Plunge

Eric was freaked out. It wasn’t standing on the banks of Loch Ness on a secluded bit of shore, the moon gazing down at him like a watchful eye wondering what the hell was happening well after midnight. It also wasn’t all the women surrounding him with scales running up and down their bodies, some even having the first faint hints of claws and tails and pointed teeth popping out.

“You look disturbed,” Fiona asked, half her face green and scaly.

“I am,” Eric said, nodding solemnly.

“Because I’m a freak?” Fiona asked.

“Because most of you are naked,” Eric said, trying to maintain strict eye contact with most of the women around him.

“I thought most guys would be happy surrounded by a bunch of naked redheads,” Fiona teased, winking as she posed in her bathing suit.

“Most of your family is old,” Eric said.

“Rude!” Fiona yelled, smacking him in the head. “You keep your eyes in your head, mister! And don’t look at my mom’s cousin Millie! I don’t need those big honkers in your head!”

“I don’t WANT scaly middle aged woman boobs in my head!” Eric said, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “Why are some of you naked anyways?!”

“When we get into the Loch, sometimes the reaction causes us to mutate further,” Fiona explained. “It makes us bigger, Hulking out and growing tails and stuff before we shrink back down to normal. Like a vaccine giving you a bit of a cold. Back when I was seven I grew a tail and it stuck around for half an hour. So some of the older women say screw it, I’m not risking my bathing suit.”

“I hate Scotland…” Eric moaned.

“Hey, cheer up. One quick dip and we’ve got a week of vacation to screw around with,” Fiona said.

“Yeah. One quick dip…” Eric said. “Fiona…hell, I dunno. I’ve got this feeling…”

“I know. I’m nervous about all the weirder than usual stuff this time too. But hey, I have a pretty good reason to not get locked, right?” Fiona said, shoving his shoulder lightly.

“Okay, ladies! Time for our little three year dip!” Aunt Nel called out in a thick Scottish accent. The women began wading into the water, some naked, some in bathing suits holding the hands of young girls, two with infants whose skin shone bright with scales. Fiona walked into the water, staring back at Eric.

“Wait for me. I’ll be back,” Fiona said.

“I know. I won’t go anywhere,” Eric said. Fiona nodded, then joined her aunts and cousins and mother, diving into Loch Ness and disappearing under the surface. The water was smooth again, looking like another sky as it reflected the night back at the waiting men on the shore.

“How long should this take?” Eric asked.

“Ten or twenty minutes, depending on how bad the mutations get,” Mickey said, his face looking more stiff than it should.

“Aye, some of the women turn into mean beasties before snapping back to normal,” Uncle Donnie said.

“And you guys aren’t…nervous?” Eric asked. The two men exchanged a brief, tired look.

“This time has been…different,” Mickey said.

“Stressful. The medicine. And…the dreams,” Uncle Donnie said.

“What do we do if…you know…if something goes wrong?” Eric asked.

“Lad, what could we do?” Uncle Donnie asked. The question sat unanswered as minutes dragged by, each man on the shore wondering when he would see his wife or daughter again. Eric kept his eyes on the loch, praying to see a sign of familiar red hair and a sarcastic grin.

Suddenly the water began to churn, as if dozens of massive beasts were writing around underneath it. Eric quickly looked to Mickey and Uncle Donnie and saw their eyes wide with shock. This clearly was not a normal part of the ritual. He was about to ask what was going on when they began to emerge. They were huge, nine feet at least, their necks long and reptilian, their bodies alien, but their eyes…Eric would never forget the human eyes locked inside those monstrous heads.

“Oh god…oh god, no!” Mickey screamed, frozen, none of the men able to act. The creatures which once were women and girls roared into the night as a large group, confusion and pain and fear evident in their voices as their new beastly tongues tried to form human words. Eric’s eyes kept darting between the beasts, looking for her. And then he knew. His eyes made contact with the eyes of one of the lizard women, and he knew.

“FIONA!” Eric screamed out with all of his heart, running into the lake. Mickey and Uncle Donnie grabbed him, holding him back, their faces twisted with grief.

“No! They’re not…they don’t remember us!” Mickey wailed.

“LIKE HELL SHE DOESN’T!” Eric cried out. His eyes were on hers. He knew it was her. And he knew she knew. “FIONA! GET OUT OF THE DAMN LAKE! YOU’RE STILL YOU!”

The creature looked at Eric, and thought she was dripping with water from the loch, he could see tears coming from her eyes. “Who…am…I?” the Fiona beast growled. Then the monsters began to submerge themselves in the loch again. Fiona stared at Eric until the moment her head slipped beneath the waves, though even beneath the water she could hear the boy her mind struggled to remember screaming for her.