“Cyrus.” As I turn to the voice reverberating from behind me, something horrid enters my field of view. It was Crook, standing there completely void of his soul and life. His body was desaturated and disgusting blue, dripping wet. His eyes had turned concerning clear, like puddles letting me see into his sockets. “Crook-” Before I could get my second word out, he had grabbed me by the throat and shoved me towards the wall. “You’ve never said my real name. You refuse with every fiber of your miniscule being. Say it.” He wasn’t himself, but what made him look like this. “SAY IT.” “You are scaring me Cro-”

Grabbing me by my hair and pulling me closer to him, the smell of his swampy breath was right against my nose. “SAY MY NAME, CYRUS.” Tears began to stream down my face as I became terrified for my life. “You know exactly who I am and you’ve never called me by my name, just say it.” His teeth began to grind into themselves, becoming dust at the tips of my shoes. “Atticus, you’re scaring me!” His grip became tighter, pulling a small section of hair and what feels like part of my scalp. “You are a coward. You watched me die in front of you and begged for God to change me for YOUR benefit. Disturbing the natural order of things for selfish reasons.” Rain began to pour, water in every direction with no true exit in sight.

“You don’t deserve to live any longer. Not in this form, nor the form I now possess.” Atticus grabbed my shoulder and pulled me outside. I watched as the water beneath my ship bubbled like we were set to boil in the ocean's pot. I leaned over the boat, seeing millions of tiny, narrow eyes all glaring at me. They were screaming. Begging. Yearning to claim someone new. I couldn’t process what was happening as panic began to set in. Within a fraction of a second, all of them had dilated. Their stares became so wide that they became the vast black deep once again. Tentacles climbed from the water, echoes of whispers fogging my brain. “Goodbye, my friend, if you ever were.”

It's alive.