Copyright © 2021 by Matt Shaw

Matt Shaw Publications

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The characters in this book are purely fictitious.

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Did you know Octopus is part of a bigger world?

Full Moon

The Den

The Pack

Octopus

Octopus II

Octopus III

To get the most of these stories, they need to be read in order although it ruins nothing if you start with Octopus 1-3 and then go back to read the Full Moon Trilogy.

Did you know MATT SHAW is on CAMEO?

You can have a personalised video from him straight to you (or friend)! Find out more details here:

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OCTOPUS III

Matt Shaw

Previously in “Octopus 2”… Max had realised his plans to awaken The Old Great One were flawed and set about setting things right before it was too late. Helena, on the other hand, was very sure of what she wanted. She wanted to be a mother, and nothing would store her.

Chapter Thirteen

THIS IS THE END

Max was standing in front of an open casket, situated in the middle of a church. With the exception of himself, and Helena lying motionless in the coffin, the church was empty. Despite the emptiness, the sounds of a congregation united in their weeping could be heard as clearly as if the room had been full of mourners.

Max wasn’t crying though as he stood over the body of his beloved. He was just staring at her, lost in deep thoughts which would never be heard or understood by anyone else. Nothing to say, nothing to do. He simply stood, gazing down upon her as a single tear dribbled from his eye.

A few minutes went past before he finally spoke.

‘You’re probably expecting a grand speech. How I miss you. How I wish I was following you. You’re probably looking down upon me, from your place in the Heavens, wondering why there is not more emotion coming from me but, I know this isn’t real. I know this is just a cruel trick put in place by a desperate entity which knows its time has, once again, come. Although this time, it won’t be left sleeping at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. It will be destroyed. We all will be but, it’s the price that needs to be paid.’  Max started to laugh as the setting around him slowly dissolved back to him standing in Helena’s bedroom, a few feet from the bed she should have been lying upon. Once he realised he was back in the present, he frowned at her notable absence. He’d been expecting to find her lying on the bed but - nothing.

He turned and looked towards the ensuite bathroom but that too was empty.

‘Helena?’

The door was locked. She couldn’t have got out. At least not without breaking the door, which he would have noticed. He dropped to his knees and peered under the bed, even though the gap from bedframe to floor wasn’t wide enough for her to fit under. At least, not in her current state.

‘Helena?’

He stood up and froze as something wet landed upon his shoulder. Slowly he looked up. His mouth fell agape at the sight of Helena lying with her back flat against the ceiling, held in place by four sticky tentacles protruding from between her legs; three sticking her to the ceiling and one over her mouth to prevent her screaming.

Max yelled as Helena dropped down upon him, pinning him to the floor. The closest the two of them had been for as long as he could remember and too close to avoid the ill-effects of His proximity. The headache was immediate and almost overpowering.

‘I’m sorry,’ Helena said.

Max’s eyes bled, along with his nose and gums. His insides were twisting and turning, knotting and rupturing.

‘As am I…’

The only way for them to be together. Using the last of his energy, he pushed the knife into his wife’s belly in the hope of piercing the Monster within. Helena gasped as the blade punched through her skin with surprising ease.

Max dribbled a mouthful of blood before he continued, ‘I’ll be waiting on the other side for you. Nothing will keep us apart again.’

Max struggled to breath as Helena’s full weight pressed down upon him as her own life faded as uncomfortably as his.

‘I love you,’ she said.

Despite the pain, Max smiled.

Max twisted the knife in Helena’s gut, hoping to harm Him even more and beyond the point of His survival. Today, they all die. The ultimate sacrifice as promised.

As the final breath escaped his lips, Max locked eyes with his wife and smiled. She did not smile back. She was already waiting on the other side; the warm flames of Hell only a few hundred feet from where she stood, waiting for her man to join her.

As the pair laid together, Helena’s body twitched one last time as the last of the tentacles slipped from her ripped pussy. It slid from the lead-lined bedroom and around the doorway out into the hallway, dragged by the rest of His body as He made his way across the landing and to a world which He would soon destroy.

PART ONE:

The birth of madness.

Screams echoed down the maternity ward of the hospital. Doctors and nurses were rushing from room to room as more members of staffed flocked to the ward to try and help after all expectant mothers had simultaneously gone into labour, even those who weren’t yet due to give birth. None of the births were easy either, which made things that much harder. Screaming soon-to-be-mothers, furious fathers, stressed staff shouting back. Never had there been a day like this before; not just in this hospital but in any other hospital either but, in fairness, only once had there been a child like the ones being born on this eve. From the second door down on the right, there was another scream. This was not from the pained mother though. It was the midwife delivering the mother’s baby.

Tentacles shot out from between Victoria Lodge’s legs. They wrapped around the mid-wife’s terrified face as she continued to scream. The scream was cut short as - with a tight grip - the tentacles snapped her head sharply to the right. With her silenced, her head was released from the tight grip placed upon it. Her still warm body dropped to the floor with eyes fixed hard and tongue hanging limp from her open mouth. The fear still very evident in her eyes.

Victoria’s partner, Richard, wasn’t scared by what he was seeing as the tentacles grabbed the edge of the bed Victoria was on.  He had no fear flowing through him whatsoever, just blind rage as he turned his hatred and ne for destruction to his wife.

‘Who the fuck is the father?! That baby is not mine…’

The tentacles pulled at the edge of the bed. The rest of its body slipped from Victoria’s gaped cunt along with some blobs of cunt clot that had built up behind it. She herself was laughing hysterically. A laughter cut short by a sudden, violent punch to the side of her head. His anger spilling out.

‘I said, who the fuck is the father?! Answer me, you whore!’

He swung at her head again with a clenched fist. The blow was so hard it forced Victoria to see stars and yet still she laughed as everyone else in the room, with the exception of Richard, dropped to their knees. Some of them were crying uncontrollably. A couple were screaming obscenities. One was eating the after-birth plasmas, scooping it up in her fingers and licking it clean as though it were a fine tasting jelly.

Richard grabbed the scissors, usually used to cut the umbilical cord, and turned back to his laughing wife. With tears of anger, he violently slashed at her throat with the sharpest point of the scissors. Still she laughed as blood jettisoned from the slit, soaking over Richard who promptly turned the scissors back on himself before heading butting the blade as hard as he could. His body slumped to the floor as - across the room - the octopus slipped away.

i

New mother Petra Grell stumbled from her private room and into the corridor. She fell back against the wall, laughing, as she watched the mayhem unfold before her very eyes.

An octopus slithered from one of the rooms.

Another was hugging the top right corner of the ceiling, watching the world below like a fucked-up CCTV camera.

A doctor came flying from one of the rooms, his whole body on fire.

A pregnant woman, despite being in labour, tripped her way down the corridor with fire axe in hand, swinging it around with maniacal laughter.

Petra could have watched this all day, but she had His work to do. She pushed herself away from the wall and continued down the corridor, dodging all others, until she found the nursery where all the newborn babies were being monitored. Or where they were supposed to be watched. The nurse in charge of the department was on her knees sucking on a husband’s hard cock as he himself sighed with pleasure and gouged out her eyes with his thumbs - not that she seemed to care.

Petra pushed the door to the small ward open and stepped in before closing the door behind her. She gave a quick glance to the couple fucking over by the nurse station just in time to see him shoot a heavy load of cream over her face and into her bloody eye sockets. The moment his cum started flying, he started to punch down on her head as laughter took hold of him. Petra didn’t care what he was doing as she fell towards the first crib. Her master’s voice clearly in her head and whispering for her to do what needed to be done.

She grabbed the first infant child by its ankles and lifted it from its cot. With a scream of rage, she then violently swung it towards the wall. Its little head connected hard and popped like a grape. One baby down, the rest of the room to go. She flung the dead infant to the other side of the room and grabbed the next screaming child from its cot. With a strong grip on its little head and one on its shoulders, she pulled it apart as though it were nothing more than a piece of Lego. Speaking of Lego, the crack from the baby’s now-broken body was the same sound as when you click two pieces together.

The husband had stopped beating the limp nurse and was now watching Petra as she continued butchering the children by slamming them against walls, the floor, ripping their heads off and even stamping on them so hard that their little faces caved inside out. He said nothing and didn’t try to stop. The whispering in his head said she needed to finish but, once her task was complete, he had full reign to do whatever he wanted to her. His cock, despite having only just shot a load, was already twitching at his wondrous thoughts questioning what it would be like to feel how tight her eye socket would be clamped around it and how soft the textures of her brain may feel.

ii

It didn’t matter where a person was in the world. If they were pregnant at the same time Helena gave birth, then they too went into labour. None of the women remained sane through the process and neither did anyone standing close by. The creeping madness spread across the unprepared world like a monstrous shadow reaching out to prey unaware. None of the women gave birth to what could be considered a normal child either. Each infant birthed was yet another octopus - all varying in size depending on how far along the mother’s pregnancy had been.

Rhonda Gieza lived hundreds of miles away in Mercer, USA. She didn’t know Helena and she knew nothing of Max and Helena’s plan to resurrect The Old Great One. She was just another example of how far their plan had spread. She was standing in front of her bathroom mirror. Down the inside of her legs, there was brown sticky blood from where her pussy had been bleeding. Her pussy itself hung in tatters, shredded from the inside out. She should have been screaming in pain and - if not pain - then fear. Especially as the octopus she’d birthed was still in the adjoining room. It was just sitting there, its tentacles twitching as its beady eyes watched her through the open door.

There was no one else in her home. She hadn’t been due to give birth for a few more weeks yet and - with the suddenness of the labour - she’d not been able to call for help before the “baby” came. Now she was just standing there with a glassy-eyed stare, looking towards her own beaten reflection. Her skin was cold and clammy to the touch. Her hair hung in greased knots. She opened her mouth a moment as though about to speak. No words came out. Her mouth closed again. Behind her, through the open door, the octopus inched closer to her. Then, with no warning, she head-butted the mirror as hard as she could. The mirror shattered on impact, sending shards crashing to the floor in sharp splinters. She showed no immediate emotion to what she’d done; no pain, no humour, nothing.

From down the stairs, someone knocked on the front door. Rhonda slowly blinkered back to her present reality and noticed - in what was left of the broken mirror - that her forehead was bleeding. Quietly she wiped the blood away, not that it did anything but smear it. There was a knock on the door again. She knew who it was: It was Louise Deakin, her friend from overseas who’d flown in for a vacation to not only catch up with her cyber-friend but also explore the area. Rhonda slowly turned towards the open door. The octopus scarpered under the bed, hiding itself away.

When Louise knocked for a third time, Rhonda made her way down the stairs to greet her. She stopped on the other side of the front door and - at a flick of an internal switch - she smiled broadly, ready to greet her friend. It would be the first time they’d actually met face to face; their usual communications done via the Internet. From the other side, Rhonda could hear her friend laughing. After a slight pause, she reached for the door and opened it.

Louise was standing there, laughing and with tears in her eyes. She saw Rhonda’s blood-smeared forehead and started laughing harder. Rhonda just looked at her with confusion on her face, for just a moment. Then she too started laughing until they were both standing there laughing hysterically with tears streaming down their face. Their laughter got louder and louder and louder…

A few doors down, the next door neighbour’s door opened and an old man stepped out. ‘What’s the fucking matter with…’ He stopped his sentence mid-way before he too started laughing.

All down the street, houses started to illuminate the blackness of the night as homeowners came to the front windows of their homes turning their lights on. From each of the houses, laughter could be heard and - for a while - it was a chorus of apparent happiness.

As the octopus slithered out from beneath the bed, up in Rhonda’s bedroom, Rhonda was the first to stop laughing. Instead she screamed in Louise’s face before she threw the first punch which was promptly followed by a second and third.

The chain reaction of screams continued down the street.

iii

By the time Carrie Adamson turned the family car into the street, there was an all-out brawl taking place. She slammed on the brakes and watched the carnage with eyes wide open in shock.

The elderly neighbour cracked his walking stick around his younger neighbour’s face.

A young boy jumped from his top floor bedroom window. His skull cracked on the garden wall beneath.

The black lab at the bottom of the street was fucking the tabby cat from three houses up.

Rhonda stamped down onto Louise’s face, mashing it into the curb and snapping her teeth back in the process.

‘What… What is happening?’ Carrie couldn’t take her eye from the mayhem. Her two kids were sitting in the back. They were equally transfixed by the violence but as a middle-aged man interrupted the dog’s fucking of the cat by kicking it to death, they started to cry.

‘What’s going on?’ Carrie looked at her partner. He wasn’t looking at the violent street brawl. He was staring directly at her with burning hatred in his eyes. ‘Honey…?’ Before she could get an answer out, he grabbed the back of her head and started bouncing it off the steering wheel.

The children were laughing, unaware that similar scenes played out in streets both close and far away. The madness was born and - from here - it would only grow.

PART TWO:

Out to Sea.

Lori Fields refused to go up on the deck of their hired boat even though her partner, Manuel, had told her she’d suffer less with the motion sickness if she did. He didn’t understand the science of it but had heard it said someplace and had it confirmed by other friends over the years.

Despite the rougher than usual seas, he called down through the hatch to tell her, ‘It really is beautiful up here.’ They’d taken some leave from their roles in the German army to come on this trip and Manuel thought he’d picked a good time to visit. It was, after all, the middle of the dry season in the Pacific. He called down again, ‘I’m telling you; you will feel so much better.’

Manuel couldn’t believe Lori still hadn’t pieced everything together with regards to the trip. He had organised everything for them and she’d had to do nothing but pack her bag and ensure she was ready. Whenever she asked where they were going, he would just smile at her and tell her that it was a surprise. Had she known it was going to entail a long plane journey and then the hiring of their own boat, she would have probably tried her hardest to change his mind - at least with regards to the boat part of the journey - or at least find out why he was so dead-set on such a trip. Unfortunately for him, what he hadn’t realised was that Lori had a deep-rooted fear of the open waters after she’d been pulled under the surface by a boat back when she was a child. Whilst it was something that had stuck with her for the rest of her life though, it wasn’t something she actively wanted to talk about or for people to know. She was a second lieutenant in the Bundeswehr. She didn’t want her “weaknesses” to be known and whenever she was confronted by something, she wasn’t keen about, she did her best to bury them deep and conquer it. That being said, she usually had time to mentally prepare her mind for such an occurrence. This really had been just sprung on her.

Manuel kicked his foot against the hatch door and called for her again, ‘Come on! You’re missing out!’ Unaware of her fear, he teased, ‘Anyway, it’s safer up here. If I crash, we can just jump overboard! If you stay down there, then you’ll be trapped! Don’t want you drowning now, do we?’

There was movement from down below. When Lori appeared on the deck, she was positively green in her appearance. Manuel didn’t mean to laugh but couldn’t help himself. He wasn’t laughing because she wasn’t feeling great, it was just the look in her eyes. She looked so sorry for herself!

‘You think this is funny?’

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh! It’s just the way you’re looking at me.’

Lori sat on the leather stool next to Manuel as he was steering their boat. She scanned the wavy horizon and noticed that - for as far as the eye could see - there was nothing but miles and miles of crystal blue seas. Despite the choppiness of the waters, the sun - high in the sky - beat down hard upon them. To save herself going blind from the sun’s reflections off the sea, Lori squinted her eyes. Manuel removed his sunglasses and passed them to her.

‘Here,’ he said. She didn’t so much as smile as she took the glasses from him and put them on. He couldn’t stop her from feeling seasick but he could at least stop her from going blind.

‘Do you even know where we are?’ Lori looked behind her. She couldn’t even see the land they’d initially set off from. She demanded to know again, ‘Where are we going?’

Manuel laughed. ‘You really don’t know still?’

‘No!’

‘It’s somewhere you’ve spoken about before.’

She looked around her. Miles of water. She frowned as she tried to understand what all of this was supposed to mean because - going by Manuel’s stupid smile - it was clearly supposed to mean something. ‘I swear to God I am going to slap that smile off your face soon,’ she said. There was no hint in her tone that she may have been joking as she glared at him from behind his own tinted lenses.

‘Come on, give it some thought,’ he said teasingly.

‘There is no way on Earth I would have said anything about wanting to travel out to sea unless I was screaming something about it in my nightmares,’ she said, irritably.

Manuel killed the power to the boat’s engine, and they came to as much of a stop as the choppy sea would permit.

‘Look around you,’ he said. ‘If I’ve got the map right - and I’m pretty sure I’m competent enough to read a map - you have spoken about this place before.’

Lori felt her mood darkening further. The way he was grinning at her, she felt like she was the butt of an unseen joke and she hated it. She didn’t mind laughing at herself, or even having people poke fun at her, but only if she knew what the damned joke was in the first place.

She snapped, ‘I don’t know how much you have spent on this trip or why you couldn’t just tell me what it was from the get- go, unless you knew I wouldn’t want to come and it was your way of getting me here, but… I have no problem with hitting you over the head with something heavy and throwing you over the side.’

Manuel said again, ‘Come on… Think about it. Think about how far we have come and what could possibly be out here that you might be interested in.’

Lori snapped again. ‘Your watery grave at this rate. That is the only thing I can think of that could be out here which I would approve of in this particular moment in time.’

Manuel laughed. He didn’t make a habit of trying to wind his wife of three years up but, he’d be the first to admit, when he did - it was always great fun. Besides, he knew her mood would seriously brighten when she finally realised.

‘Do you need a hint?’

‘Just fucking tell me!’

‘Hang on.’ He got off his stool and disappeared down through the hatch.

With obvious panic in her voice, she called out, ‘Where are you going? You can’t just leave us floating like this!’

His muffled reply, ‘I don’t think we’re about to hit anything out here.’ As he finished his sentence he came back up from below. He took his seat back on the stool and looked around. With sarcasm dripping from his tone, he asked, ‘Did we have any near misses?’

‘You’re such an asshole.’

‘You love me.’

‘So - do you want the hint?’

‘I just want you to fucking tell me!’ She noticed that he was holding something small under his tee-shirt. ‘What’s that?’

‘Well I don’t know if I should tell you. You didn’t seem too bothered about knowing.’

‘What have you got?’

‘I mean this wasn’t cheap and… I don’t know. I just don’t want you having it if you’re going to be all pissy with me.’

‘For fuck sake.’

He laughed. ‘Tell me you love me then! You know you haven’t said it once since we started this trip.’

‘Because you’re being a douche!’

‘Tell me!’

‘Okay I love you! Now what have you got?’

Manuel laughed and shook his head. She was going to have to do better than that. She couldn’t just blurt it out with no meaning behind the words. That really wasn’t good enough. ‘At least make it sound as though you actually mean it,’ he said.

Lori did her best to suppress the fact she felt like shit and wanted nothing more than to part with her guts over the side of the boat. She widened her eyes to make them look more “Bambi-like” and, in a childish voice, she said, ‘Oh Manuel, have I told you how much I really, really, really love you?’ Then, in the blink of an eye, she punched him square on the arm and demanded to know, ‘What have you got there?’

‘Okay! Okay!’

Manuel pulled a small jewellery box from under his shirt. He smiled at her and held it out proudly. She looked at it puzzled.

‘Well I know it’s not an engagement ring,’ she said. That was a given seeing as they were already married. And surely it was too soon for an eternity ring? Surely that was just something a husband would purchase years later, when he’d run out of original ideas? Curious, she took it from his hand and opened it up. Inside there was a dainty silver chain. On the end of it there was a small silver octopus.

‘What’s that?’ She looked more carefully at the silver ornament and Manuel watched, with a grin, as she realised what it was and - a second later - realised the point of the trip. She looked up, wide-eyed and stunned.

‘Really?’

Manuel nodded. ‘Really.’

Without a second thought she placed the jewellery box down on the side and moved to the edge of the boat. She peered over the edge and down into the deep, dark waters. All of the fear she’d once had felt, seeing such depths before her, had all but gone in this flash of a moment.

‘Really, really?’ She didn’t know whether to believe Manuel.

‘Yes.’ He corrected himself. ‘Well I say that but… Supposedly. I mean no one knows for sure where He is sleeping but this area is as best as people can work out.’

Lori continued staring down into the waters. She couldn’t believe it. Were they really boating on top of the lost city of R’lyeh?

Manuel walked up behind her, as steady as he could with the waves knocking the boat side to side. He put his arms around Lori and kissed the back of her neck, sending a tingle down his spine with a shiver. He said, ‘I always promised to bring you here, didn’t I?’

Somewhere, deep beneath the waters, there was the lost city of R’lyeh. First written about by H.P. Lovecraft and the supposed resting place of Cthulhu himself. Somewhere, deep down there, He was sleeping. At least, that’s what some people believed. Lori knew H.P Lovecraft’s writing was fictional, but she didn’t care. A big fan of his work, she was just thrilled to be on the spot (or at least close to the spot) Lovecraft had imagined all those years ago when writing his books.

‘Wait there,’ Manuel said. Before she could say anything, he disappeared back below the decks. He wasn’t gone long and soon returned with a picnic hamper. Nestled on the top of it, tucked under the handle, there was a cloth for the pair of them to sit on. His idea being to enjoy a romantic picnic at the front of the boat.

‘You thought of everything, didn’t you?’

He laughed as he set the anchor. ‘I told you, the only thing you needed to worry about was packing your case. Everything else was taken care of.’ He walked back over to her and gave her a sweet kiss on the lips. ‘Would madam like to join me at the front of the boat for a little picnic?’

Lori smiled at him. The nauseous feeling had all but subsided with all the other emotions she was feeling flooding to the top.

With a smile, she asked, ‘How did I end up with someone like you?’

‘Sexual favours with the Devil in a previous life, I guess?’

She laughed but still slapped him on the arm.

‘Asshole,’ she said. Manuel laughed and started to make his way to the front of the boat so he could prepare their picnic. Lori had another look around, scanning all the waters she could see. Before she followed Manuel, she looked at the pretty necklace he had brought along for her. She was unable to stop smiling. Some people might have thought this was a stupid trip but, to her, it was the most romantic thing anyone had ever done.

She chuckled to herself. ‘Who said romance was dead?’

PART THREE:

Fucking Crazy

Angela Rogers let out a sigh as she teased two fingers into Carol McCoy’s soaked pussy. Carol herself moaned in pleasure at this stranger’s touch. Neither woman knew one another as they writhed around the floor of the grocery store as all around them others were engaging in similar explicit activities. Hours earlier the scene had been entirely different with people going about their day to day business, buying whatever supplies they needed at home. Then, as though a huge wave washed over each and every person in the store, their moods turned. Whilst some turned dark in their moods, shouting out at others and even lashing out with clenched fists, some became more amorous.

Angela had been pushing her trolley down one side of the aisle and Carol had been coming from the other direction when they both stopped dead in their tracks before pushing the trolleys away from themselves. In an instant, their pussies grew wet and panties moist as lust overcame them and took over all other instincts. Without stopping to care if they found the other person attractive, they just grabbed one another and pulled themselves closer before passionately kissing. As their tongues explored each other’s warm, wet mouths, so did their hands get to exploring their bodies.

As Carol caressed Angela’s breasts, Angela’s own hand had slid down the front of Carol’s black stretch leggings and into her panties. Soon after, her fingers were deep inside the stranger’s snatch. They kissed each other again as Carol ripped open Angela’s blouse, exposing her breasts for all to see.

A few feet away from them, a man stood watching and wanking. His name was Michael Watson-Tate. He was standing with his trousers and pants around his ankles. As his infant child sat, confused, in the seat-attachment of the trolley, Michael kept his own eyes firmly on the two women making out. The faster they kissed, the faster he pumped his own cock, desperate for the sweet release of the highly-anticipated orgasm. With confusion hanging heavy, Michael’s small child started to cry, not that his father cared.

Carol took Angela’s hand and pulled it from her panties. Angela’s two fingers were sticky with Carol’s cunt-juice but they wouldn’t stay that way as Angela started to suck the other woman’s digits clean. The whole time she kept her eyes firmly on Angela, wishing for nothing more than to have the woman bend her over violently and eat out her puckered asshole.

‘Fuck… I’m gonna cum…’ Without any will power to stop himself, Michael ejaculated freely over his now screaming child. When he saw the semen running down his son’s face, and into the young child’s mouth, a flash of realisation ran across his face. ‘Oh God… What have I done?’ With a quick look over his shoulder to see if anyone was watching him, and his cock still semi-erect and dribbling the last bit of spunk, Michael leaned down to his child and started to lick his face clean. ‘It’s okay… Daddy will make it better.’

Carol turned away from Angela and bent over the closest freezer. Looking back at the lust-filled woman, Carol pulled her leggings and panties down, exposing both ring and cunt to the hungry woman who wasted no time in dropping to her knees and pushing her tongue deep into Carol’s dirty asshole.

‘Fuck yes…’ Carol squirmed back on Angela as - from the far end of the aisle - a chainsaw powered up.

Robin Barber was standing there, chainsaw in hand - snatched earlier from the garden centre next door in a moment of madness. She was laughing with a crazed look in her eyes.

‘That’s quite enough of that!’ She stalked down the aisle with the chainsaw buzzing as, behind her, an octopus slithered from the far end of the store where a woman had gone into premature labour. No one cared about Robin as she stalked closer to them; each person too wrapped up in their own moment of madness. As she reached Michael, Robin screamed, ‘Remember the Alamo!’ She swung the buzzing blade and took the front of Michael’s face clean off. The rest of him remained standing in place, leaning towards  his child with the bloody stump of what remained of his tongue trying to lick clean the semen. Robin laughed as she stalked on towards Angela. ‘All for our Supreme Leader!’ She raised the chainsaw high in the air and brought it down onto Angela’s back. The saw cut through her spinal column with ease for the most part, until it wedged itself firm, an action which caused the whole of Angela’s body to vibrate violently.

Robin screamed with frustration, with the saw stuck in place.

Carole screaming in ecstasy. With the whole of Angela’s body continuing to vibrate, it meant her tongue-fucking became more vigorous and it wasn’t long before Carole came hard. It was an orgasm that caused her legs to give way, her arms to turn to jelly and her bowels to open and - behind her - she sprayed liquid shit over the now dead-yet-still-tongue-fucking Angela.

Robin pulled at the chainsaw until she worked it free and then - with an angry roar - she swiped at the still panting Carole, taking her head clean off in the process. Another woman dead, Robin spun around to see who was next on her rampage. A wicked twinkle in her eye. At the opposite end of the aisle, she noticed an old grey haired woman inserting a tin of beans into her dusty snatch as best she could. Robin smiled. Another one to die. She took a step forward and slipped in the yellowy-brown shit. She landed hard on her back as the chainsaw shot up in the air, spinning around and around until it came crashing back down on the murderous whore. The blade cut through the centre of Robin’s head perfectly and finally came to a rest.

At the other end of the aisle, the grey-haired woman cheered as she finally managed to get most of the can inside  herself. She wasn’t bothered by the blood coming from within; internal rips from unnatural stretching and the can’s sharp edges. To the left of the old woman, the store’s double doors slid open as a man staggered through clutching a gaping wound in his neck. He dropped to the floor, face first. The doors closed against his head and automatically opened once more. The pattern continued. Beyond the doors, out in the car park, things weren’t much better.

i

The road was gridlocked with cars crashed into one another. Other cars were up on the pavements, trying to navigate their way around the mess, happy to run down any of the pedestrians who were foolish enough to be in their way. Horns were beeping, people swearing, others shouting words unheard and possibly not of the English language.

The car park wasn’t much better. Chaos reigned supreme. One group of teenagers was going from vehicle to vehicle, smashing the windows with glee. They weren’t stealing from those they vandalised. They were just happy to cause damage.

In the centre of the car park, Mary Kiefel was grinding down on her friend Robb Carter, dry-humping the fuck out of him as he grabbed at her covered tits. The pair pretend-fucking on the roof of a 4x4 with the carnage around them serving as their live action porn. Despite no penetration, Mary bit her lip and shuddered through an orgasm. The bite being hard enough to draw blood.

Robb laughed and then scowled. He grabbed her throat and started to choke the life from her; an act which helped him reach his moment of climax as he ejaculated in his pants.

Despite her face turning blue, Mary was laughing at Robb’s actions and came again as the blood dripped from her chin down onto his face and into his mouth. The taste of it pulled him from his desire to kill her and he quickly spat up, pushed her off and climbed on top - both still on the roof of the truck. He put his mouth to her fresh wound and sucked hard on it until he had a mouthful of blood which he then proceeded to snowball down to her.

Mary’s hands went up under his shirt. She gripped his back and dug her nails in deep. When she dragged them down, she scratched away layers of his skin which visibly collected under her filthy nails. Robb let out of moan of pain mixed with pleasure as he started choking her once again.

Further down the road a number of Octopuses had come together from the different areas where they’d been pushed out of their hosts’ cunts. Each of them now heading in the same direction, wherever that may be. Whenever people saw the octopuses, they stopped what they were doing and dropped to a knee. When the octopuses had gone on by, the people continued their previous actions as though the break had never happened.

ii

Towards the coast, on the human-deserted beach, some octopuses were dragging themselves across the grainy sand. Each of them desperate - and determined - to get to the choppy waters. The first reached the cold waters and stopped as the tide lapped away at the tip of its tentacles. It went no further. It just waited there. Its eyes fixed on the stretch of waters before it. The side of its head pulsated as its large brain worked overtime. It couldn’t hear its father, deep beneath the ocean waters, calling to it but it could feel Him.

Another octopus stopped perfectly in line with the first octopus. The tide also tickling its tentacles. Its eyes also fixed on the waters. Its head visibly pulsating. None of them could hear their father but they could all feel Him. And they were all heading home to wake him.

PART FOUR:

Drifting

As Manuel pulled his trousers back up, fastening his belt in the process, Lori spat a mouthful out over the edge of the boat. He laughed. ‘And that is why the sea is salty.’

‘If you want to swallow it, you are more than welcome.’

‘No, no. I’m good.’

‘Well then.’

Manuel laughed again. ‘Imagine,’ he said, ‘if that was all it took to awaken Cthulhu from his sleep. Your spit and my spunk all mixed up.’

Lori pulled a face which suggested she wasn’t impressed with such a notion.

‘You got to admit,’ he said, ‘it would be pretty funny.’

‘I think we have different definitions of “funny”,’ she said as she made her way back over to where he was still sitting on the blanket he’d brought up from below deck.

It was safe to say his picnic had been a success and Lori no longer felt sea sick. She sat down next to him and instantly pulled another face. She rolled onto her side and patted down the side of her bare arse.

‘Didn’t catch it all in your mouth then?’

‘So disgusting.’

Manuel laid back down on the soft blanket. He held his arms open for Lori to join him. She didn’t need to be asked. She laid down and snuggled against his bare chest. Nuzzling in against him, she kissed the side of his face as he continued staring up to blue skies.

‘It’s beautiful out here, isn’t it?’ He didn’t explain his thoughts. He let the surroundings do it for him. The skies were mostly blue with the odd patchy cloud here and there. There were no birds. No people screaming or shouting and no hustle and bustle of traffic roaring past. There was just the sound of the sea kissing the side of their rented boat. It was blissful.

Lori was scanning her husband’s face. She was wondering what he was thinking; what was going on in his mind at that particular moment. He had such a serious face. When she could take it no more, she asked him, ‘What are you thinking?’

Manuel didn’t answer straight away as he was lost in the sounds of the sea. He blinked back to reality and turned his face towards his pretty wife. ‘I was just thinking, wouldn’t it be great if we could just stay out here?’ She didn’t answer. She just did as he did; she listened to the sea. There was no denying it was definitely peaceful out here and it was bliss to be away from the stress of work, or even her study work which came with Lori’s officer training. She’d been studying psychology since 2016 now and was currently working on her master’s thesis. It was also nice to just have some real time to herself as - back home - it wasn’t just her own life she tried to steer straight.

Lori’s father, an American called Ken, had COPD (terminal stage) and can’t breathe without an oxygen mask. This meant he wasn’t mobile anymore and spent his time in a nursing home. It was horrible to see such a strong and able man reduced to this by a miserable illness. After all, here was a man who’d fought three times in the Vietnam War, in the US army, reduced to someone who needed constant care. That was where Lori stepped in. She tried her best to run her life but also keep his businesses running as smoothly as possible too, especially as her mum, Margit, had long since divorced Ken and gone on to remarry. Lori’s mind drifted to thoughts of her mother’s new husband. Lori might miss her mum and dad if she didn’t return home, if there was some way of staying out here with no one else around. She definitely wouldn’t miss her mum’s new man though. She loved her mum dearly but that cunt could burn in the fiery pits of Hell for an eternity and Lori wouldn’t give a flying fuck.

As her mind imagined the piece of shit screaming through the pain Hell subjected him to, she couldn’t help but smile.

Manuel said, ‘I guess it’s just wishful thinking though, huh. Not exactly practical to live out here.’ He let out a long suffering sigh. Twelve years serving in the Bundeswehr as a First Lieutenant; it would definitely be a welcome change of pace to live out on a boat. A peaceful and very welcome change of pace. Lori looked at his face. She could tell by his eyes that he’d let himself drift off into deep thought again. She said nothing, choosing to let him stay in that state of bliss right now. A state of bliss, she guessed, that was probably helped by the orgasm she’d given him.

‘You know,’ Manuel said, ‘I don’t think there is anyone I would miss. You know, if we did stay out here and - again - I’m not saying we can but… Just thinking… I don’t think there is a single person I would miss back home.’

Lori would miss her mum and dad. It might be okay if she could touch base with them somehow. Perhaps with a video call? A phone call at the very least. But then, would that be enough, or would it just make her miss them more? Then there were her friends. Not the ones from her hometown; a rural area in southern Germany, close to Stuttgart). She hadn’t seen them for a long time and had lost contact when she’d joined the Bundeswehr. The truth was, she didn’t have many friends. Manuel often teased her about how anti-social she was and whilst she couldn’t deny it, she did have some friends she’d made at university, mostly thanks to her course.

Mariya and Jakob. Mariya, a kind-hearted Ukrainian, was studying the same psychology course as Lori. Jakob, also German, was studying political and social sciences like Manuel. Then there was Alina, another psychology student, who Lori often did yoga with. The pair had hit it off almost immediately when they first met although Lori was sad to hear Alina would be leaving the Bundeswehr in the following year for personal reasons. Still, she was adamant they would remain in touch. As that very thought crossed her mind, her brain teased her about all the friends she’d lost touch with since leaving her home-town. Lori closed her eyes for a moment and tried to push the unwanted thoughts away. The bottom line, she thought to herself, is that - if they could stay out at sea - she would most likely miss her friends. Maybe. She laughed at her own indecisiveness.

‘What’s up?’ Manuel asked when Lori’s laughter broke his own private thoughts.

Lori shook her head. ‘Nothing. Just thinking.’ Then she added, ‘I’d miss the pets.’

‘The pets? Really?’

‘Yes.’

Lori had three cats. Pets had always been a factor in her life. She’s grown up with - at different times - various animals from cats to birds to guinea pigs, even mice…

She asked, ‘Would we be allowed to bring the cats to our new hypothetical home in the sea?’

‘I don’t see why not. They’d certainly help us catch the…’ He was going to say “fish” but stopped dead in his speech and winced in pain. Lori noticed immediately.

‘What’s wrong?’ She sat up, giving him space to move if he so chose. Manuel sat up and rubbed the side of his temple. The pain had gone just as suddenly as it had come on; a stabbing in his left temple that was blinding with its ferocity.

‘Nothing now, I guess.’ He sat up and rubbed his temple. ‘Well,’ he added, ‘that was deeply unpleasant.’

‘You okay?’

He nodded. ‘Just going crazy I guess.’

‘Can I get you anything?’

He paused a moment and pulled a mock-face as though he was in deep thought. Then he raised his finger as if having a true light-bulb moment. ‘How about a kiss?’

She laughed and playfully slapped his chest. ‘Idiot.’ She didn’t deny him his request though. She leaned down and gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

When she pulled away, he asked, ‘So… Ready for round two?’

She raised her eyebrows. ‘I think you’ll find, some of us are still on round one…’

‘Oh…’

‘Yeah… “Oh”….’

‘I must try harder.’ He sat up and kissed her again. This time he rolled on top of her as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He grinned. ‘We couldn’t do this as openly back home.’

‘Well no but the good news is, you never last long enough for it to be a problem at home. It’s over before it’s really started so - less time of someone stumbling in on us,’ Lori teased him.

Manuel was playfully shocked. He knew she was joking. Or rather, he hoped she was joking. To save further embarrassment, he didn’t question her. He just kissed her again.

ii

The first time they’d had sex - since getting on the boat – had lasted for just a few minutes before Lori changed positions and he’d ended up ejaculating into her mouth when she went to give him a quick suck. The second time started in missionary and on a slower pace than usual; almost rocking with the rhythm of the boat. Whilst Lori didn’t mind the change of pace she knew it would need to ramp up if she had any hope in hell of achieving a climax of her own. It was nice but not exciting. She was just about to instigate a change when Manuel suddenly grabbed her throat.

Lori immediately felt her pussy get wetter as he started to apply pressure. The look on his face had changed too. Gone was the look of a man almost pathetically in love and here was a look of someone filled with lust. Or was it rage? He started pumping into her cunt harder with each thrust and with so much force, she wondered whether he was trying to break on through to the other side. Just as her moans had changed in volume, with his new tact, so had his own groans and grunts. With the sun beating down on his bare back, and with the force with which he was fucking, sweat started to glisten off his skin. His hand was still around Lori’s throat, squeezing the life of her and she couldn’t help but think he must have read her mind when she was thinking about changing the pace, or trying to at least. But, panic soon set in as she realised he wasn’t releasing his grip, if only for a second, so that she could suck in a lungful of oxygen. Getting frantic, she tapped his back in a blind hope that he’d realise she meant the tapping to mean “I can’t breathe”. He took the hint.

Manuel pulled out and released his grip of her neck. Grateful for the chance to breathe, she took in a lungful of air before he picked her up from where she lay. Before she had a chance to say, or do, anything - Manuel spun her around and pushed her to the edge of the boat, bending her over the rails with such force they actually winded her. Part of her was more excited than she’d been in as long as she could remember and another part of her was almost scared of how his mood had suddenly changed. It was like being fucked by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Lori grabbed the silver railings as he grabbed her hips and pushed his big dick inside  her. He pushed as deep as her tight little snatch would allow and both of them gasped. Him with pleasure and her own gasp a mixture of pleasure and shock.

She looked back at him and demanded, ‘Fuck me hard.’

Manuel didn’t need to be told twice and he resumed pounding into her pussy as she gripped the railings tighter still until her knuckles turned white.

iii

Along the pier, where Manuel had hired the boat (at a reasonable rate), people were fighting. They weren’t screaming at each other, they weren’t shouting threats or blurting out obscenities. They were just punching and kicking one another in an almost eerie silence. Meanwhile, having slithered past them all unseen, a lone octopus dropped into the ocean with a quiet “plop”. It stayed close to the surface for just a second and - then - it disappeared down into the depths. Further down the coast, more octopuses had gathered along the shoreline, just as they had across the world’s beaches. All of them left in peace, or momentarily worshipped by those who saw them.

iv

Manuel pulled out of Lori and stumbled backwards, tripping over on the deck in the process. Lori turned, surprised.

‘What happened? Are you okay?’ She stood up straight and turned her whole body towards Manuel. He stayed on the deck, holding the palm of his hand against his head and with a pained expression on his face. Concerned, Lori hurried over to him. She asked again, ‘Are you okay?’

With a gentle touch, she went to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder but he snapped, ‘Don’t fucking touch me!’ With the abruptness of the way he had spoken to her, she couldn’t help but feel shocked. She pulled her hand back and just watched as he used the boat railings to pull himself back to his feet. It was evident to see he wasn’t as steady as he should have been and the way he scrunched his eyes closed shut, Lori wasn’t even sure if he wasn’t going to faint.

‘Manuel?’

Without a word, he turned away from her and hurried down towards the back of the boat and the hatch leading to below-decks. Lori didn’t know what to do; whether she should go after him or even try and call someone for help. But then, would there be phone signal out here? There was some kind of radio device below deck but, it would be pure guess work trying to figure out how to contact someone. Lori started to regret the fact she’d not yet studied medicine, something she was keen to learn as soon as time permitted.

With a creeping sense of dread washing over her and a strange stillness in the air, Lori stayed on her spot, as rooted there as the rocking boat would permit.

She thought to herself, It’s okay. He’s probably just gone to get some painkillers, or something. She reached down to where Manuel had earlier discarded her panties and put them on, presuming her playtime had come to an abrupt end. She shrugged to herself. Still on round one.

PART FIVE:
Fevers and Sickness

Mike and Jacquetta Butler lived out in the middle of nowhere, in their modest-sized country home with their two children, Rebecca and Rachel. Being so far away from the crowded city, and more than a mile away from their closest neighbour had always been a dream for the family and - when the chance arose to move - they jumped at it without hesitation. Being so far away from the hustle and bustle also meant that - when things were happening in the city - they didn’t tend to hear about it unless it was big enough to make the evening news. Within their quiet home, they lived in almost complete blissful ignorance about what was happening beyond their four walls. Even so, that didn’t mean they weren’t starting to see the subtle signs of madness’s shadow stretching over their idyllic life.

‘Are you okay?’ Jacquetta was looking at Mike with concern as he laid, stretched out on the sofa in front of mind-numbing television.

‘I’m fine,’ he said moodily. He never responded to being ill very well. If Jacquetta was under the weather  she wanted more of Mike’s companionship. She wanted reassuring words, hugs here and there and - from time to time - an offer of a take-away or, at the very least, a cup of tea. When he was unwell, like any other man, he just wanted everyone to simply fuck off. Unless, of course, they had some magic cure which would instantly take the illness away. Mike knew Jacquetta didn’t have the cure and so, when she came asking how he was, the “fuck off” applied.

Jacquetta knew he wasn’t good. His skin was pale yet had a sheen to it as sweat came from every pore. His eyes even looked dulled in colour, something she’d never noticed before. She pressed him further, ‘Are you sure, because you haven’t looked good for a while now and…’ Before she could finish her sentence, Mike jumped up from the sofa and - in one fluid motion - he grabbed her by the throat before pushing her back against the wall.

‘I think, cunt, I said I was okay? Yes? Isn’t that what I said? Are you deaf, cunt, or just stupid?’

Jacquetta said nothing as she pulled at his firm hand. Her eyes wide with fear and already starting to tear up.

‘If I didn’t feel the fuck okay, cunt, I am pretty sure I would have said something.’ He mocked her voice, ‘Honey are you okay?’ Then back to his own voice, ‘No, cunt, I feel a little off today.’ He grinned at her but it wasn’t a smile of pleasantries. ‘Did you see how that worked, cunt?’

He released his hand slightly so that she could speak. She said, ‘I’m sorry, it’s just you really don’t look very well…’

‘Really? Well… You don’t look too good either, cunt!’ He tightened his grip again and pushed her from the living room, down the hallway and into the kitchen. She struggled the whole way but her strength wasn’t a match against his. He rammed her against the kitchen counter and she let out a cry of pain as the edge dug right into her spine. Mike didn’t care that he was hurting her. He heard none of her whimpers or cries now, such was the blinding rage he felt towards not just her but everyone. The whole fucking world could burn for all he cared right now.

With his spare hand, Mike fumbled in the kitchen drawer. He pulled out the carving knife and - in a quick blur of movement - he released Jacquetta’s neck and grabbed her cheek. He pulled it out from her skull and - with the blade - swiped down, cutting it clean off. Jacquetta let out a pained scream. Both rows of her teeth were now exposed, such was the slice of face cut away from her.

‘See! Not too pretty, are you, cunt?’ Mike started laughing. He backed away from his partner who - free from his body weight keeping her in place - dropped to the tiled floor of the kitchen. Tears streaming and unable to prevent herself from screaming with pain, she looked up and saw her young daughters standing in the kitchen doorway. At ages eight and nine, both were terrified at what they were seeing play out before them. It wasn’t just Jacquetta who had seen them. Mike had too. He lifted his booted foot and stamped down on Jacquetta’s neck. With an almighty crack, her deafening screams were silenced.

‘Hello, darling children.’ He smiled at them. The smile of an apex predator. ‘I think it’s high time you two little cunts learned about the birds and the bees, don’t you?’ He tossed the knife to the side. It clattered on the floor, splattering blood up the wall in the process. Mike didn’t give a shit. His eyes had stayed firmly on his daughters as he pulled his flaccid prick from his pants. ‘Don’t you worry, cunts, it might not look like much now but your daddy is a grow-er, not a show-er.’ He started to masturbate some life into his old man as his two daughters screamed and ran from the room. Mike stalked after them when - without warning - he dropped to the floor where upon his whole body started to violently shake. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and a white foam of saliva bubbled from his mouth. His penis was hard, even as the rest of his feverish body cooled and softened.

Mike’s fever wasn’t an isolated incident. For those fortunate enough to live far away enough not to feel the immediate effects of the madness, it still wasn’t enough to keep them safe. As the octopuses made their way from human host through to open waters, before them crept the ever-reaching shadow of madness. For those lucky enough not to fall into instant madness, there was a fever ready to embrace their bodies. Their brains would slowly boil in their skulls until the person was all but lost to insanity and - when one person suffered - they’d be contagious to all those around too for there really was no escaping. Had Jacquetta not been killed by Mike then, in a day - maybe two, she too would have felt her blood boiling and brain melting to the point of craziness and - in time - so too would the children feel it. It was always the men first, then the women and then the children - done in that order by design. With the men falling ill first, the women would still have their chance to birth another octopus. The more octopuses crawling across the dry lands, the faster the madness would spread.

Across the fields, through the woodlands, over the stream and the unseen shadow had already reached the Butler’s neighbours.

ii

Wilson had stopped screaming long ago. Her body was limp now and she made no effort to protect herself from the blows raining down upon her. Mark didn’t stop. He continued kicking into her gut for a few more kicks before he stopped and slumped to the floor, out of breath, close to where she lay. He just sat there motionless for a moment, sucking in the air - trying to get back all that he’d lost with his violent, unprovoked outburst. A couple of minutes went by and - then - Mark started to laugh. His laughter started as a quiet chuckle before escalating to a roar, deep from the depths of his belly. It was then, behind him, Annie sat up. Her dark eyes were now near black. She made no sound and neither did she show any pain from the beating she had taken. Her eyes fixed on him. He was so busy laughing, he’d not noticed her sitting up. Gradually his laugh calmed back to a chuckle… Soon after, he stopped entirely and that was when he froze.  In his peripheral vision he could see Annie glaring at him.

Sarcastically he said, ‘Oh goodie. You’re not dead. I was so worried about you for a minute. Well. A second. Probably not even that if I was being honest.’ He turned his head towards Annie. The moment his eyes set on her, she launched an attack of her own. She threw her weight against him, knocking him down on his back. She wasted no time throwing punches or kicks. Instead, she bit down into his Adam’s apple with teeth clenched down tight. When the top row met the bottom, she pulled her head violently to the right, ripping his throat clean out of his neck. She spat it across their bedroom floor as he started coughing up whatever blood didn’t spurt from his fresh wound.

As Mark thrashed around in his final moments of life, Annie wiped her mouth clean with the back of her hand. Calmly, she stood up and walked over to the bedroom window where she stared out to the world beyond. She knew something was wrong out there. Not just because of the way Mark had reacted but because she could feel it. There was a static-ness hanging heavy in the air. The hairs on the back of her neck had all stood to attention and even the finer strands, on the top of her head, were dancing an inch from the rest of her hair.

‘I can feel you,’ she said quietly. She started to laugh as she opened the bedroom window as wide as it could go. She said again, ‘I can feel you!’ She paused a moment. The laughter faded to silence. A puzzled expression fell upon her confused face and she said, ‘I don’t feel so good.’

Annie climbed over the windowsill and - without any hesitation - threw herself out and down to the stone path below. Her head cracked open on impact and bent backwards with a snap of her neck. The rest of her body hit the stones a split-section later. Bones sticking out from the skin at unusual angles never once considered “healthy” by people in the medical profession.

The shadow of insanity extended its unforgiving reach.

PART SIX:

Brewing

When Manuel hadn’t come back up, Lori started to worry so she made her way down below deck. At the foot of the stairs there was a small kitchen area with a smaller table and seating arrangement. Beyond that, to the left, there was storage space with a tiny bathroom opposite. Finally, there was a bedroom - at least what they classed as a bedroom. There was hardly any space to unpack a bag in there and even less space to store anything if you were staying on the boat much beyond a single night.

Manuel was on the bed, shivering. His skin positively glistened in the sun’s rays beaming through the narrow window. The sunshine didn’t give him what you would consider a healthy glow. He looked almost grey. Seeing him like this, it was certainly a shock. Especially given how fast the illness had apparently come on.

‘Jesus, are you okay?’

Manuel said nothing. He rolled onto his side so that Lori couldn’t see his face. She didn’t enter the room. She just stayed standing in the tiny doorway. She gave him a few seconds to answer her but, when he didn’t, she pushed him further for a response.

‘Are you okay? Do you want me to call someone?’ Thanks to her time in the army, panic didn’t immediately set in even though she knew “calling someone” wouldn’t be as simple as just picking up her cell and hitting a speed-dial. She also knew that she wouldn’t have even the slightest inkling on how to get the boat back to where they’d initially set off from.

With chattering teeth, Manuel told her, ‘I’m fine.’

‘Well you don’t exactly look it.’ In the back of her mind she started questioning whether the picnic food he’d brought along had been left out of a cooler too long and caused it to go off. With the way he was shaking and looking, it was a fair assumption to make that it was food poisoning. Especially with how quickly it had seemingly come on. Lori asked, ‘Did you take anything yet or do you need me to fetch something?’

‘I just need to shut my eyes for a fucking minute. After that I’ll be fine. But you know how hard that is to do with you waffling your fucking bullshit in my ears?’

Lori stood there, stunned. They’d argued from time to time, like most couples, but Manuel didn’t usually talk to her in such a hostile way, never mind the fact she was only trying to help and showing that she gave a shit. She went to say something but stopped herself. He wasn’t well. Whatever she said would only be met with more hostility. Instead of escalating the situation, she bit her tongue and headed back through to the kitchen area. There, she grabbed her book from the kitchen table - some horror written by an asshole author who’d recently been caught sending videos of himself whacking off to his female readers. She’d meant to throw the book in the trash, where the author belonged, but figured she may as well finish it first. Book in hand, she headed back up to the upper deck. She figured she might just be able to finish the book in the afternoon sun whilst she gave Manuel time to rest. If he was no better by the time she was done, she’d figure out how to at least get help out to them even if she didn’t know how to get the boat back to the docks.

i

In the short time Lori had been down with Manuel, the weather outside had started to turn. Seemingly from out of nowhere thick, black clouds had formed surrounding their boat. The only clear bit of sky now was directly overhead as though they were in the eye of an unexpected storm. To Lori, who read far too much horror, it looked like something from a post-apocalyptic movie signalling the end of days. Worse though, it looked like something from her nightmares. Horrible dreams she’d had when she was younger of being dragged under a boat. In those dreams there were heavy storm clouds above, flashing bright with lightning as a deep, roaring thunder vibrated the insides of anyone stupid enough to be outside. Thankfully those were nightmares though and this was reality. With any luck the storm clouds would simply break apart and fade to nothing. At least that was what she was hoping. With Manuel looking so ill, a storm would be all she needed.

‘Great,’ she muttered to herself as she looked in all directions. The only positive was that, despite the black clouds coming in, the sea didn’t appear to be getting any rougher. Whilst she didn’t feel as sick as she had earlier, when she’d been hiding down below deck, she knew it wouldn’t take much to get that feeling back in the pit of her stomach. She could just envision it now, both her and Manuel arguing over who got to throw up in the toilet and who got to spew up  over the side of the boat.

Lori tossed her book down on the leather padded stool. With such an obvious storm coming in, she knew she couldn’t leave Manuel downstairs to try and sleep it off. The least he could do would be to tell her how to work the boat, or - at the very least - the radio. Just in case.

ii

Across the seas, back in the port from which Lori and Manuel’s boat had left from, four more octopuses slipped into the water as - scattered around the shoreline - people lay dying from various wounds, both self-inflicted and given to them by others.

Just as before, the octopuses stayed on the water’s surface for but a moment before sinking down to the deepest depths. From down there, they started their journey.

iii

Lori about turned and went to head back down to Manuel to warn him of the weather. She stopped dead in her tracks, surprised to see him standing at the foot of the stairs. He still looked as rough as he had when she had left him, and she couldn’t hide her surprise at seeing him there.

‘Couldn’t sleep?’ She tried to keep the conversation natural, without asking how he was feeling given how he’d just got so annoyed at such questions. He said nothing. He just stared up at her with what looked like hatred burning in his eyes. For the first time ever in the years of knowing one another, Lori felt uncomfortable. ‘I was just coming to say, I think there is a storm coming.’

Manuel raised his eyebrows in mock-shock. He knew all too well what was coming. He could hear it in the forefront of his mind; the quiet whisperings chattering away and spilling all of their secrets. He put one foot on the first step and his hand on the wooden bannister. He paused.

Lori figured she’d just speak the truth, ‘I got to say, you’re kind of freaking me out a little,’ she said. Manuel stopped. ‘Why are you being like this? Have I annoyed you somehow?’

‘You mean other than having your uterus removed?’ Manuel said. His words took the wind out of Lori’s sails. He knew she hated the idea of having children. The thought of getting pregnant was something that truly terrified her, and that was why she’d gone ahead with the procedure.

Shocked, she said, ‘You said you didn’t want children.’

‘Why bother saying anything else when it was too late to do anything? Your mind was made up.’ He took another step up towards her. ‘What good would it have done if you found out I wanted children? It would have driven a wedge between us.’ He took another step. Half-way up now. With each step closer, Lori took a step back from him until she had nowhere else to go.

‘Clearly it sounds like it has driven a wedge between us although I’m not sure where any of this is coming from. How one minute you can go from fucking me over the side of a boat to… To being like this.’

He smiled. ‘Moods change.’

‘You’re scaring me.’

‘You’re annoying me.’

‘I haven’t done anything.’

‘You’re breathing.’ He stepped through the hatch. They were both on the same level with only a couple of feet between them.

‘What?’

‘You heard me.’

‘Okay clearly we need to talk things through and… I don’t know… Either take some time apart or work through things as a couple, just as we vowed to do. But here isn’t the time or place. Maybe you could take us back to the port?’ That was Lori’s one thought now; get back to dry land. From there she would worry about what Manuel was saying and how it had only just come to light that this was what he was feeling.

‘Some women are desperate to have babies…’

‘I know… Manuel, there is a storm coming… We need to get back to dry land. We’ll talk about this then…’

‘Some women are desperate to have babies and spend much of their savings on procedures to try and have a baby. Those who can’t try and adopt only to fall at the first hurdle because they’re deemed not suitable… You’re a selfish whore. You gave away a chance as though it were nothing…’

‘No. I gave it a lot of…’

‘Pathetic. Some women will do literally anything to have that child…’

PART SEVEN:
Hopes and Dreams

Nikkii Harris laid on the cold concrete ground with her leggings and panties pulled down around her ankles. She was screaming wildly. Her dark make-up smeared down her cheeks from the tears being wept. As others fought around her, fighting for no reason other than a “want” to do so, Nikkii grabbed at one of the many octopuses heading for Brighton beach. She had seen other women give birth to them and wanted to play her part and do the same but, unfortunately for her, she hadn’t been pregnant. As madness took its firm hold, that wouldn’t stop her.

With the octopus frantically wriggling, desperate to get away from Nikkii, she started to laugh as she pushed it against her tight orifice. When it wouldn’t so easily slide inside her, she screamed loudly, ‘Why won’t you just get in there already? You’re mine! I want to be your mother!’ Not even the slippery tips would seemingly fit inside her even though she was as wet as a puddle at this stage; from being so turned on at the prospect of getting this thing up inside  her finally.

In her broken mind, her plan was simple: She would push the octopus into her pussy as far as it would go and then, with a squeeze, she would push it back out again whilst screaming through a fake labour. Then, she would watch with tears of joy as her “child” made its way into the big-wide world. The reality of the situation proved to be somewhat trickier and her scream turned to one of frustration as she continued to wrestle with the slippery little fuck. The signals she was sending out were obvious to all those around. They just chose to ignore her as they were wrapped up in their own thoughts. Nikkii wasn’t the only one to be sending out signals but, unlike hers, the signals of the octopus were being heard by all its brothers and sisters in close proximity. Their paths changed. The sea could wait a while longer as they all turned to help the octopus Nikkii continued fighting with.

‘I promise you, it’s nice inside me. It’s warm and tight and I’ll love you forever,’ she babbled like a crazy woman possessed. She released one hand from the octopus and pushed two fingers up inside herself to gape her cunt enough - she hoped - to help get the octopus up inside her. ‘Get in me…’ She stopped shouting when she realised she had been entirely surrounded by octopuses. The one in her hand had stopped struggling now and was hanging limply in her grasp. It wasn’t dead. It was just waiting and watching. The side of its head pulsing as it sent out messages to all those who had come to help. Even with her mind twisted and torn, Nikkii could tell she was in danger.

‘It’s not what it looks like,’ she said, pity hanging heavy in her tone. ‘I just wanted to give birth to one of you. I know what you’re doing. I know where you’re going, and I wanted to play my part. I wanted to… I wanted to be a part of it and…’ She stopped talking and broke down in floods of tears - not of pain, not of frustration but of sorrow. She wept loudly as she released the octopus from her grip. Her fingers still knuckle deep in her dripping cunt.

“Her” octopus just sat there, on the concrete. It’s brain pulsating. The other octopuses started to close in around her. Four of them climbed their slippery bodies up onto her bare legs (two on each leg). Another four gripped themselves to the front of her chest. With outstretched tentacles they reached to four more octopuses that had stationed themselves behind Nikkii. She did nothing but cry as she realised her dreams of motherhood weren’t ever likely to come true.

With tentacles interlocked with the octopuses behind her, the “back” octopuses pulled their siblings closer to them, forcing Nikkii to lay out flat on the ground in the process. Only now did the original octopus start to move. It slithered its way over to Nikkii’s face so that they were eye to eye and - immediately - she stopped weeping as a strange calm washed through her.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I only wanted to be your mum.’

You want to birth me?

‘Yes. I’ve never been a mother before and…’

You could have just asked me.

‘I didn’t know you could understand me.’

We understand all.

‘I didn’t mean to hurt you or frighten you.’

I can make you a mother, if you would truly want me to.

‘You can?’

We can make anything happen, once our minds are set on it.

‘Really?’

You just have to ask nicely.

‘Please can you make me a mother?’

I can make you my mother.

‘How?’

With no warning, an octopus fixed itself to the top of Nikkii’s head. It then used two of its tentacles to open her mouth. In a normal state of mind, a person would scream or struggle free from what was happening around them but Nikkii did neither. She just watched as her “friend” octopus reached into her mouth with two tentacles to begin with - and then four. Nikkii gagged as the rest of it entered her mouth, squeezing itself into the tight space before suffocating her as it pushed down her throat and into her stomach.

Nikkii’s body violently convulsed but was kept as still as possible by the octopuses pinning her down. Inside - in her dying moments - she could feel the octopus thrashing around in her gut, ripping through the stomach walls and turning everything into mush. By the time the first tentacle punched out through her snatch, she was coughing blood. When a second tentacle punched out of her puckered arsehole, she was dead. The octopus pushed on through, turning two holes into one in the process. It landed on the concrete in a bloody mixture of shit and mushed internal organs.

Not that she knew it, Nikkii was now a “proud” mother.

The octopus continued on the journey it had been making when she first grabbed it. Moments later it was followed by its siblings.

All things considered, Nikkii had had a relatively easy “labour”. It had certainly been easier than some that others had experienced.

i

Naked, Lisa Carter fell through the front door of her apartment, screaming for help. The insides of her legs were coated in fresh blood and three lifeless tentacles hung from her stretched vagina. Unlike those around her, she felt none of the madness that they did and only the fear and pain of her current predicament.

‘Someone please help me! Please help me!’

No one came to her aid though and nor could she even see anyone to approach out in the long corridor. From behind closed doors she could hear the sound of smashing and heavy thuds as things were thrown against walls and doors. She could hear people ranting and raving and screaming obscenities at one another. She staggered from door to door, banging a clenched fist against the heavy wood in the hope that someone would open up and help pull this thing from her. No doors opened as she continued stumbling down the corridor towards the closed window overlooking the street below. There, she doubled over in pain as she felt something “punch” her from within her stomach. She screamed again for help. This time one of the doors opened and her neighbour, Nicole Castle-Kelly, appeared there. She had blood streaming from a gash in her forehead, not that Lisa cared. It was someone to help her at least.

‘Please… Get it out of…’ Before she could finish her sentence, a second octopus burst from her stomach and flung itself towards Nicole where it latched to her face, knocking her onto her back as Lisa dropped down dead on the carpet.

The octopus gripped Nicole’s face as tightly as possible as its little beak started eating the flesh clean from her face. Despite having her lips torn away, Nicole couldn’t help but to laugh and - as the octopus feasted - she reached down the front of her jeans and started to stroke herself through her moist panties. As she worked herself to a steady climax, the octopus continued stripping away her face’s flesh until she was nothing more than a laughing skull.

Outside, a bolt of forked lightening zapped down from the pitch-black cloud above. A rumble of loud thunder shook the grounds and, then, the heavy sheet rain started to lash down on the troubled earth.

PART EIGHT:

The Storm

Manuel shook his head with bitter disappointment as he explained to Lori that, ‘Some women are desperate to have babies and spend much of their savings on procedures to try and have a baby. Those who can’t, try and adopt, only to fall at the first hurdle because they’re deemed not suitable… You’re a selfish whore. You gave away a chance as though it were nothing…’

‘No. I gave it a lot of…’

‘Pathetic. Some women will do literally anything to have that child…’ Manuel stopped and cranked his head as though listening to someone talking on a hidden ear-piece. He smiled and slowly turned his gaze back to his wife. The way he looked at Lori terrified her. Gone was any trace of humanity. Gone was the kind look of the gentle man she loved. Slowly, a smile spread across his face. Lori cast a quick look over her shoulder and down to the deep waters. A thought, could I make it to the shore by swimming? She knew it was impossible, especially with the black clouds now directly above her. She turned back to Manuel and went to say something but before she could, he said, ‘It’s never too late to do your part for the greater good though.’ She looked at him, confused by what he meant and - then, he punched her square in the face with such force she fell to her arse, dazed. Still with his fist clenched, he took a step closer to her. Even though there were two of him looking down at her, she noticed through blurry eyes and heavy stars that he was still grinning.

‘Baby! I’m sorry!’ The smile vanished and he extended his hand down towards her. ‘I don’t know what came over me. I’m so sorry! Jesus Christ! Can you forgive me?’ Lori was too shocked to speak. She took his hand only for him to say, ‘Oh wait. I remember what it was. You’re a cunt. That’s why I hit you.’ He smiled again and punched her for a second time. This time he knocked her clean out.

i

On every coast around the world, as one,  no matter the time of day, the gathered octopuses gave one final push of their tentacles to get themselves into the salty wash of the sea. As though one entity, they swam a little way out into the horizon before they all disappeared beneath the murky waters.

Above the lands, hanging low in the dark skies, blankets of black clouds started to piss down with buckets of icy-cold rain. All at once, the entire globe lit up with one massive sheet of bright blue lightening. One rumble of thunder echoed across the entire planet.

ii

Lori had been tied down to the front decking of the boat where, earlier, she had enjoyed a picnic with the man she thought she loved. Her wrists were bound with rope, as were her ankles. The other end of the ropes had been fixed to the railings on either side of the boat. Lori had been stripped of her clothes.

As she slowly came around, the world blurring into an almost unfamiliar vision, it was impossible to say whether it had been the icy waters from the clouds or the deep rumble of thunder which had pulled her back to consciousness. Panic immediately set in when she realised she’d been tied down and, on instinct, she called for Manuel.

‘Manuel? Are you there?’

Manuel was at the back of his boat. Not only had he stripped Lori of her clothes, but he too was naked. He was kneeling on the deck with his back to his wife. He was staring over the edge of the boat, out towards the seemingly eternal stretch of waters.

All around the boat, octopuses had surfaced. Just as Manuel scanned the scene before him, they too were scanning both him and Lori.

‘Manuel! Please! Untie me! I don’t understand why you’re doing this.’

Manuel didn’t blink an eye on hearing her cries for help. He just remained on his knees, aware that he was in the presence of a God.

‘The right place at the right time,’ Manuel said after a while. He spoke loudly so Lori could hear him over the splattering of heavy rain droplets upon the boat. ‘And,’ he continued, ‘a chance for you to do the right thing and give birth…’

Lori pulled against the restraints, hoping that they would break free and that she would be able to… She didn’t know. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. She couldn’t fight him. Even with her military training and general level of fitness - thanks to both yoga, cross-fit and bodyweight training - she knew he would be able to deck her if he managed to land a punch. Maybe she would risk the open waters and try and swim for shore? It would mean having to overcome the fear of deep water but - if her life depended on it - she would give it her best shot. And at least that meant she wouldn’t have to fight him, if that was where this was heading. Right now, she had no idea what was going on in his head, or why he was doing any of this and it didn’t look as though he was about to be forthcoming with the information as to why he was acting like this. As for the waters, Lori wasn’t in a good enough position to realise that the boat was surrounded by octopuses, something which she probably wouldn’t have been able to swim through, even if they were scared enough of her to try and move out of her way had she gotten into the sea.

Manuel said, ‘I just want you to know that none of this was planned…’

Whatever was planned, Lori tried to stall him by asking all of the possible questions she could think of. ‘What is planned? I don’t understand. Please tell me…’

‘This really was supposed to just be a little trip out to a spot you had so desperately wanted to see. I didn’t know this was going to happen but…’ He started to laugh. ‘You really are lucky…’

‘What the fuck are you talking about? Why am I so lucky?’

‘You have no idea how lucky you are.’

‘Then tell me. Tell me why I am lucky! Explain to me what is going on…’ The more she spoke, the more she came to realise how much her jaw ached from the heavy blow he had landed. Not just that, she realised how her teeth were loose in her gums. A flash thought shot through her worried mind that it was entirely possible that her teeth might just slip out from the gums, leaving behind great big empty pockets of blood that would flow freely down her throat in this position. In a hope of pushing her teeth deeper into their sockets, to try and keep them in place, she clenched her mouth shut and grimaced through the dull ache of her jaw.

‘Some people might be scared about the storm that is coming but there is nothing to fear. He lets us see through his eyes to the world we will be left with. How He will change the people to a world more fitting to His own. Some will die but that’s not a problem with the world as overpopulated as it is. We must think of their death as not a tragedy but a sacrifice to the greater good.’ Manuel turned to Lori. She couldn’t see his face. She couldn’t see the way his eyes had changed to those of an octopus. ‘And you, one of his biggest fans… You get to be the last piece of the puzzle.’ He smiled. ‘I would love to take the credit and say it was me who planned this honour for you, but I am afraid I would be lying. It was all purely down to chance.’

‘Please… Please just tell me what you are talking about. Let me understand!’ She spoke quieter this time, too scared to fully open her mouth to yell out the words in case she agitated the loose teeth. One filling had already dropped from a top row tooth down onto her tongue. One filling had already been swallowed.

Manuel laughed again. ‘The right place at the right time.’

He scurried over to where Lori was tied and looked down at her. When she saw the state of his eyes, she screamed out loud from both fright and shock. This wasn’t her husband kneeling before her.

Manuel said, ‘He is coming, my darling wife, and we have the front row tickets. You, yourself, are to be His ticket to freedom and world domination. You, His biggest fan!’ He smiled at her. ‘You will be a mother and you will realise that, all this time, there was nothing to fear from it.’ He leaned down and opened his mouth to kiss her. Gone was his tongue. Instead, a tentacle outstretched from between his lips. Leaning closer still, he pushed it into her mouth and “kissed” her, holding her head in place with two strong hands so as to stop her from moving away from his loving kiss.

Another sheet of lightening that stretched around the world. Another crash of thunder. One rumble that was heard everywhere. All around the world, all fighting stopped. All laughing, crying, shouting, screaming… It all stopped as all those still capable of breathing - no matter the species - silently bowed down in preparation for His return.

PART NINE:

Desperation

Lori struggled against the ropes, holding her down. Manuel had stood up straight and was staring over the boat’s side - back out to the vast waters stretching out before him. His eyes were fixed on the many octopuses gathered around the boat. All of them watching. All of them waiting. Manuel couldn’t help but smile, mesmerised by such a sight.

‘You should see it,’ he said to Lori, unaware she was still struggling to break free. ‘It’s beautiful.’ It was then Lori realised what she needed to do to get free. She needed to play along. She needed him to believe that she wanted this, whatever it was, as much as he did.

Lori stopped pulling against the ropes and let her body relax as best as she could. Manuel turned and looked down at her, a smile across his face. Those yellow, beady eyes staring down. ‘It really is beautiful,’ he said.

She smiled back at him, trying to match the look on his face. ‘I want to see it,’ she said.

‘Really?’

‘I can’t see anything from here.’ To prove a point, she strained her neck in an effort to see over the boat’s edge. ‘I want to see. If this is what needs to happen, then I want to see it… I want to enjoy the beauty of the moment.’

Manuel looked back over at the waters. ‘It’s something to behold for sure,’ he said. ‘You won’t try anything?’

‘I won’t try anything,’ she said. She tried to sound as sincere as possible and hoped that she pulled it off. If she was going to get out of this, she had one shot at it.

Manuel nodded. He leaned down and undid the restraints tied to her wrists. That was all though.

‘What about my ankles?’

He had already turned away from Lori and had gone back to staring at the octopuses. In the time taken to undo her restraints more had arrived around the boat. In the distance, moving in black shadows just beneath the water’s surface, he could see more heading over.

Manuel said, ‘Sit up. Take a look.’

Lori tried to hide her disappointment. Of course, she didn’t need to be entirely free to see over the side of the boat. When she did finally turn her gaze towards the waters, her heart skipped a beat at the sight of the octopuses and her mouth fell slightly ajar.

Manuel spoke to her without even looking in her direction. He asked, ‘Can you hear Him? Can you? He stirs. He stirs and will lead our world into a new era when He fully wakes.’

Lori had no idea what was happening, but she also knew her eyes weren’t deceiving her and something bad was taking place. This wasn’t just a case of her husband going mad in the grips of a sudden fever, or some parasite changing the way his mind worked. With his temper, the words he said, the way the weather was behaving and even all of the sea-life… This was the start, or end, of something truly, truly terrible. If she didn’t act now, she wouldn’t be able to act at all.

Without making any attempt to hide what she was doing, Lori reached down to between her legs with her free hands and she started stroking her fingers against her clitoris. The accompanying sighs from her mouth were nothing more than pantomime to get Manuel’s attention. And get his attention, she did.

Manuel turned his whole body towards her. She made no attempt to look at him. Instead she kept her eyes on the sea as she continued stroking herself. She purred, ‘It’s beautiful’

Manuel smiled. The black slits of his yellow eyes fixed on her shaven pussy. ‘It is, isn’t it?’ Still his once-upon-a-time wife didn’t bother to look at him. She knew that, if she did, she wouldn’t be able to hide the fear in her eyes. At least by staring out to sea, she could try and force her brain to imagine she was somewhere else. She didn’t need to look at him though. From the corner of her very human eye, she could see he was stroking himself through his shorts. She could see that he was hard for her. As she made her moans of pleasure more dramatic, her mind drifted back to an old news-story she’d read online.

i

Sara Fallon had been on her way home from work when the attack happened. From out of nowhere she had been grabbed from behind and dragged into the park. Under the cover of night her attacker wasn’t interested in her money, nor was he interested in her valuables. He was only interested in fucking her. As he pushed her down in the dirt, she could smell the alcohol on his breath and couldn’t help but wonder how much of that played a part in what he was trying to do. The way he drunkenly fumbled with his belt and trousers though, she knew he was far from “switched on” mentally. That was how it had been so easy to convince him that he didn’t need to “attack” her. Why fight when the person you’re with is more than willing? When she said as such, the look on his face was one of pure confusion but only for a second. He didn’t give a shit what she was saying, he just wanted to get his dick wet and if she was willing then - fuck it - that just made it so much easier. She reached for his belt and undid it with ease. Then she unbuttoned his jeans and pulled the zipper down, exposing his shorts beneath. She presumed the alcohol was the reason why he wasn’t yet excited as she touched his soft member. Still, it didn’t stop her from reaching in and freeing his uncut cock. She looked him in the eyes as, with a flick of her tongue, she licked the tip of it. The moment she did, the drunken man’s penis twitched. She smiled at him and he slurred something in response that sounded like an order to “suck it”.

Sara kept her eyes on him as she took his still-soft penis into her mouth. Still she stared at him as she started pulling her head back and forth whilst working his shaft with her tongue. Soon enough, the drunk man’s penis started to twitch and spasm in her mouth. To get the job done faster, Sara started to use her hands to cradle and fumble with his testicles.

The drunk bum was moaning with pleasure. He tilted his head back and shut his eyes as Sara worked his erection. Her heart was beating fast and hard. Her mind was racing in all directions and, as his breathing grew faster, she bit down, clamping her teeth hard upon his prick.

The man screamed in agony as she squeezed his testicles so hard that there was a painful “pop” from within. She ripped her head to the side, tearing the flesh with ease in the process as the pitch of the man’s scream changed dramatically. As her mouth filled with blood, the man (penis-less) stumbled back a step before Sara’s world went dark. In a panic - the man thumped down on the top of her head before he fell to his arse in the cold, wet, dirt.

The news reports posted that both bodies had been found the following morning, by a dog-walker. They believe Sara never awoke from the force of the head trauma and the drunken man bled out further away from where she lay. Claw-marks in the dirt suggesting he had tried to crawl for help. But that wasn’t the part of the story that had stuck in Lori’s mind.

ii

Manuel screamed as he pulled away from Lori. Blood pumped freely from the wound between his legs as she spat his severed penis over the boat’s side. As he fell to the deck, desperately trying to stem the flow of blood, she worked the rope’s knots with her shaking fingers. She hated herself for what she had done but there really was no choice; she knew that. This man… He wasn’t her husband anymore. She didn’t know what he was. She just knew that if she didn’t act now, it would soon be too late and - with the way he’d earlier hit her - she had no idea just how far he was going to go.

Once free from the restraints, Lori hurried to the helm.  She turned the key in the ignition, firing up the starter motor, and then started hitting all of the buttons hoping that one of them would start to bring up the anchor. The boat’s engine stuttered and died, not that she knew why.

‘No, no, no… Please…’ She turned the ignition again but - nothing. ‘Fuck!’ She froze as, from the bow of the boat, she heard laughing. When she looked up from the ship’s console, she was shocked to see Manuel standing there with a grin on his face. The blood from between his legs was now nothing more than a dribble and he was applauding her.

‘You really think you can escape? He has plans for you. There’s no escape now He has seen you. You’re the final piece of the puzzle.’ The way Manuel spoke, the way he was standing there - it was clear he wasn’t feeling any pain from the new wound she had given him.

With horror in her eyes, Lori asked, ‘What are you?’

‘I am His servant and will be for as long as He deems necessary.’ The smile faded from Manuel’s face and, as it did so, he took a step towards Lori. ‘He is ready now,’ Manuel said.

‘Fuck you!’ Lori turned and, without giving it a second thought, she threw herself overboard. Manuel made no attempt to get her back and just laughed at her pathetic attempt to get away. She was going nowhere.

PART TEN:

Cthulhu

Lori was completely submerged in the water, having penetrated the top layer of octopuses. The salt stung her eyes and she closed them tight to try and protect them as she tried to get back to the surface. The whole time, in her mind, she was remembering back when she was younger. Back when she was being tossed and turned under the boat that trapped her. The panic she felt now was the same feeling she had felt back then. The fear burning bright in every pore of her being as she frantically clawed at the water, desperate to breach the surface but Lori went nowhere. She was mere inches from the surface. She didn’t need to be able to see to know what was happening. She could feel the tentacle wrapped around her ankle. Another tentacle wrapped around her other ankle. Then her left arm was grabbed, promptly followed by her right. Refusing to open her eyes, she was pulled out into a star-fish position and - with a desperate need for oxygen in her lungs - she was held there for what seemed like an eternity, struggling against the grip of the tentacles. With death looming ever closer, she opened her eyes… Her heart skipped a beat… She was being held horizontal in the water, facing the black depths. A pair of two giant, yellow eyes starred back at her. With the last of her breath, she screamed until she blacked out.

i

Young Lori was at the water’s edge. Her mum and dad were standing over her with panic on their faces. The moment Lori opened her eyes, both her mum and dad gave her only the briefest of pauses to take in the air almost lost forever before they both grabbed her and held her close. “Close”, that was how nearly they lost their daughter forever. As her parents held her, and the shock of being pulled under the water’s surface hit home hard, young Lori burst into tears.

‘It’s okay now, it’s okay… You’re okay,’ her mother said over and over, whispering it into her ear. Lori said nothing. She just continued to cry.

ii

This time when Lori opened her eyes, she did not have her mum and dad standing over her, much as she wished she could have. If only they could have been standing there. If only the whole thing on the boat and with Manuel could have been nothing more than the worst of nightmares. No such luck though. Shocked to have even woken up and then more shocked to find herself back up on the boat, Lori tried to sit up. She was back on the bow of the boat, restrained. This time though, it was not ropes that kept her in place. It was the same tentacles that had so cruelly held her under the ocean’s choppy waves.

Lori screamed as the big, black clouds continued raining down.

‘Ah good you’re awake. I was worried you were going to miss the whole thing.’ Manuel’s voice came from the rear of the boat. He was out of sight, but his voice suggested the wound she had inflicted did not bother him in the slightest. All trace of humanity gone.

Lori begged to know, ‘Please… What is happening…’

Manuel spoke from the back, ‘So many sacrifices have been made for this moment but still there is one more needed. The ultimate sacrifice from a woman incapable of giving birth is, ironically, the last thing that will bring Him back to the surface. He is already awake, as you have seen. He just needs this final act to break free from the chains that bind him to the ocean floor.’ Manuel said, ‘A fan such as yourself. I would have thought you would have been happy about this. You are the key to the re-awakening of a God. You. No one else. You.’

Lori squirmed where she lay but to no avail. She was going nowhere. She lifted her head from the deck as she felt a slimy tentacle brush against her vagina. ‘Don’t do this… Please…’

Manuel said, in a voice which sounded as though he were deep underwater, ‘No life can come out of you, but life can still enter you.’

Lori felt her pussy lips part as the tentacles teased her open.

‘Please…’ Lori begged but no one heard. Her begging turned to a scream as the octopus squeezed itself up inside her. At first, she could feel it moving just in the mouth of her vagina and then deeper and deeper and - a stabbing sensation from deep within - she could feel it slowly thrashing around inside her belly. Her scream changed pitch as her blood flowed from her pussy, spewing over the boat’s edge and down into the black waters. The whole creature was inside  her now, moving around in her and tearing her up as another lined itself up, ready to join it. A queue of them eagerly waiting their turn as more of her blood spilled from the boat, into the water.

iii

Meagan Lee was thousands of miles away, just like many other people were. She was sitting down at the kitchen table with a knife in hand. She was laughing as she carved away chunks of her flesh before merrily popping it into her mouth and chewing it up, rolling it around and swallowing it down her gullet. So much flesh from her right arm eaten now that the muscle, nerves and bone (in places) were exposed. Still she dug in and… She stopped suddenly. She looked up and stared at the window. She got up and walked to the window looking towards the horizon. A smile spread across her face and she dropped to her knees with an excited glint in her eyes. Outside her home, in the street, other people were on their knees too. All of them were staring in the same direction.

‘He’s here,’ she said. A single tear rolled down the side of her face. ‘He is here, and we are unworthy…’ Without any hesitation, she put the knife to her throat and slit her neck open. Blood spurted over the window she was looking out of. She died laughing as, outside, others were repeatedly head-butting the concrete ground - all of them desperate to take their own unworthy lives.

iv

Lori’s body was thrashing around but not because she was alive. Her eyes were fixed to an unknown point as a number of octopuses moved around inside  her - beneath the skin but on top of her now-broken skeleton. Their sole purpose being to squeeze every last bit of blood from her body. Every drop heading for the waters.

At the stern of the boat, Manuel was on his knees with his hands outstretched to the skies. He was screaming with joy and - somehow - laughing at the same time. A man with a truly broken mind when - all of a sudden - eight 40-foot tentacles shot out from the sea. They stayed outstretched for a moment before they came crashing down on the boat, splintering it to pieces with ease.

He was awake.

~ Fin

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