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Five Conversations on a Pier After Dark

This story was originally published at InD'Tale

Prologue

To start with, the only reason I met Katie was that my mother caught me looking at lesbian porn.
That should tell you two things right off the bat. The first is that I'm not skipping the embarrassing stuff. I have no idea what really happened over the last month, so I'll write down everything I remember, and then I'll explain why it makes no sense.
The second is that I walked into this late. I've met Katie five times, and at first, I had no idea what she was. I can't say I was just a bystander, but there are things I can't tell you firsthand.
Anyways, picture me in my room, staring at the screen, when my mother barged in without even knocking. She went all tomato and started yelling at me, and I just ran right past her, not even sure at first where I was going.
Once I made it outside, I calmed down enough to think straight. Normally, when I'm angry or depressed, I go out to the end of the southwest pier. I'd never been there after dark before, but it was a nice night for a walk--the air was warm, the moon was bright, and you could almost hear the echoes of how this island used to be.

First Meeting: July 12th, Full Moon​

I don't know who they'll show this to. The police will see it first, of course, but whoever's reading it now might be some hotshot mainland scientist with a a weird accent and yet another theory about WLNOS. You might have no idea what this island used to be like, back when old men sold cotton candy from roadside stalls, while rich Americans ogled pretty dancers, and music played all day and night. It was tacky as all hell, of course, an entire culture dumbed down and sanitized, but the real thing hid carefully behind it, and every once in a while, tourists like my father found it. He fell in love, both with my mother, and with the island, and he taught me to love it too.
Now that the water is less and less water, and more and more Watery Liquid Not Otherwise Specified, you scientists have inherited the island, trying to make your names on where that gunk really comes from and how to stop it from spreading. But the southwest pier remembers everything, holding out after all the others started to rot. When I go there, I remember, even when I've almost forgotten. And Katie--Katie never forgot even once.
Katie . . . I didn't even know she was there. I was sitting at the very end of the pier, looking out at the moonlight on the water, when I heard a voice call out "Hey there!" I looked down to see a soft-faced native girl treading water just below me, and I swear, at first I thought she was a mermaid.
"Giving me the silent treatment?" she asked. "It's a good night to unwind. Come, swim with me!"
I admit it; I was tempted. When the sun's up, all the WLNOS in the water makes me think of bright blue melted plastic, but it looks kind of inviting by moonlight. Still, I had enough brains not to dive in, and I'd read enough foreign romance novels to know how to refuse. "I am sorry, my dear lady," I told her, dropping my voice half an octave, "but what is a normal environment for you would hardly be pleasurable for me. I am afraid we must remain eternally separate."
"Oh, don't be dramatic." She grabbed onto the ladder at the end of the pier, and she hauled herself up, dripping wet but smiling.
Like a mermaid, she swam without a suit--and unlike a mermaid, her long hair went behind her back rather than covering important places. It wasn't the first time that night I'd looked at a cute naked girl, but this time, I was the one who went tomato. "B-by the way," I squeaked, "I'm Sam."
She was clearly trying not to laugh. "I'm Katie, and I'm sorry--I thought you were someone I knew." She turned and sat down at the edge of the pier, dangling her legs above the water. "Stay for a while. I hardly ever see anyone here, and when I do, they never hear me call them. It'd be nice to talk for once."
I don't remember how long I spent there, and I don't remember everything we said. She didn’t know much about the latest news or the latest movies, but I filled in whenever she couldn’t think of anything to say.
I do remember what she said when I told her I had to go. "I'll be waiting for you, same time next week. You're quite a charming young . . . Uh . . . You know, I can't quite tell if you're a boy or a girl."
Well, when I say I’m a boy, people call me a *** for looking girly, and when I say I'm a girl, they call me a dyke for being into girls. "You have your secrets, I have mine."
I didn't know then just how true that was.

First Swim: July 19th, Waning Moon​

Katie was already standing on the pier when I got there. "You're finally here!" she said. "I've been waiting a long time for you."
I switched to romance-novel mode. "I promised a week, my dear lady. If my absence made time drag, I am sorry to have caused you pain."
She squinted at me, then burst out laughing. "No, I'm sorry," she told me once she'd finished. "You look a lot like Roy. You even sound like him when you do that voice."
"Ex-boyfriend?" I guessed.
"Sort of. It turned out we wanted different things." She dove backwards off the side of the pier, and surfaced smiling. "We both loved to swim, though. Come on in, the water's fine!"
I started with the easy argument. "I can't believe you actually swim in that stuff. Don't you know what's in it?"
"Would you believe I can breathe it?" She paused like she was seriously wondering whether I would. "No, you probably wouldn't."
She was right; I didn't. "I haven't swum in five years."
It was almost high tide, and she easily pulled herself up onto the pier. "Look at me," she told me as she dripped her way towards me. "I swim here every day, and I'm fine."
Now for the big guns. "I almost drowned when I was ten--"
She shoved me off the pier.
I need to explain something. I say I nearly drowned so people think that's why I'm afraid of the water. Really, I’m afraid because I liked the feeling. I felt like the water would shelter me, and like I’d never have to leave it if I didn’t want to. When I entered it again, that feeling came rushing back, and I had a half-formed thought of sinking with Katie, down to where the light would never find us.
I didn't, of course. I stayed close to the surface, even when she dove farther down, and she stopped diving when she realized that. After a while, we started to play tag underwater. I could tell she was letting me catch her, but when I reached out to touch those pretty legs of hers, I didn't really care.
I never saw her come up to breathe, but she surfaced when I finally climbed back onto the pier. "I guess that wet shirt answers some questions. You're either a boy or a washboard."
"I am slain, my dear lady! You have wounded me through the heart!"
I said before that I can't say what really happened, just what I remember. I remember swimming that night, and I remember dripping water and WLNOS all over the pier as I said goodbye. It's all perfectly clear in my head.
But at some point on the way back home, I realized I was bone-dry.

First Fight: July 26th, New Moon​

All I can say is that it seemed like a good idea at the time.
I couldn't really see her well in the darkness, but I recognized her long-lost boyfriend routine just from the sound of it. "I can't believe you're here! I'd almost given up hope."
What harm could there possibly be in playing along? "That's right, baby. And I want you to know how sorry I am for not being here sooner. I should have known how hurt you’d be. I promise, I’ll never leave you again.”
“Should have known . . ." she repeated, her tone dulling on the third word. She might as well have been telling me that the number I’d reached was no longer in service. “Then you knew I was alone here. You knew I didn’t die. You could have come for me any time you wanted.”
“Uh, no, I didn’t--I mean--”
She leapt at me like a cat at a mouse, knocking me flat on my back. She didn't say a word as she knelt on my chest, lifting my head up and slamming it against the pier.
"What are--"
Slam.
"I just--"
Slam.
I admit it; I punched her in the gut. She'd probably have cracked my head open if I didn't. I was still barely able to shove her off me. "It's Sam," I managed to gasp.
For what it's worth, she at least tried to apologize. "Sam? I--jeez, what do I say now? 'I'm sorry' doesn't seem big enough."
"You could start with 'Are you okay?' I think the back of my head is bleeding."
"Listen, it's coming up on a bad time of year for me . . ." She trailed off.
I stood up slowly, while she just lay there. "All right, let's start from the beginning. Why did you just try to kill me?"
"Because he left me here. Every night, I'm here, while he's sleeping warm and dry. And every day, I--I don't know where I go."
I was lost. "What do you mean? You don't remember, or . . ."
"The sun hits the water, and the world goes black. It's like I'm falling, deeper and deeper into darkness, until the night comes and I land in water again."
Do you ever watch horror movies? The characters make the same mistakes in every single film, and I think I finally know why. It's a hell of a lot easier to keep insisting everything's normal than it is to admit to yourself what's really going on.
"Katie, I need to be by myself for a while. I'll be back next week, I promise." I didn't give her a chance to respond before I ran.
My head was still bloody when I got home. At least that much was real.

Interlude​

I found it in the archives of the Sunday Chorus, a little under four years back (so three years after they think the WLNOS first showed up, and one before it got thick enough to notice.) On the night of August ninth, a girl named Katie Ropiha went swimming with her friend Roy Baker. She went out much farther than she normally did, and when he called out to her, she suddenly started to struggle. She was gone before he knew what happened, but her body never washed up on shore.
Of course, there are a lot of Katies, and the picture didn't show the Katie I'd seen. Her nose was bigger, her teeth stuck out, and she was maybe ten pounds overweight. No, if Katie Ropiha was the real Katie, then Katie on the pier was what she wanted to be.
There were three reasons I went back to see her again, and the first was that I knew Katie wasn’t a ghost. She was bipolar, nocturnal, and possibly aquatic, but she was also warm, breathing, and solid, just like you or me. I wasn’t quite ready to use the word “supernatural,” but I could at least say “incredibly strange,” and I was almost as curious as I was scared.
The second reason was that I knew she was lonely. Reason 2B was that there can be upsides to hanging out with a cute, lonely girl, but 2A was that I liked her enough that I didn't want to leave her all alone with nothing but WLNOS for company. (2C was that she was the first person in years who wanted to be friends with the kid who couldn’t decide whether to be a boy or a girl.)
The third reason? Let's just say I was already beginning to suspect something, even if I hadn't quite admitted it yet.

First Kiss: August 2nd, Waxing Moon​

This time, she actually recognized me. "Sam! I was afraid you wouldn't come back! Sam, I'm so very sorry for last week . . ."
"Don't mention it. Really, don't."
"So, you're going to swim with me?"
"Actually, I don't think that would be a good idea--" I tripped her when she tried to push me, and she fell in the water herself. "If the water helps you keep calm, stay in it. Hold onto the pier. Tonight, I just want to hear you talk."
"I don't have much to say. I mean, there's just me and the water here."
"Tell me about what you remember from before you were here. Tell me anything about it you want to tell me, and stop if it gets to be too much."
Have you ever heard someone talk who hasn't had the chance to share her thoughts in four years? Then again, in some ways, it was like that time hadn't happened for her. She remembered four-year-old gossip just like it was yesterday's news, and for her sake, I pretended to care.
It must have taken her an hour to run dry. "Well, I'm all out of stuff to say. How about you?"
I had to be careful. "You haven't said anything about Roy." Then again, I always was as subtle as a brick.
"Roy? To hell with him. Have I told you about him and Nikki?"
"Uh, no, you haven’t."
She imitated a much higher voice. "'Everyone in the school but you knows Roy's gay, Katie. He only dates you so he can pretend he's not--and so you can pretend a guy would actually want you.' That was the first reason I hated Nikki. Roy's straight; he's just kind of girly. Like you."
"What's the second reason?"
"Roy's been acting weird lately--shaving his head, wearing these weird clothes . . . They say Nikki made a bet she could 'turn him straight.' She told him she'd date him if he acted more like a guy."
I reached out for a glimmer of hope. "Are you sure he's cheating on you? Maybe something else happened--"
"He's not cheating on me. Nikki would never really date him. But all she had to do was blink those pretty blue American eyes at him, and he started thinking with the wrong head." This was the first time I'd heard her angry voice, and I wasn't keen on hearing it again. "I'm going to give him one last chance, and if he doesn't prove he loves me, I'm dumping his sorry ass."
"You'll prove it on August ninth, won't you?" Again, subtle as a brick.
Still, it seemed to confuse her for a moment. "Yeah, I will. That's when I'm seeing him again."
Well, she was in the water, and I was on dry ground, so I decided I might as well risk it. "What will you do on August tenth?"
"I . . . I don't know. I guess I'll be in the water again."
"What did you do last August ninth? And the ninth before that?"
I didn't think anyone could move that fast. In fact, I'm still not sure a human being could. But I didn't have time to think about it as I ran back up the pier with her in hot pursuit.
I told you before that I can't tell you what happened, just what I remember. It's not possible that when I reached the front of the pier, she stopped like a thousand chains in her skin had just yanked tight. But I can still see the way she tried to move, her whole body pulling against something that wouldn't come loose.
"What are you trying to do, Sam?" she asked me.
"I'm trying to help you. I think maybe it's possible to get you off this pier."
"Why? Out there, things will keep changing, and I won't change with them. Roy stopped being the Roy I knew, but I couldn't stop being the Katie he didn't want." She began to cry, but her tears were strange and thick, like melted plastic. Or like WLNOS.
"You're right. You'll still be Katie, and I'll still be me. Katie, I don't know you well, but I'm starting to really like you. I want to see what you look like with the sun in your hair."
She drew back from the edge of the pier, and the invisible chains went slack. "I won't remember any of this next week. You'll need to be Roy for me, Sam, just for one night." She pondered that for a moment. "Then again . . . Sam, come here, please." And, when I didn't respond, "I promise I won't hurt you."
She didn't hurt me. She kissed me.
"If you're a boy," she told me, "then I really like you, too. And if you're a washboard . . . Well, I guess I like you anyways. Besides, it'll help you be Roy."
At the time, I couldn't possibly have felt more ready to be helpful.

Last Night: August 9th, Night Before Full Moon​

I met her at the front of the pier. "Good night for a swim, don't you think?" I told her.
"A very good night." She was angry, but thankfully, she wasn't violent. "Let's see if you can catch me."
I thought of telling her not to go out too far, but I didn't think I'd get off that easy.

"Good day for a swim, don't you think?" my father told me.
I was ten years old then, not quite into puberty, but close enough that my friends had begun to make fun of my androgyny. At the moment, I was in a very bad mood, but I tried to hide it so as not to upset him."I guess so."
"Don't go out too far," he said. Then, jokingly, "You never know when a shark might swim by."

She moved much faster than I did. By the time I was in the water, she was already pretty far out. By the time I'd reached where she'd been, she was farther out than I'd ever gone.
Could I even do this?

Dad told me later that he'd called to me. At the time, I didn't notice. I swam until the shore, and my problems, seemed small and far away.

I wasn't sure what happened--she went from doing just fine to struggling in about two seconds, and from struggling to completely underwater in three more. Somewhere in the waves, I lost track of where she'd been.
A simple problem with a simple solution. I dropped below the surface, and through the thick blue WLNOS, I saw her plain as day.

Sinking seemed like the right thing to do. No, it seemed like the only thing to do. Life on land kept changing, and people on land kept changing with it. The water was different. The water would keep everything the same.
That was what the water promised. That was what I heard it say.
I opened my mouth to let it inside me . . .

I had reached her. But we were too far down.
She was sinking beyond where the moonlight reached. I held her in both arms, like my father had held me, but I was not as good a swimmer as he was. I'd never reach the surface in time.
I needed air so badly . . .
I remembered, and past and present joined into a single impossible moment.

I breathed.
In Dad's arms, and again holding Katie, I breathed, and I let the WLNOS inside me.
In one time, I struggled, trying to escape into the water, but Dad held me firm. In another, I struggled against the water itself. WLNOS poured down my throat, and WLNOS hardened inside me, and WLNOS told me, not quite in words, that it needed Katie and it wanted me.
WLNOS is a liquid, no more and no less. I told myself that it couldn’t speak, and I didn’t listen to what it told me. The water was like taffy, but I breathed it in and out, and I knew that this time, I was in control.
Slowly but steadily, we made our way to the pier, clambering up the ladder to collapse on solid ground. "I'm sorry, Roy," Katie told me, once I’d stopped coughing up liquid. "I was faking at first, to see if you'd rescue me. But then I went so far down that I couldn't get back up . . ."
I blame it on adrenaline keeping me from thinking straight. Why else would I have told her what my father told me? "I love you. No matter what happens, I'll always love you. That's why I'm telling you this: Never, ever do anything like that again."
We helped each other up, and together, we walked off the pier.

Dawn​

Sometime after midnight, I walked into this police station, followed by an embarrassed girl who was wrapped up in a towel. I said I’d found a missing person, and asked for time to write about what had happened, before anyone asked either of us questions. I think they expected something about a sicko who kidnaped a girl and made everyone think she was dead, or maybe about how she hid for four years on another island--certainly nothing like this.
I know Katie is both sixteen and twenty, and I know puberty mostly passed me by. Maybe we’ll live forever, or maybe we’ll get cancer in a few more years. We need to know what happened to us, and the scientists on this island need a breakthrough in studying what WLNOS does to humans. They can’t just take me--I’m a minor with nosy parents--but if they let us both stay on this island, and they let us go to school, I’ll do whatever they need from me.
There’s no clock on the wall of this room, but I think I’ve been writing all night. The moon must have gone down by now. It’s time for me to go.
I’m ready to see what Katie looks like in sunlight.

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Author
Feo Takahari
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