What came after the storm

Peace is something wish they had; I know of a few guys who would give everything they have for just 1 day of real peace of mind. I have abundant of peace in my life, I work as at a watch tower as a warden. The place this watch tower is located on is an island that is a little further away from Hawai’i. A private communal island and had very little wildlife as this is more a farming land kind of place, so apart from watching the calm waves there is little I need to worry about.

All this peace was disrupted one day when a storm hit the island, it was quite a large storm and my tower took the brunt of it. It took a lot of damage like shattering the windows but the structure remained strong; I was safe in a house built near it in case of such storms. After the storm I scanned the area and the beach, the community that lived within the island also was trying pick up the pieces that were left after this storm. I helped where I could and tried my hand in carpentry to rebuild shelters, so people had a place to rest. At night is when I heard the shrieking, it raised the hair on my body and what it was I had no idea. The people there also heard and began to barricade themselves.

The next morning, we had to take stock if there was anyone missing and it came as a relief that no one was missing. I began exploring the area with the bike I was given and apart from the storm damage I could not see anything amiss. I had radioed to the main island to send a boat to take people off the island, the boat would take half a day but the no one complained and most had voted to barricade themselves near the temporary pier in case whatever was out there attacked. The boat was scheduled to arrive closer to midnight, so no one was taking any chances and lights were finally restored by using the generators and watchers were assigned. I was asked to return to my watch tower and radio if I saw the boat, I was also given extra provisions as I would not be sleeping that night, I was not hungry so I pretty ignored them when I got back to the tower and just drank the water.

I was scared but had a job to do while there were lights at the base of the tower I felt a little safer but it did not completely take the fear away. The shrieking was heard again but this time it was closer to the tower and looking around I could not see the source the sound felt it was coming from every direction. I was scared and I could not see what the thing was, it was long and loud. I powered on the search light and aimed it at where it could come from and all I could see were trees and bushes, moving to a different spot still nothing. I was at the mouth of madness but still nothing the shrieking ended and silence fell like a dark blanket. The night was warm and humid but I was shivering, the sweat on me felt like ice on my skin, the shrieking started again and I just manged to figure out the exact location and shone my light at the place and again nothing. The wind had picked up, the radio in the tower cracked to like asking if I could see the boat. I had forgotten the boat so rushed to the side of the tower to check and could see it was on it way by the lights that shone in the dark sea. I radioed back and while doing that the shrieking commenced and this time it felt like it was below my tower.

The faint vibrations from the sound shook the wooden structure under my feet. I was too scared to move and I held the radio receiver in my hand tightly, the voice on the other side kept asking if everything was ok and I did not have the strength to move. Finally I let my breath out and answered I was ok and was going to check on it. The person let me know the boat was close and will be docking soon, I acknowledged him and told him to be safe as I hefted the rifle I had and walked to outside to look for the thing. Looking down at the base there was nothing, just the ruins from the storm and the lights, nothing was disturbed but I was scared now so any movement felt out of place.

The noises below were the usual until I heard the scuffling from a bush further away from the base. Shinning the light in that area I could not see what made the sound but the lighting shinning there resulted in another shriek. I jumped back and brought the rifle up by instinct but not fire just held it up waiting to see, nothing.

After a few hours of looking around and waiting the radio came to life again letting me know everyone was on board, it seems I am alone here as the 30 people  that lived in the commune did not want to take any chances and would return with trained folk to deal with the thing.

I was alone and the fear gripped me deep, they decided to leave me.

The lights began to flicker a little later and I realised that the generator running the lights might be out of fuel. I was too scared to go down and the fear of sitting in the dark worse but neither forced me to move, I lit the emergency lantern and sat in the tower room and waited for the morning. It was 4 am when the lights finally went out and the sounds from below began, at first it was just scuffling from below then actual noises of something trying to climb the tower. I knew my lantern was not strong enough to light what may be below. The creaks and cracks of the tower seemed amplified in the darkness and since it was a cloudy night it felt darker. The heat made it harder to breath and every breath felt like was trying to breath a plastic bag over my head, my right hand was paining from gripping the rifle to hard but I ignored it.

I then heard the whispers, like someone speaking in a low voice at the base of the tower. I did not understand them but they were there. Coming from every direction I turned to see but I could not see anything at all, the voices felt like they were getting louder but still could not make out the words. My stomach tumbled around and I felt like I was going to throw up but there was nothing in there to vomit in the first place. I stood up and as I tried to walk tripped over the rifle and fell, I hit my head on the floor and the world began to swim. Trying to get up was a mission, I was weak from hunger and no sleep all while the world swam around me like a bad high. The whispers persisted and I feel like it was the complete exhaustion I passed out.

I woke up with the sun shinning over me, it took me a while to gather myself and finally sit up. The weakness returned and momentarily everything began to move and I had to use the table to stabilise myself. I sat on the chair next to it and tried to gather myself, finally feeling like I have control I got up and made my way to the outside to see if there was anything out there. Just out side the door on the floor were dark tendril marks on the foor, I stood there staring at the marks. Looking out side they were everywhere, it was as if an octopus was trying to climb the tower, what the hell was this thing. Looking over the side to the bottom I saw more of the same type all the wat down to the bottom, here I decided not to ask a took whatever I needed and made my way to the pier. I wanted to leave and there was nothing I wanted with this place. Whatever that thing was I did not want to be a stupid hero to find out.