Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama Read Free Book Online Page B

entered high school.
    Hester remembered that the Sunday after the silverfish incident Malcolm had marched the family home—with little Sam snoozing limp over his shoulder—muttering about last straws, and how any congregation that inflated an ordinary insect infestation into a haunting was not worth an hour and a half of his time each week. Hester had decided then and there, huffing as she skipped to catch up, that it was probably best not to tell anyone that Linnie’s Bible had caused the whole ruckus.

Chapter 8
    1872
    S YRENKA REALIZED WITH HORROR that Ezra had become limp in her arms and was dying. She put her mouth on his, but it was only a fleeting kiss—not enough to save him—before he was jerked loose from her grasp by another massive tug on the net. Having almost no air in his lungs, he sank. She strained to reach him and summoned all her strength to push him to the surface. She held him from below, with his face out of the water, until a spasm of choking racked his body and gave her hope that he might fight to live.
    Olaf pulled hard on the net again until the tip of Syrenka’s bound tail was on his boat. Much of her long tail and all of her torso were still in the water, but she could no longer reach Ezra.
    She curled on her tail like a snake and clawed her way up the netting, wild with rage. She was no longer focused on freeing herself, but on killing Olaf. He reacted quickly. He had hauled aboard many powerful bluefin tuna, as heavy and slick as her, with as much fight in them, and he had the skill and burly weight to pin her to the deck on her stomach. She screamed in desperate frustration. She tried to reach back to slash him, but he was ready for her. He used a strong rope to tie her elbows together, above the sharp wrist fins. She was at his mercy.
    Olaf flipped her onto her back. He had a knife attached to his belt, and he unsheathed it. She did not stop fighting, even while bound. He had intended to stab her in the heart, but he instantly regretted that it meant facing her as he killed her: even in rage she was eerily beautiful.
    Syrenka sensed his hesitation and took advantage of it. She stopped resisting.
    “Please, let me go,” she pleaded.
    “You’re a killer,” he said. “And with God’s help Mr. Doyle will be your last victim.”
    “I could never hurt Ezra. He’s alive, I am sure of it,” she said. “You must believe me … I love him.”
    “That’s repulsive. It’s a sin against God. You aim to damn Ezra’s soul for eternity.”
    “If you release me I will stay away from humans forever. I swear to you.”
    “Oaths from a monster are worthless.” He raised his knife.
    “I’ll consign myself to the deep! Please untie me, I beg you.” Her eyes were imploring as she thought of this to say: “I only wanted a baby.”
    “You disgust me.”
    “You of all people can understand. You who longed for a son, who placed hope in his future, only to have him taken from you too young.”
    “How do you know that? That’s none of your concern!”
    “I hear you talking with your friends on the water. I have … I have wept with you,” she lied. “I want to help.”
    He was beguiled by her voice. In the lamplight he could see that her white skin was firm and young. He devoured her nakedness with his eyes, but hastily and furtively, because it was wrong. No, more than that: it was savage and depraved. Yet it had been so long since he had seen his wife, Eleanor, unclothed. So long since she had barred him from their marital bed, declaring that her age had shut off hope of another child.
    He used the knife to cut away some of the net entangling Syrenka’s tail. The slickness of her body was sensual and inviting. He could see where he might enter her. He set down his knife with a trembling hand. He unbuttoned the fall front of his trousers, and then stroked her hip with his fingers splayed.
    “Don’t…” Syrenka said.
    Then, suddenly, he was angered and embarrassed by his thoughts.