“Mion, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

“Less talking, Kin. We’ve got to find a place to stay before you collapse of exhaustion.”

“All right then.” Kin directed his flashlight over the buckled metal plates that made up the floor. Leaning carefully to one side, he startled and almost fell on the floor when Mion spoke again. “Kin?”

“Don’t scare me like that!”

“What’s Kansas?”

“I don’t know. I read it in a book once. It was about this girl called Dorothy, and can you believe it? She lived in a place with no water!”

“How?”

“My mom told me, before humans came here, they lived on a planet with no water.”

“That’s not possible.”

“If a planet’s formed from droplets of water drawn together, why can’t a planet be formed from rock drawn together?”

“That’s true, but far-fetched. You’re quite smart and imaginative for an eleven-year old, Kin.”

Kin smiled and puffed out his chest, which obviously could not be seen as he was in a suit. “Eleven and a half.”

The boy and the suit continued their journey into the bowels of the station in companionable silence, which was broken by an eerie call reverberating through the underwater corridors, resonating loudly and disturbingly in Kin’s ears.

oooaoooooaaaaaaooo

“What is that?”

we see you, kin

“Wha—what?”

come to us

“Mion?”

“...”

“I’m scared.”

“You can rest if you want.”

we miss you, kin

“Eccckkk... Aggh! Mion, make it stop!”

“What stop?”

“You don’t hear it?”

COME TO US, KIN. COME TO US NOW.

“No—no more!”

“What’s going on, Kin? What are you doing?”

Kin had knelt down and slammed his hands over the dome on his suit. “Shut up! Shut up!”

go further in, kin, and see us, come play with us

Kin started to cry. “No! Mion, help!” Mion could only listen to silence and the sounds of Kin’s terrified sobbing.

please, please

“SHUT UP!”

Mion’s yell reverberated through the corridor, forced out through the the suit’s external speakers. The force of the sound pulsed through the water and the voice recoiled, but now it had split into three separate voices, hissing over one another in dissonant harmony. Now, instead of hammering straight into Kin’s head, the sounds were picked up by the sensors on the suit.

aaaaoooooaaaaaaoooooooooooooooo

yiiiiiiiiiooooouuuuuuuuuuuuaaaa

Silence.

“What?” Kin asked, sniffling. Then he had an idea. “Mion, you record all the sounds, right?”

“Uh huh.”

“Play them both. Sync them with each other.”

we’ve waited for so long...

FOOD

The force of the shout startled Kin backwards again. Feeling the abject despair and terror creep over his vulnerable self once again, he started to cry. Too much. Too much.

“There, there.” Mion’s attempts at placating went unheard.

When Kin’s tears were all spent, he sniffed and stood up again. “Have some water.” A straw slid out, close to his mouth. After taking a little sip, Kin straightened and asked, “Mion, are you a girl?”

“I suppose so. My voice is decidedly feminine.”

Kin chuckled. “I’m being taken care of a girl, and a younger one at that.”

“What does that have to do with any—look out!”

The suit, forcefully controlled by Mion, curled up in a ball and threw itself to the side. When it sprung up again, a pressure-blade forming from its right hand, Kin gaped at the terrible sight in front of him.

It was six feet long, all slimy pale snake-like body, with a head that looked like it belonged to an eel. However, it didn’t have any eyes, its tiny face filled with a grinning mouth chock full of what seemed like human teeth. It had no legs, just two froggish arms protruding from just after its head. Everything about it just looked so, unbelievably, abominably wrong. The thing opened its too-human mouth in a garish grin.

hello, kin