Seattle

The Seattle rain was coming down hard, the bay rippled and the Seattle lights on the surface shimmered.
The Puget Sound was cold this time of year and my breath steamed out into the deluge.
Half a kilometer deep of cold black water, an inlet of the ceaseless Pacific that crept through the hills and mountains like a cold dead hand creeping through the dark.
I’d heard the Native Americans had been in the area for thousands years, living off the bay and the near boundless forests.
An endless green on green, so thick with ancient air you could hardly breathe.

You heard a lot of Native myths and stories, of creator beings and of fanciful legends about forest beasts or water creatures.
I’d never been much for ghost stories, but I’d always been more inclined to believe the ones about these waters.

The catamaran slowly made its way through the dancing, shining spray, but even so close to its heavy engines I could hardly hear their thundering rumble over the rain.
Like most other jobs, I didn’t know who had hired me.
I only knew that people disappeared, and I was here to find out why.
I hadn’t been hired to find these people, or even bring justice to them.
Justice doesn’t interest people, they only want to sleep easy and keep their names out of the headlines.
Maybe it was the Water Taxi Company whose services I was currently enjoying, perhaps it was the city or concerned citizens, or hell, could even have been government.
Either way it didn’t much matter to me, because in this line of work knowing often led to dying.
The package I’d been sent made mention of people vanishing, normally something that would be splashed across every tabloid and television in the city.
Yet I hadn’t heard a whisper, and a case like this, there were always whispers.
Three victims, so far, three apparently average people with only the commute across the water in common.
They’d board the water taxi that crossed the Seattle bay, the Puget Sound, but they would never disembark.
Not alive at any rate, but their skin had been found.
That their skin was found without them inside was probably the only other thing they had in common.
Floating out in the water or washed up on a shore, a few weeks later, open at the back like a suit.
Didn’t look like much more than an animal carcass at first look, and though the Jane and John Doe’s had each been gone weeks they looked like they’d been walking around just the day before.
Fellow commuters had seem them get on, there was even video footage of it from the security cameras watching the Taxi docks.
But they didn’t get off, and no one ever saw anything unusual.
They had simply vanished onboard this small catamaran, surrounded by people.
Always the water taxi, always on the last and longest trip of the day, at midnight.
That it was cold and raining didn’t make me feel any better about the situation I found myself in.
That apart from the two crew members and captain I was the only passenger tonight certainly didn’t put my mind at rest.

But so far I hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary.
Only the steady downpour in the darkness.
If there was a serial killing psychopath on board tonight it was either me or the captain, and on the subject of serial killing at least, I had a clear conscience.
The captain however had been aboard each night someone was supposed to have gone missing.
The rest of the crew had rotating shifts, and the other two with us tonight hadn’t been working aboard when the unfortunate travelers had disappeared.
I had seen the captain when I came on-board, a sea-weathered old man, small but tough, like leather that had been left in the sun.
I could tell from the way he’d looked at me that he knew why I was here, I wasn’t exactly a conspicuous character.
I’d been told I looked like a cliché, like a detective from an old movie, big, grim and unshaven they’d say, and I suppose I was.
There were worse ways to look, and I knew, I’d been them.
The brim of my hat began to sag lower in front of my eyes, the weight of the water pushing it down.
Deciding to leave the stern and head inside, I pushed myself off the railing I’d been leaning against, leaving the downpour behind me.
Walking past rows of plastic benches I pulled open the glass door to the upper deck, bright lights hitting me as I made my way in from the darkness.
I began to steam immediately, and water poured off my trench coat to pool on the floor at my feet.
A dozen large plastic booths took up the space inside, and a couple of vending machines sat in the corner, coffee and food.
The two crew members turned to look as I entered, sitting alone in one corner.
Wrapped in up dark wet weather gear, thick scarves around their necks, one middle-aged and the other younger.
Nothing about them seemed unusual and I got no out of the ordinary feelings from them.
But sometimes it was the worst monsters that don’t give you a feeling, until it was too late.
I gave them a nod and they returned it as I walked over to the coffee machine.
Their eyes on me a second longer than I liked.
As I pushed coin after coin into the vending machine, I considered the situation.
It would be easy to assume the captain guilty, he was the only one that had been here every one of those nights, but easy was often too easy.
Besides, he didn’t seem the type.
Men prone to killing and skinning folk didn’t usually live so long and bitterly.
But guilty or not he’d have to be questioned, he may know something, even if he didn’t know it.

The coffee dribbled out as lukewarm disappointment.
I sat myself down at a table that gave me a full view of the room and sipped at the bitter black coffee.

The room a dull cream colour, walls and booths both, with a brightness that only served to enhance the dark gloom outside.
Every now and then a ripple of lightning would flash through the rain spattered windows.
I watched the crewmembers talking to each other.

Joking and laughing together.
If they knew about the disappearances then they weren’t taking it seriously, but they may have heard a whispered rumour or two.

I wondered who had the clout to cover up corpses without insides, and why they’d want to.
But more to the point, I wondered who could abduct people unnoticed from the middle of the bay, and why they’d want to flawlessly skin them.
And what they did with the insides.
I drained what was left of the coffee and pushed myself up out of the seat, sliding out of the now wet booth.

I made my way to the starboard doors that led to the bridge, according to the signage, next to where the crewmen sat, still swapping jokes.
“Aye, you going to see the captain?” The younger man said, bushy rugged face turning up to me as I reached the doors, a strange lilting accent I couldn’t place coming out of his mouth.
“I am” I said “I’m with the city, routine safety inspection. Just a few questions for the captain”.
His face cracked into a grin and I didn’t think he believed me.
But if I’d wanted to be believed I wouldn’t claim a safety inspection at midnight.
“You’d wanna’ be careful with the captain buddy” he said, still grinning at me “He’s an ornery old fella’ and he doesn’t much like talking, ‘specially to a guy doing safety inspections at midnight” he said, giving me a wink, his friend chuckling without looking at me.
I told them I’d keep that in mind and I turned away, pushing through the hatch and into the rain once more.
The wind was howling now, as though the pouring rain wasn’t miserable enough by itself.
Ten meters of a railed walkway that was barely wide enough for one man, and I was outside the door to the bridge, thick steel door and a small porthole.
I pulled the heavy metal door open and stepped inside, the wet weather following me in, wind blowing as though it was struggling to keep the door open.
“You lost? Crew only up this end” said the small grizzled man sitting at the bridge controls, wearing the same dark wet weather gear as the other crew, without the scarf, but worn and patched, the scent of smoke and salt on him.
I told him the same thing I had told the others.
He grunted at me and said, “I know why you’re here, and I’ll tell you the same thing I told the others”.
He turned to look at me for the first time, taking his gaze off the controls in front of him and the waters ahead, his eyes dark against his short white beard.
“I didn’t see anything unusual, nothing funny or strange, didn’t see anyone disappear, didn’t see any innards, skin, or killers”, his eyes didn’t leave my own now, “But I know this bay and the ocean it comes from, and if people are going missing from these waters, like I told the others, you’re not looking for anything natural”.
He stared a moment longer before he turned his gaze back to the heaving waters.
“Not for any man, and that I know for sure”.
Another man might have been shocked by this, or at least surprised.
But if he thought something unnatural, or supernatural, were killing and skinning his passengers, why keep coming back every night.
I asked him as much and received another grunt.
“Ain’t much for a man like me out there, spent too much time on the water and I’m too old to be startin’ anythin’ new” he paused a moment “besides, there’s not much I can do with this”, he lifted his leg and pulled up his worn navy pants to reveal a wooden, leg stumpy and gnarled much like it’s owner.
I asked him if he were worried about being separated from his skin.
He let out a short, sharp grunt which this time may have been a laugh.
“I’ve sailed waters more dangerous than this”, he said as he pulled back his coat, to reveal a holster and the largest revolver I’d ever seen, “If I die it won’t be alone”.
I didn’t doubt him on that count, I didn’t even think it would be his first time taking a life.
But I didn’t think he was our killer tonight.
Another dead end, but I was used to dead ends.
I left the captain to himself and returned to the storm.
Lightning cracked across the sky once more as I made my way back to the main deck, illuminating the waters around me an inky black.

Seattle loomed closer, concrete and steel monoliths growing larger.
But the distant lights only made me feel more isolated.
Any hope for a quick resolution was gone, I was beginning to get a bad feeling about things.

I’d had my suspicions that it might not be a person skinning and killing out here on the water. This wasn’t my first time investigating the unusual after all, you might even say I had a reputation for the unusual.
But to hear the captain speak my thoughts on it unsettled me.
If not a human, then what, and why.

As I stepped back onto the seating deck I noticed one of the crew was gone, the silent chuckler.
The talkative grinner was still where I had left him.
“Captain didn’t have much to say then buddy?”
“No, but maybe you will, mind if I sit?”
He gestured me to the seat, and I slid into the smooth plastic bench.
“So what kind of questions you got buddy? Because I know it ain’t about safety inspections”
“Wondering if you’ve seen anything unusual on this ship lately, people acting odd or suspicious”
“Besides yo’self you mean?” He laughed at his own joke, his grin wide, “No, nothing like that, just the same old folk every day, going back and forth for work and pleasure” he paused now and his smile disappeared.
“And the same shitty hours and shittier weather, but nothing unusual about that”
His levity broken for a moment, I was glad.
I didn’t care for jokers.
“What about your friend”, I asked about the chuckler “he seen anything?”
“You’ll have to ask him that yourself, buddy, he’s stepped out for smoke”
I looked out onto the aft deck where I’d been earlier, but I couldn’t make out much in the dark deluge.
“Me, I don’t touch the things, bodies a temple yah know?” he laughed again, grin back.

“Have you heard anything about people going missing from the Water Taxis?”
“People missing? Like people falling overboard? It happens now and then, just throw them a preserver and fish ‘em out”
It was beginning to look like this case might take a while, there wasn’t anything jumping out at me.
No motive, no killer, nothing strange except for missing people and skin.
“Look, maybe you’d be better off coming back in the day, other crew or another captain might kn-“
The grinner was cut off as a scream split the air, above the storm and the engines.
As I stood up there was another, coming from the bridge by the sound of it.
I sprung from my seat and threw open the starboard door to the bridge, the rain coming down so hard I could barely stand upright in it.
I made my way through the wall of water to the bridge, the heavy metal door ajar, not the way I had left it.
I stepped inside to a sight that even I found worrying.
The chuckling crew member was sitting against the wall of the bridge opposite me, or sitting as well as an empty suit of clothes and skin can.
His sockets empty and staring, face slack and hollow, scarf still wrapped around his neck and wearing the drenched wet weather gear.
What appeared to be his teeth with gums still attached sat in one glove-like hand.
What really worried me though, was the pile of organs, bones and blood sitting in the middle of the room, where the captain had been minutes ago.
My hand unconsciously went to the waistband at my back, where a long time ago I’d kept a gun.
But now there was nothing there.
I moved forwards slowing, trying to take my eyes off the carnage to sweep the rest of the room.
I didn’t see anything, or anything else anyway, and the only way in or out was through the door I had just entered.
The killer was in here with me, but there was nowhere to hide.
I’d made my way over to stand next to the pile of organs when I started to get a bad feeling.

A real bad feeling.
My eyes swept the room and the empty doorway, which was now beginning to flood the room.
I felt the wetness still dropping onto me, dripping.
But it wasn’t raining inside.
I turned my head up.
And there was the captain.
Flat against the roof, on his hands and feet, his head twisted around almost completely to stare down at me.
His face looked loose, like it was a few sizes too big on his skull, and his mouth was open and drippings, rows of small pointed teeth covered by something thick and dripping, dripping onto me.
His eyes were a deep black, his pupil taking up almost his entire eye.

He dropped from the roof, twisting his body around and landing on me.
His hands loose in his skin gloves, he grabbed at me, lunging for my throat and I was knocked onto my back.
The captain, or whatever he was now, had his mouth open wide, wider than a person could open it as he tried to bring it closer to my throat, his needle-like teeth thick with drool.
I grabbed hold of his loose gloved hands and held him back, as he thrashed and kicked.
I could feel the body beneath the skin suit.
Even if I still carried a gun, it wouldn’t do me any good.
The captains might though.
As the captain thrashed on top, holding it at the wrists, I threw him back, just long and far enough to let go of his hands.
And for my left hand to grab his throat, smaller than a normal humans beneath the skin, and my right hand to plunge beneath his coat.
It must have realized what I was doing, it gave up on my throat and tried to wrench away, hands clawing at my own.
But my grip didn’t loosen.

I pulled the revolver from its holster, out from under the coat, and pulled the captain closer by his throat.
I placed the gun against its head as it screeched and clawed.
Barrel against its skull, I pulled the trigger.
The captain’s face disappeared, and whatever was inside was blown out the back, showering the room.
The body went limp and dropped on top of me, thrashing a moment ago but now still.

I pushed it off myself and rolled away, breathing heavily, in an inch of blood and water.
I struggled to my knees in the muck, revolver still in my hand.
I looked over to what had been the captain, now a bloody mess.
Where there should be brain chunks and pink bits I only saw black ichor.
In the pile of organs and bones I noticed the captain’s wooden leg, still wearing his boot.
I looked at the captain’s body, where the leg had been.
What I could see must have been the creature inside, withered and black.
Like a burnt corpse.
As I brought myself to my feet the jokester came running in, no more grin on his face.
“What the fuck? What the fuck is this? I heard a shot, did you kill the cap-“
His mouth continued to work but only silence came out, his eyes on the gore before him.
He stopped short and froze as he saw the withered foot and leg.
“That thing, is that inside the captain?”
No more jokes, that was good.
“Can you steer this ship into port?” I asked, as I tried to wipe some of the mess off my coat.
“I- yeah- I can, but what the hell happened, is this why you were here?”
“Yeah, this is why I was here, now get on those controls” I said as I gestured to where the captain and been sitting, gun still in hand “and put this boat into harbour”.
He shook his head in disbelief and blew out a heavy sigh.
“Watch my back then, I don’t want one of those fuckers sneaking up on me”
As the jokester steered the last minutes to port, and talked to himself about the mess he was standing in, I considered the situation.
At least two dead tonight, five known victims in total, and I’d almost added myself to that list.
That wasn’t including the creature, whatever it was.
Something like this though, it’s hard to do alone, even if you are some kind of monstrosity.
I noticed the jokester had lost his scarf in the commotion, as I stood behind him, my eyes on him and the door.
Long moments passed as the boat cut through the abating storm.
The ship slowed as it reached the pier and came to a groaning stop.
As he cut the engines, I brought the revolver up, level with the back of the jokesters head.
“You didn’t seem too worried about all this carnage, not many people could steer a ship while standing in their former captain” I said.
He laughed and even from behind I could see him grinning.
“You didn’t seem so worried either buddy, so does that make you one of these monsters too?”
He had a point, and maybe I was.
I didn’t like jokers.
I pulled the trigger a second time, and black chunks sprayed across the window and controls.
He didn’t wear a scarf for the cold, he wore it to cover the seam running down his back, the seam I saw as I stood behind him.
I dropped the revolver on the deck, in the blood and remains.
I made my way off the now empty ship, and jumped the small gap onto the pier.
Half rotted rain slick planks, shining now in the moonlight.

Standing at the far end of the dock were two men of average height, with average dark hair and wearing average black suits.
Two sets of small dark eyes on me as I came towards them.
Black umbrella’s shielding them from the now light drizzle.
“How are your investigations going detective?”
Clipped short tones, an impassive inquisition with implied authority.
My employers, I supposed.
“Investigations over, victims and the guilty party are on the bridge” I said, and the suits exchanged looks.
The widening of their eyes may have implied surprise, but with men like this, who knew what was going through their mind.
“It seems our trust in you wasn’t misplaced then, congratulations detective”
“Yes, we had come to hear your impressions of the situation, but to hear that it has been resolved in a single night…” he trailed off, his eyes darting over me and seeming to take me in for a second time.

“Who was it then?”
“We’d considered the captain”
“Yes, a mean little man by all accounts”
“Old and bitter, and the only one to be on the ship every time”
“Occult reasons we imagine, something ritualistic”
They spoke almost with a single voice.
“No” I said “it was a creature, creatures, skinning people so they could wear them like a suit”.
Any other men would have reacted, but they just stared at me.
Why was I not surprised they’d known about this.
“It was the crew tonight, I found one trying on the captain. I don’t think he’d had time to fit the suit to himself. Or itself.”
“Creatures indeed…” said a suit.

“Well” said the other suit, “Thank you very much detective, you’ve exceeded your reputation”
“Yes, we hope we can call on you for future, ah, unusual matters”
“Perhaps, due to your prompt work and… discretion, an additional reward is in order, detective”.
I began to walk away, the dwindling drizzle washing the gore from my coat, a rust red trail forming in my wake.
I turned back to the men, “It isn’t detective, not anymore, not for a long time”
They nodded, a thin knowing smile on their lips.
I moved off once more, towards Seattle towering in front of me.
The rainy city, bright lights illuminating the bay.
The deep dark water now still.