Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this document are © Augustine Stuart, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property.

I re-wrapped Clara’s ankle when we got home and gave her more painkillers.

“I’m going to find you some new clothes,” I said.

She just grunted. Her eyes were distant.

I went to my room and dug through my drawers. All of the clothes were old and faded. We didn’t get new things in Innsmouth very often. Everything I owned was a hand me down from the previous generations— clothes, dishes, furniture, beliefs.

But I found Clara a few pairs of pants and a couple of blouses that I thought would fit her and brought them back to her room.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, grabbing a pair of pants from me. I left to let her change and went downstairs to make myself lunch.

Most of what we had in Innsmouth was fish. There just wasn’t much else to be had. Akeley occasionally went to town to purchase other supplies— canned vegetables, beer, and cigarettes.

I got out a can of peaches and mixed some of them in with cereal. Sometimes, I just didn’t feel like fish. When the air smells like salt, sometimes you want a change.

To my surprise, I heard Clara’s door open and her limping steps come downstairs. I stood awkwardly, awaiting her.

She came into the kitchen.

“Hey.” She slumped down into the chair across from me.

“Hey,” I replied. Once again, I couldn’t meet her eyes.

“You have any breakfast around here?” There’s a forced casualness to her voice.

“Oh!” I startled to my feet. “Yeah, sure, of course.”

I went back to the kitchen and pulled out the cereal, holding it up for her approval. She gave me a quiet nod, and I poured her a bowl.

“No milk, I’m afraid,” I said. “Akeley hasn’t gone to town in a while.”

“That’s fine.”

She sat down at the table across from me and started spooning the dry cereal into her mouth. I went back to eating my own breakfast, silence lying heavy between us.

“They’re going to come looking for me, you know.”

I looked up at her. “Who? Delta Green?”

“Delta Green, eventually.” Her eyes flashed with fire. “But my family will come, first.”

“Your family had better not come,” I said, a little sadly.

If her family came, Akeley would either kill them or enslave them, too. I didn’t want to see that happen. Yes, it was good for Innsmouth— so I wouldn’t stop it. But that didn’t mean I wanted it to happen.

She shook her head.

“They will,” she said. “And when they do, you had better watch out.”

I let out a little laugh. “Why? Are they bringing guns?”

Guns had come to Innsmouth before. But it took a lot of bullets to fell a deep one. And if those below heard gunfire, they’d come above— and numbers quickly outweighed a few pistols.

But Clara smiled enigmatically.

“You’ll see.”

In spite of myself, a shiver ran down my spine.

#

The week passed slowly. Clara didn’t say much else to me, and I found that I had little to say to her. I took care of her ankle and made sure that it was healing properly. I fed her and gave her her medicine.

And the next Sunday, Howard went through with his gruesome duty again. Clara didn’t scream this time. She just lay still until he was done.

I heard her crying that night, though. Something in me stirred with pity. The only other woman in the town was in pain— and I was part of that pain.

The least she deserved was relief. I grabbed the bottle of NyQuil and a few more painkillers and went to her room, knocking softly at the door.

“Don’t,” I heard from inside.

“I brought you some meds.”

“Don’t want them.”

“They’ll help you sleep,” I said softly. “You can escape from it for a few hours.”

I heard shuffling steps, and then the door opened. Clara looked up at me with hollow eyes.

“I can’t escape this,” she said lowly. I was surprised to hear such pessimism out of her. In the mornings, she always spoke as though her family would arrive any day to break her free.

“I thought you said your family was coming,” I said.

She shook her head.

“That’s not what I meant.” She put a hand over her stomach. “When I get pregnant, that’s it. No escape from what you monsters did to me.”

I stepped in, closing the door behind me. Clara limped back over to the bed.

“When you escape, you can always just get an abortion,” I said. I knew that those existed outside of Innsmouth.

Clara laughed bitterly.

“It’s still trauma,” she said. “I still have to know that not only was I captured, not only was I raped, but for a while, there was a monster inside me, too.” Her face was a mask of revulsion.

I sat silently on the edge of the bed.

“They’re born human,” I said after a moment. “We all are.”

I was. I remember being fully human, when I was young. I could properly run, then, instead of the shambling gait I’ve started to adopt as my bones begin to shift inside of me. I was actually pretty, too, before my eyes bulged out and my nose collapsed into almost nothing. And these are the most cosmetic of what’s going to happen to me as I age further. I know that one day, the folds in my neck will turn into proper gills, and my skin will start dying for water and flaking away grayly unless I spend more and more time in the sea. My fingers will grow webbing. My spine will arch outwards, hunching me over, forcing me to go to the water for comfort.

I saw it happen to my father. It was gruesome.

Clara shuddered.

“I hate thinking that I’ve been polluted by you,” she whispered.

I swallowed. I understood that feeling all too well. Some days, it felt like the sea was getting into my veins, watering down my blood to nothing but salt.

To be fully human was a gift. If I had that gift, and then had to know that some creature of the sea was growing inside me, latched onto my womb like a barnacle… I felt bile rise in my throat.

I stood.

“Take the NyQuil,” I said. “I’ll be back. I’m going to get you something.”

Clara held my eyes. Something in them must have betrayed my intentions, because she took the bottle of pills and downed two of them.

I waited until she was asleep, then I went to the back of my house to get my truck.

My truck was an old girl, with red, flaking paint and a deep bed in the back. She was a good girl. I hardly ever used her, though. We weren’t supposed to leave Innsmouth, lest we be spotted by someone who knew that we weren’t just ugly— we were inhuman. We didn’t want Delta Green coming back to Innsmouth in full force, after all.

But I got into my truck and drove up to Ipswich, the neighboring village, where Akeley went to do his shopping and I where occasionally went to check out books from the library when the boredom of life in Innsmouth grew too intense.

The CVS was still open, much to my relief. I went inside, keeping my head low and trying to avoid eye contact.

I quickly found what I was looking for— a small bottle of pills with large red lettering. Plan B Contraceptives.

I bought three bottles. Clara was going to be with us for a long time, after all, despite what she might think. I knew that her family would be no match for Innsmouth.

It was a long, quiet drive back to my house.

I didn’t know what I was doing. I shouldn’t have been helping her. After all, if she became pregnant, that was one more deep one. One more member of Dagon’s family. One more to carry on our line.

But the revulsion I had felt that night, the empathy for her plight— those were too strong to go unheeded.

I might be a monster. But I was still a woman, too. I wouldn’t let her go through this completely alone.

She deserved whatever little relief I could bring her.