The Penny Drops (Sea the Depths Book 1) by Karmon Kuhn (warren buffett book recommendations TXT) 📕

Before I could land another strike, he had his hands around her waist and was hoisting her up over his shoulder.

I swung the bat up high and screamed, “Stop!”

Again, he flung the bat away. “You, human sympathizer! How can you choose one of the filth over your own kind? Do you know who you are?!”

I batted at him with a closed fist and connected with his jaw. Despite his injuries, he advanced on me and grabbed my shoulders while Penny hung uselessly over his. He shook me violently and then squeezed as if to burst my lungs.

“The interloper! Your competition. She invaded your personal lodging! When I was sent to assess her risk to the community, I found her among your things! She was a criminal! I took care of that for you, and still, you are not grateful!”

“Delilah? Why was she in my room? What did you do to her!”

“I disposed of her as I had to do! She posed a threat to all of us with her snooping!” He spat. “She was exterminated for the greater good, and why not? They all pose a threat to us, and so do the human sympathizers like you, lost one! You do not know who you are!”

Penny wiggled in response, trying to escape him. He moved one of his hands to my throat as he used the other to hold her in place. I could feel the tips of his claws pinching my skin, primed to dig just beneath it.

“Yes. Some of the humans are bad, but each of them is unique! And, they deserve to prove themselves. They should not be test subjects! Do you know what is happening to them at the tsez̈ø?”

“Of course! Only the naive are unaware of the true need for humans to our species. We are nearly destroyed! Driven to near extinction with their ever growing populations and wastefulness! Our numbers dwindle for reasons in the thousands now and all because of these wretches!” His hold on me tightened the longer he spoke.

“But . . .” I said, “We’re killing them . . .”

“Only the weak die, and it is to save the strong! Their garbage, the swirls of plastics in the ocean and the swamps and rivers do not cost them what they have cost us. The fertility of my people is almost nothing from their pollution! My community is under one hundred now even with the experimental measures that we have taken! I have come to the oɦiṣod for help, and found that your people have barely discovered the usefulness of the humans to us! These creatures are not innocent! They are . . .”

He broke off with a roar and dropped Penny onto the ground. As she hit the floor, I saw that red dripped from her mouth. Darius placed a clawed hand on his back and then inspected his blood-covered fingers.

She kicked up at him as he advanced on her, and I ran for the bat. With his hands around her throat, Penny began to create a hollow gasping noise. I turned on him and with a single swipe, cracked the bat against his skull. He fell to the floor, and I stood above him, primed and ready to strike again if he moved. He writhed for just a moment before his body stiffened, motionless.

***

“What the hell is going on here?” she asked, trying to melt herself into the wall and disappear from sight. “And what does he know about Delilah?”

I looked down cautiously at Darius, who bled profusely onto the carpet. There was still no movement, so I sat the bat on the floor and kicked it toward her slowly, putting my own hands up. “I can explain,” I said, unaware of how I could do so.

“So do it! Explain!” she yelled at me, shaking.

“I really am a researcher. I’ve studied human language my whole life and have specialized in it for the last few years. I’ve reached an age in my community where I have to complete an important task. I believed that it was to show my loyalty and help me understand the wider world. A rite of passage that all of my people complete.”

“What task?”

“My task has been to befriend a human and retrieve her for my research center. I was told that the researchers would hypnotize the humans, talk with them, learn from them, and return them home. My research department never worked with humans at all, just human manuscripts.”

“I don’t understand. You keep saying humans like you aren’t one!” she said, clearly hoping that I would correct her.

“My current body is human, and I have learned about humans all of my life. But, my born body is not. I was not born this way.” I explained.

“So, what, you’re one of . . . one of those?!” she stuttered, pointing at Darius, and seeing the mess of a creature on the floor, she leaned over and vomited into the plush gray carpet beneath her feet. She looked up at me then from her tear and vomit smeared face and asked, “What are you going to do with me?”

“What?” I asked her, alarmed.

“Please don’t hurt me,” she cried, taking a step toward the bat and squishing the puke in front of her into the carpet.

“Penny, I have never intended to hurt you. I only met you as part of my mission to learn about your people. Now that I know about you, I would never hurt you. I could never hurt you.”

She let her hands drop slightly as she considered this and then dropped to the ground to grab the bat. I backed up as she raised up with it in her hands. She began to slide sideways toward the door.

“I just thought you were a drug addict with anger issues! But, what, you’re some kind of SNAKE CREATURE?!”

“Penny, you can’t leave by yourself, it isn’t safe,” I cautioned.

She looked at me and then at the door and then melted down to the