Down Twelvemile Slough by Lee Clark Zumpe DREAMING IN RLYEH VOL I ISSUE II The reluctant moon crawled along the treetops, timorous and seemingly disconnected. The sweeping black water twisting beneath the gnarled old oaks captured neither moon nor stars in its tide. The dark woods stood exceptionally still in the dusk. The hoots and screeches of all nocturnal creatures had been silenced; the gentle rush of wind had been subdued; the lace of Spanish moss so often found swaying from the tropical hammock had been utterly frozen in time. Submerged up to his waist in the swift current, Preston LHeureux felt the mud shift and soften beneath his boots the riverbed would swallow him whole if he stood in one place too long. He thrust his arms beneath the surface and let his fingers waltz over the sandy bottom. Water swirled around his face as his hands dove beneath a half-sunken log. His fingers brushed against something in the murky depths, something as unyielding as marble. His very touch seemed to kindle it, and it pulsed with newfound heat against the palm of his hand. Right where they said it would be As he pulled the small object from the water, he hoped he had found more than just an ordinary rock, coated with decades of moss and sediment. In the darkness, he scratched at the residue, trying to claw away at the grime obscuring its true face trying to release it from anonymity. How could he have doubted them Half a mile away, the rest of his company had surely discovered his absence. In their semi-drunken stupor, they might manage to arrange a hasty search party, hoping their concern and efforts would earn them passing grades from Professor LHeureux. He had twenty of his more advanced students into the dense woods to give them an opportunity to perform fieldwork in a well-excavated Paleo-Indian site. None of them knew he had ulterior motives. Preston suspected they would not stray far from the base camp. The depths of the Florida wilderness frightened most of the graduate students. Separated from the constant distraction of modern metropolitan life, the young adults had developed a nagging dread in the backcountry, a trepidation not likely eased by the fact that each of their lifelines to the outside world had been severed shortly after their arrival at the excavation site. LHeureux could offer no explanation for the malfunctioning cellular phones, but promised his students no harm would come to them on their short field trip. He hoped they would not take his temporary disappearance too seriously. The group would be better off huddling around the campfire, passing around the whisky bottle and conjuring up modern myths and urban legends in lieu of traditional ghost stories. Preston waded toward the riverbank and toward the light of his propane lantern. The darkness of the forest pressed in on all sides, threatening to blot out the meager, flickering lamplight. Still wiping the last clinging dregs from the surface of the relic, he knelt upon the ground, eager to catch his breath. The slimy object glistened in the light, its willowy contours and velvety emerald surface released from decades of Stygian murk. The small statuette seemed to shudder in his hands by some deception of the twilight. Its form gradually coalesced beneath Prestons astonished gaze. He would disclose the mystery, he would enlighten others Mesmerized by the paradox of its repellent manner of beauty, the archeologist studied the faintly anthropoid silhouette, wondered at its oblong head which tapered into a writhing nest of tentacles cascading down over its bloated body. The figure crouched upon an altar inscribed with impenetrable glyphs of ancient origin, the claws of its hind legs clinging to the façade. In his house at R'lyeh, Preston mumbled, reluctant to complete the chant, even in English. They had taught him the mantra, word for word, in their abominable archaic tongue Cast into the river by some renegade Louisiana swamp-priest, swallowed by the muddy floor of Twelvemile Slough, this significant religious artifact promised to bring wealth and fame to Preston LHeureux. His research had finally paid off: Years of investigation into Southern subcultures, fringe religions and exotic cults had led him to this discovery.