[English] - Behind the waterfall

My life has always been devoted to the aquatic life more than anything. Some are born with a passion, an obsession with the sky. With enough work, persistence, and sure, a fair amount of luck on their side, those children of the air generally make their way to their dream, becoming sky divers, pilots for planes of all shapes and sorts.

The same goes for those attracted to the land. A geologist, a speleologist, those in love with our damned Earth to the point of choosing the company of minerals, humid caves and echoing depths.

My element has always been water. Luck started early on since I grew up in a small coastal town. As some used to say, I must have been a fish in a previous life. Swimming had become a second nature before I turned 5, and as life had started to expect from me to pay the bills, I became a lifeguard at the nearest beach while I was studying to become a boat pilot. I was a coast guard for many years, before shifting to a new kind of captaincy on pleasance cruises.

For the last years of my career, I decided to challenge myself like I never had before. You see there’s one aquatic asset I don’t like. In fact, I actually dread it from the bottom of my guts. A visceral fear for waterfalls.

Is it the deep deafening sound of the incalculable amount of water clashing and reuniting with itself? The fact that the pressure and the weight was more than enough to break someone’s neck?

No, of course not. This is much deeper than that, even within myself.

Every day of the past few months, I’ve been facing this giant maw. When time starts to take its toll on you, you start to think about what lies unachieved.

Water is my domain, and waterfalls are a stain on my mastery of all that is water.

I applied to become the captain of the Maid of the Mist, the touristic boat that sails the swirls after the Niagara Falls. With my resume, they welcomed me with open arms, and I embraced the idea of the challenge being the biggest I could find. Every day, I would bring myself here on these tumultuous waters with an ever growing weight in my stomach, like I could feel this day closing in.

Years - and by years I almost mean ages - ago, when I was but a toddler, my spirit of adventure lead me to cross the cold wet wall. At the time, I felt invincible, unstoppable, and this fear alongside a child’s curiosity had merged into a burning desire to know the reason behind the anguish.

There was a lake a few minutes away from my house, with water as clear as crystal. And there, was one of those waterfalls with a small cave behind. Bedtime stories would tell tales about a pirate treasure, which would only add up to my frightful interest. But the cavity wasn’t just a few square meters of moist dirt and stone.

My small bare feet stepping on the wet stone, making subtle splashing noises as I wandered in a much larger tunnel than anticipated. I was completely unequipped of any sort of useful material safe for a small torchlight. But aside from the evident bleakness, the lack of daylight cut away any conception of the passing of time. Had I been walking, climbing down the throat of Earth, for a few minutes? Or had it been half an hour?

At this point, it was very evident that there was no pirate treasure in sight, and that a young boy such as I had nothing to do here. But something deep inside was attracting me further. There was a buzzing noise far off in the distance. It sounded like the waterfall, but it had been some time since I had stopped hearing it. And it came from the depths of the tunnel. The sound was making my mind scream for an escape, but my body wouldn’t have it any other way than going forward.

Surprisingly, the humidity of the path wasn’t lowering as I was distancing myself from the waterfall. A strange smell started to engulf the place as well, slightly reminiscent of the sea, which comforted me a bit, but it bore a disgusting and menacing aura along with it.

I reached a large area, with a multitude of tunnels going upwards in different directions. This place seemed like a sort of hub, a checkpoint in the network of caverns I was wandering. Only one of those entrances was still descending, and my feet chose to keep walking this ominous way.

The rumor was growing louder as I was advancing. The walls of this new section of the tunnels were sculpted and adorned with curved carvings. There was also another decorative asset with characters or glyphs, but I had no idea what language it could be. My ears were hissing with the howling of the wind in these cold corridors, but it was inconsistent, as if a lung of incredible size was breathing in and out.

The batteries of my lamp were slowly wearing out. I hadn’t checked them before leaving, this was only supposed to take minutes, but I had probably been down here for more than an hour now. The dim beam of light was enough to maintain my progression, but the increasingly precise decorations on the walls were progressively falling out of what I could properly see without slowing my pace down.

I turned at a corner, and spotted in the distance that I was approaching a new hub, this time lit up by an ominous dark red light. In this last piece of tunnel, the stone ceiling seemed much better preserved than before, supported by massive columns and garnished with curves as well. The curves on it were apparently following a sort of pattern, but I couldn’t wrap my head around what it represented, aside from an improbable misshapen heap of maws, tentacles and hooves.

This new checkpoint was much more elaborated than the previous one. Above all upward entrances were glyphs, and a torch emitting a purple light. There was also a dark wooden closet, filled with dozens of clothes of all sorts, perfectly arranged. At the end of the rod hung two long black hooded robes with golden sewings on the bottom and sleeves.

The noise sounded so close at that point, like a death rattle from an immense creature, maybe a giant elephant. I had to focus to not throw up with that dreadful reek surrounding me. It smelled like something had been dead here for ages.

I took a few steps outside, following the indefatigable clamor, but as soon as I passed the door, I had to shut my mouth with my two hands to be sure I didn’t scream at the top of my lungs. I hastily hid myself behind a mass of stalagmites. I had entered a huge chamber in the cave. To my left was a stair that descended dozens of meters below on a large stone platform. Down there, hooded figures were chanting and muttering something I couldn’t hear. Their conjugated voices didn’t even sound human at all.

Their surrounding was illuminated with two lines of four wide braziers made of stone, throwing tall red and purple shades around them. Void was surrounding their platform, but opposite from them was an immense basin.

One of the worshippers under the hood advanced and raised their arms. Even from where I was, I could see their emaciated hands when the sleeves slid down their forearms. They shouted something in a language that I felt deep inside me shouldn’t be spoken, and a menacing shadow approached from beneath the water.

Slowly, a dark green viscous skin emerged as a giant head elevated above the surface. Two bright yellow lights suddenly appeared, blinding my spying eyes and forcing me back into hiding. From between the stone, I saw that instead of the nose and mouth, the lower part of the creature’s face was composed of a dense nest of long tentacles. The head alone was probably already longer than fifteen meters, and it kept on elevating. Two large bat-like wings emerged as well and flapped for a second to dry. The creature pulled out enormous arms from the depth of the basin, ending with large hands and gigantic claws. I felt as if all the hope of the world had disappeared.

The creature stretched its arms for a second before putting its hands on the edge of the basin. It started speaking, shuddering its tentacles with a deep hissing voice that shouldn’t be heard, or even pronounced at all. My whole being was trembling in fear for simply being near it. The worshipper answered while the others were all screaming in unison in that inhuman language. And the creature laughed.

My mind was shaken to its core and this time, my body finally listened to it. I left my hiding spot and started running for my life. I heard a deep threatening growl in the distance, but there’s no way to know if I had been seen by that hideous monster. I couldn’t take the time to check if I was being chased. All that mattered was running, leaving this cursed place and praying for it all to be a nightmare.

I finally reached the waterfall, and fainted on my way back home. Night had fallen. I had spent hours down there, and I was exhausted physically and mentally.

I woke up in my bed the morning after. My parents never told me if they found me outside and brought me back or if it was indeed just a nightmare. I truly tried to convince myself for years that it never happened, but I never actually succeeded. I knew it was all true.

And it confirms now. Two bright yellow lights shine through the water of the American Falls as the top of the falls cracks open to a green skull. My passengers have gone silent, for the first time in months. All are awestruck, facing their certain end. The Horseshoe Falls explodes as an enormous, green, clawed arm breaks through the Earth. The monster’s size has more than doubled since I saw it.

I sit down as it climbs out of the Earth. I haven’t felt this desperate, this helpless, since the last time. It has come for good now, and we are all doomed.