Publication date: February 9th, 2021
Synopsis:
*2020 Cygnus Book Award for Science Fiction Long List*
It's 2025.
Sisters, Doris and Thea, exist worlds apart, despite living within a few miles of one another. Doris with her regular home and regular husband and regular job, and Thea slinking along the edges of society, solitary and invisible. When a storm of biblical proportions strikes, the wayward sisters are begrudgingly forced together as the rain waters rise, each attempting to survive both the flood and each other.
One year later, Thea--now calling herself Sestra--floats throughout a ravaged, flood soaked world. Her former life drowned beneath metric tons of water, she and her only companion, Robert, battle starvation, heatstroke, and a the monstrous creatures called Posies that appeared alongside the flood. When they run across what they assume to be an abandoned tugboat, their journey takes a new turn, and the truth about the flood and the monsters seems more intricately linked to Thea's past than she may realize.
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Excerpt
Knock knock. She mouthed the words, realizing a wile later she hadn't actually knocked on the door.
James answered once she did. She made sure to come when Doris wasn't around. He seemed shocked to see her. He shouldn't have been.
"I need some money."
Realization dawned on him, his pastry jaw shivering at the indignity. "You stole my wallet."
"Of course I did. Now I need more money."
Blocking the doorway with his body, he leaned toward her as if he meant to shake her. "Where's my ring?"
"Why was it in your wallet?" she asked. It's been bothering her since she found it.
"Where is my ring, Thea?"
"It's odd for a married man to keep his ring in his wallet during clandestine meetups with his sister-in-law. Very, very odd, if you ask me." It was so easy to toy with him; his emotions reeled against his features.
"Where is my ring?" He was getting angry now.
All the better. Angry people were the least reasonable of all people. "Some people might get the wrong idea."
"What wrong idea? What the hell are you talking about?"
She shrugged. "You know what I mean."
He was fit to explode, but somehow buttoned it up just in time. "You don't have it anymore, do you."
The pawn shop had paid handsomely for it, but he didn't need to know that. Yet.
"It'd look awfully bad for me to show up with your ring on my finger. Who knows what people might think?" She laughed. God, he was the easiest mark on the planet.
But he laughed too, as if the idea of them together was too ludicrous to take seriously. "Doris wouldn't believe that for a second and you know it."
"She's probably the only one to not underestimate the depths of my shittiness. I'm sure she'd figure it out. But the rest? Jesus, can you imagine what my mother might say? Can you imagine how tiring that would be? Especially for Doris."
His body went rigid, to the point that she could have rung him like a bell. "You truly are a psychopath."
No, she wasn't. Of course she wasn't. She was smart and he was dumb, and this was all too easy. She wasn't a psycho--she just needed money. And he was going to give it to her.
She smiled. "Small bills, please." Then she waited.
James stood in the doorway, stubbed. It was all too easy. Too easy.
Then he backed away from the door, moving at an odd slant that had her wondering if he was fainting or was just too upset to function properly. Slipping into the dark of the living room, she grabbed at the edges of the door and peered after him.
"I don't have all day, James. And if I know Doris's schedule like I think I do, neither do you."
But he was gone. The shades were drawn and the lights off--the room was completely empty. No furniture, no pictures on the wall. The archway into the kitchen was black as tar.
"James?"
When had they moved in? It was years ago. She remembered their housewarming party--Ma had been adamant that Thea show up and be presentable for the love of God. There was champagne, and she'd stolen an entire bottle for herself, boozing it up in the corner of their yard while pretending to smoke. Ma had found her, and she'd been spitting mad.
Where was all that shiny new furniture now? Where was James?
She was about to step inside when a low gurgle echoed from the black space where the kitchen should be. Then came the water--a slow trickle at first, like runoff from a leaky cooler.
"Doris?"
No one responded.
The water picked up, churning into the living room and spilling through the doorway. Where was all this water coming from? It just kept coming, more and more and more. Thea wanted to back away, to run, but something rooted her in place.
"James!" Her voice cracked, springing from her throat in a panic. "What the fuck is going on, James?"
A voice--so familiar and so strange and so not possible.
"I told you they were coming, sister." The noise oozed from the black space. "Now look what you've done."
She spoke delicately, so that Thea had to lean in to hear.
"Doris?"
There was no answer.
"This isn't funny. Fuck this, I'm leaving." Her body wanted to bolt, to get the fuck out of there as quickly as her feet would carry her, but the moment she stepped back from the doorway, a wail erupted from the house. Something monstrous and huge shuddered and shook the walls apart. The floors began to rock, splashing against the drywall in waves.
Before she could run, a tentacle sprung out of the black. It snatched her around the waist, crushing her organs between her bones with ease. She tried to scream or fight or do something, but it gripped too tightly.
It pulled her down and down and down. Down under the house. Down under the wave and water. She could do nothing as the house sealed up over her head, her breath pressurizing in her lungs.
Down she went.
Down she stayed.
Tiffany Meuret is a writer of monsters and twisted fairy tales. Her publications include Shoreline of Infinity, Luna Station Quarterly, Ellipsis Zine, and others. When not reading or writing, she is usually binge watching comfortable sitcoms from her childhood or telling her kids to put on their shoes for the tenth time. She lives in sunny Arizona with her husband, two kids, two chihuahuas, gecko, and tortoise.
