Chapter 16: Release the Kraken

The giant purple octopus thing wiggled its tentacles about, bouncing the kids up and down as they careened down their slippery surfaces. The screaming children were deposited on the wet grass and quickly doubled back, climbing onto the base of a tentacle before being lifted up and starting the cycle anew.

That’s… this hallucination is a bit more involved than the others, isn’t it?

Sofia continued to gape at the impossible sight before her. One of the two-year-olds wobbled dangerously as she slid, only for another tentacle to dart forth and wrap around her waist. She began grabbing at the appendage as it tickled her cheek playfully, laughing with obvious delight.

It took a moment for Sofia to shake herself from her stupor. It was all in her head. Nothing more. No matter how real it seemed, how compelling her mind’s fantasies appeared, something like this was utterly impossible on its face. It wasn’t real.

But despite telling herself that, the scene before her wasn’t quite so easy to dismiss. And so, she decided to do the only thing she could—ground herself in reality once again.

Steeling herself, she fixed what she hoped was a cheerful smile on her face and called out to her own group of frolicking children. “Sorry, everyone! I’ll be right back to play more. But first, I have to take care of something!”

She scarcely waited for their reactions before shutting off the hose and hurrying over to the monster her imagination had conjured up. She spotted Penny and Rory among its tentacles, both wearing broad smiles as they were jiggled and bounced about. The kids more or less ignored her as she approached. But as she drew nearer, she hesitated.

Is this a good idea? What if it’s dangerous?

Sofia banished the thought from her mind almost as soon as it had formed. There was nothing to fear. None of this was real, after all. All she had to do was reach her hand out and touch the thing. It would probably be disorienting to feel the slip-and-slide while her vision showed her something entirely different, but that was ok. It was just the kind of grounding she needed right now.

Stepping closer to the octopus monster, she extended a hand to touch one of its wiggling purple appendages. It stretched out to meet her, wrapping around her hand and wrist with the sliminess of an eel. Or, perhaps more accurately, a tentacle.

…That’s not supposed to happen.

She froze in place as the tentacle continued to wrap around her arm. She felt little suckers pull slightly at her skin as it moved. The thing turned its bulbous head and fixed her with a single baleful eye.

What’s going on? Why… Why does it feel so real?!

Visual hallucinations were one thing. Even the audible ones, she could explain away and accept. But touch as well? Had she fallen asleep somehow and begun lucid dreaming?

Either way, one thing was certain—all of her senses were telling her that a giant octopus was very interested in her arm and refusing to let go. Which meant that maybe it was time to start panicking.

“Are you saying hi to Koko?”

Sofia slowly turned to see a smiling Ashley approach, the woman still as green and leafy as before. She stepped up beside the frozen Sofia to face the monster.

“Koko?” Sofia asked softly.

“Oh! I suppose I never introduced you.” Ashley gestured toward the octopus. “This is Koko. He's our baby lake kraken!”

“A… lake kraken?” She echoed faintly.

“Yup! Ah, but don't be scared. Like I said, he's just a baby. Look.”

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Ashley extended a hand toward the beak-like protrusion jutting from the “kraken’s” head. It opened with another screech, the thing lunging forward to snap at the teacher.

Sofia reached out her free hand reflexively to stop the woman. But before she could, the beak clamped down on Ashley's hand with a soft squish. It molded around her palm like wet clay.

“See? Perfectly harmless.” Ashley assured her as the thing nommed playfully at her hand with a wet sucking sound. “His beak won't harden for a while yet. By the time it does, he won't be able to play with the kids, of course. But in the meantime…”

Sofia managed to nod. In reality, the safety hazards related to allowing the giant purple octopus monster around the kids were more of a secondary concern. Her real issue was the way Ashley was interacting with it. She, too, was treating it like a living, breathing organism.

Maybe I’m hallucinating that too? Or is she under the same effects that I am?

It might have been a good explanation, if not for one slight problem—Ashley hadn't eaten a popsicle. Well, maybe a few problems. Even if she had eaten the same tainted food, what were the odds that they shared the exact same hallucinations? Especially ones so absurd?

“All right, Koko! That's enough!” Ashley admonished the thing. “You have to let Miss Sofia go.”

The creature gave a warble of disappointment as the teacher just giggled. “I know you love hugs, little guy. But we have work to do. Besides, I'm pretty sure little Penny over there wants to play with you.”

The purple tentacle unwound from Sofia's arm with obvious reluctance. It took all of her willpower to resist yanking it away from the thing immediately.

…I can't help it. I know it can't be real, but it feels like it is.

She took a deep breath and thought. There had to be a good explanation for this. Occam’s razor suggested that, when multiple competing explanations for a phenomenon were presented, then the simplest one most often proved to be the correct one as well. At the very least, it was usually the preferred explanation.

The only problem was that, currently, the simplest explanation was that there really was a giant octopus happily gumming at a tree lady's hand as it bounced happy children on its other tentacles.

…Yeah, no. The real simplest explanation is that I'm going insane. That's way more straightforward and likely than whatever fantasy nonsense my head is making up.

She looked down at her arm. A thin layer of watery slime coated it all the way up to her elbow, where the octopus—no, the kraken—had wrapped around it. This was all too real. Either she had inexplicably and suddenly lost all connection to her sanity, or there really was something going on here. Something deeply strange.

Sofia clenched her slimy fist. I can’t just discount it. As absurd as it seems, as completely impossible as all of this is… there’s way too much happening here for me to completely brush it off as insanity. Not to mention that it’s at least somewhat grounded in reality.

“Miss Sofia!”

She turned at the sound of her name. Naomi stood by the hose, the little girl practically bouncing up and down with barely contained excitement. “Can we play with the hose again?”

“Oh! Of course. Be right there!”

With one more glance toward “Koko”, Sofia turned and walked away. Regardless of what was happening here, she had a job to do. Her resolve to avoid calling in sick for the rest of the day remained firm. In fact, this only made her more determined to stick it out.

I need to figure out what’s going on. And that means gathering more info—about what’s changed, what’s stayed the same, and whether what I’m seeing lines up with everyone else’s experiences.

The big thing that bothered her about that interaction with Ashley was how the woman seemed to treat all of this as normal. It was possible that her reactions had simply been rolled into Sofia’s mental fiction, of course. But that felt like such a sophisticated and unlikely explanation.

No, the real test would be whether her fellow teacher still maintained that fiction after Sofia was back to normal. If she did… then it would be that much harder to wave it all off as craziness.

So I need to observe as much as I can, then ask her a few questions once this all wears off again. See if she remembers anything that I hallucinated, then go from there. Simple.

“Miss Sofiaaaaa!”

She chuckled at Naomi's plaintive tone. “I'm coming, I'm coming!”

Her steps quickened a little bit. While there was plenty of strangeness happening around her, there was one other factor that she had to consider. None of it seemed to faze the kids one bit. That was something that she'd have to take full advantage of to keep her sanity.

I can't believe it. I figured the kids would be the craziest part of this job, hands down. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Retrieving the hose from where it rested on the grass, she once again turned it on and began spraying the children. The screams of delight and laughter were almost enough for her to ignore the warbling cries of Koko in the corner. Almost.