Ol’ Man Croaker's Arc

Chapter 8 of 12

Croaker returned to the houseboat as the afternoon heat settled over the water. He'd spent the morning answering questions at the dock, watching the fishermen's faces shift from curiosity to unease as they understood what Snake Lagoon meant. Now he needed to think through what came next. He poled east along the tree line, following the channel where the water ran deepest. A flash of yellow caught his eye — a backpack propped against a cypress trunk, its straps hooked over exposed roots. Croaker slowed. The pack sat at the edge of a gap in the trees he'd passed a hundred times without noticing. Behind it, the undergrowth opened onto what looked like a carved passage leading into darkness. He tied off his boat and stepped onto the bank. That's when he saw Stryker standing twenty feet ahead, motionless, staring at something on the ground. She glanced back at him but didn't speak. Croaker moved closer and saw what had stopped her — a stone serpent coiled at the entrance to a cavern, its surface covered in the same symbols he'd seen on the amulet from the deep marsh. The statue's head pointed into the darkness like a warning. Stryker crouched and traced one of the carvings with her finger. "My grandmother told me about places like this. Said they marked where something was kept, not hidden." Croaker knelt beside her and studied the serpent's open mouth, the way its eyes were carved to look directly at anyone approaching. He'd told stories his whole life about what lived in these waters, but the statue wasn't folklore — it was a marker left by people who'd needed others to remember. He looked at Stryker, then at the cavern entrance. "We go in together," he said. She nodded and stood, shouldering her pack. Croaker pulled his torch from his boat and lit it. Whatever was inside had been waiting long enough that another hour wouldn't matter, but walking away now meant choosing to stay ignorant when the truth was ten steps ahead. He stepped past the serpent and into the dark, hearing Stryker's footsteps follow close behind.