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“Stay. Back.” Lucia said. “I mean it. The real Cody would understand the need to remain still.”
“I want to be with my husband,” the imposter Cody said. “Please.”
“That’s not me!” Cody shouted and waved toward the thing a few feet in front of him. “You’ve got to see that.” He looked at Dave, who knelt beside Demmy. “Dave, bro, you know me. Come on!”
Dave looked between Cody and the shape shifter, scrunching up his face as he inspected them in turn. “You both look the same.”
“What?” the thing said, glancing back at Cody. “I look better than that.”
“You fucker,” Cody said with a snarl as he took a step toward it.
“No moving!” Lucia shouted.
Ollie and Clarabell had been flipping through pages in a notebook, and suddenly Clarabell said, “Hey, nix!”
The shapeshifter flinched, and Cody let out a victorious shout and pointed. “See? Not me!”
“Nix!” Ollie shouted.
The thing crouched and clutched its stomach, seeming to curl in on itself as if in pain. It groaned quietly, then suddenly straightened up again and started toward shore, stepping fast, hands in fists.
“Nix!” Clarabell shouted.
The thing reacted as if it had been struck, flinching away from them and squatting a bit as it looked away. Before it could move again, Clarabell and Ollie shouted together: “Nix!”
This time the thing stood upright, neck muscles straining as it screamed at the sky. The skin it had been wearing—Cody’s skin—peeled away, revealing a layer of slick, dark green beneath. It made Cody think of eels he had seen during a school trip to an aquarium years and years ago.
“Nix!” Jugs and Dave shouted.
Cody picked up the thread and shouted at the thing’s back, “Nix! Hey, nix! Nix, nix, nix, nix, nix!”
With a scream so loud and piercing it made all of them cover their ears, the thing turned and charged Cody. Its face was smooth except for eyes black as a shark’s and a mouth full of small, sharp teeth. The sun glistened off its sleek, gray skin as it rushed him, clawed hands stretching out to tear into him.
“Hey, nix!” Lucia shouted.
The thing stumbled, but continued toward Cody.
“Nix!” Jugs shouted.
It stumbled again, going down on one knee so the water came up to its chest. It looked over its shoulder toward the shoreline, and Cody followed its line of sight. A radiant feeling of joy grew inside him at the sight of Deputy Walsh helping Demmy sit upright as he coughed up more water.
“Nix!” Cody shouted.
The thing whirled in his direction, teeth flashing, and launched itself at him. Cody sidestepped the attack and waded toward shore, moving as fast as possible through the waist-deep water. As the pond grew more shallow, he took big, exaggerated steps to get there even faster.
He had about ten feet until he was out of the knee-deep water when Lucia shouted, “Cody, get down!”
Without hesitation, without even looking back, he dropped to his knees, adrenaline so high he didn’t even feel the scrape of rocks on his skin. He ducked his head and hunched in on himself, jumping at the loud and quick succession of Lucia firing two shots. Something heavy fell into the water not far behind him, and the ripples splashed up into his face.
“You’re okay, Cody,” Lucia said. “All clear.”
He raised his head and looked over his shoulder. The nix lay on its back, floating slowly out toward the middle of the pond, dark eyes staring blankly at the white, puffy clouds overhead.
“Fuck,” Cody whispered. He got to his feet and waded out of the water, wincing with each step. Blood streamed down his shins from the scrapes on his knees, but he didn’t pause to inspect his injuries. He kept his eyes on Demmy, who sat leaning heavily against Deputy Walsh, and he dropped to his knees on the grass beside him and pulled him in close.
“I almost lost you again,” Cody said, kissing the top of his head and rubbing his back through his wet Critter Catchers polo shirt.
“I thought you had.” Demmy wrapped his arms around Cody’s waist, then turned his face into his shoulder and inhaled deeply. “You smell like you again.”
