Too Much Information

"There are conversations you never expect to have with your uncle. Then there's Clivilius."

The sun was too bright.

I raised my hand to shield my eyes, squinting against the glare as I slowly pushed myself upright. My head felt stuffed with cotton wool, my thoughts sluggish and disconnected. The dust beneath me was warm, almost comfortable, and for a moment I couldn't remember why I was lying in it.

Then it came back. All of it.

The lagoon. The tingling. The way my body had betrayed me completely and utterly, right there on the shore where anyone could have seen.

Christ.

Uncle Jamie was still in the water, maybe ten metres out, moving Joel's floating body in slow circles. The kid — the dead kid, the not-dead kid, whatever the hell he was now — lay on his back with his eyes closed, looking almost peaceful. Like he was taking a nap instead of recovering from having his throat cut and his blood drained and whatever else had happened to him in the past twenty-four hours.

"What the hell just happened?" My voice came out groggy, the words sticking in my throat.

Uncle Jamie looked over at me, and the bastard actually laughed. A proper laugh, loud and genuine, like I'd just told him a cracking joke instead of asked a serious question about the most humiliating experience of my life.

"I'd say you've just had your first true orgasm."

The words hit me like a bucket of cold water. I stared at him, my mouth opening and closing, unable to form a response. First true orgasm? What the fuck was that supposed to mean? I'd been having orgasms since I was thirteen, thank you very much. Nothing about what had just happened bore any resemblance to the normal, controlled, private experience I was used to.

"Holy fuck," I managed eventually, the curse coming out weak and breathless.

"You passed out," Uncle Jamie continued, still with that infuriating hint of amusement in his voice. "But don't worry. It wasn't for long."

Heat flooded my face, burning from my collar to my hairline. I looked away, unable to meet his eyes, suddenly very aware of the cooling stickiness in my jeans. The wet fabric clung to my skin in ways that made my stomach turn. I'd come in my pants like a bloody teenager at his first school dance, and my uncle had watched the whole thing.

Kill me now.

The water splashed gently as Uncle Jamie moved to the edge of the lagoon, settling himself on the bank with his feet still submerged. Joel floated beside him, balanced on Jamie's legs like some kind of morbid pool toy.

"Consider yourself lucky the others had left already," Uncle Jamie said, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

Lucky. Right. Because the only thing that could have made this worse was an audience.

"Is..." I started, then stopped, my voice catching. Tried again. "Is this why you didn't let them come in?"

"Mostly."

The word hung in the air between us, loaded with implications I wasn't sure I wanted to explore. But my mouth was already moving, the question forming before I could stop it.

"Only mostly?"

Uncle Jamie's expression shifted, something more serious replacing the amusement. He glanced at Joel's floating form, then back at me, and I could see him weighing how much to say.

"I think it happens to all of us," he said finally. "But perhaps a little differently."

"How differently?"

"Well sure, I've felt aroused in the lagoon. But nothing like you experienced."

I blinked, caught off guard by his directness. This was Jamie, my uncle. We’d never discussed anything remotely like this.

But then again, we'd never been trapped in another dimension together either.

I remembered, suddenly, that Uncle Jamie had always been the one in the family who said what he thought. No sugarcoating, no dancing around uncomfortable topics. It was one of the things I'd always respected about him, even when it made Christmas dinners more interesting than they needed to be.

I, on the other hand, was rubbish at sharing. Always had been. Kept everything locked up tight, only letting Brianne see what was really going on inside my head. And even then, not always.

"Parts of the river seem to have a similar effect," Uncle Jamie continued. "Although very minor."

I frowned, trying to piece together what he was telling me. The river. The lagoon. Both bodies of water, both apparently capable of doing... things... to people who went in them. But the lagoon was stronger. Much stronger, if my experience was anything to go by.

"So," I began hesitantly, not entirely sure I wanted the answer, "how do you think this affects Joel?"

Uncle Jamie's mouth opened, then closed. He made a vague gesture with one hand, struggling to find words.

"Hmm. I uh..." He trailed off, looking uncomfortable for the first time since I'd woken up.

"It's okay," I said quickly, jumping in before he could continue. "You don't have to explain, really."

There were some things I definitely didn't need to know. Some mental images I could do without.

But Uncle Jamie had moved on, his expression sharpening with a different kind of intensity. "You saw that glow in the water, didn't you?"

"Yeah." The memory surfaced — that strange shimmer, the way it had moved toward Joel like something alive, seeping into his skin. "What was that? Looked like some sort of algae or something."

"It was sperm," Uncle Jamie said, his mouth quirking into a wry smile. "My sperm."

My jaw dropped. Actually dropped, like something out of a cartoon. I could feel the dust settling on my tongue but I couldn't seem to close my mouth.

"What the fuck," I said softly, my body giving an involuntary shudder. The image was in my head now — that glowing light, entering Joel's body through his pores, and it wasn't algae, it wasn't some mysterious force, it was—

I shook my head violently, trying to dislodge the thought. Looked back at Uncle Jamie, hoping desperately that he was taking the piss.

He wasn't.

"But I saw it enter Joel's body. Through his skin!" The words came out higher than I'd intended, almost a squeak.

"Yeah," Uncle Jamie agreed, nodding like this was a perfectly normal thing to discuss. "I don't really understand it. But I think the water might have healing properties. See this scab on my chest?"

He lifted his shirt, and I found myself leaning forward despite every instinct telling me I'd had enough revelations for one day.

The gasp that escaped me was loud and involuntary.

There was a scab near his left pec — but calling it a scab felt like an understatement. The thing was huge, maybe the size of my palm, crusted and dark against his pale skin. The edges were raised and angry-looking, the centre a mess of dried blood and new tissue. It looked like something that should still be in hospital, not exposed to the dust and dirt of this place.

"Just yesterday this was a life-threatening welt. I probably would have died if not for this lagoon," Uncle Jamie said, lowering his shirt. "And Glenda."

"Oh." The word came out small, inadequate. I hadn't realised. Hadn't known Uncle Jamie had been hurt at all, let alone badly enough to nearly die. "I... I didn't know it was so serious. And so recent."

The scab looked weeks old, not hours. Whatever the lagoon was doing, it worked fast.

"And what you saw today wasn't the first time," Uncle Jamie added.

"It wasn't?"

"No." He shifted slightly, looking almost embarrassed — which was a first for Uncle Jamie. "I uh... I had a wank in the lagoon yesterday. As soon as I ejaculated, I noticed the glow immediately, so I assumed that's what it was."

My stomach churned. The nausea I'd been holding at bay was creeping back, climbing up my throat with cold fingers. But some horrible part of me needed to know, needed to understand, couldn't let it go.

"So, that glow was still from yesterday?" I asked, keeping my voice as neutral as possible.

"I think so," Uncle Jamie said quickly, then his face screwed up in an expression of odd reflection.

"What?"

"Unless it was from someone else."

My instincts had been right. I didn't want to know. My body shivered again and I caught myself gagging, bile rising in my throat. The thought of what had entered Joel's body — whose it might have been, how long it had been floating there waiting — was too much.

"But I'm pretty sure it was mine," Uncle Jamie added confidently, as if that made it better.

I closed my eyes. Breathed through my nose. Tried to find some way to process any of this that didn't involve screaming into the void.

There wasn't one.

"I should probably clean myself up," I said finally, pushing myself to my feet. My jeans were stiff in uncomfortable places, the fabric rubbing against my skin in ways that made me want to crawl out of my own body.

"Make sure you take the river," Uncle Jamie told me. "But stay close to the edge. It gets deep quickly and has a strong current."

"Sure thing."

I started walking, desperate to put distance between myself and this conversation, between myself and the lagoon, between myself and every insane thing that had happened since I'd fallen through that portal.

"Hey Kain."

I stopped, turning on my heel. Dust puffed up around my feet, little clouds of brown and red catching the afternoon light.

Uncle Jamie was watching me from the water's edge, Joel still floating beside him, and there was something in his expression that looked almost like gratitude. Or maybe guilt. Hard to tell from this distance.

"I'm sorry you ended up here," he said. "But I'm also glad we've got your help."

My mouth opened to respond — to say what, I didn't know. That it was okay? It wasn't. That I forgave him? I didn't know if I did. That I was glad to be here? That would be a lie so massive I couldn't force it past my teeth.

In the end, I just shrugged. Lifted my shoulders and dropped them again, a gesture that said everything and nothing.

Then I turned and walked away, toward the river, leaving Uncle Jamie and his zombie kid behind.