4) Jaws

If I'd waited around, I would have seen the handy ladder which I could have used to get down in a much more orderly manner, but as it was, I sailed past it and landed on the hard wooden floor, the shock making the joints in my ankles up to my knees ache, and made me stumble sideways, not so graceful, but what's a girl to do, eh? I staggered into the gloom, my only light was filtering in from various holes in the sodden wood of my raft. I skirted around damp barrels and crates, squelching through sea-weed, trying to find a place to hide.

I was breathing heavily now, from all the running and jumping, I wasn't the most athletic person in the world! I was on the hockey team, and I did do a bit of running around on sports day, but I just wasn't at home with all this running-for-your-life stuff. And not to mention I'd died only a short while ago. That certainly has to count for something.

There were piles of crates and barrels back here, full of stuff from pineapples to gunpowder, the latter I could tell from the smell, and the slatted crates you could see through. I dodged around a large post that kept the deck above us held up, and skittered behind a large pile of barrels, fastened by ropes to the wooden floor. I spotted a small gap in between a couple of piles of crates, and skidded across the floor and crawled into it, feeling the sides squeeze in on my shoulder bones and hips, and I managed to sort of twist sideways and then sit down on my bum.

Now, time to think... Think, damnit, think! I was still in a state of shock, I think. I mean, first I was transported somewhere in a magical screw-up of some sort, then I drowned and died, then I appeared on a ship right out of Disneyland, and then I had sea creatures coming onboard and – well, what had they done, actually? They might have been friendly, after all. But something about those leers and dangerous broad-swords told me otherwise.

Silence. Sweet, blessed silence! Well, not quite silence. I could hear muffled thuds and suchlike above me. Harsh, coarse voices were the loudest, and I could occasionally hear men moaning and, in one case, a short cry of pain or fear. These sounds did not inspire hope and happiness in me. However, it sounded sort of muted, far away from me, as if it were all happening in another world. I bit my lip and looked around. And then got down to the real thinking.

So what should I do now? What was my real goal? Alright, what I wanted was to go home. Go home, and be safe. And have everything back to normal. What did I need to do to achieve this? Well... one, find out what had made me come to this place so I could somehow reverse it. And two, stay alive.

Apparently, I had already failed the latter.

But then again, I was alive, in an odd, coming-back-to-life sort of way. Well, let's just say I had to stay as alive as I was now, which was pretty much the same as the alive I'd been before, but with a death in between the two. Oh, god – none of this was making any sense. Okay. Well calm down. To stay alive, I should stay hidden from those things, right? Right. But once they left, what should I do? Stranded on a broken raft wasn't my idea of fun.

Could I sneak onto their ship? No. The idea was ludicrous, and I wasn't even going to attempt it. But what could I do next? Perhaps-?

"SearchthewholeshipAreyousureWe'remissingsomeLet'sgo..."

Murmurs above me – the grating tones of the sea-creature things. Search the whole ship. I stayed stock still, zapping up a prayer or two to god, in the hope that he was listening. You know you love me, god. Please, help me. Let me come out of this alive. You know I haven't asked for much in life. Those other prayers I've sent you, about maths tests and getting to the toilet on time, they don't really matter. But this does. Please?

There was a sudden crash. I jumped, and peered through the gap in front of me. A large, hulking shape stood in the light under the trap door. One had come down below decks! It's head turned slowly, taking in the entire room. It was like a robot; collected, peaceful, in no hurry. As if it knew that there was no need to rush, anything that was in here wasn't going to be getting away from it, no siree bob.

About six-feet-tall, broad-chested and bulky, mad, pale pink and green anemone-dreadlocks fell all around it's head. It's face was human shaped, though it's jaw was much more square, and it was lipless; it's mouth reminded me of a shark. The skin on it's face was tinged grey, and probably made up of scales. It had slitted nostrils instead of a nose, and large, round eyes, with black pupils that filled up the entire eye. It's body was also like a human, wearing an odd metallic sort of armoured clothing, with more anemone growing down one of it's arms, and patterns of scales all over it. The other arm was simply grey sharky-scales, coming down into a sort of claw with what looked like shark-teeth for fingernails. This entire anatomy was screwed up...

It's legs ended in huge, barnacle-covered boots that thudded heavily with each step. One of which it took now. It raised it's face slightly into the air, blinking one eye after the other, and I had the strangest impression that it was scenting the air.

I remember a documentary I'd watched once, ages ago, back when my mother could still actually tell me what was good value television and what wasn't. Sharks are one of this worlds most deadly hunters. They can smell blood in the water from over a mile away, and use this to target their enemies. The great white shark's hunting pattern is similar to that of a big cats – once it's victim is selected, it will simply follow that one target – shut up, shut up, shut up – ignoring all other possible kills in order to hunt out it's selected mark.

Stupid flash back! I was really scared then. As the thing started stalking in between crates, it's large eyes darting all over the hold, the jaws-theme started playing in my head. Okay, it wasn't very logical, but it did seem to fit the situation. I breathed shallowly, praying to god that I wasn't going to sneeze. Oh great, now I had to think that thought and jinx myself! I was definitely going to sneeze now...

Dumm dum. It finished one row of crates, and turned to another, which was further away from me.

Dumm dum. It paused, cocking it's head slighty.

Dumdum dumdum. Suddenly it whipped around, looking towards me.

DUMDUM DUMDUM DUMDUM... It was coming towards me.

It was coming towards me. Oh my god. Could it see me? Smell me? Well I guess I did stink of seawater. Aaargh. What shall I do? WhatshallIdo? It was still coming towards me. It was stepping carefully around various bits and pieces on the floor, and coming towards me in an unrushed manner. I shrank backwards through my little gap in the crates. It was so close now. Next to the pile of barrels I'd dashed around not so long ago. Now it was-

The crates I was backing through suddenly ended, and I popped out of the back of the little alley. What? Okay, so I wasn't trapped. Well, as un-trapped as I could be when I was stuck below decks with a shark-man who could sniff me out from the other side of the room. I was still on my butt, but I edged away, crawling on my hands and knees. I turned back to the gap in the crates, just to check on the situation, and-

Through the narrow opening between the piles of crates, I could see it standing there. It's large, reptilian eyes were on me, unblinking, just watching me. I wanted to scream, but I was frozen to the spot. Maybe if I didn't move, it wouldn't spot me. It was really quite dark in here, after all. I wanted to scream and scream and scream, except I hadn't ever really been a screamer. Nothing was worse then the shock of turning around, and finding something you'd been running from simply standing there, watching you. Of course it could see me, I was sitting in the open!

I made a break for it, staggering to me feet and skittering away across the wet boards. The gap between the crates was far too small for this hulking creature to fit through. It would have to go around. And that bought me time.

About three and a half seconds of it.

(NB: if anyone gets to reading it this far... please tell me how I have done. this is my debut, so to speak. xD)