When daylight came, Sharon woke up and found herself curled up on the forest floor. She sat up slowly and rubbed the back of her neck, groaning at the feeling of an uncomfortable kink underneath her skin. Sleeping in a leather jacket was not a good idea.
Sharon felt something clutched in her other hand and looked down, only to see it was the picture of her and Tom. She looked at her beloved boyfriend in the photograph and let out a sad sigh, as she gently stroked a finger down along his image.
"I miss you, Tom", Sharon said to him. "I wish you were still here with me."
Sharon often wondered if Tom could even hear her or not. She wondered if he was alone or if he was in pain or whether he missed her, too. She had hopes and dreams about starting a life with him, possibly even raising a family one day, but now it was never to be. As much as she wanted to be with him, Sharon knew deep down in her heart that Tom wouldn't want her to give up on life. Don't be afraid, Sharon, Tom had said to her with his dying. I will always be with you.
"But we'll see each other again one day", said Sharon. "I'll see you later, Tom. I promise." With that said , Sharon kissed the photograph and tucked it safely inside of her jacket. She wiped away the tears that were beginning to escape from her eyes and let out a shaky breath to get control of her emotions. Standing up on wobbly legs, Sharon leaned against the tree for support and looked to her left, only to discover her motorcycle was gone.
Sharon slowly began to back away and felt herself bump into something. She turned around quickly, only to see a gigantic crablike leg. Slowly, she looked up with wide eyes and found herself staring up at the monstrous crab being she encountered in the ocean the other night.
Sharon gasped in fright and fell backwards, breathing heavily as she scooted away from him until her back met with a tree trunk.
The gargantuan crab didn't move or say a word, but stared at her for the longest time, looking at her with innocent blue eyes. Sharon hated to admit it, but even though she was afraid of him, there was a certain familiar charm to the ugliness of his face that made her feel a twinge of sympathy for him.
"Please", said Sharon, a hint of fear in her voice. "Don't hurt me."
The gigantic crab squinted his eyes in anger and raised a giant claw above her.
"No!" Sharon threw her arms over her head, expecting him to crush her.
"Why would I hurt you?" The giant crab said to her. "I just came back to give you this."
Sharon heard a soft thud and lowered her arms, only to find a cream-colored seashell covered in pearls and gold glitter designs lying on the ground in front of her. She picked it up and eyed it for a minute, before she turned her attention back up to the giant crab.
"I don't understand", said Sharon.
"What's not to understand, Sharon?" The giant crab asked her. "I think it's pretty obvious, isn't it?"
Sharon blinked at him, surprised. "Wait a minute. What did you call me?"
"I called you Sharon. That's your name, isn't it?"
"How do you know my name?"
"I know more than that", said the gargantuan crab. "I know you used to have a little coconut crab who worshiped a human named David Bowie. You made that seashell for him years ago when he was only a baby. You were just a child yourself then."
Sharon couldn't believe what she was hearing. How it was possible this gigantic crustacean knew all those things about her past, she didn't know. She looked at the shell in her hand again and saw that it was the very same one she had tossed into the harbor last night. All of a sudden, Sharon began to wonder. She looked up at the gargantuan crab again and looked into his eyes. She hadn't seen it before, but there was something very familiar about them. Not only were they blue, but the left eye was completely dilated!
"Tamatoa?" Sharon asked him.
The gargantuan crab smiled at the mention of that name.
Sharon slowly stood up as she kept her gaze on the giant crab, who looked at her worriedly when he saw tears starting to fall from her eyes. It was in that moment that Sharon realized who he was. He couldn't have been her little baby coconut crab, but he was!
"Tamatoa!" Sharon ran over and hugged his front right leg, smiling through her tears. Tamatoa was somewhat taken aback by this, but smiled nonetheless and carefully stroked her back with one of his giant claws.
"Oh, Tamatoa. I thought you were dead", said Sharon, sniffling.
"It's all right, Sharon", said Tamatoa. "I'm back now."
Neither one of them spoke for a minute, until Sharon opened her eyes and said to herself, "Wait a minute." She pulled herself away from Tamatoa and shouted, "Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it!" Looking up at him again, Sharon carefully examined Tamatoa with her eyes and asked him, "How did you get so big?"
"You don't remember what happened?" Tamatoa asked her, giving her a calculating look.
"How do I know? I was only a little kid!" Sharon remarked.
"Well, you can thank your little friend for dumping me into that barrel of hazardous splooge, otherwise I wouldn't be this big", said Tamatoa.
"Hazardous splooge? I don't rememb-" Sharon paused and got a sudden look on her face. "Wait a minute...You mean Daniel?...At the warehouse?..." Sharon gasped and whispered under her breath, "Biohazard chemicals", before she fell backwards again and landed on her backside, a dumbfounded look on her face.
"Hey, luckily for me, I didn't die", said Tamatoa, as he brought the tip of his claw to Sharon's chin and lifted her head up to look upon his grinning face. "But as the years went by, I became bigger, stronger, and more beautiful by the day. Don't you think so, Sharon?"
Sharon stood up again and said, "Well, yeah. I mean, last time I saw you, you were so tiny and blue. Now look at you!" Sharon placed her hands on his giant claw and said to him, "You're so big and strong. You got more colorful, I see. A bit of pink, a little purple-" A glance to her right made Sharon go pale, as she exclaimed in frightful distress, "Oh my God! What happened to your leg?"
Tamatoa looked underneath himself and took note that Sharon was indicating to the fact that his front left leg was missing. "Oh, that? I lost it in a fight with a giant sea lizard", said Tamatoa, nonchalantly. He looked at Sharon and explained to her, "We were both fighting over a huge diamond when he bit into my leg and ripped it off in the process."
"Well, then grow it back! You're a decapod. You can reproduce another-"
Before she could even finish her sentence, Sharon felt herself being lifted off the ground, as Tamatoa picked her up by the back of her jacket and brought her close to his menacing face.
"Do you have any idea what I would have to do to make that happen?" Tamatoa asked her, his voice low and sinister.
"Well, you'd have to give up a few of your treasures, possibly your entire shell, but hey, after your leg grows back, maybe you could find a bigger...better one...perhaps?" Sharon tried to sound optimistic, but found herself in a state of awkwardness when Tamatoa squinted his eyes at her, giving her something a death glare.
"Tamatoa, why are you looking at me like that?" Sharon asked him, giving him an uncomfortable look.
"Are you just trying to tell me to give up my shell?" Tamatoa's voice now sounded demonic.
"No, no!" Sharon tried to explain. "I not saying you have to. I was just trying to be helpful. You know I would never ask you to change your look or do anything you didn't want to, Tamatoa. I just want you to be happy, that's all."
"In that case..." Tamatoa's expression quickly went from anger to smiling again. "Let's talk about you!"
"Huh?" Sharon asked him, sounding both nervous and confused.
"I mean, what happened to you?" Tamatoa grabbed one of her ankles and extended her leg out, saying, "You got these long legs, which is unusual even for a human like you." Releasing her ankle, Tamatoa moved his claw to play with her shoulder-length golden hair for a bit and said, "Hmm. Your hair's still the same, though you might wanna use a-" Tamatoa suddenly gave her a disgusted look and said, "Wait a minute. What are these bumps on your chest?"
Tamatoa brought a curious claw to Sharon, making contact with one of her breasts. Sharon's eyes widen and her face turned the color of bubblegum. "Hey!" Slapping his claw away, Sharon covered her chest and glared at him.
Suddenly, and without warning, Tamatoa tossed her into the air. Sharon yelled as she felt herself go flying through the air, but not before landing hard onto his back.
"Ouch!" Sharon groaned, sitting up and rubbing her backside.
"Still got that feisty attitude, I see." She heard Tamatoa say.
Sharon looked around and found herself surrounded by a field of shiny treasures on the back of his shell. Gold coins, diamonds, goblets, some silverware, golden seashells, a gold-gilded boat, some giant pearls that were as big as her head, and for some strange reason, an oil lamp.
"Whoa!" Sharon exclaimed. Looking to her right, she saw her motorcycle was lying on its side and said to herself, "So that's where that went!" She stood up and ran over to stand it upright, only to be distracted by a long structure that looked suspiciously like the backbone of some giant creature.
"Uh, Tamatoa, whose spine is this?" Sharon asked him nervously. She turned her head left to look at him, only to let out a yell of surprise when she saw a pair of big blue eyes instead.
Tamatoa popped the rest of his head up and said to her, "What do you think happened to the giant sea lizard?"
"Yikes!" Sharon shrieked, putting her hands to her mouth. As she started to back away, Sharon felt something hit the back of her foot. She turned around to see what it was and found it to be a silver crown encrusted in pink diamonds. Sharon crouched down and picked up the tiara into her hands, eying its regal splendor like she had done back in Tamatoa's grotto. Looking to her right, Sharon picked up a gold plate and held it up, as she placed the crown on her head and gazed upon her reflection in amazement.
While his human owner was lost in a mystic fantasy, Tamatoa looked at Sharon with the same curiosity he had when he was a baby. He remembered back to the times when Sharon would dress up like a fairytale princess and dance around her room with him. Oh, how he wished they could go back to those times. Back to when he was innocent. Back to when he wasn't a monster.
"Hang on!" Sharon set the plate down and removed the crown from her head, before standing up and asking Tamatoa, "How did you know I was here anyway?"
Tamatoa's eyes suddenly became wide with fear. "Uhhh...I can't tell you that", he said, almost meekly.
Sharon blinked and knitted her eyebrows together. "What do you mean you can't?"
"I'm sorry, Sharon, but he told me not to tell you." Tamatoa suddenly put a claw over his mouth, a terrified look on his face.
Sharon raised her eyebrows and said, "Ohhh! So it's a he, is it?"
"Yes, and that's all I'm going to tell you!" Tamatoa looked like he was getting frustrated.
Sharon crossed her arms and gave him a cocky smile. "Okay, Tamatoa. I'll bite. Who is this he you're referring to, hmm? A giant cockatoo?"
Sharon suddenly felt the surface beneath her shift downward and found herself falling backwards off of Tamatoa's shell. She would have fallen to her death or become paralyzed had the gargantuan crab not caught her in his claw.
Tamatoa brought Sharon close to his face and warned her, "Knock it off!" His voice turned deep and monstrous once again.
Frightened, Sharon could only nod in response. She had never seen this side of Tamatoa before. And whatever it was, she didn't like it.
Tamatoa went back to his normal voice and said, "Now come on. We gotta find a place to hide."
As he started to take her deeper into the forest, Sharon tried to free herself from his tight grip, but to no success.
"W-where are you taking me?"
"Trust me", said Tamatoa, a smug look on his face. "I know a place."
