Chapter 14
"Where the shell am I now?"
It's no wonder EJ lives in a place like this. It's just like her; Cold, dark and spooky.
…
Hey, Oscar here… Sorry, I don't feel like making an entrance right now… I wanna make an exit instead! GET ME OUTA HERE!
I can't see a thing, man! I feel as if I've gone blind! There's just nothin' to see but nothin'! That's all I can see, nothin'!
Ugh! How the shell does EJ live in a place like this? How can anybody even survive in a place like this?
All I could do was to carry on swimmin' down. I figured that if I was gonna find any kind of civilization I was gonna find it on the floor. All I could do was to carry on swimmin' blindly until I found somebody or something… but it's hard to find anything when it's as if your swimmin' around with a blindfold on.
I wanted to called out for help, but I didn't wanna call out for trouble, ya know? I don't know what kinda weirdoes are floating around here.
I was pretty tired. I'd been swimmin' for about twenty minutes and I still hadn't reached the bottom of this bottomless pit they call the Twilight Zone.
I kept swimmin'…
And swimmin'…
And… whoa…! I saw something! Oh my gosh! Man, I actually saw something!
It was a little light… Well, where there's lights there's people, right?
Even though I was real tired, I sped up a little and swam straight for the little glow of yellow.
It was actually kinda pretty. The moment I got close to it I could finally see my own two fins as I held them up in front of my face.
But I was soon distracted once again by that little light… It was just floating there in front of me. What exactly was it? And what was making it glow like that?
Whoa…! It moved! It's alive?
"Wait!" I called out. "Don't go. Can ya hear me?"
The light just kept on floating away. "Wait, I'm kinda lost." I slowly swam after it. "Can ya help me?"
At that point, it stopped right in front of me.
"Thanks. I take it then that you can understand me." I said. But that light just floated there, right in front of me. "Hey, can you talk? Hello?" I waved my fin in front of the light. "Helloooo?"
"Hello…" Growled a deep, monster-like voice.
I suddenly shuddered… I didn't feel so safe anymore…
The light suddenly grew brighter and revealed teeth… TEETH! Long, thin, SHARP teeth behind that light that looked like NEEDLES… And then the light grew brighter… more teeth… spikes… big white eyes… a monster… ANGLERFISH!
It suddenly snapped it's jaws open and…: "Grrrr…rrrrRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
I just stared for a second… and then… : "AAAAHHH!"
I SWAM FOR IT, MAN!
I just swam blindly… I still couldn't see a thing… But I just SWAM!
"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" I screamed as I swam for it.
I could feel the water rushing behind me… the light was getting brighter, the anglerfish was getting closer!
"RAAAAAAAAARRRHHH!"
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
I just swam for it, man! I didn't know where the shell I was going, I just SWAM!
And do you know what? I saw something… just a little distance ahead… lights
More lights? 'Oh no!' I though. 'Not more anglerfish!' But there wasn't just lights…
As I carried on frantically paddling my tailfin, the lights got brighter… and I saw…gates… a building!
Oh my god! I'd actually FOUND some place?
"RRRRRAARHH!"
"AH!" Whoa! I don't care if it looked like some deserted, god forsaken old dump! I'd rather take my chances through those gates than hanging around with 'Mr Light-bulb-teeth'!
I swam through the gaps in the bars. And carried on swimming even when I was through the gate. I hurried behind a brick pillar from this broken-down old building. I then stopped to breath in some water and get my energy back.
I peered round the edge of the pillar. I saw the little snapper, (or not so little snapper), snapping at the me through the bars of the gate. Phew! It looked like he couldn't fit. He then stopped his biting and swam back a little and took a look at the building… and then, he suddenly shrieked!
He spun around and swam for it! I watched as he swam off and disappeared into the darkness. 'What the shell's got in to him?' I though. Something about this building spooked that guy, but I thought I'd rather take my chances in here than out there!
I took a good, long look at the wreak of bricks myself.
The whole building was only half standing, there was bricks everywhere and you didn't need a door to go inside. 'Cause the entire left wall had completely collapsed! All the way to the roof to the floor. But even though the sight of this dump send chills down my dorsalfin, like I said: I'd rather take my chances in here than out there.
This time I was a little more cautious, ya know? This time I swam on slowly and I wasn't about to swim up to any more lights.
I swam round the edge of the open wall. The place looked deserted; why the shell did that dude with the light-bulb attached to his head swim off like that? Well, if there was something in this dump that was scary enough to scare an Anglerfish, then maybe I should be scared too.
And then, I heard something…
"Mmm…"
"Yikes!" I jumped and backed up against the wall. What was that? Where'd that come from?
"Mmmmm…"
There it was again! It didn't sound like a monster this time, but I was scared stiff all the same, man.
"Mmmm…Mm, Mm, Mm…"
You know something? It sounded a little like somebody was crying.
I looked across the open building… It was coming from this tipped over crate… I didn't wanna get myself in to trouble again, but whoever was making that noise it sounded like they were already in trouble.
I swam up to the lid of the crate… It couldn't do any harm just so see who was in it, right? Well, I reached out my fin and opened the lid anyway…
I looked inside the crate; there was a bag, and it was moving! Some poor dude was trapped inside.
"Hang on, man." I said as I picked up the bag, that was less than half my size. "I gotcha. I'm gonna get you out."
I carried the sack and gently dropped in on the ground. It wasn't very heavy to say that some dude was trapped inside.
I quickly pulled the ties on the bag and opened it up, revealing whoever was inside…
Oh my gosh…
I just couldn't believe it…
Right there in front of me was this little blue glassfish, only a little kid, ya know? He was pretty transparent, probably 'cause he as scared.
I noticed a gag over his mouth and I didn't hesitate to remove it from the little guy's mouth.
The moment he could speak again… he just took one look at me and started crying.
"It's ok, little guy." I hushed him. "I'm a good guy. I'm not gonna hurt ya."
But that's when this little kid open his mouth and cried: "Oscar!"
He knew my name? Wait a sec… "Tyler?"
"Oscar!" It was him! He threw his fins around me and cried.
What the shell was he doin' here? "Shh… It's ok, little buddy. I gotcha…" I comforted him. "Everything's gonna be alright now…"
But unfortunately… I was wrong about that…
Tyler then lifted his head of my shoulder and stopped his crying. He looked like he saw a ghost…
"What wrong, Ty?" I looked behind me. "What's…"
I gulped…
I swam in front of Ty and pushed him behind me as I saw the same pinchy dudes that ambushed us on the surface… I was no wonder that Anglerfish swam for it after seeing this place… He must have know that these guys were here…
I felt Tyler cling on to me. "I think they've been following you…" He said.