A/N: Are you guys ready for this? Have you been at the edge of your seats to find out what they're gonna do with the sea monster?
Well, I'm not gonna keep you hear any longer, then!
I'm gonna continue putting the disclaimer here just be sure that everyone are aware of where this story originated.
This story isn't 100 % mine. I have transformed it into a story from an interactive story app called Choices (an app I am completely obsessed with atm) and the creators are Pixelberry Studios.
So here's my disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the plot of this story. All recognizable content belongs to their respective owner. No copyright infringement intended. Names and places have been changed for the purpose of Fanfiction.
{Chapter 12}
I steadied myself in the speedboat with Garrett and Edward. The raging storm swirled above us. Orange lightning flashed amid sheets of pouring rain and an enormous sea monster reared up from the water directly in front of us.
"Sweet mother of god..."
"Swerve! Swerve! SWERVE!" Edward yelled.
Garrett jerked hard on the wheel, just as the sea monster dove toward us, its jaw wide, teeth glistening. I grabbed the edge of the boat as Garrett swerved out of the path of the beast's diving plunge.
The monster slammed into the water right where the boat had just been. A huge wave smashed into the side but I hung on tight.
"Hrrrg! We all good?" Garrett asked over his shoulder.
"For now!" Edward replied.
The sea monster swam out into the water and turned around. In a flash of lightning, I could see the true magnitude of its massive scaled body below the surface.
"We have to turn around! Get back to the island!" I cried out.
"You really think we can outrun this thing?" Garrett yelled over the noise of the engine and storm.
Edward shook his head. "The way that thing swims? No way in hell. Besides, I never back down from a good fight. And killing that thing's the only way to get off this island."
"Edward's right," Garrett agreed. "And if we don't stop that thing now, it'll come for our friends next ... We gotta do it. For them."
They both turned to me.
I hesitated, but I already knew what we had to do. "We fight. You're right. There's no running. Either that thing goes down ... or we do."
The monster dove for another attack. Garrett swerved at the last moment, barely dodging it, and the boat shook and rattled.
"What are we supposed to fight it with? Don't suppose anybody's got a giant fish hook," Garrett called over the noise of the storm.
Edward brought out the flare gun he found earlier. "I've got this flare gun but it won't make a dent against Nessie over here."
"I'll check in the back and see if I can find something! Just hold that thing off!"
As Garrett evaded the monster's colossal jaws, I rummaged through a chest in the back of the boat. I found some fishing tackle, a gas can, a life jacket, and … "Uh ... guys..." Iturned around and held out the package.
Garrett's eyes widened. "Is that ... what I think it is?!"
"If you think it's a half-kilo of Semtex, then yeah," Edward replied, and I felt my heartbeat quicken.
"What?!" I exclaimed.
"You're holding a bomb, Princess."
I realized it then. "The boats at the marina ... they were all blown up."
"This one must've had a bad detonator. Failed to go off."
Nearby, the monster dove beneath the raging water, orange flickers of lightning pulsing around it.
A plan started to form in my head. "Guys ... I have an idea. Garrett, if we got up close to it ... real close ... could you put those football skills to use and throw the explosive into its mouth?"
Garrett gaped at me. "That's one hell of a long throw at a moving target, but yeah, I can do it."
I turned to Edward. "And if it was in ... could you detonate it with a shot from the flare gun?"
Edward looked at the distance, calculating what it would take. "I was the best damn shot in my deployment, in or out of the cockpit ... If anyone can do it, it's me."
"Bella, this has to be the single most insane plan I have heard in my entire life..." Garrett said, but when he saw how serious I was, he nodded. "Let's do it!"
The monster emerged a hundred feet away, gearing up for another charge
"Bella. Take the wheel. Keep the boat steady. Get us up real close ... and when I give the word, swerve."
"Got it." Itook the wheel and handed Garrett the explosive. Edward readied the flare gun. "Here we go."
I held the wheel and directed the boat straight at the sea monster. It reared back with a spray of seawater. I tightened my grip on the wheel and held steady, plunging right at the monster.
"Keep her steady..."
The sea monster sucked in air, lightning pulsing around it. Our boat raced closer ... closer ... I gritted my teeth as the speed boat raced toward the monster like a missile.
"You got this..." Edward encouraged.
I swallowed. "I'm trying."
The monster opened its maw wide, electricity crackling between its teeth.
"NOW!"
I jerked the boat hard to the right, swerving right out of the monster's path. Its gaping mouth whipped down to where we just were.
"Garrett, now!"
Garrett wound up. "Bet those Heisman voters wish they could see this!" He threw the plastic explosive in a perfect arc. It sailed through the storm and stuck against the monster's teeth.
"Edward! Do it! Shoot!" I cried.
Even as the storm raged, as the boat cut through the surging waves, as the monster roared and swiveled toward us, Edward was calm as a gentle breeze. He leveled the flare gun and squinted one eye. "Don't forget to floss, asshole."
He pulled the trigger. The flare streaked directly toward the monster, toward its teeth, toward the explosive.
The Semtex detonated in an earthshaking, fiery blast, tearing off a chunk of the monster's jaw. The creature bellowed a terrible roar of pain and sunk below the waves in retreat.
"We did it! We did it!" I shouted in shock and elation.
"We ... we did." Garrett was equally as shocked as me.
"That actually worked ... huh."
Edward and Garrett looked at each other for a long moment then fist-bumped.
"Damn, Flyboy, that was some good shooting."
"Couldn't have done it without that power arm, QB."
I threw my arms over both of their shoulders. "Can we seriously take a moment to appreciate that we just blasted the hell out of a sea monster?"
Just then, the water rumbled underneath the boat. I could see a light growing and a deep, unearthly rumble.
"What's happening...?" Garrett asked.
"I don't kn—"
The light surged toward us in a blinding pillar of white that shot up through the water and hurled the boat into the air.
I screamed at the top of my lungs. I was airborne, weightless ... and then I hit the water with a hard crack. For a moment, I felt only cold darkness, then I opened my eyes to find myself deep beneath the rushing ocean waves.
I tried to swim, to push my way to the surface, to air, to life, but something, some strange invisible force, dragged me down to the depths.
I looked around desperately and saw two other figures sinking near me. With my last strength, I swam over to Edward. He looked up at me, surprised, then grabbed me and held me close.
We pressed together, our bodies the only warmth against the ocean's cold, as we plunged down.
I knew that this was it. My final moments on earth wrapped up in Edward's arms. Our eyes met and I pressed my mouth to his. We kissed passionately, tenderly, faces close, hearts beating as one, knowing each other's lips for the first and last time.
Together, intertwined, we sank down into the depths ... forever as one ... and the darkness took us.
I gasped and coughed violently. Water spewed from my lungs and out of my mouth. Ifelt warm sand, smelled an ocean breeze and heard the sound of someone else coughing.
I opened my eyes and found myself on a quiet, unfamiliar beach. I was soaking wet, a tangle of seaweed wrapped around my leg, but I was alive.
"What ... where..."
"Bella! … Bella!"
I rolled over and saw Edward sprinting toward me from further down on the beach. Garrett wasn't far behind him.
As soon as Edward reached me, he swept me up in his arms and held me tightly against his body. I could feel his heart racing, and when he leaned away, he pulled my hair away from my face to look into my eyes. Then he pulled me back into his embrace.
"You're alive," he mumbled into my hair, and I tightened my arms around him, thankful he was unscathed.
"You're okay!" Garrett said, relieved, but he was also slightly uncomfortable as he stood witnessing Edward's and my intimate embrace.
"I guess we all are," I said and exhaled with my own relief. I leaned away from Edward, but he refused to let me go completely and held onto my hand. "But what the hell happened?" I asked, wanting to know if the guys had any idea.
Edward and I rose to our feet and I gazed out at the ocean. The water was still and clear, the sky blue. There was no sign of a giant sea monster anywhere in sight.
"Last thing I remember, I was getting pulled down into the water," Garrett said.
"Then ... nothing..." Edward finished.
"And we all woke up here." I looked around the unfamiliar beach again.
"Doesn't make any damn sense."
I mulled it over for a moment. "I think it's fate," I voiced my thoughts out loud. "I mean, no way this was just us getting lucky, right? This has to mean something. I don't care how weird this island is, you don't just go from being dragged into the ocean to waking up unharmed on a beach."
Garrett agreed. "No without something looking out for you."
"Something ... or someone," Edward pointed out suspiciously.
"So what do we do now? Either of you have any idea where we are?" Garrett inquired.
Edward squinted against the sun, a hand over his eyes. "West side of the island, I think ... hard to say more than that. Trees are too thick."
"Let's fan out and look around, see if we can find our way back," Garrett suggested.
Garrett, Edward and I split up, making sure to stay within sight of each other. I strolled down the beach, waves lapping nearby when I heard a soft whispering. Ilooked over and saw a glittering, colorful seashell jutting out of the sand. The whispering seemed to be coming out of it.
"Okay, give me a break..." I said to myself and bent down to lift the shell up. I pressed it to my ear and heard what sounded like a man's voice.
"Koshtak ... zarr ... ballo ... Koshtak ... zarr ... ballo..."
"What the hell..."
"Whatcha got there, Princess?"
I looked over my shoulder and saw Edward and Garrett coming up behind me. "This seashell ... this is gonna sound crazy, but I swear, it sounds like it's saying the weirdest thing..."
I held up the shell to Edward, but now my voice came out of it. "What the hell ... What the hell ... What the hell..."
"Wait ... that's not what it was doing before." I stared at the shell in shock.
"Whoa, how are you doing that? Please, tell me you're some kinda ventriloquist," Edward said and perused the shell warily.
"you're some kinda ventriloquist ... you're some kinda ventriloquist..."
"That's incredible ... hang onto that thing, Bella. Might come in handy," Garrett said.
"Will do. If nothing else, Emmett'll get a big kick out of it," I said, and the guys chuckled at the thought.
"Anyway, I think I've got my bearings," Edward told us. "The resort should be just a short hike this way. Let's move."
The three of us trekked along the shore, Edward holding tightly onto my hand.
"So ... what do you think that thing in the ocean was, anyway?" I asked him.
"Besides a big-ass sea monster?"
"I gotta say, I was all about dinosaurs as a kid, but I don't think I ever saw anything that looked like that," Garrett said from next to us. He wasn't as uncomfortable with Edward's and my display of affection anymore. I guessed he finally understood that I wouldn't reciprocate his budding feelings for me.
"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure I never heard of a Crabbus Gigantus either. You want my theory?" Edward asked, and continued before we could reply. "I think those things were man-made. Experiments. Biological weapons."
Garrett shook his head. "Come on, man, that's a little tin-foil even for you. I mean, why would C—"
Garrett stopped talking as Edward raised his free hand, clenched into a fist, sharply in the air. He leaned forward and whispered. "Listen. In the trees. Someone's coming."
I turned toward the trees and heard it; the soft sound of approaching footsteps. I stayed quiet, reading Edward's body language, and he nodded in appreciation. The two of us crouched down low.
"Sorry, am I missing something? Shouldn't we let our friends know we're here?" Garrett asked.
Edward frowned. "You're assuming those are our friends."
"Aren't you?"
"I never assume."
Just then, the trees rustled and parted and tall figures emerged from the jungle.
"Oh my god..." I said underneath my breath.
There were two of them, a man and a woman. Their skin glowed impossible shades, and strange, ornate masks hid their faces. They held weapons made out of what looked like amber; the man a long sword, the woman a pair of daggers.
"Who ... who are..." Garrett stammered.
"Should we run?" I asked Edward, but he shook his head.
"Too late for that."
"So what do we do?"
He glanced sideways at me. "Hope they're friendly. Fight like hell if they're not."
The woman turned back to the jungle. "Jacorel! Zhartell mishtok. En zallar," she said in a language I'd never heard before.
Another man emerged, taller and even more muscular than the others. "Khell," he replied in the same language.
As soon as I saw him, I was struck by a sudden, profound sense of familiarity. I knew it instantly. He was the man I saw in my vision ... the man in the lion mask. "How ... how can this..."
The other man was wearing an owl mask and he paced toward us, pointing at us with his sword. "Marr nost, koh? Koh?"
"Khell," Lion-masked man said again. Heshoved past the others and strode toward me. I felt a strange tingling in my mind, an itching in my thoughts...
"Dell ast partico. Dell ... ast partico." The lion-masked man said it twice as if it would make it easier for us to understand.
A vision suddenly flashed in my mind; an open palm, a sheathed sword, a knee in the sand.
"Dell ast partico!" he repeated again more harshly.
"Look, Legolas, we don't speak your damn language!" Edward said angrily, but I place a hand on his chest.
"Wait ... I think he wants us to surrender."
Edward blinked. "You serious?"
I nodded. "Trust me." Iraised my hands and dropped to my knees, trying to recite what the leader kept repeating. "Dell ast partico."
The leader nodded, satisfied. "Dell ast partico."
"Someday, you're gonna have to tell me how you knew to do that," Edward said, his voice full of awe.
Garrett and Edward surrendered alongside me. The Owl-masked man and the woman, who was wearing a skull-mask, joined their leader in front of us. The woman raised her daggers and scraped them together. "Arkhala tell mishrap, nostaron," she said, and it sounded threatening.
"Mishrap," the leader replied in a cautious tone.
Another image flashed through my mind; my own body, lying in the sand, eyes wide and throat slit. I gasped loudly, unable to contain it.
"Bella! What's wrong?" Edward asked, instantly tensing up, ready to react with a second's notice.
"I ... I think they ... they want to..."
The leader stepped toward me. He cocked his head to the side, curious. "Anlashokk."
That feeling in my head grew stronger, pain and pleasure at once, something probing deep within. It was almost like he was there, in my mind, trying to break through.
"Just say the word, Bella," Edward said through clenched jaws.
The leader stepped forward and reached out a hand toward me. That feeling in my head was overwhelming and I knew, somehow, that if I just gave into it, I'd be able to communicate. I closed my eyes and sucked in a breath, just as the man's hand touched my forehead.
I felt a surge rush through me, hot and cold at the same time, sizzling and electrifying, a tingle that ran through every last inch of my body.
I fell forward into the sand, gasping, and Edward immediately reacted.
"Bella! What did he do to you? I'll kill him if he h—"
"No ... wait ... wait..."
Visions flashed through my mind.
A city built into trees held together by vines.
A withered crone, her face hidden behind a veil.
A figure in a battered, scarlet spacesuit, striding across a blackened beach.
"Oh my god..."
The leader stepped back and when he talked now, he talked with two voices, the one with his mouth, and the one in my head.
"Anlashokk." Mind-talker.
"That's ... that's me?" I asked.
"Kor nadar lozzel..." This should be impossible…
"Yeah, well, nothing about this oughta be possible."
Edward stared at me. "I'm sorry, did I miss something? Do you understand these guys?"
"I can't explain it. It's like ... like he's in my head."
Garrett looked unsure. "That doesn't sound good."
The masked woman whispered something and the leader shook his head. He gestured at Garrett. "Aquila." The eagle.
"Say what now?" Garrett asked.
He ignored him and gestured at Edward. "Lupus." The wolf.
"Go lupus yourself, Papa Smurf."
He turned to me. "Mun tellok kosh?" But who are you?
"I'm no one," I replied, mostly because I had no idea what answer he wanted from me.
"Partos dast ... Zhen. Natara zokk." The One With No Name ... No. Not you.
The woman barked something angrily, thrusting her dagger my way. Again, I saw my body, now with the hilt jutting out of my chest.
"Listen ... whoever you are ... we don't mean you any harm—" I tried, but the leader only scoffed.
"Pashtak Hydra tess pol." All men of the Hydra bring harm.
I frowned in confusion. "We're not ... we're not with 'the Hydra'..."
"You following this, QB? Because I'm lost," Edward said next to me.
"I don't know ... but I trust Bella."
"Yeah ... me, too."
I focused back on the leader. "Look ... whatever you want ... whatever I can do to convince you ... just tell me."
"Makla tarr." You must come with me.
"M ... me?"
"Torrlazz." All of you.
"What'd he say?" Garrett asked, having read the fear in my voice.
"He wants us to come with him. All of us," I told him.
"Like hell—" Edward started to protest, but Garrett stopped him.
"I don't know if we have a choice, Edward. Something tells me Skull Kid over here is good with those knives..."
"Lash camaa..." the woman muttered.
"Koh. Zoh mishrap shah." Yes. You come with us, or you die here.
"Why?" I questioned. "Why is it so important that we come with you?"
The leader stepped back and pressed two fingers to his temple. Everything flashed white ... and then I saw it. The earth from space as if I was suddenly aboard a spaceship.
The leader's voice spoke, booming at me as if from the cosmos. "If you don't come..."
I saw a huge explosion going off on earth with a force wave of fire spreading all over the world, leaving only dead wasteland and oceans of lava behind.
I jerked out of the vision with a start.
"What'd you see?"
I tried to answer Garrett, but it was impossible to explain. "It was ... I mean, it was ... I think we should go with him, guys. If we don't ... I think something bad will happen. Really bad."
"How bad?" Edward asked.
"Like ... apocalypse bad."
Garrett and Edward looked at each other.
Edward conceded first. "Alright. It still seems crazy to me, but I'll follow your lead, Bella."
"Same."
The woman turned away angrily, arms folded across her chest. The leader extended his hand to me and I reached out to take it.
"GET AWAY FROM THEM!"
I looked up to see Peter charging down the beach from the jungle, clutching a huge rock.
"NO! Wait!" I cried at him, but before my words reached him, Peter was already in motion. He wound up and hurled the rock, right at the leader's mask...
The leader's golden eyes met mine, and I saw his face for the first time.
The woman spun and hurled one of her daggers. It flitted through the air and ripped open the side of Peter's arm. He screamed in response to the sudden pain.
"Peter, no!" Garrett dove forward, grabbing the woman by the waist and tackling her down into the sand. Her other dagger tumbled out of her hand.
The man in the owl mask swiveled to help her, but now Edward moved. In one fluid motion, he rolled across the beach, grabbed a driftwood log, and smashed it across the masked man's head.
The leader turned to me, eyes flaring with fury. "Metlakon." Traitor.
"No, listen, it's not like that," I said in an attempt to correct the mistake that had occurred. But it was too late. Edward grabbed me by the arm, pulling me toward the jungle where our friends waited.
"Come on, Bella! RUN!" he said, and I pushed my legs to keep up with his longer strides.
Garrett sprung up and ran after us. Behind him, the skull-masked woman scrambled to her feet. "Go go GO!" he yelled at us.
The three of us rushed into the trees and were joined by Peter, who clutched his bloody arm. Emmett and Kate were waiting for us there.
"Come on! Run!" Kate cried out.
"Before they catch up!" Emmett echoed.
We all sprinted through the jungle, racing back to the hotel. I couldn't see what was happening behind us, but I heard the strange trio shouting and running.
"Who the hell were those people?" Peter asked, but I felt that this was not the time to ask questions.
"Ask Bella! She's the one who mind-melded with them!" Edward replied harshly. I wasn't sure if he was mad at me for trying to cooperate with the strangers.
"She what in the who?" Emmett asked, but I ignored all three of them.
"Shut up and keep running!" Kate said in my place, and I was grateful for that.
I sprinted as hard as I could. A heavy, low-hanging branch loomed in front of me and I ducked low, sliding clean under it, then, a thick tree root stuck up from the ground right in front of me, but I jumped, neatly clearing that too.
We slammed through the thick brush and emerged outside The Ethereal, where our other friends were all standing just inside the big metal gate to the resort.
"What ... what's happening?" Victoria asked.
"The gate! Open the gate! Now!" Garrett yelled at them.
Leah and Alice dove forward, pulling the gate open, letting the group in.
"Now close it!" Edward ordered and collapsed on the ground.
They pulled the gate shut and barred it, closing off the hotel and blocking our pursuers. I collapse alongside Edward.
"Are we good? Are we safe?" Emmett asked.
"Safe from what? What happened out there?" Victoria's voice was filled with confusion and fear.
I turned to look out through the bars. There, in the thick jungle, I could just barely make out a man's shape, glowering at me with a cold fire in his eyes, and in my head, I heard his voice.
"Makla ... est razzen..." You cannot hide. You cannot run. We WILL take you ... We MUST.
I blinked, and the man was gone. We all stood there outside the hotel, panting, gasping, and staring out into the jungle.
"Would someone please tell me what's going on here?" Tanya exclaimed in frustration at being left out of the loop.
"The enemy is out there..." Edward answered her.
"And they're coming for us," I finished.
A/N: So do you feel you have more questions now or are things starting to make any sense at all? Like the force that dragged Victoria down now tried to drag down Edward, Bella, and Garrett, but they got away somehow … how? Who are these new people on the island? Why is it so important that our gang goes with them? And most importantly, what will happen now?
Edward and Bella shared their first kiss under the water, so they're definitely growing closer, but do you think he can trust her when she displays that weird ability of hers?
1 review equals 1 teaser of ch. 13 for ya! ;-)
Until then,
Stay Awesome!
