Shattered Soul

Chapter 9- Tomb Memories

We followed Angie into the heart of the reef; it was still early, so the streets were still empty. There were only a few fishes around, and it was a bit dark. Seeing the other fishes made me fell hungry… wait, I can't be hungry. Ghosts don't eat, do they? Anyway, we followed Angie lower into the reef to a door that was the size of our doors. However, something was still bothering me.

"Hey, Sonia," I whispered

"What is it?" she replied swimming next to me

"How are we supposed to find my body? And how is that dolphin supposed to follow us?"

"Listen, don't worry about your body. I can link your mind to it temporally and you will swim to its location. And Angie can give the Vision to her dolphin friend temporally, at least until we found your body and he can bring it back."

I looked towards Angie, and she was still knocking the door.

"Hurley, are you home?" she was calling

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" an irritated voice replied from behind the door.

Then, a dolphin of about twenty two years opened the door. He had silver skin with a white underbelly, and black rings around his violet eyes. I noticed he had a scar on his forehead.

"Oh, it's you, Angie" Hurley yawned

"Listen, Hurley, sorry for waking you up this early but I need a favor," Angie explained

"What kind of favor?"

"You're not going to believe this, but…" Angie swam closer to Hurley's ear, "I'm kinda helping the ghost of a shark to revive,"

Hurley gave Angie a confused look, but it was more like an incredulous look.

"Hey, don't look at me as if I was crazy!" Angie complained annoyed

"Hey, are you alright?" Hurley touched Angie's forehead, "do you have fever or something?"

"Hurley, I'm fine! I'm telling you the truth!"

Sonia swam closer to Angie, and tapped her shoulder.

"Angie, touch Hurley's forehead," she told her

"Why?" Angie replied, ignoring the look Hurley was giving her

"Just do it, and I'll do the rest,"

"Angela, you're freaking me out," Hurley commented

"What about me?" I growled softly

"First let Angie give him the Vision, then I'll deal with you," Sonia replied in annoyance

Angie did as Sonia told her and swam towards Hurley's head, then placed her fin on his forehead.

"Angie, what are you-?"

Before Hurley could finish his sentence, however, Sonia placed her own fin over' Angie's and Hurley's eyes glew a pure white. After a while, his eyes went back to their shade of violet. However, he set his eyes on me… he could see me now? I guess so, because he swam back a few steps in shock.

"A-Angie…" he mumbled in shock while pointing at me

"I told you," Angie crossed her fins

"So? Do you believe her now?" Sonia swam to the frightened dolphin's face

"AH!" poor Hurley yelped and almost fell on his back

"Hurley, these are Sonia and Frankie," Angie pointed at Sonia and me respectively, "these are the ghosts I talked you about,"

"I see…" Hurley mumbled in shock, before taking his eyes from me to Angie, "What favor do you need?"

"See, Sonia says there's a way to bring Frankie back to life. But for that we need his body,"

"Yeah, what does have to do with me?"

"That's the problem, pal!" I growled, "Since we're ghosts, we can't touch objects. We need somebody who is alive and can touch things, and as you can see, Angie here's too small,"

"Wait a minute! Are you Frankie? The son of Don Lino?" Hurley narrowed his eyes at me

"Yes, I am,"

"I had heard you had died, but I never thought I would see your ghost hanging out around here,"

I sighed in irritation.

"Hey, Hurley, he had a bad temper so I would try not to make him angry if I were you," Sonia tried to break the tension

"I just noticed," Hurley replied with an apologetic expression, "so? Where is his body buried?"

"Actually, sharks don't bury their dead. They throw them into the bottom of the sea and eventually the currents carry it off somewhere,"

"And how are we supposed to find it?"

"Leave that to us,"

Sonia swam up to my face

"Listen, I will link you to your body so that you can swim to its location. Hurley will follow you, ad when you find your body, bring it back here where no one can find it. Angie and I will go to make the potion." She instructed

"And then what?" I inquired

"We'll meet you where you take your body, and don't worry. Don't forget ghosts can teleport,"

I laughed silently. Sonia touched my forehead…

And everything went black…

When I recovered my senses, I was no longer in the reef, but in an empty field of water and sand. There were a few rocks around, but what called my attention was what appeared to be the body of a shark wrapped in bandages… wait a minute, the body of a shark? Was that my body? I noticed Hurley was next to me, looking over at my body. Then he turned to look at me

"Hey, is that…?" he whispered

"… I'm not sure… could you remove the bandages from the face?" I turned to look at him

Hurley nodded and swam towards the body; I noticed the bandages were still white. Hurley started to wrap the bandages of the head… and when the head was unwrapped, my heart skipped a beat.

It was my body.

I breathed deeply. My face was serene, as if I was just sleeping. But it had no signs of decomposition, and it looked sleek. Sonia had said that my body wouldn't decompose until my soul passed on…

"Hey, Frank," I heard Hurley's voice

"What is it?" I inquired softly while turning to look at him.

He was looking at my body, to my dorsal fin, to be more precise. He was staring at a large scar on it; that scar…

"What happened to you? How did you get that scar?" he asked, his eyes showing a great curiosity

"… You really want to know?"

The dolphin nodded slowly.

"It happened when my brother, Lenny, was four…"

I was swimming home from school. Everything around me was calm, for the moment. However, it surprised me that Lenny had not swum after me, like he usually did. He still had not his front teeth, so I had to look out for him. After a while, I heard someone calling my name…

"Frankie!" I recognized my little brother's voice

I turned around and noticed that, indeed, Lenny was swimming towards me in a hurry. I barely had time to react when Lenny quickly swam behind me and peeked his head, a terrorized look on his face.

"What's wrong?" I asked him in confusion

The answer soon swam into my field of vision. Five young shark pups about my age, maybe older, were swimming at top speed towards us. I understood what was going on; they were after my brother, but not to have a chat, I was sure.

When they stopped a few steps from us, I recognized them immediately; Paolo and his gang. Actually that was not the first time we encountered, they were quite the bullies. I admit, I was a bully too, but not as bad as them.

"Hey, shrimp face," I greeted coldly

"Well, look who it is," Paolo laughed sarcastically, "hey, Franklin. Have you seen a guppy around here?"

I knew that he was talking about Lenny, who was still hiding behind me.

"Yes, I did. But I'm not letting you put your nasty fins on him," I growled threateningly

"Hey, in case you're forgetting, we're five against one,"

"Afraid to fight on your own?"

That was it, that was the last straw. Paolo bared his teeth at me and turned to see the other four pups.

"Get him!" he growled

"Lenny, go hide!" I ordered Lenny as I gently pushed him away

Lenny quickly swam out of sight; before the others could go after him, I tackled them to try and slow them down, but suddenly I felt a sharp pain on my tail. I turned and realized one of the other pups had dug his teeth on my tail; I growled in pain and snapped my teeth at him. When I got free of his teeth, I dug my own teeth on his dorsal fin. Blood came out of the mark teeth on my tail; I dug my tail on another of Paolo's bullies. Suddenly, I whirled around to the direction Lenny had swum and was horrified to see that Paolo and the other two were swimming after him.

"LENNY!" I swam after them as fast as I could.

I had a hard time swimming after them, as speed was not my forte. However, I was determined to protect Lenny, despite my tail was killing me. I saw in horror how Paolo had caught up to Lenny and had pinned him to the ground.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" I screamed in rage and tackled Paolo away from Lenny. But I did I grave mistake; I let down my guard when I turned to see if Lenny was okay. When I realized, it was too late; Paolo dug his teeth into my dorsal fin. I felt a terrible pain; I couldn't contain a scream of anger and pain.

"Frankie!" I hear my little brother's frightened voice

I could hardly shake Paolo off, but I did. Then I swam towards Lenny and blocked those three from getting any closer to him. My tail and dorsal fin were bleeding, but I didn't care. I bared my teeth at them as Lenny hid behind me again…

However, suddenly, an expression of fear appeared on the faces of Paolo and his goons. They swam a few steps back as if they had seen a ghost. When I turned around to see what had scared them, I saw a very familiar shark giving them a very severe look.

"Pop…" I whispered in exhaustion and surprise

"S-sir…" Paolo's confidence had quickly evaporated, "we were just…"

"Listen, kid. You lay one fin on my kids again; I'll have a little talk with your parents. Capiche?" Pop spoke up with a VERY severe tone

Paolo nodded slowly and darted away with his goons after him. Pop turned to look at him, his face changed into a worried face.

"Are you two alright?" he asked in worry, but he knew I was definitely NOT alright when he noticed I was bleeding. I was already feeling exhausted due to the loss of blood. Lenny quickly swam towards Pop and hugged him tightly, nuzzling against his chest.

"Daddy, I'm scared!" he sobbed

"There, there, it's alright," Pop wrapped his fins around Lenny, "I'm here…"

He then turned to look at me.

"What happened, Frankie?" he inquired

"You know, Paolo and his goons…"

Pop nodded, understanding.

"My boys will pay a little visit to his parents later, right now we have to focus on your injuries."

I nodded slowly, but my tail was killing me. Besides, I didn't feel like swimming right now. Pop had to carry me all the way to the ocean liner, but he tried not to move me very much. When Mom saw me, she almost had a heart attack.

"Lino, what happened?" she almost yelled while swimming closer to take a look at me

"I'll explain you later! Where's Doc?" Pop replied in alarm

"He's in his office!"

Pop took me with Doc while Lenny stayed with Mom…