Shattered Soul

Chapter 13- Fishnapped

I woke up earlier than usual; I didn't want to have another "episode" with Sonia. I noticed Lenny wasn't in here, neither were Angie or Oscar.

"You're finally awake," I heard Sonia's voice; I turned around and saw her floating a few steps away.

"Where's Len?" I inquired

"He's at the Whale Wash. He got a job there as a whale-washing dolphin,"

"Right…" I muttered under my breath, remembering Lenny's disguise.

I decided to keep an eye on Lenny; actually, I also wanted to see how the Whale Wash worked, I had never been there.

"You have never been to the Whale Wash?" Sonia inquired as we swam out of the Storage Room.

"… Well, once, but I was too young to remember." I replied, "Speaking of which, how's Len doing?"

"Fine. He's still sad about your mother, but he's not letting it get into his head,"

I looked at her in confusion

"… It means he's not getting depressed," Sonia rolled her eyes

I nodded accepting the answer as we entered the Whale Wash, unseen like always. I was impressed with all the machinery in there, and I must admit those whales left very clean. I noticed Lenny, disguised for obvious reasons, was apparently waxing a turtle with some sea turtles. I noticed a small fish carrying Valentine Day's presents swam by… I immediately recognized the "Shark Slayer". I resisted the urge to go and scare the hell out of him; Lenny turned to look at him, distracted from the waxing.

"Hey, Oscar!" he called

"I can't talk!" Oscar turned around, "I gotta find Angie! I need to tell her I love her!"

I was quite surprised. That Oscar guy had apparently been moved by yesterday's little scene. I followed him and Lenny, ignoring the cheers from the other fish. I noticed two jellyfish on the phone booth, for some reason it sent a chill down my spine again.

"Is something wrong?" Sonia sat in my head

"I have a bad feeling about this…" I replied in a serious tone, despite I had the urge to laugh at those jellyfish. Then I saw a puffer fish swimming towards them with an annoyed look on his face. I recognized him; it was Sykes.

"Do know him?" Sonia asked once again

"He used to work for Pop until… two days ago…" I joked

"How many times do I have to tell you?" I heard him say in annoyance to the jellyfish, "it's 'gosh'! 'You get a whale of a wash, and the price, oh, my gosh´!"

"Me gets it man," one of the jellyfish replied

When the telephone rang, the other jellyfish picked the call.

"Whale wash?"

The other jellyfish snatched it away, "rhymes with gosh"

Sykes angrily snatched the phone from the jellyfish, "give me that! Get out of here! Go be useless somewhere else!"

The two jellyfish left in laughter, and Oscar and Lenny got closer. I did as well, wondering why Angie wasn't in there.

"Sykes, where's Angie?" Oscar inquired while looking around for the pink angelfish.

Sykes hadn't time to answer, since the telephone rang again.

"Whale wash, a whale of a wash…" he seemed to realize it was not a client calling, he turned towards Oscar, "it's for you,"

Oscar took the phone from Sykes, Lenny and I got closer to listen.

"Hello?" Oscar spoke up

"Is this the Sharkslayer?" I heard, recognizing Luca's voice. Why did he call here?

"Yeah, who is it?"

"It's Luca the oct… I mean, forget about it! Now you follow these Instructions to the letter, ok?"

"Oh, no…" I muttered under my breath, knowing what that meant.

"What is it?" Sonia inquired

"They have Angie…"

"What?"

I got it now. That's the reason I felt the chill last night, I had felt Angie was in now, Oscar had found the package and was holding a necklace of pink pearls; Sonia understood.

"There's a sit-down in one hour," I heard Luca

"Who is it?" Lenny inquired

"Shh!" Oscar replied and put the phone back in his ear

"Be there, I you don't wanna see her sleeping with the fishes... The dead ones," Luca spoke again, "now, nod your head if you understand,"

I rolled my eyes; Luca has not changed a little bit. Oscar hung up the phone with an ashamed look on his face.

"They got Angie, and they want a sit-down…" he muttered in regret, "I never meant for anybody to get hurt, especially not Angie… this is all my fault,"

"Classic move, I've seen it a thousand times," Sykes spoke up in sadness

Lenny frowned, "they take the thing you love the most, and then they use it against you."

"What's a sit-down?" Sonia inquired in confusion

"A meeting. That's how Pop handles the reef… sometimes. Other times he prefers to use the 'bad way'." I explained

"We gotta go to that sit-down and we gotta save her," Oscar finally spoke and stood from the chair he had sat on.

"Whoa! Look, I wanna save Angie, too!" Lenny quickly swam in front of Oscar to stop him, "but I can't waltz in and say: 'hey, Pop. I'm a dolphin!"

"Lenny?" Sykes recognized my brother

"And my friend the Sharks layer's a fake!"

"Fake?" now the puffer fish turned towards Oscar in confusion.

"We're gonna need a better plan than that!"

Sykes laughed nervously, "This is a joke, right? Because I told Lino…"

Then he froze with a 'oh, no, I'm screwed' face. I was trying not to laugh.

"Hey, get ready you're going to love this," I could barely warn Sonia about what was coming…

Sykes inflated.

"Tell me that's not Lenny!" he spoke in a terrified, high-pitched voice, "tell me you're a real Sharkslayer! PLEASE!"

Oscar looked down guiltily.

"I'm sorry, Sykes… I'm not."

Suddenly, his face lit up and a grin drew on his face.

"… but the sharks don't know that," he spoke.

"This is going to bring trouble," I muttered under my breath.

"Hey, since when do you care about getting into trouble?" Sonia teased me.

"Actually, I don't. But I'm not the one who will get into trouble… if Pop finds out Lenny is dressed as a dolphin, he's going to be in for big trouble…"

I hoped Oscar's plan would work.