Chapter 3: Fish out of Water

Everyone seems to be giving up hope except for Luca. Meanwhile, Alberto wakes up in some sort of warehouse.

"ANDIAMO!"

SPLASH! Luca ducked against the resulting ocean spray. He leaned over the cliff, where at the bottom Alberto resurfaced, waving at him.

"Come on, Luca!" He called, and Luca grinned. He took twenty steps back, took a deep breath, and charged for the cliff's edge. However as he fast approached, he lost his nerve and fell clumsily over the edge with a squawk.

When he swam back up, Alberto was laughing. "Nice fall!"

Luca laughed, too. "Hey, I just don't want to faceplant like last time!"

Alberto flicked his tail. "You faceplant because you hesitate!"

Luca tossed water at Alberto. Alberto dunked himself under, and Luca chased after him.

"Come and get me!" Alberto challenged, and like a bullet he cut seamlessly through the sea. Luca faltered slightly then hurried after him.

"Wait!" Luca yelled. He was quickly falling behind. "Alberto, slow down! You know I'm not as fast a swimmer as you!"

Alberto's laughs echoed in the blue expanse. Luca came to a stop, having lost sight of his friend. "Alberto?" A bit desperately, he swam quickly around reefs and rock faces. "Alberto!"

He approached a high rock that jutted out of the water. Bunching his muscles, Luca cleared the top of it and landed smoothly on land. The sun dried him almost instantly and he cupped both hands over his mouth. "Alberto! You up here?"

The outskirts of Portorosso were empty. Clouds were suddenly hiding the sun. Across the beach, Luca at last spotted the curly hair of Alberto, his back to him. Relieved, Luca hurried to meet him.

"Ha, ha!" He reached to grab his friend by the wrist. "I got you–!"

Alberto jerked his hand away. Luca flinched, struck dumb. Alberto turned to look at him, his expression unreadable.

"Why'd you do it?" He asked.

Luca stared back. "Do what?"

"Go to Genova," Alberto explained. "Leave me behind."

"I–" Luca stuttered, then steadied himself. "Alberto, that's not what happened."

But Alberto was leaving. "Whatever."

"Wait!" Luca grabbed him by the hand. "Why are you acting like this? It was your idea for me to go to school–"

"Yeah, but I didn't think you'd stay gone forever!" Alberto snapped. "What kind of friend leaves their other friend behind? You knew I didn't want to go–"

"And you knew it was my dream to go," Luca shot back. "And I wasn't going to be gone forever. It's not my fault you're afraid of change!"

Alberto sent Luca a hateful glare. "Afraid, huh?" He climbed onto a vespa, one that Luca hadn't realized was there until now. On the back of the vespa was Alberto's suitcase. "Seeing as you're too busy playing schoolhouse with Guilia, I'll just see the world on my own."

"Alberto–" Luca started.

"How's that for afraid?" Alberto said, revving the engine.

"Alberto, stop!" Luca cried, but the vespa roared over him. Alberto sped off down the beach, and Luca ran after him. "WAIT! ALBERTO, STOP! COME BACK!"

The vespa was a mere red dot on the horizon. Luca sunk his knees in the sand. "I'm sorry," he whimpered, holding his head in his hands. "Alberto, I'm sorry for leaving you. Please come back…"

Luca sat bolt upright. He gasped, holding a hand against his fast beating heart. He was fine; everything was fine. He was in his room in the Portorosso bay. It had all been a dream.

Only, it wasn't. Alberto really was gone.

A day had passed since he and Giulia returned. From sunrise to sunset yesterday, Luca and the others had scoured inside and outside of Portorosso, searching high and low for where Alberto might be. They weren't any closer to finding him. Luca's hopes had dwindled, but he wasn't about to give up.

Floating into the den's main room, Luca barely acknowledged his parents, his dad tending to his crab collection and his mom preparing breakfast.

"Morning, Luca." Daniela kissed his forehead, smiling. Luca didn't react. Her smile faltered. "Come on, have some breakfast."

Listlessly Luca sat at the table. He stared at the seaweed wraps. They didn't look the least bit appetizing, and not only because surface food was infinitely better.

"Did you sleep okay?" Daniela asked.

Luca kept his eyes on his food. "Fine, mom."

Daniela frowned deeply. She glanced at Lorenzo for support, who looked back at her helplessly. She cleared her throat. "Well, we were going to head up to the surface soon. Massimo invited us over, and we thought it was a good time for us to have a little… talk."

She eyed her husband as she said this. Luca noticed this exchange and glanced back and forth at them. "What's going on?"

"Luca," Lorenzo started, searching for words. "It's… well, it's Alberto. We wanted to talk about why no one has found him."

So far, no one had tried suggesting that Alberto ran away of his own accord since the night Luca went to the lighthouse. Luca knew it was still in the back of his parents' minds.

"Because we haven't looked in the right place," Luca said, and Lorenzo sighed.

"I think this is more complicated than that, buddy." He set down his prized crab, coming next to Luca and hovering with him around the room. "We need to consider all the possibilities if we want to find the truth, right? So, your mother and I were talking…"

"Alberto didn't run away." Luca said flatly.

Lorenzo sputtered. "I didn't say he ran away."

"You were leading up to it," Luca accused.

"Well, what other solution is there? Given his background I think it's a logical conclusion–"

"Luca, your father is right." Daniela said, grabbing both their attention. "I know you want to believe in your friend. But we need to face the evidence. It's possible that, at least for the time being, Alberto doesn't want to be found."

Luca sat up quickly. "That's not true."

Daniela raised her arms. "Just hear us out. I don't want you running yourself to exhaustion worrying over this."

Luca loomed over her. "So you're just going to give up?"

Daniela loomed over him. "Luca, calm down–"

"You don't know what you're talking about," Luca went on. "None of you do!"

He abandoned the table and left the cove. Lorenzo recovered his senses first.

"Now, hold on one minute, young man–!" He scolded, but was ignored. Luca swam past the coral reef, not looking at or responding to any of the passing neighbors. He didn't know where he was going– he just needed to get away, to think.

"Hm, hm hm hm hm…"

Luca looked up, finding himself in a sand field. His grandma Libera was making sweeping gestures over the sand, picking up small clams and placing them back down again. He blinked, wondering if he should leave her to it.

Without turning, Libera said, "Fine morning, isn't it, Bubble?"

Luca tilted his head. His anger was dulled by puzzlement. "Grandma, what are you doing?"

"Looking for sea cucumbers." Libera started digging a little deeper into the pebbles. "It's never too early for a snack."

Luca stayed silent. He couldn't believe she could care about snacks at such a time. These emotions must have shown on his face, for his grandmother paused her digging. She straightened up in front of him. "What's on your mind?"

"Nothing." Luca lied.

Libera watched him expectantly. Five seconds later, Luca spilled.

"It's– it's Alberto." His eyebrows creased together. "Mom and dad don't understand. They think since he's already tried leaving once, that this time he did it for good."

His grandma hummed, sitting on a nearby rock. "And what do you think happened?"

Luca hesitated. Then he maneuvered to sit next to her. "I don't know. I just don't think he ran away. I mean– I sort of did," he admitted, shame prickling at his gills. "At first. But I've been thinking about it, and something just doesn't seem right…"

Now that he started talking, he couldn't get himself to stop. He told her about his nightmare and about how his parents wanted him to stop looking. He told her that he, in a way, felt responsible for Alberto's disappearance, which might not have happened had he not left for Genova. Libera stayed still, listening to him.

"...Grandma, why would Alberto do something like that?" Luca asked finally. His voice was tight from everything he had just confessed. Libera merely raised her eyebrows at him. Slowly Luca continued. "It makes no sense. Alberto loves Portorosso, he would never just leave."

He thought a little harder about it. If Alberto didn't run away, then what were the other options? That he was lost? Luca could laugh at that; Alberto knew the town and the bay better than most sea monsters. So, if he didn't run away, and he wasn't lost, then…

Luca's heart dropped like a stone. What if Alberto had no choice but to leave? An icy feeling settled in the pit of his stomach.

"Grandma," Luca started, his voice shaky. "What if… what if Alberto didn't want to leave?"

Slowly Libera nodded. "Alberto's a complicated young man, but there's no denying his heart."

Luca waited for her to say more, but she didn't. He held his tail in his hands. "Are you saying he was taken?"

Libera locked a steady gaze with him. "If that's what you think happened, what would you do about it?"

It all made sense. Fully convinced of it, Luca threw his arms around Libera. "Thank you, Grandma. Thank you!" He pulled back just as quickly and darted across the bay.

"Where are you going?" Libera called, though she already knew the answer.

"To the surface," Luca threw over his shoulder. "I'm going to find Alberto!"

He became a turquoise shape in the distance. Libera chuckled to herself. "That's my little guppy."

Alberto got the sensation that he was floating.

No… not floating. He was suspended in… something. A hammock?

He twitched, having not the strength to do much else. He was dead weight. His arms and legs felt like jelly. To top it all off, his head felt like it had been stuffed with feathers.

Strange noises filled his ears. Some of it was familiar, and others were sounds he'd never heard before. There was one that reminded him of a vespa, but much louder. Another sound reminded him of a motorboat, which was silly. Since when did motorboats run on land?

It was too confusing. The swaying lulled him back to sleep.

The next time Alberto woke, he was a bit more lucid.

Where was he? What was he doing?

He was still suspended. A sense of urgency nagged at the corner of his mind.

Wake up, his mind told him.

Silenzio Bruno, Alberto grumbled.

WAKE UP, his mind argued, and Alberto opened his eyes.

At first he didn't see anything. He rubbed his face. He felt scales. Why was he wet? Had he forgotten to shut the window last night? The sky must have been leaking. He opened his eyes a second time.

He was lying in a nylon net with water up to his stomach. He stared all around the small space, not comprehending. Above him, the net tied in a knot, and past that he could see a metal arm it was suspended from. Alberto scrunched his face, trying to think.

A loud bell startled him.

There were voices. People talked conversationally with one another. What was going on?

He struggled to sit up. His arms wobbled under his weight and he slid back down.

"What happened?"

"I think it's awake."

Alberto didn't like the sound of that. More forcefully, he made another attempt to stand. He slipped on his back again.

One of the men sounded nervous. "Should we put him to sleep again?"

"No… it's too unpredictable. We have no idea of the side effects it could have."

At least that was good news. If Alberto had any chance at escape, the last thing he needed was to be shot by another one of… those darts…

He held his head between his hands. His memories came rushing back like a migraine. Flavio and Federico. They had acted like his friends, then drugged him and captured him. Alberto felt the spot he had been shot in. At the time, he had thought he was dying. He remembered more, like being transported across town in… a cooler? But that part was a bit fuzzy.

His stomach flared in anger. How could he have been so stupid? He knew they weren't from Portorosso. Why hadn't he been more careful?

Massimo must have been out of his mind with worry. Of course, Alberto had no idea how much time had passed. Hopefully not much. He struggled some more.

"He looks sort of agitated," The worried man's voice rose again.

"Ah… better let it down." The other agreed.

The net lurched sideways. Alberto tensed as he swung in one direction, then stopped. There was a loud snap and he fell, splashing into water.

A rush of adrenaline hit him. Alberto swam as fast as he'd ever swam before, only to meet a wall. He swam along the wall and came upon another, and following that one he found another. He backed up and spun full-circle.

He wasn't in the sea. He was in a tank.

"There you go, little guy!" A dusty-blond man called, and Alberto looked up, squinting against the white sky. "You can stretch your fins a bit now."

"Let me go!" Alberto yelled, but a piece of machinery yelled over him. A lid was being dropped over the top of the tank, and his world got darker and darker until he could see almost nothing.

It must have been an hour since he'd been dropped in the tank.

Alberto rammed into the wall for probably the hundredth time. Unsuccessful in even making a mark, other than on his arm, he abandoned the escape attempt, swimming in circles.

What did the people want with him? They didn't seem like they meant any harm. Alberto had heard stories of sea monsters being captured for their unique features, whether it be for their tails or fins. Somehow, this didn't seem to be the case.

"Ugh!" He folded his arms and shoved his back against the wall. He let himself sink to the floor cross-legged, thinking.

Judging by the brightness of the sky earlier, it was somewhere around mid-afternoon. Massimo might have been out fishing at this time. He had no idea what Giulia and Luca would be doing. Probably studying math. Or maybe reading books about the universe. He remembered Luca telling him all about his different school subjects in one of his letters.

His letters! Alberto realized with a jolt he had an unfinished letter for Luca. It was supposed to be finished and sent out days ago. He hoped Luca wouldn't mind not getting it on time. He made a promise then and there, that as soon as he got back to Portorosso, he was going to finish that letter, regaling Luca with his latest sea adventure of how he narrowly escaped from certain peril–

The tank tilted unexpectedly. He slammed into one side, gushes of water slapping after him. The tank tilted again, and he was shoved on the opposite wall. The tank made one final, jerky movement by dropping flat on a solid floor, reeling Alberto right to the roof.

Alberto rubbed his head indignantly. As soon as he got out of there, he was going to give the humans a piece of his mind.

"Stai attento!" Someone shouted in angry Italian.

"Sorry," Another said sheepishly. "It's my first day–"

"Whatever," The other grunted. "Just help me get this off."

The tank creaked and groaned. A shaft of dazzling light seeped inside. As soon as the opening was wide enough, Alberto pulled up over the side.

"What's wrong with you, stupido?" He shouted with a fist in the air. Massimo had at last explained to him what the phrase actually meant. He was pretty proud to use it in the correct context for once.

The men were so surprised they stumbled over each other. "You– you can talk!" One of them squawked, and Alberto looked at him.

"So can you," he said. Then he waved. "Ciao!"

Alberto leapt over their heads and landed clumsily on concrete. He moved in a daze and, picking the only direction that didn't have people in it, he ran.

Everything was slightly blurry. Alberto tripped over his feet a few times. Maybe it was gravity getting to him, but his limbs felt a lot heavier and more awkward than normal. Surely whatever was in that dart had worn off by now?

Shouting voices followed him, and ignoring his aching limbs Alberto kept going.

He was in some sort of warehouse. Strange machines and human inventions dotted the darkened floor and walls. But the smell was most prominent.

Alberto stopped, coughing. He'd recognize the smell of dead fish anywhere. There were a few banks in the Portorosso bay that tended to wash up their bodies. Only here, the smell had to be a hundred times stronger. He hid behind an unoccupied tank to get a better look around.

He felt his insides slowly dissolve.

Crates and crates of fish piled on top of each other. Conveyor belts transporting them from one end of the building to another. A large vat where they were all dumped into, to be crushed by an enormous guillotine.

A rusted sign hung over the entire span of one wall. Prime Sea Life – Let Your Cat Eat REAL Seafood!

He wasn't in a warehouse. He was in a factory.

It was every guppy's worst nightmare. It was those old sea stories that mothers would tell their children if they didn't behave. 'If you swim too far from the den, the land monsters will take you to the canning factory!' Never in Alberto's life would he think it was real.

Only, it was real. And he was standing in the middle of it.

Alberto thought he might be sick. He backed away among the machines, hearing his captors but not entirely certain where they were.

"Where'd he go?"

"I think this way."

"Come out, come out, wherever you are…"

A horrible mixture of water and something else covered the floor. It was like trying to run on butter. Alberto slipped very quickly and made a horrifyingly loud crash against a table of butcher knives.

"You hear that?"

"Over there!"

Alberto slipped some more and fell on his elbows. It was a miracle none of the knives fell on him. Trying to be careful but also trying to hurry, Alberto clambered away from the table, away from the water mixture.

The moisture in the air was too thick for him to dry off. Rounding a corner, Alberto dove behind a seemingly dormant piece of machinery to catch his breath.

Where was the exit? This place was a maze. Alberto couldn't even remember which direction he started from. He dared to glance around the side of the machine.

A cleaver embedded itself inches away from his nose. His scales on end, Alberto fled.

More cleavers flung past on either side. Alberto flung himself up a catwalk and ran along it. It was a dead end. Behind him, the butcher approached at an easy pace.

"Nice try," the butcher said in a thick Italian accent. He sliced his cleavers together as he walked, each piercing sound causing Alberto to flinch. "You're not the first sea monster I've had to wrangle into submission."

There was nowhere to run. A blockade behind him, a madman in front of him, and a thirteen meter drop beneath him. For a second, Alberto glanced down. He was right over the conveyor belts.

"Actually, we prefer the term 'sea folk,'" Alberto said, then he jumped on the railing. "ANDIAMO!"

"Hey–!" The butcher lunged for him, but Alberto was already falling. He cannonballed down, down, and into a crate full of fish.

It was harder than he expected to get out of it. Alberto 'swam' to the top with difficulty, trying hard not to focus on the stench. The conveyor belt was approaching the vat. Alberto struggled to find the crate edge, his movements getting increasingly desperate. At last he got a hold of it, and he launched himself out just as the crate started tipping over.

Just ahead, a burst of sunlight fell in the factory as two doors were opened. Running inside were more factory workers, but behind them was freedom. In a split second, Alberto chose the path of crazy.

He swerved around one person. "'Scuse me!" He narrowly avoided another one throwing a net. "Coming through!" Another one ran to tackle him, and he managed to grab Alberto's tail. Unfortunately for him, he grabbed the sharp point of his spines, and quickly let go with a cry of pain.

"Ha! You deserve that!" Alberto called over his shoulder. He was almost upon the doors. He pressed his feet harder into the floor, putting on one final burst of speed.

The butcher slid into his path, his arms and legs spread out. "You're not going anywhere–"

There wasn't much time to think. Alberto switched direction and, seeing a window, threw himself at it.

Glass shattered and he was in the open air. With a cry of alarm, Alberto fell a short distance and tumbled down a half-dirt, half-grassy hill. He rolled to a stop up against a tree trunk.

Alberto groaned and sat up. Shouting voices were getting louder. It would be a matter of time until they caught up to him. With shaking limbs, Alberto got to his feet and ran.

Something solid collided with his head. Alberto's world became very dizzy and he fell, disoriented. Two blurry shapes looked down at him against the bright white sky. Alberto tried to get away.

"Shh- don't worry, little guy," A woman said, her voice like a mother's soothing her child. "We're not with them. We're going to get you out of here…"

A very familiar sting struck him near his collarbone. Not again! Alberto's panic diffused as he lost his senses, and he soon went completely still.

Meanwhile, the woman glared at her coworker. "Was that really necessary?"

"Don't be like that– he'll be easier to transport," the man dismissed. "Now hurry up, before they realize we're gone."

Soooo... too much?

I had a hard time with this chapter. I tried my best to make it somewhat light-hearted, but, I mean, it is a bit of a chilling concept.

What is Luca's plan of action? Who are the strangers at the end, and what will happen to Alberto next? More action in the next one!

Let me know your thoughts in a review!