Emily Windsnap and the Monster From the Deep (8 page)

The captain is shouting something at us. He’s spinning the wheel one way, then another. It’s not making the slightest bit of difference. I can’t hear what he’s saying. I think I’m shouting, too. I don’t
even know what
I’m
saying. Seawater is everywhere. We’re spinning sideways toward the strange glassiness, mast first, the bottom of the ship almost out of the water.

All is darkness, water, shouting, screaming. We’re going to die! Out here in the middle of nowhere, on our own. A stupid, stupid death. I close my eyes and wait for the boat to veer into the blackness.

And it does.

Or it starts to.

We’re teetering on our side when the boat suddenly jiggles and shakes. It’s leveling out. What’s happening? It slips and rocks a bit, there’s water all over the deck and I’m soaking, but we’re straightening out. We’re not going to die! We’re safe! Everything’s going to be —

But then I see Dad’s face, gray and heavy, as though he’s suddenly aged thirty years. He’s staring at something behind me.

“Don’t tell me you’ve seen another turtle,” I say shakily.

Then the boat lurches again and I fall to the floor. That’s when I see it, rising out of the water.
What is it?

First, huge tusks, curving upward like giant bayonets. Below them, a long, long, olive-green lumpy snout. It’s taller than the ship’s mast. It almost blocks
out the sun. Horror seeps into my body. Huge white eyes bulging and popping out like great big fat full moons on either side, lumps all over the snout. Oh, GOD!

Enormous tentacles slap the water, extending outward and up, khaki-green greasy things with suckers all the way down, waving around, splashing, making a whirlpool. We’re spinning into it.

I’m trying to scream, but all I can manage is a kind of dry clicking sound. We’re being sucked into something, into the whirlpool, a mass of tentacles rising all around us.

And then Mom’s screaming. I think maybe I am, too. One of the tentacles reaches right up into the air, then hurls itself down toward the boat and grips the mast.

I’m screaming for Mom; the boat’s on its side. Where’s Dad?

Water everywhere, a crashing sound, and then —

Shona didn’t talk to me all week — that first week in our new home. It was supposed to be a fresh start, a dream come true. Instead it was the worst week of my life. Think Brightport Junior High’s worst moments and multiply by a hundred. I was still the odd one out, still the one who didn’t fit in, who no one wanted to know. Was it always going to be like this for me?

Shona started hanging around with Marina and Althea. Maybe she thought anyone was better than me. Maybe she was right. After all, I was the idiot who had finally gotten to live with both of my parents and been given a new life on an island full of merpeople and glistening turquoise sea
and white sandy beaches, and what did I do? I couldn’t bear to think about it.

And yet I couldn’t think of anything else. I even forgot to be scared of starting school. I drifted through it, like everything else, in a daze. I couldn’t even get excited when I learned to dive with the grace of a dolphin and brush my hair like a real mermaid and sing the wordless songs of the sirens. None of it mattered. Everything was ruined because of what I’d done, and marred by a constant fear of the consequences. What was going to happen? Had it already started? The weather had changed a little since we went in the cave. Nothing all that dramatic. It had just been really windy, sudden sharp gusts making the sea all choppy. Probably just coincidence, but people had been commenting on it.

Millie and Archie came over one night. Millie stared at me all the way through dinner. “Are you all right?” she asked as she helped herself to a huge scoop of ice cream.

Mom turned to look at me, cupping my chin in her hand. “Are you, sweetie?” she asked softly. “You have been quiet.”

“I’m fine!” I snapped. “Why shouldn’t I be?”

“Your aura’s looking gray and patchy,” Millie said. “Usually means you’re fighting demons in your mind.”

Dad burst out laughing. “Don’t think my little ’un would stand a chance against demons,” he said with a smile. Millie glared at him.

I got up to clear some plates. Anything to get away. But just then, the boat rocked violently as a wave thrashed against the side, knocking half the dishes from the table and tipping me back into my seat.

Archie and Dad darted outside to see what had happened while I helped Mom and Millie pick up the broken dishes.

“Freak wave,” Archie said, pulling his hair behind his head as they swam back up to the trapdoor to join us again. “Seem to have been a few of those lately. Wonder what that’s about. I’ll have to report back to Neptune about this.”

“Neptune? Why?” I asked.

“It’s my job to keep him informed of everything. That a problem?” He seemed to look at me suspiciously as he spoke. I must have imagined it. A freak wave couldn’t have anything to do with me — could it?

On Friday morning, I bumped into Shona on the way to school. She’d avoided me all week but could
hardly pretend she hadn’t seen me when I was right beside her in the water. For a brief second, I wondered if she wanted to make friends again, but the look on her face said otherwise. Her expression was like mine when I’m faced with a plate of mushy peas, or a spider near my bed.

“Have you told anyone?” she asked, pulling me into a tiny cavern that led off from the main tunnel toward Emerald Cave.

“No! I don’t know what to say. What are we going to do?”

“WE?”
She stared at me. “
I
didn’t even want to go up that stupid creek in the first place!
I
didn’t want to go in the cave.
I
didn’t want to knock the wall down.
I
am not going to do
anything
!”

A tear burned the corner of my eye. I’d never seen Shona like this. “Well, what am
I
going to do, then?”

“I don’t think we should say anything,” she said more softly. “We just forget it, okay?”

“Forget it?”

“Pretend it didn’t happen. Whatever it was, it must have gone back where it came from. It didn’t follow us. So we say nothing. Please?”

“But what if —”

“Em, think about it. We’ve only just gotten
here. Do you want everyone to hate us before we’ve even had the chance to make any friends?”

“Of course not. But —”

“But nothing. We leave it. Please, Emily.”

I nodded. “Okay.” A drop of water plopped down from the ceiling into the pool between us. “You’re still my best friend, aren’t you?” I asked as we set off along the tunnel.

Shona didn’t meet my eyes. “Let’s just act normal, okay?”

A couple of merboys were coming along the tunnel. Shona smiled at them as they caught up with us, and then swam ahead with them. I trailed behind, pretending to get something out of my bag. I didn’t want anyone to think I was all on my own with no friends. Which is exactly what I was.

We hadn’t gotten much farther when I noticed that the water around me was swaying and swirling. It was building up, spinning around. I tried to move forward but got thwacked against the side. The monster! Was it here?

The caves were shaking. A thin stalactite fell and crashed down from the ceiling, missing me by inches. I jerked backward through the water, scraping my back on the rock. Within seconds, merpeople were rushing from the caves.

“Quick — out!” a merboy shouted as he raced past me.

I didn’t need telling twice. We pelted out through the tunnels, back to open water. Outside, others were already gathered. Someone was swimming in between them, talking to groups of people, telling them to move on. Then he turned and I saw his face. Archie!

What was going on?

I swam over to him. He hardly looked up. “Just follow the others,” he said gravely. “We’ll meet in the Grand Caves.”

The Grand Caves? The ones Marina had told us about? But weren’t they only for really special events?

I followed the others in a daze, my mind swirling with images of what I’d seen — and fears of the destruction and horror that might be ahead; thoughts churning like the sea.

I gasped as I entered the Grand Caves. Impossible shapes hung all around us: upside-down forests, frozen bunches of arrows waiting to fall as one, long paper-thin flaps that looked like dinosaur
wings. Drips from the ceiling bounced off majestic boulders and into the pool, ringing out like church bells.

Ahead of me, a stone platform jutted over the water. On one side, thick, marblelike columns reached down from the ceiling into the depths of the water, frilly edges folding around them like icing on a cake. On the other, the wall stretched up like a cliff side, stalagmites lining its surface, clumped together in chunky groups. Lanterns glowed among them, spreading shimmering lights across the pool as they shook. The walls were still trembling. Surely it wasn’t safe to be inside if there was an earthquake?

I looked around for someone I knew. Shona had disappeared.
Probably with Althea and Marina,
I thought miserably.

In front of me, a long wooden walkway divided the clear azure pool. A few people were carefully picking their way along it. I looked away, feeling guilty as I did so. The last thing I needed now was for Shona and the other mermaids to see me as one of the humans. They’d
never
want to be my friend then.

But then I spotted Mom! She was here, too, edging across the walkway with Millie.

“Mom!” I couldn’t stop myself from shouting out. She looked up and waved briefly before grabbing
the rails as the caves shook again. She pointed up to the stone benches that stretched high up on the cave’s sides. I wondered if I should get out of the pool and join her. A glance at the mermaids. No. I was staying in the water. Then another mighty crash thundered through the caves, throwing me under, leaving me with no choice anyway.

Gasping, I gave myself up to the water. It wasn’t as bad underwater: it was a little like a Jacuzzi. It might almost have been enjoyable if it wasn’t for the fact that I didn’t have a clue what was going on, my best friend wasn’t speaking to me, and the island seemed to be crumbling around us.

As I resurfaced, I spotted Shona with Althea and Marina. I knew it! A shot of anger speared through me. It wasn’t fair! I hadn’t exactly gone to that lagoon on my own. She’d done wrong just as much as I had. Nearly. I mean, it wasn’t as if I’d forced her to go. And it was their suggestion in the first place! She looked up and caught my eye, just for a second. I nearly smiled. Then Althea said something to her and she turned away. She didn’t look back. Traitor.