The Coral Crown

Chapter sixteen

Andrew POV

I glided across the cross the ocean floor looking for something to eat. I didn't want to take any food from Dylan or her family. That would be rude. I thought crab and dove for it. It jumped out of my reach just before I could grab it. It started to run so I followed it, right up to a whole way quickly jumped in. I was about to turn back, when I heard a scream. I swam as fast as I could to see what the scream was, and if I could do something to help. When I got there, my instincts told me to hide. I changed my color and made myself look like a rock so I could watch what was going on. A mermaid and a shark were talking and looking angry. I could tell from the hair that the mermaid was Maria. I could only guess that the shark she was talking to was Dylan's father.

The shark motions to a rock with his tail and Maria swam over to it. She pulled out a little bottle with paper and a pen. She reached back and pulled out a box this time. She wrote something angrily on the paper and put it inside the box, then she shoved the box in the bottle and jammed it in a bag she had with her. She swam away and returned half an hour later. By that time I was interested. The shark asked her question and she nodded. He smiled his scary grandma her and she reached into her bag.

The sharks grin turned into surprise and then a grimace when she pulled on the night which she must've found at the docks. She jammed into his stomach. She pulled it all the way across and kept it there until his eyes closed. He fell to the side and stared blankly through dead eyes. She pulled out a bottle and darted around the body, collecting all the blood from the water. She slipped the bottle into her bag with a smile on her face and pulled out a ring. She reached down and set it just inside the stomach of the shark. I had a flashback of Dylan's birthday party. I had seen Maria getting all friendly with Ethan, touching his arm and holding his hand. Holding his hand! That was it! She must've slipped the ring off his finger!

Maria turned with a satisfied smile on his face and froze, looking directly at me. I looked down to see that I had let my guard down and was back to my original color. I swam for my life and Maria swim after me, knife in hand. I dove into a cave that I thought was too small for her to enter.

I was wrong.

Maria dove into the cave and dove her knife through two of my legs. I screamed in pain and passed out. Maria left, and when I woke up, I had a serious headache, and was painstakingly hungry. I dug down into the sand with my remaining good legs and found some clams. I shoved them into my mouth like I hadn't eaten in days.

After I was finished I laid my head back and closed my eyes. I saw a burst of light and all of a sudden, I was in someone's arms, and that someone, was Dylan.