The Mystery at Trida Academy | Fantasmical 2023

What Lurks Below

Alaina woke up in a pile of snow. Where was she? She looked around and was greeted by white, stretching as far as she could see. Someone groaned next to her. Cole was lying there, staring up at the sky.

"Where are we?" she asked. The last thing she remembered was the ground giving way underneath them.

"No idea. But we're not exactly dressed for the weather, so I suggest we make our way over there."

He pointed, and Alaina followed his finger. She could just make out a small gray building in the distance. She got up and followed him as he mumbled something about how no one should ever be forced to live in snow.

The door was mercifully unlocked, and they slid in without being noticed. About a hundred people were standing, staring at the front of the room. Someone was talking.

"Now, that last earthquake caused the edge of the iceberg to splinter off." he was saying. "And I need a team to go out there and see what the damage is."

Alaina looked over at Cole and was horrified to see he was raising his hand.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"Raise your hand." he told her.

"Why?" But she did anyway.

Of course, she and Cole were selected to investigate. They also had two volunteers with them: a muscular man named Frank and a wiry one named James. At least no one questioned where Alaina and Cole had come from.

The group trudged across the frozen land until they came to a small boat. They boarded and propelled their way towards the iceberg. Alaina gazed up, watching the ice wall loom above, getting ever taller. It almost blocked out the sun, and Alaina turned away. There was a small ice shelf that Frank maneuvered to, with a cave sunk into the wall. As they got off the boat and made their way towards the small cave, the earth shook and Alaina almost fell.

The cave opened into a large cavern with a lake in the middle. The water sloshed, as if something enormous was lurking in the depths. Cautiously, Frank took a step forward. Then another. "What do you think's down there?" He slid his foot towards the edge and peeked over.

Suddenly, something very large breached the surface. It looked like a fish, but it was over twice the size of even Cole. But the worst part was its mouth. It had a long, pointy nose like a sword. And its bottom jaw had teeth set in a circular row, arching towards its throat.

Frank screamed and scrambled backwards. In his haste, his foot slipped and he fell hard onto the ice. He struggled to get air in his lungs, sliding towards the pool. The creature leapt out of the water again, staring at Frank. But this time, it didn't dive back underwater. Instead, it started swimming straight for him.

Without thinking, Alaina took a few quick steps forward. She slid a few times herself, but she managed to keep her balance. Frank's foot dipped into the water and he screamed. Alaina hurried faster, skidding as she did. Frank tried to push off the ice with his other foot – to get some sort of traction in the snow. But there was nothing to grip. She reached him just as his other foot slid into the water.

Alaina grabbed him under the arm and pulled.

She wasn't strong enough to drag him on her own, but she did keep him from sliding any further into the water. And it gave him enough time to put his foot back on the ledge and push away. Then, Cole was by her side, grabbing Frank's other arm. They managed to drag him away from the water just as the monster reached them, mouth open. Alaina watched those strange jaws snap down where Frank had been just seconds ago.

"What was that?" Frank asked, eyes wide. Alaina shrugged and shook her head, struggling for something to say.

"It looks like a Helicoprion." Cole said, sounding stunned.

"It looks like it has a circular saw for a face." Frank announced.

"It looks like a what?" Alaina asked. How could Cole possibly know what that monster was?

"It's...a dinosaur." James said. He sounded a lot like Cole.

"So why's it here?" Alaina asked. She still didn't really understand what a Helicoprion was, but judging by the looks on the rest of of the team's faces, it wasn't supposed to be here. So how were they going to get rid of it?

"No clue." Cole said.

"It must have to do with the earthquakes." James said. "Maybe it was trapped in the ice."

"So what do we do with it?" Alaina asked.

"We should study it." James said.

"Are you kidding? It tried to eat me!" Frank snapped. "We need to terminate it immediately."

"It's too valuable to terminate." James insisted. He dug around in his bag and pulled out a small metal tube. "Look, we'll just tag it with this. Then we can figure out where it came from. And where it goes from here. It might even be able to map out the holes in the iceberg."

"It's a monster." Frank insisted.

"I'll help." Cole said at the same time.

"Why?" Alaina asked. Hadn't he seen that thing?

"Because I don't think it's a monster." Cole told her quietly. "And shouldn't it get a chance to prove that?"

"Fine." Alaina grumbled. "What do we do?"

"Here." James gave her a fishing pole with a bright red bauble on the end. "Put this in the water, and when it comes up, I'll tag its dorsal fin."

"So I'm bait?" Alaina mumbled to herself. But she edged back down to the pool anyway. She scooted as close as she dared and cast the bauble into the water. James was only a few feet away.

The creature surfaced, eyeing Alaina and her fishing pole. James reached out, successfully tagging it, and Alaina breathed a sigh of relief. But as she turned, her foot slipped on the ice. She fell straight into the pool, sinking down, down, to the depths below.