The Tooth Collector

Chapter Six

 "Finnley." I heard him call my name. The pup swam affront of me, guarding his home and family as if I wanted to cause any harm. He wore a stubborn facial expression as he looked me up and down.

Watching him, I couldn't help but notice something feeling . . . different. Maybe it was because we hadn't talked in over a week, or because he had left me alone. I couldn't help but notice something different about Bobby, and it made me feel drawn to him.

"Bobby," I replied, meeting his eye contact. "I need a word with your father." Raising an eyebrow, Bobby didn't move an inch. "What do you want with my dad?" He asked, but before I could answer, Henry swam up behind him.

"Finnley." He acknowledged, "What brings you here?" He asked in an unwelcome tone. Henry looked down upon me, partly because he was much larger than me, partly because perhaps he thought I was less than him.

"Do you have a moment?" I plead, hoping to break free from Bobby's judgemental stares my way, and the sick feeling I had that I might be feeling attracted to Bobby. Henry hovered over me, and had a near perfect posture as he locked eye contact with me.

"Yes, I believe I do." Henry responded, ushering me inside his family's cave. "It's just Bobby and me home." He informed me, to which I nodded and practically prayed that Bobby wouldn't eavesdrop.

The cave was larger than most of the other caves in my area. It was darker as well, and there were lots of hiding places and different rooms. "We can head into this room." Henry told me, and led me further into the cave until we reached what seemed to be the back of it, and to the left was a long tunnel that we swam into.

"Did you . . . perhaps start the plan?" I asked, carefully choosing my words in case Bobby was eavesdropping on us. I repeated prayers continuously in my mind that he hadn't started the plan so soon, that my mother finding a tooth was a mere coincidence. If he had started the plan, it would have been my fault. I'm the one who agreed to it in the first place, and for my very own mother to find one felt like a consequence for my actions.

"I did." Those words felt like a spear being driven into my chest, quick and brutal. "I think you should put out the next tooth." The weapon twisted in a circular motion inside my flesh, carving a hole where blood could drain out.

Does Henry know that it was my mother who found that tooth? If he did, how could he possibly ask me to do something like that after what had happened? I figured I should start from the beginning to reject confusion.

"Do you know who found the tooth?" I asked him, trying to hide the frustration in my voice. I wasn't very successful, but why should I be? He put my mothers reputation and safety at risk, along with the rest of my family because we are in relation to her.

Henry's expression was the only answer I needed. His head slowly shifted down, as if he were being scolded by a father figure. His gaze bowed toward the ground, and he didn't speak a word. His lip twitched as he rejected eye contact.

"So why would you ask me to do the very thing that an innocent shark received consequences for?" I questioned. It was more of a rhetorical question than one I wanted an answer to, but Henry gave me one anyway.

"I knew it was a risk," He paused. "That I was willing to take." My breath caught. Was he really that devoted to this plan? Was he really that selfish?

"How would you feel if it were your wife or son who had found the tooth?" I asked him, not thinking before speaking. Henry's facial expression changed, he quickly glanced up at me with a visible frown on his face. His eyebrows were furrowed as he spoke.

"My son did find a tooth-"

"He stole mine!" I interrupted him, frustrated.

"Who else knows that?" He hollered, fixing his posture to become larger and more threatening. Lowering his tone, he whispered harshly, "To everyone else- that was my son's tooth to begin with! You were too weak to take it from him!"

"To take what? The tooth or the blame?" I spoke in a normal tone before Henry's fin was slapped over my mouth. His attention was immediately diverted to the hallway in which we came from, and his face turned pale. His lips were agape as he stared behind me, a look of utter concentration being worn.

"I think we should come up with a new plan." I muttered into his fin. Henry glanced at me for a split second before shaking his head and turning his attention back to whatever was down the hall.

I slowly turned around as his fin slid off of my face. Seeing what appeared to be a silhouette of a smaller shark, just barely larger than my size, waited just around the corner of the hallway, as if listening to us.

"I don't think it's safe to meet in my home any longer." Henry whispered to me, his gaze fixated on the shadow. It had to have been Bobby, he was the only one home with us. But what if he brought a friend home? No, that couldn't be, we would've heard them enter.

"Listen closely, boy." Henry leaned into my ear. "In a few days late at night we will go on a scavenger hunt. You are going to go to the museum and fetch a suvineur and drop it somewhere open for me to come find it. Understood?" I knew exactly what he meant by using code words. Whether I was up for it or not was a completely different story.

"Bobby, come here son!" He hollered, strong and louder than needed. As predicted, the shadow moved towards our room and in came Bobby. He wore a neutral facial expression, as if he hadn't just gained the control to cause our families and community to disown and cast us out. I felt an uncomfortably tingly feeling in my stomach when he entered the room, and caught myself focusing on Bobby's lips.

"Yes, father?"

"You are not to tell a single soul living nor deceased of our conversation, am I understood?" Henry asked before Bobby's face turned a rare shade of white, but he clenched his jaw and hid it exceptionally well. I shifted my focus from Bobby to the floor, hoping to rid of the urge to look back again.

"The consequences of you doing so will be . . . permanent." Bobby's father loomed over him, Henry's eyes at a slant as he peered down at his son. Bobby refused to make eye contact, as if he feared his father; which was very common within our community.

"Finnley, I expect you to complete your task within a few days' time." Henry told me, still peeking at Bobby. I felt my gut drop, there was no way I could continue this plan, there were so many things that could go wrong.

"But-" I began, a thousand thoughts racing through my mind at once. Where would I even begin? Rationally I couldn't, I wouldn't.

"Finnley." He shut me up, giving me a command to remain silent. I couldn't risk another innocent life, it was wrong. But what would be the consequences if I followed my gut?