The Tooth Collector

Chapter Twenty Five

 I knew it was an orca because the only memory attached to orcas was one with Bobby. I remembered how scared he had been, how helpless he felt in a situation with one. The memory made me want to think of him, but alas, I was on a journey and there was no time to think of the past.

The orca practically saved our lives, that was if he didn't attack Ray and I next. Luckily, Henry lost his grip on me when he was yanked back, giving me the perfect chance to help Ray. I swam swiftly to him and whipped Clyde on his side, causing him to lose grip and fall back in pain as I grabbed Ray.

"Quick!" Ray panted. "Grab the bones!"

I was fast to collect as many bones as I could find scattered around the sandy ground. Ray helped me, and it wasn't long before we were full with shark bones.

"You'll never get them back in time!" I heard Henry yell. He was being dragged off into the distance and his screams to us were faint. "Sharks don't have bones!"

He triggered a memory from long ago. Sharks don't have bones, they have cartilage. Cartilage that can't last after the shark dies for more than a few days.

"Finn! Hurry!" I left Ray tugging at my fin to get us out of there. He was panting and I knew he was injured so I decided to take one last look at Clyde, who met my eye contact as he tried to regain his strength. He looked furious. I didn't waste much time to leave before he could strike once again.

The bad news is that Ray's gills were not only punctured, but torn as well. The good news is that we took over four bones. That would hopefully be enough to prove to my community that evolution was real. If we made it in time. If Henry was correct, that these things were really just cartilage, we'd have to arrive in no time. That's why we planned to leave before dawn.

"I want to kill him." Ray growled as I tended to his wounds. "He thinks he can just hold me down and torture me like that. I'm going to make him go through unimaginable pain."

I nodded, listening to my friend as I tried not to remember the memories I shared with him. The kidnapping, the torture, the ropes, it was all too much to think about. I pushed it down, far where I knew it would be hard to dig back up. I didn't want to remember.

The mere thought of Henry and Clyde working together, all this time, disgusted me. Had Henry known what Clyde had done to me? Would he have even cared?

"Woah, you doing okay?" Ray's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah, Ray. I'm fine." I tried to say in an emotionless tone so that he couldn't tell how upset I felt.

"You don't look it." He responded.

"And why's that?"

"You're frowning, and being rough on my gills."

"Oh. Oh! Gosh, I'm sorry." I shook my head to clear my thoughts so that I could focus back on his wounds.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"I mean, I didn't expect him to tear me up like that."

I closed my eyes for a second, trying to erase the recollection.

"Sticking his teeth into my flesh," Ray continued.

Memories flashed over my mind, I was practically there again. Tied up and beaten raw.

"The pain was horrid."

And I was there again. The ropes were squishing me, and I was laying on my side. Bright eyes looked down upon me in the dark, teeth grinning at the sight of me. The words echoing in my mind, "I won't hurt you. I don't believe in child abuse." Over and over and over again. And then Bobby's face, his fins pulling the rope off of me. His eyes, watching me in shock. His lips-

"Finn!" Ray shook me back and forth, waking me up from whatever terrible place I was in. "Good, you're back. Dude, can you please not do that again. Gosh, where were you anyways?"

My eyes darted around the cave we were in. I scanned my memory, trying to remember where I was, how old I was, any key information. That's when I saw Ray in front of me, shaking me back and forth and shouting my name. The one shark I had left in my life.

I touched his hammer shaped head, and he embraced me within a moment. Breathing deeply, I started to remember where I was and the key things I needed to know. Slowly, it all started to come back to me. Taking another deep breath, I opened my mouth and waited for words to come out. Nothing.

I made up a sentence in my head, and tried to push it out, but heard nothing. I was dead silent. "Ray", I tried to say. But then again, my voice was practically gone. My one and only friend kept hugging me, rubbing my spine and telling me how thankful he was that I was back.