Drift

Chapter 9

I didn't know my scared eyes could get any wider without splitting at the seams, but somehow they did. I pressed my lips together tightly and clenched my jaw, trying to restrain the screams that were clawing their way up and out of my throat.

What I could see of the beast, which I assumed was it's back, began lifting even higher. The creature was surfacing right beneath me. Pushing the nose of the driftwood upward, the wood then slid off of the back (or tail, or fin, or whatever it was,) and back into the water. I jerked forward from the movement, compressing my mangled arm into my lap under the weight of my torso. The screams of terror trapped inside of me morphed into cries of agony as they escaped my mouth, and they did so rather loudly as I began to cry again. It wasn't a dramatic fall. Only about a foot. But when that one-foot-fall is off of the back of an unknown creature? And when you reinvigorate the already excruciating pain from an injury in the process?

It can be fairly terrifying.

My driftwood flopped off of the creature and into the water, bobbing away in the wake. As petrified as I was, I tried to catch a glimpse of what it looked like. It was about two feet above the water, and the skin was rather shiny, like it'd feel smooth or soft. Like dolphin skin. But it was scarred up, too. There were tons of giant bite marks in shapes the size of a bathtub, composed of teeth marks as thick as bananas. A couple of them looked as if blood was still oozing from them... they were fresh. And that's not a good sign. I almost felt bad for her. The skin, aside from the scars, was dark in color, pretty much the same hue of the ocean; deep dark blue. Black, almost. It was hard to tell the precise color because there was only so much lighting that was able to penetrate the fog.

That was just a part of it, though. I couldn't see the rest of it yet. And the width and length... I couldn't see the whole thing, once again, because of the fog. If she was a dinosaur, I honestly imagined her looking a little like the Loch Ness Monster, but I couldn't see any neck or anything beyond the body that had surfaced. She- the so-called dinosaur- seemed to be frozen stiff. After she had surfaced a that bit, causing me and my driftwood to jounce a few feet away, she seemed stiller than a stone.

My heart was about to tear right out of my chest, it was beating so hard. It literally hurt, I was so scared. I looked up into the blankness to see if I could catch a glimpse of Texie anywhere, but I couldn't see a thing past the mist. Though I knew it might not be the wisest action, I needed to see if the man was alive- because if he wasn't, I was boogying outta there. So I called up to him.

"TEXIE, I'M SORRY FER SCREAMIN'," I began. "YOU STILL ALIVE UP THERE?"

"MA'AM..." He called, hesitantly. He seemed as if he were about to get vulgar from frustration, but he just skipped whatever prudence he was maintaining and just yelled back,"YES MA'AM, I AM INDEED- CLEARLY- ALIVE." He then sighed, in a manner that made me imagine him just hanging his head down in despair and boredom. "SHE KEEPS MOVIN' HER HEAD AROUND," he said, "LIKE SHE'S LOOKIN FER SOMETHIN'." That got me curious. Hmm, I thought. Fresh bite marks and "lookin' fer somethin'" are two things that don't exactly make for a pleasant combination when you're in the ocean with a potential DINOSAUR. Gosh. How did I even get into this mess in the first place??

Since this literally was a life or death situation, I figured Texie would appreciate being called by his actual name, rather than, ya know... "Texie." So I decided that since this alleged dinosaur was randomly inactive and looking around for a minute, I'd introduce myself.

"THAT'S WEIRD. BY THE WAY, MY NAME IS LIA, SIR. WHAT'S YOUR NAME?" I shouted, breaking the awkward silence, which had previously only been seasoned with the wake caused by the surfacing of the creature.

"I'M CHARLES, PLEASED TO MAKE YOUR ACQUAINTANCE. PLEASE GET ME OUTTA HERE," He bellowed back, trying to keep me focused.

Charles?? I thought. Like that guy that was in my dream, Charles?? Seriously?? The voices and "memories" drowning my mind suddenly exploded upon hearing the name. As if someone pulled a pin from a grenade in my head. The sudden surge of activity in my mind was so overwhelming that my temples began to throb in pain. Where's an Advil when you need one?? I said to myself. Thinking about the life of the person named Charles, who not too far away from me, was what got my head back in the game. Charles... Whatever. It's just a coincidence, I thought. Time to get back on track.