AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The glass must be sunken below the crest of the water, making it invisible to our eyes.
“Don’t do it!” I shout to Cash. “There are more items. We don’t need this one.”
Cashel shakes his head as Royce watches the water with wide eyes. “I’m fucking getting it. We know one of these hoops leads down the path of victory, and I’m sure it’s mine.” Being the stubborn asshole he is, Cashel holds his nose shut and jumps in.
Only his feet don’t meet glass. Instead, he sinks underwater, bubbles floating to the surface where his body disappeared. The girl still screams, clawing out of her glass prison to the side of the pool, but just as she reaches for safety, a huge set of jaws emerges from the dark and clamps down onto her shoulder.
Her screams die instantly as she’s dragged underwater. Royce decides he’s had enough and climbs down the ladder as I stare into the water, my trepidation growing with every passing second. I just hope the girl—and her blood—is enough of a distraction that the creature won’t find Cash.
“How many do you think are in there?” Royce’s voice shakes when he asks me this as he comes to stand next to me.
Shit—I never considered there might bemore.
“Come on, Cash! You can do it!” I shout, cupping my hands in hopes he’ll hear me. Thirty seconds tick by, and I become antsy, concerned for the well-being of my friend. More bubbles surface and hover near the edge of the water. Royce shouts when a face rises from the dark.
A dead face.
Open mouthed with eyes wide open, the girl’s lifeless visage stares eerily, and I notice her body is completely missing. I slam my hands over my mouth in horror and step back while her decapitated head bobs in the water, a segment of her spine protruding from the ragged flesh of what remains of her neck.
Now, I’ve seen dead people before—hell, I’ve killed people myself—but nothing can prepare you for this. Royce lurches backwards, puking as I try to swallow down the bile rising in my own throat. I’m just about to lose hope when a hand breaches the surface, followed by the gasping face of one Cashel O’Connor.
“Cash!”
Reaching down, I grasp his hand and heave him out of the water. His eyes are red, and he’s struggling to catch his breath.
“You did it!” I whisper fiercely to him as he thrusts a small black box in my hands. I don’t even have time to open it as the three boys who were teamed up with the dead girl approach us.
A boy with a face filled with acne and a headful of fiery red hair beckons with his hand. “Hand it over.”
“You can go to Hell,” Royce shoots back lamely.
The redhead cracks his neck and crosses his arms. “There are three of us, and gauging by the exhaustion of your very wet friend, only two of you.”
I hand the box back to Cash and stand next to Royce, protecting Cashel and our prize. “And your point is?”
“You’re outnumbered,” he squeaks in an annoying voice that tries my patience.
I don’t know much about Royce, but by the way he carries himself, I can tell he’s fought before—we all have. Before I can retort, a shout roars behind me and a second later, Cashel is barreling through Royce and me and lands a clothesline across the redhead’s throat, knocking him into the water. As he claws at the water’s surface, the monster lurking below surfaces and captures him.
Just like that, the redheaded dick is gone.
“Who’s next?” Cashel demands of the two others who immediately retreat, running from the room.
“You okay, man?” I ask when it’s just him, Royce, and me again.
Cash nods. “Fine, but let’s not waste time. There’s more for us to find—I’m sure of it.”
And he marches off towards the interior door like none of this ever happened, black box clutched in his hands.
I try to celebrate the fact that we found our first prize, but I’m quickly reminded two people died in the process. Let’s hope we both survive whatever obstacles we come across next.
