Halloween Ghost Story Contest -- 2022
Middle School Winners

Third Place

Umibozu

by
Eleanor Cox

"Come on, we are going to be late," I yelled while leaning against the front door. "I'm coming, I'm coming. I just need to get my bathing suit on, jeez." Emma yelled back. “Why is it taking so long?” I thought as I was putting my football gear in the washing machine. “How long does it take a 9-year-old girl to get ready?” "Cash! I'm ready!" Emma announced proudly for some reason. "Okay, just give me a sec, I need to finish putting my jersey in the washer." "Look who's the slow one now." She said in the most snarky way possible. As I was finishing putting all my gear away, I heard Emma skipping off with her pink floral flip-flops that made the loudest smacking noise against the wood floor. "Grab the towels and any snacks you need while I get my wallet. Oh, and some water for the both of us." I said as I closed the washer then heading over to the door. "Fine, but you better promise me a Popsicle when we get there." Said Emma as if she was the boss. "Fine, fine," I said while looking at my phone. I was a little distracted. "I promise... What is this?"

"Cash!" Emma said out of nowhere as we were walking to the beach. "Yeah?" "Have you heard of the tale of the boy stuck in the elevator?" She said excitedly. "No, I have not." Already bored with what she was going to say, I spaced out into my phone "yeah so..." She kept talking on and on but I stopped listening. "SIBLINGS MISSING" was broadcasted on the dim screen of my phone. I saw it before I left the house so I decided to read it, but then something caught my eye. "yeah yeah yeah yeah okay, but look at this Emma." Interrupting her as she told these weird stories of hers. "I don't care about what someone texted you." "No, it's not anything like that," I said annoyed. "Just...look at this." "missing siblings under the age of 10, blah blah blah, sea creature, blah, blah, blah," Emma said just skimming the paragraph. "Umi- uh Umibozu? What's that?" "That is what everyone is calling this creature," I told her, trying to sound smart and sophisticated. "This creature can be from 11 feet tall to almost as tall as a skyscraper. It's a huge figure that looks like a shadow with bright glowing yellow eyes, and it has taken 7 little kids from the beach." Towards the end of my reading, my voice started to get a little shaky for Emma's safety and thinking if it is worth it to go to the beach today. " Well, that's a little dramatic. Anyways, let's go to the beach." As she started to take another step towards the beach I grabbed her skinny arm, startling her a little bit to the point where she jumped. "Emma... I don't think we should go to the beach." "Why? Are you scared of the monster?" She said trying to mess with me. "I'm not scared for me, I'm scared for you!" I yelled, still gripping her arm, slowly squeezing tighter as the screams from kids playing tag at the beach rang in my ears. "You don't need to worry about me!" Emma said with a little bit of anger in her voice as she tried to rip her arm out of my tight grip. I sighed as my grip on Emma's arm started to soften up, and as soon as she felt me loosening up she quickly pulled her arm back. "Now let's continue walking towards the beach because everyone at school said this was the best place to go to for people who are new to Florida." My stomach started to turn, and not from the fact I haven't eaten anything, no, this was different, it felt like I made the wrong decision.

As soon as we hit the beach my mind went blank. All the fear I had felt earlier was a part of the wind now. The smell of saltwater in the air alone made me feel relaxed. Even just the feeling of sliding off my shoes to feel the hot sand go between my toes and the sound of the waves crashing against the black rocks. It felt amazing. Growing up in Colorado, my sister and I never really felt the beach before, so it was just mind-blowing to see all of the bright colors and have the sun beam down on my face. My dad passed away about 2 years ago which left my mom's heart in pieces, so when she got enough money to get a fresh start, we did. And that's how we three ended up here. "Hello? Where should I put everything." Emma said impatiently while hopping up and down as if she needs to go to the bathroom. "Uhh." I scanned the beach to see if there is any spots away from the other people. I don't like socializing. "there's a spot to the left of us. It's kind of near the popsicle stands tho-." Before I could finish my sentence, Emma had already bolted off in the direction of the neon-colored popsicle stand. Once I caught up to Emma I sat down on the scorching sand, set up the towels so we could lay down, and grabbed the umbrella to shade the sun away. A few minutes have passed since we made it to the beach and I was just on my phone while Emma was just staring out at the other kids playing in the ocean. "You want your popsicle now." I could tell she was bored. "Yes!" Emma flew into the air with joy knowing that she would get to try a popsicle for the first time. "Hurry up you big snail. We have to get there quick because it looks like the line is piling up." she said as she dragged me across the beach to get to the stand. "Welcome to Bill's Popsicle Stand." the owner of the stand looked old, too old to be running a food stand. "Yes, um could we get uh." there were so many options to pick from. "A rainbow mega popsicle," Emma shouted out of nowhere. "Of course, anything for you young man?" I was too sucked to my phone, reading the profiles of all the older siblings that had their brothers or sisters taken away to realize he was talking to me. I felt Emma's little arm poking mine so I looked at her in confusion to realize I rudely ignored the man. "Oh, sorry, uh, I don't need anything." going straight back to my phone " Ok your total will be..." I zoned out looking at the people's profiles again, so distracted to realize that Emma asked to go play in the ocean when our mom strictly said not to unless I was next to her. Still reading my phone I just nodded my head without acknowledging her. When I looked up from my phone the man was holding out the popsicles and Emma was not by my side. I started freaking out looking from side to side. I could not see Emma so I turned to the old man and asked franticly." Have you seen where my little sister has run off to?" "Yes I have," he said, confused. "you just said she could go play in the ocean so she ran off?" "Oh no," My heart sank to my feet. As soon as that man told me where she was I began to look across the whole beach as my thoughts scattered across my mind thinking of the worst possible thoughts. After my eyes could not find her I heard a blood-curtailing scream. When I heard that I knew it was Emma's because I could hear the little kid in her scream. "EMMA!" My voice cracked so much from the tears that were breaking the surface of my eyes. I finally caught sight of Emma who was getting dragged by the foot by that huge shadow-looking figure in the distance. Seeing that creature and all its features, the glowing yellow eyes, the tall shadow-like figure. Just the chill you get that runs down your spine to your feet you can tell what it is. There is no mistake. "It's the Umibozu."

“CASH!" She shrieked. Just the fear in Emma's eyes as she is slowly getting dragged into the water alone just tore apart my heart. She was halfway into the ocean, digging her nails into the sand to stop the Umibozu from dragging her further into the ocean. Frozen. Just frozen in place. “Move,” I tell myself “move your legs”, but my body was not listening. Seeing the Umibozu is so much scarier than only reading about it online. Life moved so slowly, it feels like it's been hours since Emma was caught by the Umibozu, yet it has only been seconds. Staring at her and the creature in complete fear. Emma opens her mouth but I hear nothing. I just hear complete silents while the whole world feels like it has stopped. No one is moving or making any noise whatsoever. I can only feel the warm wind hit my face causing the brown hair in front of my eyes to move to the side. Then I feel it. My legs start to move. They move faster and faster as the world starts to go back to normal. I start to hear everything, all the screams from the scared civilians and the police sirens slowly becoming louder and louder, but I don't hear Emma. My feet hit the water "EMMA!" I scream over and over again with tears running down my sweating face. "I knew I shouldn't have let us go to this damn beach!" The fact that I listened to her caused me to scream in frustration. I splash the seaweed-covered water with my hands trying to move faster as the water starts to get further up my body, determined to get her back. I couldn't see Emma anywhere in sight, and that's when I felt the hand of someone hit my shoulder causing me to flip around with my fist in their face. Once I realized it was a police officer I lowered my fist and went back to go deeper into the ocean but that same hand grabbed my left arm, along with another police officer grabbing my right arm. With all the force holding me back I could not move. My heart still wanted to run but my body could not take it anymore, so I gave up. Walking back to shore with the police officers which still held my arms, I did not say a single word for the rest of the day.They asked me questions to get incontact with a guardian, so they called my mom and she came rushing out of work straight over. Tears still fell from my eyes. The police officers, my mom, and I all went back home. My head faced the floor as my mind continued to play what just happened, repeating the horror over and over again. Blaming myself for everything that happened. My mom told me to go to my room so that's exactly what I did. 1 hour turned into 2, then 2 turned into 4, then after 6 hours of them talking downstairs, my mom called me down. I Slowly walked down and then lifted my head to see that my mom's eyes were swollen red from crying.

"Cash," Mom said with tears still running down her face,"The police officers want to talk to you for a minute." Hesitantly, I responded with a simple "ok."I explained everything to the police officer, from us leaving the house, to our arrival at the beach. “We have gotten many reports on strange sightings of this creature called the Umibozu. 7 to be exact.” “Do you have the contact information of these people?” I tried to see if I could get in contact with any of these people. “I do.” He handed me a paper with all of their contact information that I took right away. “If it is not obvious, your daughter Emma, is probably dead.” After we heared this news that my mom already knew, she broke down into tears again. But then I felt a strange feeling. This feeling was similar to the last time this happened, but it was a little different. This time I wasn't scared, no, this feeling told me that Emma is still out there. After the police officers left I made dinner for me and my mom because she was in no state of mind to do anything at the moment. Once I was done with, I sprinted upstairs to try to get a hold of the names on the list. I called every single person but only 2 responded. Turns out both of them lived in Miami, so the next morning Angelina Whitlock, Shane Madden, and me, Cash Mosley, are going to find our lost siblings.

The sun seeped through the windows straight into my eyes, which were already open since I could not sleep. I Looked at the time, it was 8:13 in the morning, and I had to meet up with Shane and Angelina at 9:30. After I put on my plain sweatpants and t-shirt, I walked down the stairs to see my mom dead asleep, still sat in the same chair as she was the night before, with Emma's favorite stuffed animal right beside her. Just by a quick look at her I could tell that she cryed all night with Emma's stuffed animal in her hands. “Hey mom,” I told her while I rubbed her back. “I’m going out to meet up with some people.” “mmmm.” that's the only thing she could say while still half asleep. Before I left, since I had some extra time, I made my mom and me some eggs. After that, I headed out the door to meet up with the 2 people that got in contact with me. I walked towards the beach expecting to see them but no one was in sight, only yellow and black police tap that covered the front gate. “Are you Cash Mosley?” I heard a deep male voice come from behind me. Turning around I respond “And you must be Shane.” “Good eye.”

He said jokingly. “And you must be Angelina,” Shane said. Confused, I turned around again to see this girl that stood at about 5’3 appearing out of nowhere right behind me. “Actually, I go by Angie.” That snarky response reminded me of Emma and how she used to talk to me. Once I remembered why we were here I got serious. “So, how are we going to find them?” “Well, the most obvious place to start is the ocean. But the only way to find anything in the ocean is to go deep, so the big question is, do any of you guys have any scuba gear?” Shane asked us. “I barely know anything about the ocean so I most definitely don't have anything, let alone how to use scuba gear.” Responding to his question with no hope. “I have some scuba gear.” Angie chimed in “Technically it's not mine. It's my brother's, but he has enough stuff for all of us and I don't even think he will notice so it’s fine.” “Well, do you know how to use it?” Shane didn’t sound like he had any belief that Angie knew how to use any of the gear since she was 13 while he was 16. “For a matter of fact I do know how to use it, AND,” she pronounced loudly. “I take a class for it, and I’m the best student there.” After we talked about how we were going to get all the gear, and getting to know each other, we decided that once the beach is closed and nobody was there, we were going to sneak in, take Shane’s boat out towards where the Umibozu came out of the water, and scuba dive to see if there is any sign of our siblings. Anything. Anything at all.

“Mom, I’m home.” I saw my mom and how she didn't look that much different than when I first saw her this morning, I decided to make dinner for us again. We sat at the kitchen table in complete silence. “So, where did you go today?” She asked, trying to breaking the awkward silence. “I went to meet up with some people that will help me.” I stopped mid-sentence thinking about how my mom might respond to what I was doing. “Yes?” she said, indicating for me to continue. “Uhh,” Trying to think of something to tell her without her getting suspicious, “Some people that will help me with football. Anyway, I got to get going.” Trying to end the conversation before it got too deep I stood up from my chair with my empty plate in my hand. “Where to?” Mom said in a concerned voice “To go see Angie and Shane.” while slipping on my shoes in the process. “But didn't you just come back from talking to them?” I could tell by all the questions she is asking that she is lost, and doesn't understand what was going on. “ I did, but I just came back to see you and eat some food.” “Ok,” Mom said hesitantly. “Just don't stay out too late.” “I won’t, I promise.” Giving her a kiss on the forehead then I was off to go see Angie and Shane, and hopefully, find something about our missing siblings.

As I walked in the direction of where we met up earlier I saw a light in the distance, and right next to it I saw Angie and Shane standing right next to each other. I started to jog a little to catch up to them. “Hey Cash!” Shane yelled “Shhhhh! Oh my god, can you be quiet for two seconds? If we get caught out here at night, well, let's just say it won't end well for the both of us.” I couldn't help but let a little laugh slip out due to Angie’s snap at Shane. “Do you have all of the stuff?” I said getting right to the point “ Yes I do.” Angie said, “They are all in the trunk of Shane's truck.” Leaning my head to the side to see around Shane I saw his black truck and some of the gear sticking out of it. “Perfect.” Because it wasn’t that late at night, Angie told us the basics of using the scuba gear to be safe. After an hour or two of Angie getting mad and bossing me and Shane around, we knew the basics, and we could go out into the ocean and look for clues. I climbed over the fence first so I could open it from the other side, while Shane got in his truck and drove to where the tide broke, and where his boat was bobbing above the water. We took the scuba gear off the truck and transported it to the boat, following up with Angie giving Shane and me wet suits to change into before we hit the water. We walked over to the restrooms on the edge of the dark beach“These things are so tight and uncomfortable,” Shane complained. “Let's just head to the boat and get this over with.” By this point, it has been more than 32 hours since I have last seen Emma, and not knowing where she is, just makes me want to find her even more.

Faintly I could hear Angie scream in a whispering voice, “Hurry up slow pokes!” I could see that Angie’s black silhouette in the distance was waving at us indicating for us to pick our pace up. As Shane and I were jugging at a face pace towards Angie, I heard a splash in the water. I stopped immediately and looked at the water to see what caused the splash. Shane looked to his left and noticed I wasn’t there so he stopped as well. Once he caught sight of me he was about to yell at me for stopping out of nowhere, and saying we have to get going so Angie won't be made. But instead, he just walked over towards me and started at the ocean too. As my mind was replaying the event that happened yesterday, Shane spoke. “We know.” And just those words that Shane said, it just felt like he could read my mind, and it feels like he understands what I’m going through. It's because he does. So does Angie. Hearing those words made me forget why we were standing, staring at the ocean in the first place. “Come on.” I said, “Angie will get mad if we stand to hear too long.” I tried to sound happy and make it sound like I was joking around, but Shane saw right through it. But instead of him asking if I was ok he just said. “And we don't want that now do we.” He added on with a little bit of a laugh.

“My god that took so long. Were you guys some type of bromance over there or something?” Angie said sarcastically while getting everything ready to go on the boat. “Haha, very funny,” Shane said with his own bit of sarcastic response. “Can we just get on this boat already?” I said trying to get things a move on. By now it already looks and feels like it should be midnight, and I could tell the others felt the same. After Shane and Angie argued about some nonsense that I don't even understand, we hopped on the boat while Shane tried starting it, trying to make as little noise as possible. Once the boat was started, Shane pulled away from the dock slowly, so no one could see us. After 5 minutes of the cold air hitting my face, the smell of the saltwater ocean going in my nose, and the silence between the three of us, I decided to break the silence. “So did you guys get the feeling too?” I questioned. By the looks of their confused face in the dark, I could tell they did not understand. “You know the feeling. When Emma was taken away from me, the police officers that took me home said Emma was dead.” “Yeah?” Angie added on, still sounding confused. “But I had this strange feeling in my gut.” “Almost as if she was still alive?” Shane said. “Yeah. I felt that as well. If I didn’t feel that feeling in my gut I probably would not be here. “I felt it too,” Angie said in the most calming voice I had ever heard her talk in. As I was spacing out, I looked into the ocean, and that's when I saw a sparkle in the ocean. Stop the boat I said to myself. “Stop the boat!” I shouted so loud that the boat came to a halt almost immediately causing Angie to fly forward. “What was that for!” Shane said angrily. Still having my head over the bottomless looking ocean, looking at the shiny object in the water I announced, “Get me some pole or something that's long.” I stuck my hand out demandingly. “Why do you need a” “JUST GET ME SOME TYPE OF HOOK!” I flipped my head around at Shane and snapped at him before he could finish his sentence. They never heard me scream before so Angie quickly started looking for some type of hook. She finally handed me something, and immediately I plunged it into the water, trying to hook whatever was in the ocean onto the finishing hook. Got it I told myself. Once I got hold of the object, I started to pull the hook out of the ocean as quickly as possible. The item broke the surface of the water and I threw the pole into the middle of the boat making a huge cold puddle coating the bottom of the boat. As soon as I saw what it was I sat there in silence, just staring at the item in the dark. Plink. Angie and Shane looked at me with my hand covering my cold mouth, while slow warm tears slowly run down my face, hitting the cold puddle. I finally was able to slip out a few words after 5 minutes of silence. “That's my sister’s shoe.” Plink

“That is your sister's shoe?” Angie asked to see if it was true. “Yes...” “Do you know what this means you guys? This means they are out there, and they are not dead. Haha” Shane tried to hug me due to the fact of his excitement that they might be alive, but I just sat there. I didn't say anything to him, nor did I move. I wasn't because I wasn't happy to see that my sister could be alive; I was just blank. My brain stopped. Just like before. It started happening again. I started to re-watch the event in my head. “CASH! HELP ME!” “CASH!” “cash.” “Cash.” I snapped back into reality with Shane shaking me back and forth by my shoulders. “Dude, get your stuff on. We are going down” I looked up seeing that Angie already had her scuba gear on, trying to help Shane with his. After seeing this I grabbed my heavy gear and started to slip it on as Angie was getting impatient with Shane. “Now remember what I told you-” “Yeah, yeah” Shane tried to act cool so he wouldn't get talked down to by a 13-year-old girl. “You guys ready?” I said to the group. “Yep.” “Let's do this,” Shane said as enthusiastically as ever. The three of us sat on the edge of the boat, ready to back flop into the cold ocean. Angie started to count down “3,2..1.” SPLASH another second later SPLASH and one last SPLASH.

Being down in the ocean felt so free. I felt like I was on the moon. I never felt this before, and it was extraordinary. “Remember in 10 minutes we go back up for air.” Angie said, “We know.” He responded most annoyingly ever “You don't need to boss us around every two seconds. “I’m just trying to keep you safe.” “Well, it's annoying.” Hey!” I yelled at them to shut up. “Can we just focus? Please.”They both got taken back for a second. “whos the bossy one now.” They both laughed at Angie's comment. After 7 minutes of looking, we saw nothing. “Yeah guys this was kind of a-” All of a sudden Shane stopped talking and he was nowhere to be seen “Shane?” I said in concern “Um Cash.” “Yeah, Angie.” “I don't think we are alo-” “ANGIE!” I screamed. Both Shane and Angie were just pulled to the bottom of the ocean out of nowhere and then I felt something in my gut. Something was off then when I was mid-thought something grabbed onto my ankle and started pulling me down at a concerning fast pace. The water started to get denser while the oxygen for me to breathe got thinner. At that point, my heart was pounding fast than I was descending. At the moment I thought that was it then THUD. My body hit the ground. I was still out of it because so much happened in just a few seconds, but once my brain started to work again I started to look around and notice that we are not in the water anymore instead, I was in a room. This room was covered in seaweed from top to bottom, to the point I couldn't see anything else. Then that's when I hear “Cash!” I knew that voice, it was Angie. I turned around on the ball of my feet and saw Angie running towards me with Shane not far behind. “Oh my god you guys, what was that?” Angie said. “I think it might have been the Umibozu.” Shane said as he scanned the room “That means.” “This is their layer.” Shane added to my sentence. SKRRRRRRR. The sound of huge claws grinding against the marble wall caught all of our attention, and all three of us flipped around to see where that noise came from. We all faced this eerie hallway that looked like it got darker and darker the further you went down it, with 2 others right beside it. “We just can’t catch a break can we.” Shane tiredly said. “It sounded like it came from the left and right hallway.” Angie just stood there but as I took a closer she was shaking a little from head to toe from the realization that we could be killed any second now. “I agree, let's head down the middle because I don't feel like running into those freakishly tall creatures.” Shane was shaking as well but not as much, and Shane is not the type of guy to get frightened very easily. Swooooooshhhhh. A cold breeze hit my back as we started to walk down the endless-looking hallway, I stopped right in my tracks. Looking back at the room we entered my head was telling me things. I started to hear voices in my head. Big mistake the voice said. You're going the wrong way. The voice continued to talk to me just like my gut did but with words this time. “Guys?” I looked in front of me again to see no one there. Everyone was gone. SKRRRRRRRRR. I head the nails against the wall again and this time I know for sure I was right. This was most definitely not from behind us, no. Out of the blue, I started to hear faint screams down the hallway. They gradually got louder and louder until I started to see some figures running my way. At that moment I could tell it was Angie and Shane and it looked like they were shouting something at me but I couldn't make out what they were saying. What are they saying? Run? Run? “RUN!” I could finally understand what they were saying and I did exactly what they said. I ran. I ran so fast that I didn't notice that I ran into a new room that I have never seen before. This room was just as dark as the rest but this one was different. I felt a presence Shane and Angie flipped around the corner entering the same room that I just came across. Listening to see if we lost the Umibouzu, I could hear it crashing into the walls from the slippery floor and starting to come around the corner. “Get against the wall.” I demanded Angie and Shane in a loud whispering voice. Following my commands, we pressed our cold, wet bodies against the freezing marble wall. At this point it sound like the Umibozu were right next to us, and I wasn't that far off. The Umibozu began to slow down and I could hear them sniffing around the area. After 3 minutes of them just standing there sniffing outside of the room, they bolted off. At that moment I realized air that I didn't even know I was holding in. “Are you guys ok?” I asked them both “I'm fine, but one of the Umibozus got a hold of Shanes's arm and it’s bleeding pretty badly.” tugging Shanes's arm toward me I tried to get a closer look, but I couldn't see anything in this pitch black room. “Here.” I slowly turned my head seeing that Angie was holding out a flashlight for me to take. I flipped it on to see Shanes's wound, but that wasn’t the only thing I saw. Crash I dropped the flashlight at the sight. I saw 7 children sitting in the corner of the room, all huddled together with one of those kids being Emma. Without a second thought, I rushed over to Emma, dropping to my knees so I was at her height, and she immediately jumped up to hug me. “Oh my god.” I turned around to see Angie in tears staring at a little boy. “Danny?” She did the same as I did and ran over to give this 7-year-old kid a huge hug. “Ahhhh.” I forgot about Shane and I flipped around to see that his arm was almost covered in his blood. Putting Emma down I rushed over the Shane, ripping a peace of my outfit to cover the wound. A little girl came running over to give Shane a big hug while balling her eyes out. The way that his face relaxed I could tell it was his younger sister Molly he spoke of earlier. We all stayed in the room for a while as I kept looking out into the hall to see that the Umibozu was still searching for us. Once I thought there was an opening, we all tried to sneak out with me and Emma in the front, Shane and molly in the middle, and Angie and Danny near the back while the rest of the little kids followed. We were making progress, and I almost saw the opening where the water was floating above us when Angie accidentally dropped her flashlight making a crash noise echo through the halls then I heard complete silence. Then that's when I heard the Umibouzu running in our direction “HURRY!” I screamed. By now the Umiboz knows where we were and we started to try to reach the water. Luckily that ceiling was only 7 feet tall, so Shane started to give everyone a boost. As each kid made it into the water the Umibozu started to get closer and closer. We started to rush. By now Everyone beside Shane, Emma, and I were already in the water. “Come on. “ Shane said to Emma. She did what he said and stepped on his hand which he lifted, causing Emma to touch the water which shot her upwards. “Your turn cash. By now I could hear that the Umibozu was right around the corner and could attack us anytime. “Seriously Cash you have to hurry.” “No,” I said “What do you mean no? They are coming right around the corner, we have to hurry.” “But if I make it you won't.” I said concerned for his safety. He started to look around as the Umibozu was almost in sight now. “I could just make a jump for it. I’m tall enough. Come on man if you don't go now neither of us is going to make it.” reluctantly I stepped on his hand and stood up touching the water. Just as Shane was going to make a jump for it an Umibozu grabbed his foot and started to drag him away. I couldn't do anything about it now, but that's when I began to move up. It got faster and faster as I could almost see the surface of the water. I broke the surface and flew into the air landing in the middle of the boat. “Ow.” I said while laying on my back as I had the wind knocked out of me. Looking around I could see everyone standing over me in concern. No one talked until one kid said “Weres Shane.” I started to sit up, noticing that it was Molly that said that. I didn't know how to put it into words, but this is all that came out. “An Umibozu. An Umibozu got a hold of him.” Everyone stood there in shock at the news. A few kids gasped while Molly started to break down in tears again. Then out of nowhere, I sated to hear a noise. I ran over to the edge of the boat to see what it was. When I saw bubbles start to form on the surface of the ocean. What is that The bubbles grew bigger and bigger when I began to see this figure coming our way. Is that “AHHHH!” THUD. “Owwww, None of you guys could have caught me?” “Shane!” Molly screamed. She bolted over and jumped on top of Shane giving him a big hug. “I can’t really breathe Molly.” Angie laughs at Shane. “I thought you were dead.” Punching his shoulder in a joking way. “You don't think I would go out that easily now do you?” We both started to laugh together on the floor of the boat. “So how did you survive?” “Obviously I killed it. I found this rusty metal pole leaning against the wall so I grabbed it and once I got the chance I stabbed it right in what I thought was the heart. Then I just jumped out like I said I was going to.” Once everyone got settled on the boat we headed towards shore as the sun was breaking the surface of the earth. After Shane tied the boat to the dock, as suspected, there were police officers and my mom standing around Shanes's truck, along with Angies, and Shanes's parents. “Oh my god. Emma.” My mom started to run in our direction, picking up Emma and giving her the tightest hug ever. “I thought I lost both of you.” Mom had a few small tears running down her face, “Don't you guys ever do that again.” She said while grabbing the bottom of our chins, making us see eye to eye. “Luckily we never have to deal with this again.” Emma said. “Shane killed the Umibozu, almost died, but made it out alive.” “Well, we never have to worry about that again.” My mom said with a little bit of a laugh at the end. “Let's go home and have some dinner.” She put her arm around our backs walking forward expecting us to follow, but I just stood still. I felt something weird in my gut again. That feeling in my gut. It's the same feeling I had when I read the news about the missing kids. it's the same feeling I felt when they said Emma was dead. It's the same feeling I got in the underwater cave when I said that the Umibozu was actually in front of us and not behind us. Out of all of those times, I had that feeling in my stomach because something was off, or something bad was going to happen. now thinking back at it when we were in the cave and I thought that we weren't alone, it was because I heard the Umibozu moving around but it didn’t sound like just one Umibozu. From experience, my gut does not lie and what my gut is telling me right now is that this is not over, and our crazy adventure has just begun.