In the last chapter our four heroes left Camp Winnatuka in the middle of the night to look for evil seaweed, leaping sea bass, and the biggest jellyfish anyone has ever seen. We're halfway through our story, dear reader. Will Tabitha, Rufus, Fres and Henry find what they're looking for? On to part three.
We were in the red canoe, searching for the monsters on the other side of Lake Anatoga at midnight. A black cloud passed in front of the moon and the night was darker than I'd ever seen it. We'd been in the water for about 10 minutes when Rufus started shouting.
"The monsters have got me! The monsters have got me!"
"Run for your life!" I yelled.
"We're in a canoe, you dolt!" Rufus hollered.
Fres and I had been paddling while Tabitha navigated and Rufus took a rest on the canoe floor. He was lying down when he noticed something green on his chest and started caterwauling.
"It's trying to eat me!" he shrieked.
Tabitha snapped to her feet and the canoe rocked back and forth. Black water slapped against the side of my face and for a second I thought the monsters had me too.
"Sit down!" somebody yelled at Tabitha, but she couldn't seem to hear.
"I don't have to go to school," she mumbled, her eyes still closed. "It's summer holidays."
"You were asleep!" Rufus gasped.
He sounded angrier about Tabitha falling asleep than he had about the monsters trying to eat him.
I was about to yell at Tabitha to wake up when Fres gripped her
paddle and smashed the tiny green monster who had been attacking Rufus. She whacked it once. It moved and made a crinkling sound. She whacked it three more times. The thing stopped moving.
The canoe stopped rocking and the only sound we could hear was Fres breathing deeply as we all moved away from the dead monster.
"Is that-"
The monster made a crinkling sound again.
"This is too dangerous," Rufus said. "There's monsters everywhere."
Tabitha dropped her head. She was wide awake now. "I'm sorry. I just. . ."
She looked small and scared and sad.
I gripped my paddle tight and leaned over the monster.
"I'm not positive," I interrupted, picking up the monster and dropping him again. "But I think that's broccoli."
A light breeze blew ripples over the lake. The black cloud fell away from the moon and a ray of light beamed on our canoe.
Tabitha's eyes got bigger and bigger and her teeth shone in the moonlight.
"Broccoli?" she asked.
Mashed broccoli," Fres confirmed.
"Who brought broccoli?"
"Cassandra gave it to me," Fres explained. "She thought I looked hungry."
Tabitha threw her head back and laughed.
"I don't see what's so funny," Rufus said.
I patted him on the shoulder.
"We just killed a broccoli monster, buddy," Tabitha howled.
"What do you mean we?" Rufus shot. "You were asleep."
We all laughed a little bit, and the canoe kept drifting.
"We're almost there," Tabitha said, leaning over the bow of the canoe.
"What kind of monsters did you say they were?" Fres asked.
"Leaping sea bass. Great big nasty jellyfish," Tabitha told her.
"Wait, wasn't there one more?" I asked.
Fres and I looked at each other and paddled very slowly. Nobody was laughing anymore.
"There!" Tabitha pointed.
We followed her finger. A layer of mist hung just a few feet in front of us like a grey curtain.
There were no sounds except our paddles dipping into the water and the waves lapping up against the canoe. We went into the mist. Fres was in front of me and I could barely see her. I couldn't see Tabitha at all.
I put my fingers into the water. It was cold. Colder than it had been on the other side of the mist.
Tabitha had said there were three monsters. Sea bass, jelly fish, and something else. I felt something in the water, something wrapping around my wrist, pulling me. It felt a lot like. . . Evil seaweed.
