All Makenna could do while she and Ash walked on the stone path toward the fairy sculpture was stare. That may be her only time on Coutarine Island, so she had to take in as much as possible. The path on either side surrounded the two turquoise pools, and their waterfalls roared gently.
Ash stopped for a bit behind Makenna and glanced into one pool at the swimming fish. Sticking his fingers into it, he let them nibble his skin. After playing with the fish, he chased after Makenna again.
Stopping, she sighed and admitted, "Ash, I think it's safe to say that your annoyance level is officially caught up with Caleb's. No offense."
He wasn't. He took the insult like a champ.
The two fairies soon reached the flight of stairs that led to the fairy sculpture, and Makenna whispered, "Wow." The waterfalls made music and rainbows.
Makenna, Silvey, and Ash climbed the stairs and examined the fountain.
"This is it," continued Makenna. "This is where we'll find that scroll. How do we retrieve it, though?" Just before she could try anything, dark energy flowed through her body. "What the—?" Makenna said.
"What's wrong?" Ash questioned.
Makenna shook her head. "I feel something. Something unsettling. My fairy instincts are speaking to me." Dropping her wings, she passed the sculpture and approached one waterfall. Makenna lifted her hand and held it up to the water. "What do I feel?" she asked it. "I feel that…"
A few seconds later, Makenna gasped. Her wings shook, and she peered over her shoulder at Ash, who had approached her with Silvey. "Tracey," Makenna frightfully told them.
***
Tracey reached the ghost town before Emilee. He sprinted as fast as a ninja and ignored the lighthouse's beam that hit him again.
Tracey hurried toward Ronda's raft and the ocean. The Octopus Man's mark glowed fiercely on his arm. He hopped over a bench and focused on just the Bermuda Triangle, where he belonged. The closer he approached the water, the brighter the trident glowed. His entire body was soon outlined in black light, red splotches across it.
When Tracey reached the beach, he stopped at the waterline and closed his eyes. Lifting his foot, he kicked Ronda's raft aside so he could see it more clearly. Aside from the black surrounding his body, the outline soon flashed blue.
Emilee's voice was soon heard behind him. "Tracey, wait!" Wind blasted hers and Tracey's hair.
Emilee stopped behind Tracey and placed her hands on her knees to catch her breath. When she did, she stood and said, "You can't do this! I don't know anything about the world of magic, but I can assure you that the Bermuda Triangle will not solve your problems! I don't want to lose you the way I lost Sky! Sky died after sailing into the Bermuda Triangle, where his sailboat wrecked! He washed up on our shore, and we had to rush him to the mainland! Tracey, please! Think about this!" She shakily reached for his shoulder.
Before Emilee reached him, Tracey snatched her wrist and whirled around.
Emilee yelled and quickly pulled herself free. She was too late.
Tracey opened his eyes, but Emilee didn't see the golden brown. Instead, his eyes mimicked the Octopus Man's. They glowed blue.
Emilee again yelled and fell onto the sand. "He's under a curse!" she concluded.
With his eyes still glowing, Tracey lifted his arms like he was fighting gravity and used dark magic to summon an ally. "You can't stop me from flying to the Bermuda Triangle!" he shouted. "I forbid it!" Lowering his arms, he glared at Emilee.
Behind Tracey, the ocean water bubbled. A fifty-foot-tall whirlpool shot into the dark sky. Eight, Kraken-like arms escaped it.
Emilee watched frozen as the arms wrapped around the whirlpool. The water was then sucked away, revealing the Kraken—the real Kraken! Its humanoid form landed behind Tracey and roared.
Emilee screamed at the sight of the alien-like monster. "Tracey! No!"
Clenching his teeth, Tracey lifted his hand and pointed at her.
At his command, the Kraken leaped over him and landed before Emilee. It hit the ground with such force that she was thrown into the air.
Emilee crashed into the sand but, amazingly, was unhurt by the fall. She wasted no time, though.
Hopping to her feet, Emilee ran back toward the ghost town. She couldn't run for long, though, because she wasn't as young as she used to be.
The Kraken chased her, and Tracey followed by using magic to fly. It smacked one tentacle through a line of old buildings, knocking them down.
Emilee didn't want hers and Jesse's house to get destroyed, so she hurried to the abandoned fair, where the Ferris Wheel was, and threw open the gate. She dove behind a stand and pressed her fist to her chest, inhaling. Emilee pinched herself, but didn't wake up in bed.
For about a minute, it turned quiet. When Emilee managed to catch her breath, she peeped out from the stand.
As soon as she did, the Kraken's four eyes and oval-shaped mouth appeared before her, and Emilee screamed again. She barely missed an incision on her arm from its claws by rolling out of the way. She next hurried toward the Ferris Wheel.
While Emilee ran, she peered up at spell-struck Tracey and yelled, "Tracey, stop! This is not who you are! You're under a curse!"
Tracey didn't hear her. He again yelled, "You can't stop me from flying to the Bermuda Triangle!" Then, just like that, he ordered the Kraken to destroy the Ferris Wheel.
It lifted two of its powerful tentacles and broke the Ferris Wheel with one strike. It crashed into the ground, seats flying, and Emilee yelled. The force of the collision threw her toward another stand, causing the ground to shake.
The Kraken's four eyes landed on the exhausted, petrified woman and glowed like Tracey's. It started toward her, then stumbled back and screeched. A sudden axe had struck it in one of its tentacles.
While the Kraken pulled it out, Emilee rose to her hind legs and looked in the direction from which the axe came. She managed a smile.
The axe came from the powerful grasp of Jesse. He stood behind the destroyed Ferris Wheel, armed with three knives.
After removing the axe, the Kraken broke it in two and glared at him.
"Leave my sweet grass alone!" Jesse shouted. He chucked one of his knives.
"Jesse!" Emilee bellowed. "Jesse, move!"
Jesse's knife struck the Kraken in another tentacle, and it screeched again.
Emilee was forced to close her eyes and cover her ears.
Stumbling backward, the monster tripped and fell hard on the ground. Trails of blood seeped from its gashes, and it tried to push itself back up.
While it was down, Emilee had the chance to run for her husband.
He lifted another knife and pushed his way through the debris of the Ferris Wheel. "Emilee!" he called while he ran, "I told you we couldn't trust that boy!"
Emilee tried to protest. "No, you have it all wrong! He's under a curse! We have to snap him out of it!"
Just before Emilee and Jesse reached each other, the Kraken hopped up and shot one of its tentacles toward them. The tentacle wrapped around Emilee's ankle and pulled her down.
"Ahh!" she screamed, clawing the ground.
"Emilee!" Jesse yelled. "No! Let her go, you big bully!" Diving forward, he slid and reached for his wife's hand, but missed.
"Help!" she begged. The tentacle moved to her belly and dragged her into the air.
"No!" Jesse cried again, stabbing the creature with another knife.
It screeched, but didn't release Emilee.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she was pulled toward the ocean. "Jesse, please!" Her eyes landed on Tracey, who launched different spells toward him.
One spell shot Jesse into the sky, and he crashed through a stand. He hit the ground with so much force that his world went black.
"Jesse!" Emilee yelped.
The Kraken held her toward its oval-shaped mouth and chomped at her.
"Tracey!" Emilee begged. "Snap out of it! This is not who you are!"
Her voice hit him hard.
Tracey suddenly stopped attacking. He froze the spell in his hand and closed his eyes.
The Kraken also froze, but still didn't release Emilee.
She stared at Tracey. Did it work?
When Tracey opened his eyes again, they still glowed blue, and he shot the spell into a building. It collapsed onto another, sending a loud bang through the air.
The Kraken pulled Emilee and Tracey to the ocean and created another whirlpool. It picked up Ronda's raft and chucked it into it.
"Remember who you are!" Emilee shouted at Tracey, ocean water spraying her.
Her voice again hit him hard, and Tracey closed his eyes for the second time. He fell unconscious toward the whirlpool, but Emilee grabbed him.
The Kraken started to pull them into the whirlpool. While it was escapable, it needed a sacrifice, but Emilee didn't need to think it over.
Still holding onto Tracey, her eyes rolled down to Ronda's raft floating under them at the whirlpool's edge. Ocean water trickled down her face, and the Kraken tightened its grip.
"I'm going to let you go, Tracey!" Emilee promised. "Hold on!" Without another thought, she released him.
Tracey plummeted and landed on Ronda's raft on his back, but did not wake up.
As Emilee drew closer to the whirlpool, she continued to yell at him. "You can make it! You can make it, kid!"
Ronda's raft started to spin, along with Tracey. The sail flapped wildly.
Emilee watched while her new friend shrank smaller and smaller, but the raft moved toward safety. Before she knew it, the Kraken's humanoid form pulled her into the portal, and she disappeared with one final yell.
The whirlpool blew up as if a bomb had hit it, and Ronda's raft went flying. A miniature tsunami crashed into Emilee and Jesse's sailboat, pushing it against a few broken buildings. Its sail cracked and fell on top of the debris.
Rain poured down, and everything fell silent.
End of Act III: The Kraken!
Current Word Count: 99,100