Read Online Dead Asleep by Jamie Freveletti - Free Book Online Page B

creature have kept most of the locals in the area away.”
    â€œDo you believe the rumors?” she asked. Marwell rose, began to pull bottles from the six packs and shove them into the cooler.
    â€œOne time I got closer than usual. Was a sunny day, just like this one,” he waved a bottle in the air, “and I didn’t have a booking. I decided to head that way, and when I got near I thought, oh what the hell, I’ll just go take a look.” He shook his head. “It takes at least three hours to reach them, and when I did, the sky was still bright blue, the waves slow and easy, a perfect day for boating.” He paused. “I was directly over them. They were beautiful. The sea takes on a deeper, richer hue where they are and seems to sparkle ten times more than usual. I wasn’t there more than five minutes when I felt the boat give a lurch. It was as if something had grabbed onto the hull and yanked.” Emma was surprised to see Marwell shudder.
    â€œI threw it into gear, but the boat didn’t move. Something was holding it in place. I opened the throttle all the way.” He pointed to the Seahook. “You’ve got to understand that I have two powerful engines on that boat. I have to if I’m going to deep-sea fish. But the engines were whining and the boat didn’t budge. Whatever had it in its grasp gave another yank and the aft section started to sink in the water, which should give you an indication of the incredible power of the thing.” He put the bottle in his hand into the cooler.
    â€œBy this time I was in an outright panic. I leaned over the side to see what was there. The water near the stern was churning and foaming and there was a large black mass below. I ran back to the bridge and turned the steering wheel. The boat swung to the side and broke free. The twisting motion must have forced whatever it was to release its hold. I took off out of there as fast as I could go.” Marwell wiped an arm across his face where he’d begun to sweat. He looked at Emma. “I hope you don’t think I’m a coward, but I’ve never gone back there, and I never will.”
    Emma didn’t know what to say. She didn’t think Marwell was the type to lie, but she didn’t know what to make of the story.
    â€œCould it have been a sea creature?” She put up a hand. “ Not a monster, you understand, but an actual creature?”
    Marwell came back to sit next to her on the bench.
    â€œI’ve thought long and hard since then, as you can imagine. I’ve actually spent quite a bit of time researching it, just trying to figure out what the heck it was . . . Did you read the recent story about a boat in an open ocean race in the vicinity of the holes?”
    â€œThe one that claimed a giant squid had attached a tentacle to the hull and they dragged it for miles before it let go?”
    Marwell nodded. “That’s the one. They actually saw tentacles and suction cups the size of dinner plates, because they had sleeping quarters and a cabin window below. I never saw anything like that, but it’s the only possible explanation that I can come up with.”
    â€œSome Japanese fisherman photographed a giant squid just recently. It was over forty feet long.”
    â€œI’ve read about that as well. Forty feet is amazing. Just one tentacle of that size would wrap around my boat completely.” Marwell shook his head. “The ocean is something mysterious, isn’t it? It’s why I love it.” He frowned at Emma. “But whatever it was, I don’t need to meet up with it again. It’s too dangerous. That thing latched on within five minutes of me being there. It’s waiting and watching.”
    Emma wasn’t sure how to respond to Marwell’s story. He struck Emma as a practical, rational sort of person not prone to flights of fancy, yet she wondered if the years of folklore about the blue