Chapter 11

Ew, so, things aren't going well for Lucille and Charon, but things didn't get wet for them.

“Lucille,” Charon shouted, coming up from the dark waters and looking around for her. He quickly saw her come up as well, along with Stanley, and they both grabbed hold of some floating wood. She was gasping for air, unsure what to do, while the cat stood atop the wood, shocked and enraged at being dropped into the water. Charon was glad to see them alive, but the question remained: what had actually attacked them? A lot of the men from the other boats were coming up as well, a few of them shouting for everyone to get out of the water, and Charon could hear the panic in their words. He looked in the darkness, finding nothing but the trees, and he had that sinking knowledge that there was death swimming beneath his feet.

                “Lucille, get to the tree,” Charon said, pointing ahead of him. She didn’t say a word as she started to kick, swimming with all her might towards the massive roots of the tree. She had learn to trust him, and she trusted him deeply. She was trying her best to reach the tree, while Charon was doing the same.

                He glanced back right before he reached the same root, seeing one of the men shout before he was jerked under the water along with one of his friends. The men started to panic, racing for the trees as well. Whatever had kicked them out of their boats, blowing those boats into nothing, and sending them all into the wall. Those things, which Charon was sure were some kind of monsters, were pulling those men into the water. Blood had started to bubble up, turning the dark water a deep red as the men were being killed in death rolls from alligators in the area.

                Charon got to one of the massive roots quickly, crawling out of the water and turning to see that Lucille was close to him, but he saw those ancient eyes pop up from the water. Those lizard eyes stared right at her, and then they dipped back down as all the men in the water were being pulled into the depths.

                Charon growled at the beast coming for Lucille. She was pushed hard toward him, and then she saw Charon take off his hat. She glanced behind her, seeing nothing but knowing he wouldn’t have removed his hat unless something was about to go very wrong. Charon whispered into the hat, making the pit glow a bright red, and he reached in with his long, bony hand into the glowing light. He jerked hard, pulling the tail of an alligator out right as a red line ring opened high in the sky. He let the tail go, seeing the man-alligator falling to his death, crashing into the tree.

                Lucille got to the root with Stanely rushing up to Charon, and was quickly followed by Lucille with more massive lizard eyes coming out of the water. Lucille got next to him, seeing six sets of eyes staring at them but not moving.

                “What are they doing?” she asked.

                “Don’ know,” he said. “Don’ care either.”

                “What are they?” she asked, keeping her eyes on Stanely and the monsters.

                “Don’ know,” he said, “but be ready for a fight.”

                “With you,” she said, “I’m always ready for a fight.”

                The eyes hung there in the water, not blinking, not looking away with Charon and Lucille, not sure what to do. They had no way out of the tree, and they felt the monsters would wait for hours until they grew weak from hunger, then attack.

                “We've got to come up with a plan,” she said.

                “I know, I know,” he said.

                “I’m not going to die here in this smelly swamp,” she huffed as Stanley moved farther up the tree.

                “Me either,” he said, watching them.

                “Can we use your hat?” she asked. “Make a hole in reality or something?”

                “You don’ want to go into my hat, Clown,” he said, “it would be worse than these monsters.”

                “We've got to do something,” she said, looking upward, trying to see if they could climb upward and then jump from tree to tree. It might have worked for them to escape, but the problem wasn’t escaping, as Charon knew, it was that the monsters would attack if they started trying to move.

                “We could -“

                “No,” Charon said, “we are going to fight. We are going to find the Hades’ great-grandfather.”

                “Remind me to kick Emelina when we get back,” Lucille said, and when she said the name, the monsters’ eyes met before they turned back to her. One of the beasts dipped under the water while the other stuck around watching them.

                They all sat there waiting for something to happen until almost dawn. They could feel the sun rising, and then, almost with the first rays of light, their eyes moved back under the water as all the trees shook.

                Lucille moved closer to Charon, and he got ready to face whatever monster was about to come out of the water, but he wasn’t ready for the massive giant toad coming up to them. The toad was the size of a house and staring right at them.

                “Emelina is in trouble?” The toad asked.

                Charon looked over at Lucille, whose mouth was open wide at the sight of the toad, or maybe it was the fact that the toad was talking; he wasn’t sure. He turned back to the toad, the water rolling off the massive beast's oily skin, and watched those big, round eyes blink at him a few times. The toad waited for them to speak while Charon made sure none of the other monsters were circling them.

                “Well?” The toad asked, almost roaring.

                “Uh, yes, sir,” Lucille said, nodding hard. “Yes, sir, she is in trouble.”

                “How so?” The toad asked.

                “You’re the grandfather,” Charon said, pointing at him. “Your grandfather Hades, aren’ you?”

                The toad turned those alien eyes toward Charon and nodded at him. “I am.”

                “What happened to you?” Lucille asked.

                “Saturday happened to me,” he said. “Now, why is my granddaughter in trouble?”

                “Saturday,” Charon said. “He has taken Jermany’s bones.”

                “That demon,” the toad hissed. “That bloody monster.”

                “Yes, it seems to be the case,” Charon said. “We were here to find them, but now, that you know, I’m sure you can handle this little problem.”

                “No, I can’t,” the toad said, shaking his head. “I can’t harm Saturday.”

                “Thought so,” Charon said, sighing and shaking his head.

                “You know where he is?” Lucille asked. “We can harm him.”

                The toad nodded, and if a toad could smile, then he was doing it as he said, “Oh, child of a dream, I do, I surely do.”