Ch7-Help!

CHAPTER SEVEN Help! Jack plunged down into the sea. The water was freezing cold. He bobbed back up to the surface, choking and coughing. The life vest kept Jack afloat, but the waves kept hammering him. "Help!" Jack shouted. Thoughts of the twenty-foot tiger shark and the

mysterious monster shot through his mind. "Help! Help!" he screamed. Jack heard someone else screaming, "Help!" It was Annie! She'd been washed off the ship, too! Jack flailed his arms and kicked his legs, trying to get to Annie. A wave lifted her up and tossed her toward him. But just as Jack reached for her hand, another wave pushed her past him, out of reach. "The wand, Jack!" Annie shouted. "Use the wand!" The wand! Jack thought. The Wand of Dianthus! Where was it? In his

backpack! He didn't have his backpack! Where was his backpack? "Jack! The wand!" Annie yelled. "I don't have it!" Jack shouted. His voice was lost in the roar of the storm. Jack kept flailing and kicking, trying to reach Annie again. Jack felt his cork life vest coming loose. Another wave crashed over him, and one side of the vest slipped off his arm! Jack clutched the vest, trying to keep it on. But the waters kept pulling and tugging. The sea itself now seemed like a monster!

As Jack desperately fought the water, he saw another life vest floating free on the waves. It was Annie's! Where was she? "Annie!" Jack screamed. As he looked around, he lost his fight with the sea—a wave washed his vest right off him! Then another wave crashed down on his head and pushed him down into the deep. Jack held his breath as he plunged through the black water. He thrashed his arms and kicked his legs, trying to get back to the surface. His head popped above the waves, and he took one deep

gulp of air before another wave washed over him and he went under again. Jack kept kicking and trying to swim, but the fight to get back to the surface was too great. Just when he was about to run out of air, he felt something curl around his waist. Then he felt himself being lifted toward the surface! Jack's head popped above the water again. He opened his mouth and gasped for air. The waves were swirling and foamy, but Jack kept his head above them. Something around his waist was holding him up.

Jack couldn't think at first. He was trying too hard to breathe. But then he saw something spreading across the water near him. It looked like a giant gray umbrella with dark spots all over it. Rising from the center of the umbrella was a huge, rounded head! It had yellow eyes with black pupils. Stretching out from the umbrella were tentacles—lots of tentacles, all connected by a thick web, with double rows of suckers on each one. A giant octopus! Jack thought with horror. It was much bigger than the octopus they'd seen a long time ago.