Monstrum by Ann Christopher Read Free Book Online

Carter as they lose their grips and their footing and hurtle over the side.
    I also lose my balance and hit the floor spread-eagled. What feels like a gallon of ocean water surges into my mouth, and it tastes like decay salted with brine. I splutter and spit it out as fast as I can. Then I crawl to the door, the boys’ names already screeching out of my mouth.
    â€œGray! Carter!”
    Just then the raft’s beacon light flashes white, providing enough illumination for me to see the shapes of two heads bobbing in the water about five feet away from the raft.
    â€œThey’re okay,” Maggie calls.
    I groan with relief, listening to the sounds of the boys swimming to the raft and climbing in. Then I hear Gray again.
    â€œBria—” he has a sudden fit of coughing and has to pause. “You have to jump
now,
before the raft drifts too far away. There’s no one there to hold the rope anymore. Forget the seat cushion.
Jump!
”
    I want to, but I can’t. Just in the two seconds since Carter fell and dropped the rope, the raft has drifted much farther away, and I’m not sure I can make it. On the other hand, I’m going to have to swim a little bit, no matter what, and if I hesitate any longer, I’ll have to swim a lot.
    I don’t want to have to swim a lot. Not in that black water.
    And I certainly don’t want to be the last living person on the plane while the others float away.
    So I stumble to my feet, grab the rail, and hang the toes of my gym shoes over the edge, ready to go. It’s now or never.
    â€œI’m coming,” I shout.
    â€œWe’ll try to wait right here,” Carter reassures me. “This thing’s got oars, so we can steer a little bit. Let’s go!”
    I bend my knees and am halfway into my liftoff when I hear a thin, sobbing voice from deeper inside the cabin.
    â€œHelp,” it says faintly. “Oh, God, somebody help me, pleeeeease.”
    For one arrested beat, I cannot fathom who could be left on the plane at this point, but then the thing that’s been dancing around the edges of my consciousness comes into sharp focus.
    How could I have forgotten?
    â€œEspi?”
I call over my shoulder. “Is that you?”
    â€œBria? Help me! We have to get Macy out of here!”
    I hesitate, running through my options, all of which suck.
    I could do the instinctive thing, which is call for help, but no one’s available to do any rescuing.
    I could do what I’d planned to do, which is jump to relative safety, and hope that Espi and Macy are somehow able to do the same.
    Or I could swallow my terror, go back into the dark, flooded and sinking cabin, all by myself, and help the girls who are my classmates, if not my friends.
    Don’t be stupid!
shouts the cowardly portion of my brain, which is about 99 percent at the moment.
What can you do anyway? You’re just one medium-sized girl with a hero complex!
    Go. Help them,
whispers the remaining 1 percent.
    In the end, there’s no decision to be made. I can’t turn my back on Espi and Macy. I’d never be able to live with myself.
    â€œBria! Bri-aaaa!”
    The sound of Gray’s frantic voice mingling with everyone else’s in the raft spurs me into action. I stick my head out the door while locking my numb fingers tight around the rail.
    â€œBria!” He’s standing at the end of the raft nearest the plane, arms outstretched like a fireman prepared to catch a baby dropped from the top of a burning apartment. His voice is hoarse and ferocious. “Jump now, goddammit! Now!
    â€œI can’t,” I say. “Espi and Macy are still here, and they need help.”
    â€œBria—”
    There was more. The protests sound like they’re coming from Maggie and An this time, but I don’t have time to argue.
    The frigid water is lapping around my waist now, clinging to me as though it wants to keep me there forever, and my fragile