The Curse of Poseidon

Chapter Two: Message in a Bottle

Makenna and Jessica finally reached McKevlin's Surf Shop. They had to cross the road to get into the parking lot.

McKevlin's Surf Shop was a long, yellow building on wooden beams with a brown roof. Under it were boards with paintings of pirates and surfers.

Makenna pointed at the shop and said, "There it is, Jessica!"

"Awesome!" Jessica announced. "Hey, Makenna, check it out! McKevlin's got a new accessory!" Her eyes had landed on the boards with the pirate and surfing paintings. "Get my picture!" Jessica begged. "Please get my picture!"

"Sure." Makenna reached into the pocket of her beach dress and drew her iPhone. She turned it on and scrolled to the camera. Once the camera was up, she gestured for where she wanted Jessica to stand. "Stand there, Jessica, beside the two surfer dudes heading out to the ocean. There you go." Makenna had Jessica right where she wanted. She stood before a painting of two surfer dudes, holding surfboards, who ran toward the sea. "Now do a pose," Makenna told her friend. "Pretend you, too, are running out to sea."

"Awesome." Jessica clenched her fists and struck a running pose parallel to the surfer dudes. "How's this, Makenna?"

"Perfect. Now hold it." Makenna held her phone close to her eyes and double-checked to ensure Jessica was where she wanted her. "All right," Makenna added. "Here we go. One, two, and—"

However, just before she took the picture, a large, furry face appeared before her phone's lens. "Hi." The face belonged to a bat, a Megabat.

"Ahhh!" Makenna screamed. She dropped her phone, turned on her heel, and sprinted away. She dove behind a jeep parked in the parking lot and pressed her back against it, breathing heavily.

"Makenna, what's wrong?" Jessica asked. "Did you get the picture?" However, her own eyes caught the Megabat hovering over Makenna's phone, and she, too, screamed. "Ahhh! Bat!" Jessica quickly let go of her pose and dove behind the boards.

From where he hovered, the bewildered bat shrugged and glanced in each direction the girls hid in. "Was it something I said?" He focused on Makenna's hiding place and shook his head, saying, "Oh, what a strange, little machine."

The bat soared to the jeep and landed on its hood, putting his paws together. "Makenna? Makenna, are you there? Don't you recognize a bat when you see one? It's me! Raeven, the notorious, phenomenal, handsome Megabat! Not to mention, I did get my fur groomed at Bat Central, so I'm even more handsome than the last time you saw me."

Where Jessica hid, she peered up from behind the boards, and her blue eyes landed on Raeven. "That dawg gone Raeven!" she groaned, letting her arm dangle before the boards' paintings. "I'm gonna have to put him in a bubble!"

Makenna, still hiding behind the jeep, soon recognized Raeven's voice and asked, "Raeven?"

"Correct, Miss Delling." Raeven blew her a kiss. "Mwah."

Makenna stood and rested her arms on the jeep's hood. "Raeven!" she said, but the hood was hot, so she removed her arms from it. Her eyes landed on the Megabat. "What's wrong with you? You nearly gave me a heart attack! Don't do that!"

"My apologies, Miss Delling, but you should at least give me some credit for the fact that I flew all the way here from Merlin's Island to seek you out."

Jessica had now tiptoed out from her hiding place and slowly started approaching the jeep. She stopped over Makenna's phone and picked it up. Jessica brushed it off, seeing that the phone's screen had cracked. "Uh oh," she whispered.

Where Raeven and Makenna were, Makenna immediately jumped into questions about Tracey: "Well, Raeven, how is he? How's Tracey?"

"Much better," he answered, seeming to smile. "Although there are still times when his back tingles, and he's still receiving therapy, he's doing much better. Just the other day, he rode Gina up to the ledge at Merlindial Falls. He meditated under the water. Makenna Delling, I think we have our Tracey back! But wait!" Raeven did a face palm and began to pace. "He's still under the Octopus Man's spell! Oh, this is horrible, horrible, horrible! Just when we think we have Merlin's apprentice back, he's going to be stripped of magic all over again! Yikes! What if we can't save him this time? This is a big problem! A huge problem! A big, big, big—"