A Mermaid's Tale

Chapter 22

I didn't know what Arthur meant by cannibals, but the way his face lost all of its color made me nervous. He wasn't the type to show fear. "What's a cannibal?"

"A human that eat other humans."

My stomach flipped. I've never heard of anything so disgusting before. "Why? That's so awful..."

He looked down at me with tense eyes. "No one ones why they do it, but the taste of human flesh makes them mad. We need to get out of here. Now."

We turned to run away from the deranged voice, but before we could, another voice echoed from the other end of the hall. "Banksy? That Banksy? You smells it too, Banksy? People meat...Hewbert likes the people meat."

Arthur swore. "We're cut off."

"What do we do?" I felt panic clawing its way up my spine.

"We fight." The pirate silently drew his blade with one hand and his revolver with the other.

I swallowed nervously. My knife felt cold as I pulled it from its vibrant red sheath, or it may have been that my skin was feverish with anticipation. Shuffling sounded from both ends of the hall, but we couldn't see anything around the corners. Arthur and I stood back to back as we waited for the cannibals to arrive, and so they did.

A single head peeked out from around the corner. The man looked completely normal, until he smiled. All of his teeth had been filed to points. "Hello, tasties." His eyes darted back and forth between us. "Banksy not seen tasties for long time."

"Two for eats! Hewbert didn't think two."

The second voice sounded closer than before, but I didn't dare look away from the man who called himself Banksy. I heard Arthur cock his gun. I've never had to fight before, and the thought of plunging my knife into flesh made me feel sick. Banksy stepped out from around the corner and tilted his head. It looked like he was studying us, but not in the way one would seize up an enemy. He was looking at us like food.

"Tasties falled down our hole. Banksy not see tasties for a long time." He licked his lips.

"Banksy leave some for everyone else," the one who called himself Hewbert said. "We all wants them for eats."

I swallowed nervously. "We?"

"Tasties speaks!" Banksy looked even more delighted.

"We can take just two," Arthur growled. "Wait until they get closer."

"Heeheehee! Hewbert is so hungry. We eats them now, yes?"

"YES!"

The answer boomed around the hall. I jumped in surprise at the magnitude of the volume. A huge hoard of cannibals appeared behind Banksy, and I assumed behind Hewbert too because I felt Arthur tense behind me. They were so quiet it wasn't human.

"Time for eats!"

The crowd hissed and snapped their pointed teeth as they closed in on us. Eagerness shined in their eyes, but they didn't dare get too close. Their wariness showed intelligence, yet everything else about the cannibals' screamed insanity. I was intrigued. That feeling was soon swallowed up by fear as someone behind me shouted. I turned in time to see one of the deranged men leap at Arthur. The pirate stepped aside and brought his cutlass down mercilessly. Blood flowed and screams filled the air.

"Yensin! Big food hurted Yensin!"

"Smell good! Yensin for lunch, mmmmm!"

"Oya want the big munchie! Kill big munchie!"