Fangtooth by Shaun Jeffrey Page B

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between the host and guests on a daytime chat show sounded as though it was
coming from another room.
    The patients were all female, and seeing
them in their nightgowns and pyjamas made Bruce blush. The ages of the patients
ranged from late teens to late life. Some sat in chairs, but most reclined in
bed.
    He quickly made his way down the middle
of the room, towards the curtained bed at the end. When he reached it, he
coughed to clear his throat. Butterflies danced in his stomach, and he
chastised himself. He wasn’t a goddamn teenager.
    “Erin? Erin McVey?”
    When no one answered, he timidly peeked
through a gap in the curtain. The woman lying in the bed was asleep, but he
instantly recognised her. She looked pale, her breathing laboured. There was a
tube in her arm, and a clear liquid dripped through at regular intervals. Bruce
felt his heart miss a beat. Christ, what had happened to her?
    He slipped through the curtain, shaking
his head despondently. Not wanting to disturb her, he placed the flowers on the
bedside cabinet, and turned to leave.
    “I’ve got to get out of here.”
    Bruce jumped. He spun around and saw
Erin struggling to sit up. She coughed, the action making her cringe in pain.
    “Here, let me help you.” He reached down
to assist, but she held her hand up.
    “I can manage,” she snapped. After a
moment’s struggle, she sat up. “What are you doing here?”
    Bruce stared at her, unsure what to say
next. He nodded. “Yes, I … um, I—”
    “Well, I don’t know what you’re doing
here, but I’ve got to get out. I’ve got to warn them.” She started to swing her
legs out of bed. The tube in her arm pulled tight, almost toppling the stand it
was attached to.
    Bruce grabbed it before it fell. “Take
it easy.”
    “Don’t tell me what to do.”
    Bruce sighed and his shoulders slumped.
This wasn’t going how he had imagined. “I’m sorry. I’ll leave you alone.”
    “Wait a minute. What did you come here
for anyway?”
    “I … Well, I heard about your accident–I
don’t know what I came for really.” He shrugged, could feel his face burning
up.
    Erin exhaled noisily. “Look, I’m sorry.
I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
    “That’s okay. You look like you’ve been
through the mill.”
    “That’s not the half of it.” With
surprising speed and strength, she reached out and grabbed Bruce’s arm. “You’ve
got to listen to me. They’re saying it was lack of oxygen, but I know it
wasn’t. You’ve got to believe me. There’s something out there. In the water.
Something unnatural.”
    “Yes, I already know about it.”
    “You do?” Her hold relaxed.
    “Yes, a shark I heard.”
    Erin shook her head and squeezed
tighter. “Not a shark. It was something else. Something, I don’t know …
something monstrous.”
    Bruce patted her hand. “You’re safe now.
Nothing can hurt you here.”
    Erin sank back onto the bed. “I don’t
think any of us are safe,” she said before sleep engulfed her.
     

 
    Chapter 15
     
    Jack was bored. He was also hungry
again. A quick inspection of the fridge revealed milk, a tub of margarine, a
couple of eggs, and a half empty can of beans.
    He took a swallow from the milk to sate
his appetite, then replaced it on the shelf and closed the fridge.
    His dad had left ten pounds on the
kitchen table, so he picked the money up, and with Shazam in tow, he left the
house and headed back to the village.
    Hopefully, Rocky would have gone by now,
and if he was really lucky, Jen might still be around.
    On the coast road, he stared out to sea.
The great expanse of water stretched before him, and he wondered whether there
really was a man-eating shark prowling beneath the waves. If there was, then he
could see a scene straight out of ‘Jaws’ might ensue, and a flotilla of boats
would set out to destroy it. Not that he would support that. The shark was only
doing what came naturally to it. How the hell was it supposed to know that
mankind was