The Creature

Fun.  That’s what my parents said this trip would be.  I can think of many other words to describe this trip and none of them were fun. Everything went wrong when we went to the Cryptid Museum, which was basically just a bunch of taxidermied animals with mismatched body parts, like a deer with the head of a wolf. Everything was clearly fake until we went into the “New Live Exhibit of the Rare Subterranean Aquatic Badger” or something stupid along those lines.  What we saw was just pathetic; we saw a man clearly in a mole costume swimming in a kiddie pool behind some glass.  Needless to say we were about to leave, when the charismatic owner came in and started talking to my parents.  So me being the curious teenage boy that I was, decided to wander around and look at some of the other exhibits.  I saw a half finished container way back in a corner and decided to check it out.  Big mistake.

The floor swallowed me up and brought me into a subterranean hell.  The place was dark and dank, the smell of stagnant water heavy in the air.  Then I hit the metal.  It hurt.  I looked up and saw that I was in a huge underground cave almost completely filled with water.  There were four large metal towers in each “corner” of the cave, and I had just happened to land on one.  I looked up and saw the gaping maw of a hollowed out tunnel that had dropped me into this cave.  I took a notice of this and decided to explore this tower.  I quickly found a tunnel that went under the lake and begin to walk through it.  That’s when I saw it.  It swam passed me quick enough for me to question my sanity but slow enough that I could get a clear view of it.  I wish that I didn’t.  What I saw was a giant humanoid mole swimming past me.  The thing was easily as big as a killer whale, I think.  I recoiled in horror and watched the beast swim away.  Needless to say I ran through the corridor, directly into another tower.  This time, however, I wasn’t alone.

Four boys in total were waiting in the shadows.  They jumped me and pinned me to the wall.  They asked who I was and if I had fallen down the “rabbit hole”.  I told them my name and yes, I had fallen down the “rabbit hole”.  They explained to me that we were in a subterranean cave full of water with a mutant mole creature that was part dolphin.  We were safe in the towers but still it was quite unnerving.  They took me to the very top of the tower so I could survey the cave.  It wasn’t huge but it was still a good few miles wide.  That’s when I saw it clearly for the first time.

The beast stood on its hind legs, easily as tall as the tower and began to walk around.  That’s when I noticed the heavy iron windows.  I grabbed them and began pulling them in so I didn’t have to look at the monstrosity.  The other boys scolded me, especially the leader, Lance.  He said that if I was too loud, the creature would sense us and come to eat us.  I was about to give him a piece of my mind when suddenly one of the boys tripped and fell out of the tower.  He screamed but that didn’t save him.  Of course it wouldn’t; screaming never saves anyone from the big scary monster.  The creature came up beneath him and swallowed him whole.  His name was Robert.  Lance punched me.  Both Jerry and Zachary had to restrain him.  He cursed me; said I killed his only family.  I walked away.

When I was surveying the cavern, I saw a large gateway between the two towers that I hadn’t yet visited.   I made my way to the next tower through the underground tunnel. I climbed to the top and saw a large opening in the rock.  It looked like I might be able to jump to it, and if not, the cave wall looked like it had various clefts and niches that I could use to climb it.  I jumped.  I missed miserably.  I landed in the water with a loud splash.  Then pure terror filled me as I realized my folly.  I swam as fast as I could to the wall and began to climb.  I made it into the opening before the rock shook so violently that I fell on my butt.  The creature had sensed me by ripples and slammed its head into the wall trying to find me.  Suddenly a door in front of me opened.  A girl roughly my age stepped out.  She was holding a weird looking octopus creature and was quite surprised to see me. Suddenly, Lance climbed over the edge and was about to charge me when he saw the girl.  He was missing his left hand.  She walked over to him and began to put the octopus where his hand would be. He began to writhe as his body began to contort into some misshapen creature that looked like it belonged in an H.P. Lovecraft story.  I ran. I never looked back until I reached the surface.  While I was running I saw a sign.  It said “Aquatic Mole- created by Doctor Samuel Rixis” and it explained what the creature was.  Once I made it to the surface I saw my parents in the gift shop.  I ran over to them and said that I was tired and wanted to go home.  They grudgingly obliged.  In the car they asked me what I thought about “Dr. Rixis’ Cryptids”.  I said it was just peachy.