Dark Day in the Deep Sea

cried. “What are you doing?”
    Jack forgot all about throwing up. “I made a mistake!” he shouted. “We shouldn’t be up here! Go down! I’m coming with you! We have to go back down!” He pushed Annie toward the stairwell.
    A giant wave crashed over the side of theship. Jack fell and slid across the foam-covered deck. It was impossible to see anything. The wind was screaming. Jack tried to stand, but wearing his clumsy life vest, he couldn’t get back on his feet.
    Jack finally hauled himself up. But just as he did, another giant wave broke over the side of the ship! The ship rolled again, and Jack fell to his knees. Another wave crashed over the deck. Jack was swept up by the foamy water—and tossed overboard into the churning sea!

J ack plunged down into the sea. The water was freezing cold. He bobbed back up to the surface, choking and coughing. The life vest kept Jack afloat, but the waves kept hammering him.
    “Help!” Jack shouted. Thoughts of the twenty-foot tiger shark and the mysterious monster shot through his mind. “Help! Help!” he screamed.
    Jack heard someone else screaming, “Help!” It was Annie! She’d been washed off the ship, too!
    Jack flailed his arms and kicked his legs, trying to get to Annie. A wave lifted her up and tossed her toward him. But just as Jack reached for her hand, another wave pushed her past him, out of reach.
    “The wand, Jack!” Annie shouted. “Use the wand!”
    The wand!
Jack thought.
The Wand of Dianthus!
Where was it? In his backpack! He didn’t have his backpack! Where was his backpack?
    “Jack! The wand!” Annie yelled.
    “I don’t have it!” Jack shouted. His voice was lost in the roar of the storm. Jack kept flailing and kicking, trying to reach Annie again.
    Jack felt his cork life vest coming loose. Another wave crashed over him, and one side of the vest slipped off his arm!
    Jack clutched the vest, trying to keep it on. But the waters kept pulling and tugging. The sea itself now seemed like a monster!
    As Jack desperately fought the water, he saw another life vest floating free on the waves. It was Annie’s!
    Where was she?
    “Annie!” Jack screamed. As he looked around, he lost his fight with the sea—a wave washed his vest right off him! Then another wave crashed down on his head and pushed him down into the deep.
    Jack held his breath as he plunged through the black water. He thrashed his arms and kicked his legs, trying to get back to the surface. His head popped above the waves, and he took one deep gulp of air before another wave washed over him and he went under again.
    Jack kept kicking and trying to swim, but the fight to get back to the surface was too great. Just when he was about to run out of air, he felt something curl around his waist. Then he felt himself being lifted toward the surface!
    Jack’s head popped above the water again. Heopened his mouth and gasped for air. The waves were swirling and foamy, but Jack kept his head above them. Something around his waist was holding him up.
    Jack couldn’t think at first. He was trying too hard to breathe. But then he saw something spreading across the water near him. It looked like a giant gray umbrella with dark spots all over it.
    Rising from the center of the umbrella was a huge, rounded head! It had yellow eyes with black pupils. Stretching out from the umbrella were tentacles—
lots
of tentacles, all connected by a thick web, with double rows of suckers on each one.
    A giant octopus!
Jack thought with horror. It was much bigger than the octopus they’d seen a long time ago. And this time, a tentacle of the huge creature was curling around his waist!
    “Help!” Jack shrieked. He tried to pull himself free from the thick, rubbery arm.
    The giant octopus held him tightly. Jack looked around wildly. Where was Annie?

    “Jack!” Annie shouted.
    Jack saw her. One of the octopus tentacles had lifted Annie above the surface of the water, too.
    Jack’s relief at seeing Annie was matched by his terror. “We’re caught!” he cried. “Try to escape!”
    Jack kept trying to break free from the huge tentacle. But the more he fought, the tighter the grip of the octopus became.
    “Don’t fight him, Jack!” Annie yelled. “He’s rescuing us!”
    Jack couldn’t think straight. Was she crazy? “He’ll strangle us and pull us back under!” he shouted. “We
have
to fight him!”
    “No!” shouted Annie. “You’re wrong! Can’t you see? He’s saving us from