The Island of Fear (complete)

Chapter 32) Lupo's Escape

KateSeleneMelody3OCS

Kate's POV: When I woke up, it was early morning. The underground lair of Lupo was quiet, and I realized I was the first one awake. I was about to get up, when I realized that there was a flipper across my stomach. I held back a light laugh. "Oh, Peso..." I whispered. I couldn't help but be amused at this. I could hear the faint songs of Jabber Jays singing their songs. One sounded like Dashi.

Quietly, I began to hum along to the magical sounds. I saw Christian stretch as he came out of his room and walked over to where the rest of my friends were sleeping. I smiled. "Morning, Sleeping Beauty." I murmured.

He seemed surprised that I was up. "Morning, Rip Van Winkle." He replied. I let out a faint laugh, not loud enough to wake up the others. He smiled. Christian and I had been close as kids. He was kind of like my older brother, in a way. He himself wasn't an orphan, but he knew about Damien's cruelty, and was always there to support us.

I glanced around the room once again, and noticed something disturbing. "Um, Christian?" I asked. "Where's Lupo?" The cage he had been in was empty.

isobeljones2000

Kwazii's POV: I was woken abruptly by being hit hard in the face. My eyes shot open to see Tweak's furious face a few inches from mine. She didn't look happy.

"Look, I'm sorry Tweak. I didn't mean -"

She was still lying on the ground, still looking pained. Her skin was still very pale, almost white. And her wound was ragged and open. But her eyes were full of life.

"I know you didn't Kwazii. But maybe you could have asked before you decided to knock me out," she said icily.

I knew she would be angry at me for a while. I rubbed my cheek ruefully, feeling a bruise forming where she had hit me. Tweak had turned away now, lying on her other side where the bite wasn't, and she wasn't looking at me. I prepared to apologize again when I heard Kate's sudden yell of fear and I jolted around quickly. She, Peso and Christian were all staring at Lupo's cage. Or what had been Lupo's cage. For now it was empty, the door swinging open.

"How -" I murmured in confusion and feeling dread in my heart. Kate came over to me, burying her silvery face in my fur. I held her close.

"Oh God. He's out," she whispered. "I really really don't want to die again."

"We're all together now. We can protect each other," I whisper to her comfortingly. Her eyes stare into mine.

"I hope you're right Kwaz. I hope you're right."

Everyone else had heard Kate's exclamation and were waking up, bleary eyed and yawning. It didn't take anyone long to figure out what was wrong.

Finally the Captain said out loud what we were all thinking in our heads.

"He's out. Lupo's escaped."

KateSeleneMelody3OCS

Christian's POV: I couldn't believe it. Lupo had escaped?! How was this possible?! The cage door was ajar, the cuffs were unlatched, and there was no sign that he had even been in there in the first place. All the Vegimals had fainted. The rest of us were silent statues, except for Shellington, who was pacing back and forth across the room, seemingly in deep thought.

After a while, the sea otter looked at me. "Christian, you know this island better than any of us. Is there any way for Lupo to have left the island?" he asked me.

I shook my head. "If I knew of a way to leave, I wouldn't be here now." I sighed.

Just then, an idea struck me. I hobbled over to the main computer, ignoring the jarring pain in my abdomen as well as Peso's protests, and I booted up the system. After a thorough check of the islands current time security footage, I checked the security footage from last night to early this morning.

isobeljones2000

Dashi's POV: I went over to Shellington and pressed close to him, feeling apprehensive as we watched the security footage, scared of what we would find.

05:38. We could see a dark shape moving in the cage, just a silhouette against the shadows of the cavern.

"You really shouldn't be up," Peso was telling Christian insistently, who was ignoring the penguin's protests easily.

05:52. A jangle. Another. Then a faint sound, like someone was trying to hold in a scream. So that was how Lupo escaped, I mused. Those handcuffs were on pretty tight. He couldn't have done it easily. Somehow I felt sad when I thought of my best childhood friend in pain. He was so nice, so charming. We were really close as cousins, as close as siblings.

Then he went and murdered my mother.

"Got it!" Christian said excitedly, pointing at a figure on the paused screen. Lupo was using the serrated edge of his now open handcuffs to open the door. His wrists, I could see, looked bloody and raw, but he had a challenging smile on his face, proud and crazed. His eyes were wide and shone brightly.

"But why didn't he come to us?" Shellington mused. "He wanted revenge, or why would he make the island? He could have killed us in our sleep."

"That's not Lupo's style," a quiet voice interrupted. We all turned to look at the white wolf; her face was cold, hard and determined. "He wants to see us suffer, he's sick like that. He wouldn't just kill us."

"But why would he leave?" Barnacles asked.

"Maybe he had another plan..." Kate wondered.

Then it hit me. "Or maybe he hasn't left!"

Shellington quickly passed Christian and started flicking through the securities footage, faster and faster, until we reached the present time. I joined him, my paws nimble over a keyboard. It was my day job, driving the Octopod. We all looked closely at the flickering footages of each camera, both trying to spot and also dreading the moment when we saw those amber eyes.

"Selene," I heard Peso say slowly. "Where's Derek?"