Sophie Kolakowski
Monroe, CT
2015, Junior, Creative Writing

A brilliant flash of lightning pierced the sky and caused Reyna to practically leap out of bed shaking. This was the third night in a row she had had that dream. That awful dream. Reyna loved sailing out on her grandfather’s rusty old boat, but now she was beginning to fear the ocean and what lurked so deep down. Reluctantly, she drifted back to sleep, but it wasn’t the peaceful waves she used to dream of that greeted her. She could feel herself sinking in the water. At first it was calm. She found she could breathe normally, but in dreams these things appeared normal and Reyna would forget logic altogether. Anyway, down she went in the water, deeper and deeper, until the ocean around her was a dark navy blue and, yet, managed to glow like the soft light in Reyna’s bedroom. However, the water soon became darker and deeper. Reyna remembered this part of the dream all too well. She tried to close her eyes or look away, but she couldn’t block out the loud, eerie moan coming from the beast below. And then she saw it; the massive shadow seemed to stare right through her with huge glowing eyes. But here Reyna’s dream changed. For the past few nights, she saw anger and vengeance in the creature’s eyes, but now she saw sadness and defeat. She almost wanted to reach out and touch the giant, but before she could, she woke up in a cold sweat.

Reyna could hear nothing but the waves gently lapping against the shore. The storm had passed, and the sun had also awakened and began to climb the sky. Reyna got up, still a bit shaken, but managed to tidy up the house. Grandfather would be home tomorrow, and he hated a messy house. After slipping on a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans, Reyna was anxious to take the boat out on the water. She grabbed a bottle of water on the way out and was sipping it as the boat rocked gently with the fresh salty wind. As Reyna finished the last drop of water, she remembered how much her grandfather despised garbage on the boat. Feeling just a bit guilty, Reyna tossed the now empty bottle into the ocean. “I’ve been throwing that stuff in the ocean for years,” she thought. “What could one water bottle do? Besides, the ocean is so big and I’m so… ” Reyna didn’t have time to finish the thought before she saw a huge shadow in the distance. At first, she panicked that her nightmare was coming true. The beast had come.

She was about to turn around, when suddenly an amazing fountain of water sprinkled over her. This was no beast, she realized suddenly, feeling silly for being so scared. After all, she was almost sixteen. But as the whale came closer to the small boat, Reyna was overwhelmed by its size. She leaned over the rail to get a closer look when she noticed something glimmering on the whale’s back. It looked like a diamond. Reyna leaned forward and squinted at the shining object. Maybe if she leaned just over a little more… suddenly, Reyna was falling. She barely had time to scream before hitting the cold, dark water. She was sinking again. Down deeper and deeper, taking in what she saw. Reyna was not over her shock enough yet to realize what she had in her dream but needed now – air. Suddenly, her lungs screamed in pain, and Reyna frantically swam to the surface. With each swift movement, Reyna feared she wouldn’t make it back up. She would sink to the bottom, and no one would ever know. But something made Reyna stop dead in her tracks. A familiar moan came from below. Reyna looked up and swam as fast as she could, but the beast followed her up until Reyna could feel the giant creature come up from under her. From lack of air, the world began to darken. The last thing Reyna saw was a shimmering diamond on the animal’s back.

Reyna woke up in the water confused, shivering, and scared. A ghostly image of a whale faced her. It seemed to talk to her without moving its mouth. “Welcome!” it said. “If you are looking at this message, then I have been gone a long time now. But don’t worry about me. I will have lived a long and happy life. You however… ” Reyna stopped it there. “Did I drown?” she asked, her eyes filling with tears. “Did I… ” she couldn’t bring herself to say the last word. “Of course not!” the whale seemed to smile, “but you almost did. The only way I could save you was by sending you into the future. The time energy rejuvenated your body.” Reyna was stunned and would have thought she was having another nightmare if it didn’t all feel so real. The whale warned Reyna that she might not like what she sees and sent her to the surface with a flip of her enormous fin. When Reyna crawled on land, she realized what the whale meant. She did not like what she saw at all.

The water was a deep, murky black color for as far as the eye could see. Bits of melted plastic coated the surface of the ocean, making it look like a layer of plastic wrap had been pulled over the massive body of water. Reyna turned her head away from the ocean just when she couldn’t stand looking at the disaster, only to see that the land was just as bad. The sky was thick with grey smoke. Buildings were torn down or in ashes. Suddenly, an army of a few hundred people came out of the ruined city and practically trampled Reyna. She stood up and brushed herself off. She then noticed that the army was standing by the shore armed and furious. A dolphin jumped out of the water and started bolting towards the army. Its sleek, glossy skin was nothing but a blur of grey and Reyna was astonished by its speed. The army tried to shoot the dolphin but it dodged the bullets with ease. “What are you doing?!” Reyna screamed to one of the soldiers. “It’s only a dolphin!” The soldier looked at Reyna like she had two heads. “Have you been living under a rock?” he replied. “That’s no dolphin.” Now it was Reyna’s turn to look confused. The soldier sighed. “You must be dazed from this air”, he said, handing Reyna a gas mask. “We haven’t had fresh air for over 700 years.” So the whale was right. Reyna had traveled 700 years into the future. “Let me explain… 700 years ago the ocean became so full of plastic it began to mutate the animals into savage beasts. We have been at war with them ever since. They are faster than us, stronger than us, and have hundreds of hidden powers. But we have intelligence.” He expounded with a smile. Suddenly, a shadow came over the soldier’s face. He turned around just in time to see a giant wave looming over him and the rest of the army. “Retreat!” yelled a loud voice, and the soldiers each pressed a button on their wristbands. The man Reyna had been talking to grabbed her hand, and the two were teleported with the others just as the wave crashed ashore.

When the soldier hit the button, Reyna could feel herself splitting up into millions of tiny pieces. It felt strange but not painful. They reappeared alone in the middle of the city. “Where are the others?” Reyna asked but the soldier was too busy playing with a knob on his wristband. “I’m codename Xenon by the way.” he said before muttering, “You can never trust these things. Where are we anyway?” “I’m Reyna, and it looks like an abandoned city.” “Not abandoned,” Xenon said in a low voice, muffled by the gas mask he still wore. “They’re hiding. We are too late!” He frantically slammed his wristband. “For what?” Reyna yelled. Just then, a little turtle toddled into view. Xenon seemed to give up hope altogether, but Reyna just laughed. A dolphin was one thing, known to be swift and intelligent, but this was just a turtle. However, Xenon cried with complete sincerity, “RUN!” Reyna didn’t see the point, but she had a feeling Xenon knew a little more than she did about this world. She was about to run after him, when she felt a sharp sting on her ankle. Reyna screamed in pain causing Xenon to turn around. Still, he kept running seemingly fearing for his life. Reyna looked down at her foot to see that it was stuck in thick, hot plastic. The pain began to fade, but she noticed the turtle had nearly doubled in size and had the hot plastic dribbling from its mouth. “Turtle spit,” thought Reyna. “Gross.” Still, she had bigger problems. The cute little turtle was looking less cute by the second. If the scalding plastic was just its spit, Reyna didn’t want to stick around to see the rest of its weird mutations. She looked around for something to escape with. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw a sparkling diamond. She kept seeing that diamond. It may have brought her to this terrible place, but it could be her only hope to get out. Reaching forward, she grabbed the diamond and held it tight. She opened her eyes to, once again, see the ghostly whale. “I don’t understand.” Reyna cried to the whale. “Why would such amazing animals do this to people?” “They didn’t do this to us,” the whale replied. “We did this to them. And to think, it all could have started with just one bottle of water.” The whale seemed to smirk. “It is safe to go home now.” the whale said calmly. Without another word, the gentle giant sent Reyna back on the rusty old boat into the present. Reyna opened her eyes, and a wave of relief washed over her. The water bottle was still in her hand. She had a lot of work to do, but for now, Reyna took the bottle home and tossed in the recycling bin.

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