Treasure Ship by J.L. Preston

Author:J.L. Preston [Preston, J.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Treasure Ship, Treasure Cave, J. L. Preston, The Treasure, Middle grade, fantasy, adventure
Published: 2023-07-31T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

HE CREPT TO the door, listening for sounds before opening it and running in the direction he had last seen Em.

He thought he was at the right door but didn’t see her as he looked up and down the hall.

Opening the first door, he looked in. Not seeing Em, he left the door open and ran to the next, throwing open that door. He was about to run to the next when he spotted movement in a dark corner.

Heart pounding, he squinted his eyes and watched a shape rise from where it was hidden in the darkest corner.

“Could you be any louder? What if someone heard you running around slamming open doors?” a voice ground out.

Heart pounding in his ears, he wondered how many heart attacks a person could survive in a day.

“I thought you had been taken again when I didn’t see you in the hallway,” he snapped back.

Brushing dirt off her shorts, Em walked out of the dark corner.

“Well, I couldn’t risk being seen in case you were the one taken. I heard voices coming toward me, so I hid in here.”

“Yeah, well, I heard them too and ducked into the very room they were headed for,” he explained with an ironic twist to his mouth.

“No way! How did you escape?”

Walking out the door, TJ made sure to shut it softly this time. “I didn’t. I hid under some gross moldy rugs by a desk and waited for them to leave before I came to look for you.”

Em quickly ran to the other door he had left open and closed it softly. Without a word, they started walking in the opposite direction the footsteps had gone.

“They were talking kinda weird in that room . . .” TJ finally said.

“What do you mean ‘weird’?” Em asked.

“I don’t know exactly. Nothing they said made any sense. I think they were pretending to be other people—people from history,” he mused before describing everything he had heard.

Absently tugging on one of her braids as she walked, Em tried to think of an explanation.

“They could have been using code words or something,” Em offered.

Peeking around a corner, TJ held up a finger for silence before being satisfied no one was there.

“I don’t know. Maybe. Either way, we need to get off this ship, ’cause what they have planned for us doesn’t sound pleasant.”

“What about the artifact they took? It sounds important,” she said as they came to another ladder.

Climbing up when they didn’t hear anything, they discovered it led to another long dark hall. Great. It’s a ship of dark hallways apparently, TJ thought with disgust.

Opening a door and checking the dark room for a window or exit, TJ lifted a lid from a chest and dug through it, looking for anything that would help them.

We might need a weapon to defend ourselves, he thought before answering. “It did sound important. I guess if we see it, we take it. Otherwise, I think we should focus on getting off this ship and getting help.

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