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fins.
    â€œHelp!” Mark squelched.
    Then I heard a gurgling in the drainpipe against the lighthouse wall, then a rattling of the metal pipe, and then finally a whoosh of water as Frankie shot out of the open end of the drain!
    â€œFrankie!” I yelled.
    He must have seen our bat signal and swum all the way back from out at sea!

    Frankie slid across the floor toward the evil eel, flipped up in front of its face, and spat a mouthful of drain water at him. That got his attention.
    The eel unwrapped itself from Mark and tried to swipe its tail at Frankie, but Frankie easily dodged the attack.
    Mark crawled out of the way of the eel and over to the ladder.
    â€œGo up!” he yelled.
    â€œThe trapdoor won’t open!” I yelled back. “We need to come down!”
    The only way out was through the door on the other side of the zombie eel.
    By now, the two zombie pets were squaring off in the kiddie pool, preparing for a mega-zombie smackdown. (Just so you know, even though it would be an awesome name for a comic book, it’s not an awesome thing to be stuck in the middle of.)
    Frankie’s green eyes glowed as he tried to hypnotize the evil eel. The evil eel’s eyes glowed back in a burning, bright-orange zombie stare. Its huge body fizzed and sparked with electricity as it flung itself at Frankie. Frankie leaped in and out of the paddling pool and into the puddles of goopy green water that had splashed onto the floor. Neither of them seemed able to get the upper fin. It was like undersea championship boxing!
    Then Sami jumped down from the bottom rung of the ladder, ran past Mark, and jumped between the two angry zombies.
    â€œStop fighting, naughty fishy things!” she yelled.
    â€œSami, no!” shouted Pradeep, scrambling down the ladder to get to her.
    Both Frankie and the eel were in full zombie-stare mode—and Sami was caught in the zombie-stare crossfire! Suddenly Sami was looking both at the wall of the lighthouse and up the evil eel’s left nostril. Her left eye glowed green and her right eye was glowing pale orange.

    â€œSwishy fishy eel,” she mumbled.
    Although he denied it later, that’s when Mark totally squealed.

CHAPTER 16
    SWISHY FISHY SMACKDOWN
    I jumped down from the ladder and only just managed to grab Pradeep before he leaped in and got himself zombified too!
    Sami was staring deep into the eyes of the evil eel. Her face suddenly looked very sad. The eel lowered his head and she went over and patted him behind his gills.
    Then Sami turned to Frankie. “Don’t be mean to Zarky,” she said, and wagged her finger at him.
    â€œZarky?” Pradeep gasped.
    â€œEel says his name is Zarky,” she said to us. “He’s sad,” she went on. “He tries to play, but people scream and say go away. Some bad people on boats hook Zarky and hurt him. Zarky not evil. He wants friends.”
    Sami walked over to Frankie. “Say sorry, swishy fishy.”
    Frankie looked just like I felt when Mom made me apologize to Sara Wartly for splat-bombing her. He looked up at the eel and the green in his eyes faded to a dull glow.
    â€œNow Zarky say sorry to Frankie,” Sami said to the eel.
    The eel lowered his head and looked at Frankie. His orange eyes dimmed too.

    Sami’s eyes stopped glowing orange and green, and she giggled.
    â€œI know you’re not mean, swishy fishy,” she said, picking up Frankie and planting a huge wet kiss on his face. I’ve never seen a fish look so embarrassed. It was one thing to say sorry, but totally another to get kissed in front of your one-time arch-nemesis.
    Pradeep unfolded a sick bag from his pocket, filled it with water from the drain, and held it out for Frankie. He wriggled across and jumped inside.
    â€œThis is pathetic,” Mark said as he stomped past the eel. “You’re not an evil zombie eel at all. You can’t even thrash a puny little zombie fish. Next time