Hybridized Fan-Fiction: The Drop-Off

Excerpt of Finding Nemo in the style of Edgar Allen Poe


It was a place at the cease point of the reefs; there was no safety, no security, where all factions of comfort vanished within the moment the eyes were set upon it. It was titled, and with most accurate depiction embedded, the Drop-Off. There bordered the frontier to a world unexplored for Marlin, a clown fish significantly inadequate of risibility.

The Drop-Off was a bluff ledge that separated the coral reefs -the ones of which the clown fish had lived, and all else. At the cliffs peak, it was an experience surreal, an edge to an abyss, nothing more than the Sea and darkness for near eternal bounds. This, Marlin stared into, vigorously admonishing his bairn: Nemo.

He was in constant fear for his gimped and sole son. The young fish was deformed from hatch, his right fin unmatched in size to the other; a tragedy induced this as well as the murder of his mother and many siblings. None but Nemo and his father survived the brutal assail, and writhed with fright had Marlin thus been since.

And now this father had arrived to witness his child treading directly before the impending nothingness. Upon alarm, he rushed for him.

"Nemo!" he cried, embracing him tightly. The young fish squirmed in his father's tight hold brimming with bewilderment and vexation. "Why would you tempt fate as to venture into the uncharted? Surely, you know better!"

"But not was I to venture," Nemo pursued to clarify; "for only did my glance meander in awe, not wanderlust-"

"Enough!" Marlin bellowed. "You of all I have never known to be wanton, and yet, we are here, at the doors to certain peril. You know you are handicapped."

Nemo's voice grew with rage. "I can swim fine, father! Do not speak of me with such inequity; am I not fish like rest?"

To his reason, Marlin only reflected fear. "You engrave these thoughts into your mind that you have such capabilities, but you do not. You are frail and insufficient a swimmer; as your father it is my duty to protect you, so listen child when I establish that you cannot do these things, Nemo!"

Nemo abstained his eyes from his father's, his cold-blooded heart boiled. "I detest you," he murmured.

Melancholy contorted Marlin's features; he sighed with utmost despair and his fins drooped instantly to his sides, lifelessly.

The ray fish that had been Nemo's class professor took cognizance of their dispute. He approached Marlin offering to assist them of any troubles.

As the two spoke artificial palaver, it was spotted and exclaimed by another young fish -of noticeably sizable dentition- the sight of Nemo swimming profusely off the great ledge. It was indeed what Marlin turned to find.

Nemo moved upon excessive force to have as much ocean water between them as possible; not once did he look back. Marlin reprimanded him, shouting for him to come back, though he did not.

No amount of course language could turn him back in the direction of his father's arms. It was futile, none the less, Marlin continued. It was not until the fate he feared had arose did he silence; a most vile and massive beast emerged directly in the presence of Nemo. Nemo shrieked and wailed at the sight of the monster. Helpless, he swam mad in attempt of escape as the devilish brute clasped him.    

With immense horror, Marlin screamed. His heart was pounding upon his breast as though it were to burst. The strange and monstrous creature abducted his son and fled with him in their grasp! Marlin charged only to find in his path a second fiend, one with a box of ebony color that released a light as of Aether's. The heavenly flash blinded him; the stinging of his eyes seeping in to his brains. He floated aimlessly in a circular pattern, unaware to the lack of frontward progression, for the spinning in his head made it difficult enough attempting not to tip to his side.

Slowly and wearily, his sight returned and he caught glimpse of a craft. He swam as swiftly as he could muster towards it. Oh, but alas! the mechanical vessel had absconded into the vast and salted waters.