mouth with the pliers. True to his name, Snappy clamped down on the end of it. If that were Ryan’s finger, I don’t think it would have been attached anymore. “Open up dammit,” Ryan said. He poked the turtle on the roof of its mouth. I gasped. Dull barbed metal hooks protruded from his tongue and mouth at all angles. I counted at least six. Some of the hooks seemed to have become an extension of the turtle’s mouth and tongue, like a robot with human flesh. I shuddered. But at the same time I felt sorry for this cyborg turtle. He looked like an old man. Wrinkles ran down his long neck in all sorts of weird zigzags, like a beat up leather jacket. The dull green and grey skin around his neck and feet were folded up in circular rolls. Small bumps covered the back of his neck. He reeked terribly. Worse than the pond scum, if that was possible. “Do you see the hook?” Ryan asked. “I don’t know,” I said, my eyes still fixated on the turtle. “This is why I told you to never catch him,” he explained, poking around. He took hold of the line and followed it into its mouth. “Alright, I think I got it but I don’t know how the hell I’m going to get this hook out.” He clamped the pliers down on my dull copper hook and gave it a tug. Snappy retracted a little but Ryan held his shell down with his free hand. He tried to figure out which way to thrust it out, but it was dark and crowded inside the depths of the creature’s chops. Every time he tried to get Snappy to open up, massive jaws would collapse on the glimmering metal tool. For the next ten minutes we struggled to free the beast from his burden. Ryan and I took turns grasping onto the hook and turning the pliers in every way imaginable. Nothing worked. It appeared to be lodged deep within the back of its mouth. “This is pointless.” “Even if we did get this thing out, what about all the rest of the hooks? He obviously has been living like this for awhile. What is one more going to hurt?” I sighed. I glanced at Snappy brandishing his menacing, toothless grin. I could tell why people wouldn’t try to remove their hooks. He didn’t exactly look like the cutest and most lovable of turtles. But for whatever reason I felt a strange sympathy for him.
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