Dark Waters

• Lara Vincent, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2016

He dived off the back of the boat, his shark tooth necklace glinting beneath the waves. The current warnings of many bull sharks in the area didn’t seem to faze him at all. When I told him the news, he simply said, “I fought off a shark before, and I’ll do it again!” With that, he spat out his gum and walked off. I worked as a marine photographer, and I was an assistant on his vessel, the Black Squid. I stared at the inky black water, a feeling of dread writhing in my stomach, and dived in after him. Little did I know only one of us would return...ALIVE!
We dived deeper, our scuba kits sending off jets of bubbles as we headed towards Clownfish Reef. I spotted a crab devour a small octopus, and an electric eel was weaving its way between the coral. That’s when something caught my eye. I swam towards it, hoping I was having hallucinations, but as I came closer, I knew that my hope was wrong. It was a human skull. I screamed, and bubbles went flying in all directions. I swam towards my diving buddy, and could have sworn I saw a fin cut through the seaweed out of the corner of my eye. I turned and looked at the seaweed, but only small silver dollars were there. However, something didn’t feel quite right. I looked down. I'm not sure why I did... maybe it was instincts, maybe I felt something, I don't know. But there, swimming directly underneath me, was a 6 metre long bull shark, razor sharp teeth shining, black pupils eyeing my diving partner greedily, and fins pushing its huge body forward. Although this had nothing to do with anything at the time, I realised I didn't actually know my companion’s name. It was always ‘Sir’ or ‘Captain’ and sometimes ‘Mr Captain Sir’.
Anyway, the shark swam slowly towards my compadre, and I knew if I so much as moved a muscle I was dead meat. To be honest, I felt pretty helpless. I hid my eyes, but I will never forget the sound of gurgling screams, or opening my eyes to see a massive red cloud. I saw the shark thrashing around in the cloud, and when it swam off and the sea swept the blood away, I saw a ripped wetsuit, a dented air tank and the shark tooth necklace lying on the sea bed. I knew I had to get back to the boat, because the smell of blood would almost certainly attract more sharks, but first I had to pay my respects. I stuffed a coral flower into a hole in the air tank and trod water in silence for a few minutes. I suspected movement to my right, and sure enough, I saw more dorsal fins cutting through the water. I gave a stiff, odd nod at the punctured air tank, and swam up to the black squid, alone in the dark waters.