Ocean Despair

• Nadine Jones, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2017

Out of nowhere, it appeared. Long, pointy teeth and a signature top fin. You could taste its undying thirst for blood.
“SHARK!” exclaimed Doug at the top of his lungs.
In the blink of an eye, his diving companion Sheila was gone, and so was the shark. Then he heard the scream. AHHHHHHH. Through a tunnel near the opening he was in, dense, dark red blood dyed all the surrounding water. Doug’s heart skipped a beat, “No! No! SHEILA! SHEILA!” The silent reply, or rather the missing reply, sent waves of freezing cold chills down his spine.
AHHH! The monster sped up and charged, mouth wide open, at the man who was one second away from wetting himself; not with water. BANG! The beast whimpered after ramming the wall that was blocking Doug’s only way out of the underwater cave! Rubble tossed through the water, sending murky water up as they hit the ground. It was blinding; light!
‘Quickly,’ Doug thought. He swam at the speed of light, towards, well, the light! The man was compressed, as if he was being born again. With one last attempt, Doug shot out of the cave into open water! There it was, the shark, like a song that won’t leave your head, except, this song had burning eyes of fury and a mouthful of razor teeth. CHOMP! One of those razor teeth was now stuck in Doug’s arm. If Doug had been panicking before, he was now a cat being forced to take a bath. Blood streamed out through his broken arm, which was now missing a hand. ‘I’m going to die,’ he thought, believing it would be his last thought.
WHOOSH! Their skin was cold, but strangely comforting. How though? Was he, alive? Impossible. Doug was numb, tingly almost, ‘I’m alive!’
The sand was rough and ripped off layers of his swimsuit and skin. The last twenty seconds had gone in a blur, but now? Now he could think straight. “I’m on land, on the shore! I’m safe!” tears of joy rolled down his cheeks; he didn’t know how, or why? CLICK, CLICK, CLICK. “Dolphins! Of course! They carried me to shore; protected me from the shark!” as Doug said it, he thought back to Sheila, but now; she was dead.
“DOUG!” cried a familiar voice.
“SHEILA? How are you, alive? I saw you die!”
“No, I swam away, saw a turtle be ferociously devoured by the shark. It shocked me, I’ll tell you that, enough to make me scream. But I saw some other turtles and followed them, which led me to a small exit. I squeezed out, swam to shore. That’s it. I’ve been worried sick about you!”
It was as if a burden had lifted off Doug; he was so relieved!
“YOUR HAND! MORE LIKE YOUR MISSING HAND!”
If the ambulance had arrived any later, he wouldn’t have made it. After his recovery, he went back to diving… What’s the worst that could happen?