The Girl and the Shark

One - Ember

One

Ember

"So let me guess, you're going down to that pier again, right?"

The sun was beating down on everything beneath it. This was expected at this time of year, in this part of the country. It was always hot here. It was Florida after all. Winter was tolerable heat and summer, well, it was unbearable, melt-your-face-off heat.
There was rarely an inbetween. If there was, it was a sudden change in weather. Sun would change to rain clouds, thunder, hurricanes before you could say 'ain't the south just swell'.
I wiped sweat from my brow, my canvas shoes plodding one by one in a lazy pace against the heated tarmac. Getting anywhere without a car in the smaller towns of this state can be a drag, fortunately I'm used to walking these long sidewalk-less roads. And its easier with company.

I look back at the person who had addressed me and smile in response to their question. Marcy walked along side me, her blonde hair picked up behind her head in a pony tail that bounced as she stepped. She glanced at me with her large brown eyes, the upper lids streaked with a thin dash of black eyeliner. It only made her wide eyes wider.
Marcy has always been a good friend to me. She understood me better than my father, the only immediate family I have left in my life.
So it was no surprise to her when I gave my answer to her question.

"Yeah. Where else would I be?"

"Either in the ocean or at home painting" Marcy joked, bumping me in the arm with a grin. I shot her a look.

"Hah hah very funny." I couldn't help but smile as I talked. Still, she wasn't wrong.

There was a small pier I would always spend any time I could get outside of my over-protective father's watch, class or coursework. It was refreshing to sit on the wood and look out at the ocean, or read as the water lapped at my feet. It was calming. It was... my place of zen. The little get away I would always run to when I needed a piece of mind or some time away from the chaos of college life and a parent who enforced the law in his home the same way he did with criminals out on the streets of this small town.
It could easily get rather exhausting more often than not.

Marcy pulled her book bag further up her shoulder as we continued to walk along the side of the not at all busy road. Sea birds called and flew above us, only another reminder of how close the sea always was.

"You want to join me?" I asked, giving her direction a glance.

"And sit there bored as you stare out into the blue abyss?" Marcy gave a laugh while putting on her usual smirk. "I don't think so Ember. Besides. We both know you like the whole solitude thing"

I pouted at this comment, dipping my head to exaggerate the gesture. I understood where she was coming from, and I wasn't at all insulted or sad; she was right. I did usually enjoy being alone, even still, Marcy was someone I considered a best friend. Her company I never did mind, in fact I always accepted it.
Still, it was her choice.

"I know your father milks the shit out of this, but..." Marcy started, her language colourful as usual.

"I know. I will be careful." I smiled at her, and finished her sentence. My friend nodded in return.

She was right to worry about me. Everyone was.
Not that I could blame anyone.

I loved the ocean, I loved the water and everything that dwelled within it. Even the various types of sharks in the coastal waters that surrounded my home. My one fear is deeper water.

Deep, dark ocean.

Marcy knew why. So did my father. Hell, I'm pretty sure everyone who knew us, knew of my accident.
It was no secret. Only a year passed since then. And I don't remember much of it all. Sometimes memories flash behind my eyelids.
Images of the cold darkness. The feeling of sinking deeper into the inky vastness of the ocean's freezing embrace made my skin crawl. I remember watching the sun, then just a white blurry ball above me behind the glassy sheet of the sea's surface, as it moved further and further away from me. Or I was sinking deeper and deeper. I remember seeing my hand reach for the only source of light. My memories flash on, I see a dark streamline shape slowly swim above me, blocking out the only hope I really had at that point.
Have you ever tried holding your breath and seeing how long you could muster it? Imagine doing so until your lungs feel like they will burst inside your chest.
That's what it felt like. I could feel my lungs desperately hanging on as my consciousness wavered and failed me.

There are only two things I remember vividly, though. While everything else is a watery blur, like paint smeared over paper, my mind has clung to two instances of that day, the day I almost drowned.

I remember their angular tails circling me, sharks swam and closed me in. I remember...how it felt to know I was about to die. How it felt to feel your life slip away and float to the surface along with the bubbles of air escaping your body. Like it would all be over soon, and the sharks dancing and brandishing their serated teeth against my back would have their way, and their meal.

And then...I recall it all changing. My attackers were gone, everything was a blur thanks to the water and my fluttering vision but its still so vivid. I was pulled to the glassy surface. To the soft, warm sand on the shore. I still can tell you what it felt like to lay there desperately swallowing air and coughing the salty water out of my airways. Everything stung, the bite marks in my flesh, the salt in my eyes and throat and fresh wounds.
Before it all became a blur of people and hospital rooms...I remember...him.

His eyes. His human eyes.

I don't know who it was. I couldn't tell you if it was a shark, or a human. I don't know myself.

But something did pull me up that day, the day I almost drowned.

And whatever that something was, only I remember it.

And I know its still out there, somewhere in those waves.

Ember Baine (main character)
Art (c) Me, Chimera98
Find more of my art on dilemmaart.deviantart.com