The Deep Blue

Water filters through my gills as I swim forward, never looking back. The waters are deep, murky; I am the predator most fear, yet the world I live in knows what I do. I take care of what’s mine, and this ocean is mine. Mine to pick, mine to eat, mine to sleep, if I see something afloat, dead, I devour it, and it is like nothing was ever there. I have not eaten in days since my last meal.

A heavy one, yet I still hunger for more.

I am preparing for something, mates.

The season will come until my belly is complete with a pup inside me. I wait to find a mate until I reach the mating grounds where my mother and their mothers met their fathers and beyond my time. The search is far, very far: not one single flat face knows of its existence. The place is like paradise. Clean, untouched by them, how the ocean once was. I had seen the sea at its brightest when I was a young pup, with no one to guide me. My naivety has brought me many scars that have healed over time.

To swim forward is to live. If I stop, then I am no more. The hunger, the hunger is what’s on my mind; I must continue to search for food. Not far from where I swim, I hear sounds. They’re garbled. The flat faces, I see them take my sisters and brothers, cut their fins, an unnecessary death sentence. So I swim in the opposite direction, it will take me longer to reach the mating grounds, but my mate can wait because flat faces bring more harm.

I can see from the sea bed how flat faces make something that captures us. So many taken, grasping for freedom. I can hear their cries, their pains. They all know the end is soon upon us. I even see another shark, more petite. It struggles to free itself since it is slightly bigger. Therefore it can not escape.

The other sharks look towards me, swimming away freely.

I would never risk myself for the sake of other animals. The thing filled with that shark is taken to the surface on the giant object. They see the shark, they yell at it, I can hear them debate what to do with it. Finally, they made their decisions; the shark comes back to the ocean. Except, it falls to the floor, the flat faces have taken its fin. The young male shark would have been better off killed. Instead, it must suffer by them. I think they derive pleasure from taking our fins. Is it in retaliation when we accidentally take a bite of them. It is not like we enjoy it. They leave a bitter taste in my mouth; their flesh has no value for me.

I look at the other shark, its’ eyes filled with fear, we are the predators of the seas, but flat faces seem to best us. They have no sharp teeth, they do not swim fast as us, but they manage to kill us off with no remorse. I keep swimming, forgetting the dead shark. There is nothing I can do for him. The sound of my stomach rumbles, and I am reminded I need to find food.

Soon, I must fill my belly,

Swim.

Swim.

Swim.

I smell it, blood; I sense something injured, something I can taste. I wonder if I can eat it. Is it a seal? Their fat makes my mouth salivate. Swimming towards the animal, I sense him. It is struggling. If it works, it’s already dead. It’s mine. Mine to take, mine to devour, mine to kill!

I can sense it a few miles away from my direction, planning what will happen; I dive deeper into the blue, murky depths. It is dark, my vision never impaired to the darkness. I see all, noticing other creatures around me, animals flat faces have no idea what lurks beneath them. If they knew, I would smell their fear instantly.

I hear it.

The struggling sounds of an animal are weak. It must be injured. Injured from the flat faces possibly. I look up. I see it, a fast approach from beneath the deep blue sea. The blur forms into a seal that I had assumed. Straight from beneath the dying animal, I jump up in mid-air with the seal struggling in my jaws. The seal's life was dying, maybe hurt by the flat faces; it was straining to live. I have to end it; the seal would have continued to suffer if I hadn’t finished the seal.

It is a mercy kill.

The feast is over, and I continue swimming forward. My journey to find a mate soon is on my mind. Maybe days or weeks, but I swam ‘til the trip ended. It is a coral reef where sharks can mate. Many come to mate; most importantly, sharks are not the only species that travel far to find their other half. No one eats each other as we feast before or during the trip. Our focus is to reproduce, a future to grow. Also, a place that flat faces have no idea exists. The deep blue sea is filled with wonders and horrors, yet, nothing is more frightening than a flat face finding this place.

If they do, it is over, no more us, no more ocean.