The Maneater’s Vengeance

I’ve always had a love for the ocean. I was 6 years old at the time with braided pigtails holding my teddy bear and a vanilla ice cream cone with rainbow sprinkles that was profusely melting in my hand. It was a hot sunny day at the aquarium and it was ten minutes before the great white shark's feeding time. My father had left me with my sister as he had momentarily left to get more napkins to clean up the mess. We had been walking up and down, exploring the deep oceans, traveling the seas, seeing funny and exotic marine animals that I had only ever seen on tv.

I was unable to hide my excitement. My sister and I waited by the shark tank, anticipating its arrival but there was nothing there. I frowned, almost squishing my face against the glass.

“The sharks will come soon and stop-,” My big sister pulled me away from the glass. “Putting your face on the dirty glass!”

I huffed at her but listened nonetheless. I swung my body from side to side and blankly stared at the water, soon getting distracted by my light-up sneakers.

“Ladies and Gents! For the moment you’ve been waiting for...Lucy and Bruce!”

My eyes sparkled with pure joy and I ran back to the glass. I kept my eyes peeled for any movement but there was nothing.

I grumpily looked at my sister, “Where’s the shark?”

She twisted her mouth to the side and leaned forward checking the entire tank to see if we missed anything.

“Hmm, I’m not-OH LOOK!” She pointed to the glass and my eyes immediately followed. There was a blurred shadow exiting the gate. A piece of what looked like mushed bloody meat had been dropped inside the tank and floated downward. We were left in awe until we saw the shadow slowly approaching our side.

I was still.

From the depths of the bloody water, a cute small shark appeared. I smiled wildly, pressing my teddy bear against the glass, and got closer. It swam a bit closer and stopped right in front of me.

“It seems to like you.”

“YAY!” I danced to the right and it followed my movement. I danced to the left and it did the same. I giggled, “You’re so beautiful!”

It looked at me calmly, keeping afloat. I waved and it seemed to copy my movement with a swish of a tail.

I looked at my sister. “Did you see that?!”

She laughed with a nod.

“I wonder if this one is Lucy or Bruce?”

“There’s two?”

“Yeah, that's what the man sai-.”

A heavy loud thud suddenly hit the glass, cutting me off. I let out a scream and fell back dropping my ice cream and teddy bear onto the wet sticky floor. My sister immediately kneeled by my side to help me up and I saw the most frightening thing.

The tank had a huge crack from the impact but behind that was an enormous great white. It looked demented and far from normal. Bloodshot eyes stared me down with a look of intense hatred. The edge of its mouth and surrounding eyes were blistering and peeling from chemical burns.

I let out a small cry and tightly held onto my sister. It seemed almost angered by my wails that it repeatedly started smashing its face into the glass. More blood filled the entire tank and water seemed to trickle from the crack. My sister picked me up and immediately ran away to go find my dad.

That was 14 years ago.

From that incident, the fear of sharks has lingered in my mind. It wasn’t until I got older we learned the place wasn’t a real aquarium. It was a broken-down sham that had shady dealings with the black market that was experimenting and illegally selling marine animals and their body parts.

The people running the place quickly abandoned everything after my Dad reported the incident to the police. Unfortunately, they never got to do a more thorough investigation due to a hurricane that devastated the coast, along with the aquarium.

My Dad informed me there wasn’t a chance the animals could endure what they went through and a hurricane while being trapped behind a glass cage.

I came to find out the big monstrous shark was Bruce and the pup shark was Lucy.

I still shudder at the thought, but I knew that it wasn’t its intention to just frighten me. It was just in pain. Tired of being abused and sought the only reasonable thing to do… lash out on the first thing it saw.

Me.

Over the years, I dedicated my time to volunteering and looking after marine life. Today, we were hosting a boat event called, ‘Save Our Ocean Life’ and there were a bunch of young students in elementary school who were allowed to come aboard. It was so nice to see such an active bunch of students. We even had pizza, games, and raffles ready to be won!

It wasn’t until a student came crying about how they dropped one of their newly won toys into the water. I looked and saw it floating not too far away with the waves carrying it away.

I didn’t see the harm and decided to go out and quickly retrieve it alongside another pretty cool volunteer named Dave. We let our Boss know, and she gave us the okay. It was nice to touch the cool serene waters for once instead of only having to look at it!

“Now, isn’t this much better!” Dave laughed, splashing water in my direction.

“Hey!”

I splashed him with an even bigger wave with water and started paddling in the direction of the toy. It was a sea turtle plushie so it was most definitely going to be soaked. I didn’t want it to get carried away any further so I quickly caught up and grabbed it.

“Aha!”

I quickly sat up letting my legs dangle on either side of the board.

“Looks like you got it. Let me tell the boss.” He pulled out a walkie talkie and that’s when I saw the boat leaving.

I gasped, flailing my arms. “WAIT!”

Dave looked behind him and we both got on our stomachs and started paddling after it. Soon after the boat was no longer in sight we decided to use the walkie-talkie.

“Boss? Boss? We’re still out here!” Dave breathed out with a huge frown.

There was loud static and we tried again and again to reach her.

“Captain passed out on the wheel. We’ll send a boat out to your location when we get back to shore.”

We were perplexed and let out aggravated sighs.

“I guess we’re stranded for now.”

I squinted in his direction and covered my face trying to block out the blaring sunlight. It felt like hours.

I sighed, “You mind throwing over the walkie-talkie?”

Dave threw it over and I swiftly caught it. “Boss? We just wanted to know where that boat was to pick us up?”

There was complete silence.

“Boss…” I trailed off when I saw there was a shadow under the waves. “Get your feet out of the water!” I shouted.

He froze and immediately pulled his feet out. I did the same and my heart pounded wildly against my ribcage. After a moment or two, we saw a large clump of seaweed floating between us. I let out a sigh of relief holding my chest.

“False alarm.” I looked back at the seaweed holding the sea turtle more firmly in my hand. Tiny fish were nipping at it as it floated right past us.

“I guess there’s more floating up ahead.”

We ignored it and I tried reaching our Boss again. “Hey Boss, just wanted an update on that boat situation?”

“I‘m so sorry! We-“ Her voice cut out and all that was heard was a static frenzy.

“We can’t hear you, Boss?”

“Isn’t this great, let me try.”

I was about to throw the walkie-talkie in Dave’s direction when I stopped mid-way. My eyes locked onto another dark shadow in the water. It could’ve been mistaken for floating debris but it was much larger and was quickly approaching us.

Just then a dorsal fin emerged from the waters and fear poured into my veins. I didn’t even have time to do anything except scream.

“SHARK!”

A large dark shadow composed of black and white breached the water knocking both of us into the air. Not a second later I was met with a cold sensation with saltwater burning my nostrils.

I gasped for air and struggled to get back on top of my board but my hands kept slipping. I panicked so much I tipped my board over my head and was submerged back into the water. I had the chance to look around but saw no sign of anything.

I felt a strong arm pull me up. “Come on! I got you,” I was gasping for air again like a fish out of water repeatedly thanking Dave. I grabbed a hold of his hand but was painfully yanked down by a powerful force.

All I could see was Dave flailing his arms into the water trying to grab me while I was getting dragged further down. I let out an inaudible scream feeling an immense sharp throbbing in my leg. I looked to see something I never thought I would see again. Bloodshot eyes with blistering and peeling chemical burns.

It was Bruce.

I did my best to hit the tip of his nose but nothing was working. I felt my heart and lungs ready to burst from the pressure. This was my nightmare. After all these years he survived. He came to finish off what he started. His menacing eyes filled with so much hatred.

He bit down harder into my leg and blood spilled out from my leg encircling us into a massive red bloodbath. I felt myself going in and out of consciousness. That was soon gone when another Great White unexpectedly rammed into Bruce. I was violently jerked to the side but my leg was freed.

I looked to see Bruce being relentlessly attacked by the other shark. It was frightening. I quickly swam to the surface with blood trailing behind me. I was able to make out Dave who quickly spotted me.

I took in some deep shallow breaths when something touched my legs. I started thrashing around causing a small wave to wash over me. I immediately tried swimming away but I was gently nudged in Dave’s direction.

My hands accidentally grazed over something, feeling a sharp sting. Beside me was a large shark that curiously stared at me with charcoal eyes.

I tilted my head to the left and it did the same. I tilted it to the right and it followed. I don’t know why but I placed my hand on its nose. Could it be?

“Lucy?” I warbled into the water and it seemed to lovingly blink at me.

I couldn’t believe it myself. For once in my life, I felt safe with the only animal I ever feared.

Lucy stayed by my side nudging at the toy in my head almost as if remembering the teddy bear I had all those years ago. She swam in Dave’s direction and a boat finally came to get us. I was bleeding out no doubt but Lucy got me to safety.

The only thing I had to remember from that day was a huge scar on my leg and a jagged tooth from Bruce that was pierced into my flesh. It was an unbelievable thing that no one believed when they heard my story or witnessed it themselves.

Lucy saved me and even though I never saw her again, I still remember that shark that became my hero and helped me find my peace.