The tourists nod. The little boy sits on his father’s knee, eyes wide and afraid.
“Hold on tight,” Heath calls out.
We speed through the water, silent except for the roar of the engine. It’s dark now, the sky lit only by a few handfuls of stars. I grip the rail as the spray hits me hard in the side of my face. Icy water splatters my hoodie, my sleeves soaked through. The wind digs in, freezing the spray on my skin. By the time we reach the pier, my teeth are chattering with cold.
TheReel Easyrests quietly beside the pier, motionless except for the gentle bob of the tide, the deck empty and still. I scan the pier, but there’s nothing there but two seagulls perched on a railing.
When we’re parallel to the pier, Heath kills the engine, calling out for Luke, who never responds. For a long moment, we’re all silent.
My stomach tightens as I look theReel Easyover, expecting Steven Newton to come stomping up to the bow. He paid no attention to me as a child, but he paid too much attention when I was a teenager. Eyes lingering too long, lips wet and slightly open,hungry.A lot of the dads here were like that. Harassing waitresses at the pub, winking at daughters not even grown, telling them filthy jokes that made them blush with shame.
Luke knew what his dad was like but did little to stop it. “Harmless,” he said in his lazy way. “He’s just havin’ a bit of fun, Min.”
But it wasn’t harmless to me. I never forgave Luke for that. I was around fourteen when I finally told Heath about the harassment, and two things changed. One, I was never cornered by Luke’s dad again. Two, Heath and Luke’s sinking boat friendship broke down completely. I’ve always felt guilty about it, but Heath said it wasn’t my fault at all. The truth is, their friendship had fallen apart two years earlier.
“Luke?” Heath calls out again. “You there?”
Silence.
Behind me, someone whispers, “What is that?”
The little boy steps silently forward and clasps the rail in his right hand. His father watches him, uneasily. Shivering, I lean over the railing, staring down into the dark water. Something’s wrong.
And then out of the darkness, a fin.
“Oh myGod!” someone cries out.
The father rushes forward to the boy. “Ben! Get away from the rail!”
I fix my eyes on the fin. It’s sharp and black and jagged and God, it’s fast. TheDeep Seaexplodes with movement and muffled yelling.
“It’s a great white!”
I shake with cold and adrenaline, leaning farther forward until the rail digs into my abdomen. My brother yanks me back with one hand and yells out, “Luke! Are you there? Luke!”
There’s blood in the water now, gallons of it, a red oil slick. And there’s something else…
Heath sees it, too. His hand drops, and his body goes still.
“Whatisthat?” a tourist calls out. “What thehellis that?” yells another.
There’s something floating on the water. A bloody mass of flesh, drifting eerily in the current. The man beside me grimaces, presses the flat of his hand to his stomach like he’s going to be sick.
“That a seal!?”
A dozen shrieking seagulls appear from nowhere, flying a foot from the surface, flapping their white wings, diving into the black water for scraps of flesh. And then someone screams, “Oh God, it’s coming again!”
That black fin breaks the surface and the man beside me screams right in my ear. Heath grabs the back of my hoodie in his fist, yelling something, but it’s lost in the noise. God, itsteeth,so white in the darkness as it snatches at the flesh in a frenzy, ripping, tearing, blood gushing like spilled paint. I’m rocked by the sheer violence ofit.
Its tail smashes the surface and then it sinks below. It’s so quick, all of it.
Someone screams, “Where is it? Where is it?”
I try to peer over the rail, but Heath pulls me back.
The man behind me is shaking so hard, I can feel the tremors from his chest. “Is it gone?” he asks breathlessly.
We all wait in loaded silence. All I can hear is the sound of my own heart beating, and the seagulls squabbling for bits of leftover flesh.
