I was born and raised in southern California. I spent most of my life at the beach. One summer, when I was eighteen years old, I went to Huntington Beach. It was the hottest I ever remember it being along the coast over one hundred degrees with zero wind. Generally, the coast doesn’t get above eighty in the summer, but that day it was different.
The beach was pack with dark brown oiled up bodies lying on large beach towels a foot apart, listening to their radios and drinking soda. I was one of them, excepted my ivory white skin was turning bright red. The sun was cooking me alive and could almost hear my skin sizzling. I needed to escape the heat, but there was no shaded area along the beach. So I decided to grab my boogie board and go into the ocean.
I let the water splash on my feet, sampling the temperature. It was warm, yet again unusual for Southern California beach. The waves were flat, so I wouldn’t be able to boogie board, but that didn’t stop me from jumping into the ocean and swimming out a mile from the shore where I laid on top of the board.
No one was in the water. The surfers abandoned the flat waves beach for another spot along the coast. Other boogie boarders did the same. Everyone else was playing along the coast and avoiding to go deeper than knee high.
Perfect. I had the water all to myself.
The gentle waves lifted and lowered me in the water as the sun beat down on my back, warming it. I felt my mind drifting while listening to the seagulls squawking in the distance. When a strange sensation swept over me that I wasn’t alone.
I glanced over my shoulder to the right, but no one was in the water. I glanced over my shoulder to the left, yet again no one was in the water. Then I sucked in a deep breath and lowered my head to look underwater.
The reflection of the sun made it difficult to see past the surface of the water. I dipped my face under the water to get a better view. The gentle waves, stirred the water, mixing it bubbles and sand. Still I couldn’t see if anything was beneath me.
However, I had a strong feeling something was there. Maybe it could be a sea turtle or some other sea creature, but if that was the case, why hadn’t it surface for air? So it had to be some kind of fish. The first thought that comes to my mind is Jaws.
I did the worse thing possible, I panic and started paddling ashore when I knew that sharks have mistaken boogie boarders for sea lions, especially when they are splashing in the water.
But I didn’t care. I was getting the hell out of there.
Stroke after stroke, I raced toward the shore, attempting to out run the mysterious predator under the water. All the while, my arms and legs were aching and refusing to cooperate. But the feeling of something big following me kept me moving.
When I finally reached the shore and sprinted onto the sand, out of breath. I jerked around and stared at the spot in the ocean I had been a few minutes earlier and noticed a large fin just above the water.
Here is a link to The Best Shark Attacks in Film on pleated-jeans blog.
About The Author
C. Zablockis is an Indie author of paranormal, dark fantasy and horror novels. She published Lexi Greene’s Dangerous Lesson, Lexi Greene’s Grim Awakening, Monster (The Zeuorian Series) and My Watcher (The Zeuorian Series) YA Dark Fantasy Thriller.
C. Zablockis 