What the Water Gave Me

Chapter Thirty-Five

Steve waited all night, but finally, the siren sunk back into the water and curled up on the sand below him. Steve was cautious as he heaved himself to the edge of the rock and leaned over the edge. The water was right there, just inches away from his dangling fingertips. He had to enter it gently, so the sounds of his splash wouldn’t wake the siren. Steve couldn’t take another chase and capture. It was too humiliating. And not to mention, it left him stranded here at the siren’s mercy again.

Steve pushed himself further a little more until now his whole torso was dangling over the edge and his hands were submerged in ocean water up to his wrists and he pumped his tail desperately to give himself that extra push.

Steve fell back into the water with, luckily, only a minor splash, and he righted himself and took a deep breath of water and slicked his hair back and spared a glance down at the siren, just too close for comfort. His eyes were still closed. His chest still rose and fell evenly. Steve celebrated in his head. He hadn’t gotten this far in days!!

Steve turned and pumped his tail again, harder, taking off into the water. He was so much smaller than the siren, and so much weaker. The siren’s tail was frighteningly powerful and fast and he could cover miles in minutes. Steve could barely catch himself lunch if the fish was too fast and he tried not to let himself feel jealous. It’s not that he would want to be a siren. But he sure wouldn’t mind the strength that came with it.

Steve expected the siren to catch up with him any second now and he spared another glance behind himself to see nothing but empty, dark water. He was escaping!! He was really getting out!! Steve twirled through the water gleefully.

He didn’t have much time to celebrate, however, because this was the ocean at night time and it was dangerous. All sorts of predators lurked in the darkness, things Steve could never fight off, things that could snap him in two if they wanted. But sirens, they were certainly the worst and he’d already escaped one!! Maybe, Steve considered, he was lucky.

He had to find somewhere to duck inside of for the night. A hiding place, a cave, a crevice, something. He didn’t recognize anything around him. He’d never been to this part of the ocean before. He could hardly even see through the dark.

It took him what felt like a long time, but finally Steve found a dark, hidden corner of the ocean and stowed himself away, crammed uncomfortably against rock and coral, and waited there until the sun rose.

In the morning, he tried to orient himself and find his way back. He had a nice little slice of ocean all to himself somewhere around here. A cozy hiding spot, easy-to-catch fish nearby. It was safe. But he hardly knew where he was now and he swam in circles trying to figure it out. Should he retrace his steps and risk seeing that siren again to find his way back? Should he keep swimming until something looked familiar? Should he call it quits and try to find another safe spot?

He wasn’t allowed much time to make a decision, however, because something was coming out of the depths of the ocean and he could see it out of the corner of his eye and panicked. The shape grew larger and larger and Steve stared, rooted to the spot with a sense of dread clawing in his stomach. As he began to make out the shape of a shark, he began to force himself to move. He turned quickly, the water bubbling around him tumultuously, and began swimming away as fast as he could, blind with fear. He looked behind himself once and he could see the shark clearly now, the tip of it’s nose and it’s black eyes. He let out a gasp through his mouth and turned back around.

Steve didn’t know where he was going, or what he’d do. He couldn’t fight a shark!! And there was no way he could outswim one. If he could lose it, maybe, or hide from it? But that was only if he could find somewhere to hide before the shark caught up to him.