Dangerous Waters

Chapter 1

Everyone tells me that this part of the Western Australian ocean is "haunted" and that "strange things happen there", but I don't believe in ghosts or magic. So I decided to spend a few weeks there just to prove that all that magic and ghosts stuff is baloney.

The ocean breeze whips my short brown hair behind me as I sit on the warm sand, and watch the waves crash on the beach. An hour passes by as I suddenly remember why I am here.

I pull the small speedboat's cord into the shallow water that rises up to my waist and use its latter to hop in. I crank the lever on the boats controls and the boat growls to life. I lead the boat far out into the Australian waters, while the mist lightly sprays onto my face. Whenever I come out here with my boat, I feel like I'm home, and my problems just drift away. I feel like I could be here on the waves for hours and never get bored. Before I let myself drift further into my thoughts, I walk towards the back of the boat, pick up my surf board and jump off of the boat into the ocean. As soon as I swim back up to the surface, I hop on my board and wait for a decent wave to come up. Almost a few minutes later, a mediocre wave slowly heads towards my direction. At first, I paddle a little closer to the wave, and as it gains speed, I pivot my board away from the wave and I start paddling faster. Now that I caught the wave, I stand up, and put more pressure on my left foot and slightly lean to the right to gain more speed. The board speeds up and takes me along the wave. As the wave dies out, I dive back into the water and look for another wave.

I spend the next hour or two out in the water, right after I finish riding my last wave I notice how sore my arms are, its like there's this invisible weight pulling on my arms. So I let my exhaustion win me over and paddle back to the boat, and climb back in. When I stepped back in the boat, I began to look for a towel. 

Oh no. 

Crap. I forgot it. Just like I forget pretty much everything else that's small, but important. I look at the watch in my bag and notice that I should probably head back to shore to get dinner. So I turn the engine back on and lead the boat back to shore

 A few minutes into the ride, I notice a dark gray fin loom about fifteen feet away from me on the left. A sudden fear weighs upon me.

Shark shark shark, go away, go away!

Hurriedly, I crank the speed up to 35mph and zoom forward, far away from the beast. I keep the speed at 35mph for a few seconds,continuously checking behind me to check if the shark ever stops. The shark finally gives up and I sigh with relief.

I start to slow down the boat, and I collapse onto one of the built in lounges in the boat, and kick off my cheap sandals. I turn on my AWOLNATION radio from Pandora, and the song "Trip Switch" by Nothing But Thieves plays first. I stare at the calm, rolling waves, that lulls me to sleep.

I am soon awaken by the heavy guitar riffs and yelling of the song "The Beautiful People" by Marylin Manson. "What the heck?" I quietly say out loud.

How did the radio get to that song? It's nothing like AWOLNATION. Strange.

I quickly skip the song and let the radio play out, and try to forget that it ever happened. The waves have gotten higher since before I was asleep, but they are still calming to my senses.

Just as I'm humming to "Afraid" by the Neighborhood, the song refuses to play and a message on my screen pops up and says:

No connection. Try again later

"Are you freaking kidding me?!" I exclaim into the silence surrounding me.

Yet another strange thing.

It's probably because I'm out of cellular data.

Crap.

You know what I'm just gonna take another nap.

And the serene waves pull me back to sleep...

"When I wake up I'm afraid somebody else might take my place."

I immediately bolt out of my sleep and check my phone.

"How the heck did it start without me hitting play?" I quietly questioned.

I probably moved and accidentally hit play.

Yep I'm pretty sure that's what happened.

I continue to stare at the horizon waiting for something very strange to happen.

The song "Blackout" by Breathe Carolina comes, and that's when I notice the sudden change in the weather...