Silence

How it happened, I don't know. All I know is what it's done to the place I call home - the ocean.  None of the predators I have encountered match the ghostly corpses that now haunt these waters. The oceans seem deserted, the eerie silence making me uneasy.

 All the others have left, no doubt to seek refuge elsewhere. But I can't leave. No, not yet... I suppose, deep down, I know they are gone. My family disappeared weeks ago - certainly at the hands of those merciless skeletons that hang from the waves, waiting to ambush unsuspecting victims. Everything about them leaves me in mystified fear at the inevitable fate of the ocean. When the sun glistens through the water, I can make out their spirit-like silhouettes, practically invisible against the water. That's the scariest part: this silent killer gives no hint of its presence, only the silence that is now befalling the ocean at an incredible rate. I don't know what it is, only that it shouldn't be here. 

When I think back to my days as a pup, I can remember what it was like to swim  through my home without fearing those invisible shadows of death. If I concentrate hard, I can hear the echoes of gleeful dolphin chirps, and the calls of my fellow sea lions bouncing off the bright corals. Hunting must have been easy, but I was too young to understand that then. Everywhere I swam, in every forest of seaweed and every twisting rock formation, was all the life I could ever have imagined. That was when the unknown danger was far away, still above the waves. I could get lost in my memories of such a blissful past...

And that was my careless mistake! A ghostly hand against my flank immediately alarms me. But it's too late - the creature has ensnared me. It's everywhere all at once, yet I can't see it. I thrash my tail frenziedly to loosen it, and struggle against the transparent chains that now hold my flippers close to my body, preventing me from swimming. Panic rising in my throat,  I twist my entire body in sharp, forceful rages of desperation. I can't help feeling, however, that I am helplessly slipping down to the ocean floor, the inevitable defeated warrior of an impossible battle. The coarse seabed strikes horror within me, as I feel it scrape my stomach. My attempts to struggle free are in vain, as I look up at the sunlight glistening distortedly through the water's surface above. It's warm glow can't reach me here. I can see the bubbles of breath escaping upwards to freedom. The silky strands around me make are like the deadly jaws of a shark, except it would all be over by now if that was the case. This is less painful, yet more agonizing all at the same time. In my desolate despair, I realize this is the fate of the ocean.