DISCLAIMER:
Do not read the epilogue first. Just don't do it. The entire plot of the story revolves around the epilogue and if you read it first there is no point in reading the rest of the novel. You will get nothing from this story if you spoil it for yourself, so please, just don't even start it if you are going to read the epilogue before the rest of the story.
The hot sun blazes down on the small island of San Mahina, the only relief from the sweltering heat being the ocean breeze blowing in from the Atlantic and the small amount of shade offered by the numerous palm trees.
White, sandy beaches wrap around the small island with the occasional rocks and boulders splattered across the shore line. San Mahina is lunar shaped, with the north side of the island facing the vast Atlantic Ocean, large waves crashing against the shore. The south side of the island is more lagoon-like with deep, blue waters often patrolled by fishermen and divers.
Not far from the British Virgin Islands, San Mahina's climate is very tropical. Various warm weather fruits are harvested from the island's many acres of farm land, sustaining the island's economy.
In the beginning, in the early twentieth century, the island boomed with tourists. People would come from all over to see San Mahina's cristal blue waters and white sands, but its cerulean depths that seemed so beautiful and mesmerizing, could be quite deceiving.
In 1927, a sixty-four year old man went fishing on the south side of the island. The man was missing for two days before he washed ashore, but a victim of drowning, he was not. Portions of his skin had been mercilessly torn from his body, not from the teeth of a shark, but skillfully done by the hand of a monster.
Later, in 1936, two young men went swimming on the west corner of the island. One of the men watched as his companion was dragged into the water by his ankles, never to be seen again. The witness could only describe the monster as being just a shadow in the waves.
In 1942, a woman drowned in front of her newly wedded husband. In 1954, a local man was pulled out of his boat only to wash up on shore without any arms. 1963 had two swimmers dead within six months. The number of attacks kept rising, and the island's inhabitants began to decline.
By the 1990s, San Mahina was nearly abandoned, the only residents being the locals and the occasional renter. No longer were the days of happy vacations and sunny retreats. The once crystalline blue water would forever be red in the haunted minds of those who witnessed the island's horrors.
And so the palm trees continued to sway in false security, the island forever haunted by its cerulean depths. There were never any survivors of the attacks, but there were witnesses.
And they all described the monster as the same.
A shadow in the sea.
YOU ARE READING
Captive of the Sea
FantasyThose who were taken... They never came back, dragged beneath the waves never to return. Their haunting screams were a symbol of their horrific deaths. Like shadows they lay in wait, the deep blue waters hiding them from view. With sharp claws they...
