Undertow

The creature emerged from the tranquil ocean like a leviathan. Its exodus from the water was not a peaceful one. The creature erupted from the depths thrashing and clawing its way to the surface. Once the surface had been gained, the struggle was over, and the creature, its black skin glistening in the sunlight, stood upright on its two legs and casually walked out of the water. The tanks on its back still held a decent amount of oxygen, so that had not been the reason for its struggles. The panic displayed was not born of oxygen deprivation. Its roots were much darker, and more sinister than a mere biological imperative. The creature was fighting a battle with the sea itself, one which it knew that the god of the water must eventually win. For now, it had done enough for it to maintain the status quo.

No one on the beach had noticed the violence of its emergence from the grip of the deep. Walking out of the water, no one noticed the creature, its black skin dripping sea water, walk calmly out of the ocean. No one paid it the least attention. In Sharm El Sheik, scuba divers were always walking out of the ocean on to the beach. That was why most of them were here in the first place. The little Egyptian town on the tip of the Sinai peninsula was one of the foremost dive sights in the world, and almost everyone on the beach had themselves walked calmly out of the ocean at one time or another.

No one paid much attention when they read about the swimmer that had gone missing in the local paper the next day, either. People drown in the ocean. It happens...

<BACK RETURN TO INDEX

NEXT> DREAMS AND OTHER MYTH-REPRESENTATIONS

HITSTATS By