Dark Side of the Reef

The bright sun had begun to warm the calming waters of the Gulf of Mexico as a small fishing boat with two divers began their morning dive. One diver was a young man in his late 20s with dirty blonde hair and the other was a brunette girl about the same age. Each of them, adjusted their gear and checked their oxygen tanks. They made their way towards the stern.

"Ready, Lily?" asked the guy.

"Ready when you are Eric." replied the girl.

Eric and Lily shared a kiss, pulled their masks over their heads and splashed into the ocean. As they descended into the gulf, a whole world unlike the world above appeared before them.

Before them miles and miles of beautiful reef. Breathtaking coral and various fish just beckoning the divers to touch and feel. Various sea anemone littered the various reef and rock formations surrounding them creating an almost Picasso like painting on the ocean floor.

Eric and Lily continued their swim throughout this somewhat discovered underwater kingdom. Stopping to examine unique finds like an underwater coral or a starfish. Both of them seemed to enjoy their underwater trek as they constantly checked their gauges time to time to see how their oxygen levels are doing.

Eric swam over a small bed of coral as fish dispersed around him. He then gazed up at a rock formation that looked like the size of a tree. Something beyond it was beckoning him to look. He began to swim upwards as if he were climbing it like a rock wall.

Suddenly, he spotted something from the corner of his eye and froze. He peered off into the distance as Lily was trudging in the coral. A black tip shark was making its way into the reef.

He quickly motioned to her to lay low as the shark slowly made its way into the reef. Eric stayed completely motionless as Lily ducked lower into the bed of coral. The shark swam by, Eric slowly worked his way around the rock formation and was greeted with a scary sight.

3 more black tipped sharks were now making their way into the reef. The sunlight above them starting to fade away. Eric slowly waded downward towards Lily without drawing attention from the approaching sharks.

Eric gave a motion to get back to the surface. Lily nodded in compliance. He could see in her eyes the worry starting to grow. Especially considering where they were. Lily saw the underside of their boat off in the distance. She and him casted glances as they watched the creeping predator sharks overhead.

Lily started to freak out as one came dangerously close to them. Eric didn't move. He slowly reached for something on his belt, It was a bang stick. An item used to fend off aggressive sharks. The shark swam away from him as they slowly made their way into the open water towards their boat.

As they approached their boat, Eric did a double take behind him to see them slowly following behind them. He felt his heart jump as their boat loomed before them.

Eric motioned for her to get on as he turned to face the approaching shark. He brandished his bang stick as the shark swam towards the boat. He took a deep breath and waited. It began to converge on him about to strike. However, he struck first, he plunged the bang stick into the side of the shark. The creature reeled and thrashed and then swam away. Eric quickly turned and climbed out of the water as Lily had shimmed out of her gear.

"Eric are you ok?" she cried.

"I'm ok. I gave him a taste of his own medicine." said Eric as he dropped the bang stick onto the deck.

"Good thing we got out of their when we did." Lily said in relief. Eric stopped to catch his breath as the sun disappeared behind a cloud, almost creating a haze over the sky.

"Out of all the dives we've done, that was the most exhilarating thing I've done." Eric panted.

"We've encountered sharks before, but a black tip shark just takes the cake." Lily added.

They peered off into the water to see the fins of the approaching sharks. Suddenly, they started to see more.

"Oh my." Eric said as they looked over the side.

"It's a whole shiver of them!" Lily gasped as they looked out across the water. "This is amazing."

"This is a story I definitely would love to share to my kids one day." Eric said as Lily rested her head on his shoulders as the sun emerged from the cloud. The sunlight dancing over the water of the now uncovered shark habitat of the Gulf.