Pillars of the Deep by Harper Alexander

Author:Harper Alexander [Alexander, Harper]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

There are moments in your life when you come to wonder: How did it come to this?

How did I end up here?

It was one such moment when I awoke out of a dead sleep to a cold, quiet-as-a-tomb existence, chained to the bottom of the ocean, bloody chunks of unmentionable something strung around my form to lure the sharks.

Not something I ever could have anticipated.

Not a thrill you ever hope to check off your bucket list.

But in the minutes that followed, it would seem I would be neatly – and terribly, terribly messily – checked off someone’s hit list.

It was a slow, drug-induced waking at first, consciousness an elusive dimension, my feelings regarding my location and under what conditions I found myself there utterly neutral.

It wasn’t until the inky pluming of a crimson substance drew my lethargic gaze downward and I saw the hunks of gore clinging to my person that the alarm began to permeate the indifference, and then it was a swift progression from tranquil-bubble-of-hampered-solitude to full on freak-out mode.

My drug-like state evaporated, leaving me all too lucid in the middle of an utterly horrifying conundrum. Once I recognized the meaty baubles quite obviously as bait, my heart was hammering in my chest, the instinct to suck anxious breaths into my lungs making my torso contract.

I made a quick assessment of the situation, surveying my surroundings, checking the extent of my predicament. My hands: chained together in front of me, the chain half-buried in the sediment of the ocean floor and snaking away to my left where it was secured to a stake in the ground. The bloody bait: strapped to me with smaller criss-crossing chains, a few pieces hooked and tied on as afterthoughts for good measure, bobbing in the peaceful water currents.

The water: quiet for now, but murky. No sign of sharks yet, but generously endowed with tasty morsels as I was, I did not expect it would be long until they came to collect.

Not long at all.

Fighting not to panic outright, I jingled my hands, testing my tethers. I was bound fast. My eyes darted back and forth between patchy frames of the murky water surrounding me, scanning for that first silhouette that would lunge out of the deep.

What if a pair of wicked jaws was already yawning open behind me, about to clamp down before I even knew what hit me–

I twisted, craning my head over my shoulder to take stock of the waters behind me.

Nothing.

The most horrible nothing you could ever imagine. If you’re going to get eaten by a shark, it’s almost better to just get it over with. The anticipation is a beast all its own.

I was on my knees in the sand. Kicking up into the water, I wriggled over to the stake, clamping it in my fists and heaving upward. I pulled, yanked, wiggled it and kicked it, gaining nothing but the slightest budge. It was hammered deep into the ground, my meager strength having as much effect as a crab trying to lift an anchor.

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