Shena sat at the very edge of the plateau at the edge of death. She didn't mind.
,Far below her the vast blue seas she hadn't seen in years rocked gently back and forth against the shores far below her. Her foot swayed back and forth over the rocks hanging in the air childishly. The fresh smell of salt water becoming mist and evaporating into the warm evening air. For the first time in a long while. She smiled. It was peaceful. It was serene. It was home.
A bolt of lighting echoed in the distance. Shena was pulled from her moment of tranquility to stand in the shadow of the gaze toward the dark horizon that stretched for miles growing larger by the second.. Seeing that a grey thunderstorm was approaching her very spot much faster than normal. There was no avoiding it any longer. It would be here soon.
'It's best to go inside she thought to herself.' Rubbing her arms from the approaching cold.
As the Shark began to turn and walk back quickly along the gravel path, the grassy fields and trees beginning to stir more furiously all around her. She heard a noise that made her stop dead in her tracks.
"Shena!" The voice boomed. "Shena!!" It's sound was in perfect tandem with the thunder. The wind carried the desperate cry for help to hit against her back with a force that nearly sent her tumbling forward. It could not be ignored.
Shena ran back and searched against the edge of the cliffside. Staring aimlessly below for the cause. Barely managing to see the hand of a stranger start to sink and disappear under the watery grave beneath her. She had been to late.
Without a second thought the Lieutenant jumped in after him, leaving the dry safety of land she had grown accustomed to and raising her arms in front of her head to dive straight down through the cold air from hundreds of feet above;. She cut straight through the surface of the restless grey water like an arrow against paper and felt an instant unnerving chill consume her entire body.
She hated it's feeling, but she kept swimming deeper and deeper on the lookout for the stranger who now depended on her for their very survival. She would not fail them.
She spotted him. She couldn't see his face. But he was drowning.
Shena began to dive deeper and deeper. The light seeping through the surface became dimmer and dimmer the further she went in order to return to the reality of the darkness of the depths that began to shroud the both of them in its overwhelming presence. And all the others as well.
"Help Help!" Another voice cried out. Then another. And another. Dozens all around her hidden in the dark just out of sight. Their voices seemed strangely familiar. Only they seemed distorted and eerie. She wanted to help them all. But she could only save one first. She would come back for the rest later.
Shena kept diving toward the stranger right below her. She closed her eyes trying to sense him through the creeping darkness, but for some reason she couldn't. She sniffed the water trying to find his scent instead. There was nothing. Strange.
The last bit of light illuminating her face suddenly became obscured for a brief second by something massive far above her near the surface. Shena turned briefly upward. Seeing scores of fresh blood beginning to spread and stain throughout the freezing water. Something was stalking them one by one.
She swam faster into the deep. Barely able to see the man below her. As she began to reach her hand out to grab on, Shena's gills on her neck began to disappear.
Her eyes widened. Clutching to the side of her neck panicking. "How is this happening!" She screamed internally. She held her breath and continued despite the risk. Desperate to save just one.
Just one.
As she clutched the shoulder of the man right below her and turned his head to face her. The corpse began to barely speak before falling apart at the seams right in front of her petrified eyes.
"You left us behind to rot. Fereen smiled. His jaw and wings began to drift away from his body. "You failed us all!" He snarled as his bones began to disconnect from their sockets and disintegrate into nothing but dust in the cold waters.
Shena clutched tighter to whatever she could hold on to, desperate to keep him together in once piece for just a little bit longer. Her lungs were about to burst. She had to surface.
The cries of her teammates grew silenced with each passing second as the ocean began to turn red all around her. Her lungs were going to explode. The creature was now circling Shena hidden safe in the murky haze waiting patiently. It was after her now.
There was nothing more she could do.
She abandoned her friend once again and swam selfishly toward the surface, desperate to save her own skin. As the light began to show through the waves above, she smiled for a brief moment at seeing her salvation.
Only to have those hopes dashed the moment her fist hit the surface and could not push through.
Shena began to panic. Hitting wildly against the ceiling which felt like a glass barrier which trapped her from the fresh air she so now begged for.
A Stanger then stepped across the transparent floor above her and knelt down to stare directly at her dumbstruck face. Grinning a most hideous smile at seeing her trapped by her own doing. The creature had a bolt logged straight through his head covered in yellow blood. But that didn't seem to mind him in the least.
"You killed them all." The general grinned.
She couldn't hold it any longer. Her mouth opened instantly against her will and gulped for any fresh air. Only instead for her lungs to be betrayed and filled with salt water in seconds.
The lieutenant began to drown for the first time in her life. Beginning to sink as her view started to darken all around her for the last time. Seeing the slain insect standing far above her laughing like a demon before vanishing as if he were a ghost.
Everything was dark.
Cold.
She couldn't move.
A monster was coming closer. She could feel its presence.
As she barely turned her dazed head toward the last bit of light that illuminated the both of them. She could see the savage creature step out of the shadows in a sea of blood at last in it's full horror. Her eyes expanded terrified.
It was her. Her true self.
A massive shark. Primal, unevolved and ravenous had just ripped her friends to pieces. And now it wanted to finish the last of them off. For it was never satisfied. It always hungered for more. Just like her.
Shena screamed a bloodcurdling cry as the bestial Shark with a hideous gash across its face procced to open its cavernous mouth lined to the brim with teeth oh so similar to her own..
and swallowed her whole.