'Sweet Dreams In Amity' by Jonathan Welsh

I wake up and, for one blessed moment, I don’t realize where I am. Everything is cold around me, freezing really, and the cold soaks through me, chilling me to my bones. I’m suddenly aware that I’m no longer lying in my bed, I’m floating in a vast, cold, dark emptiness. I am alone and my eyelids start to grow heavy, lulling me back to blessed sleep.

Then I hear the movement below me.

My senses are all dulled but I know, somehow, that I need to get away from that movement. I try to feel the ground underneath me in a futile attempt to start running. My limbs all feel like they’ve been weighed down, I try and move and nothing happens. I’m in the water, oh God, I’m in the water again! 

I muster every bit of my strength and tilt my head upwards. It feels like my head weighs a thousand pounds. Looking up I can see the faintest hint of light peering through the surface of the water, beckoning me upwards. I start to kick my legs in a pathetic attempt to move upward, but the light doesn’t seem to get any closer. 

The movement is getting closer below me, getting louder and angrier.

I’m starting to remember what’s coming up from the depths, but that doesn’t stop my heart from beating faster. My legs stupidly paddle below me as my heart threatens to burst out of my chest with every beat. I can hear the water churning around me now, the icy chill is pouring into my mouth and burning my lungs but it doesn’t slow me down and I’m not scared of dying. I’d welcome it now, compared to what I know it coming next.

Out of the pitch black below me something grips my ankle. It’s colder than the icy water around it, much colder, and it burns when it touches my skin. It tightens its grip on me, digging the tips of its bony fingers into my skin and drawing blood. I kick harder and harder, trying to get it away from me, but it brings another arm upward and grasps me tighter. It’s starting to crawl up my body now, grasping at me and digging into my flesh. I can smell the copper all around me now, but the thing hasn’t had enough yet and starts clawing at my face. 

I flail my arms around wildly, trying to get it off of me, but it’s too strong. I can feel icy cold breath on my face now and hear the click of a jawbone starting to move. Jesus, please, for just one night don’t let this happen again.

“Mayor Vaughn, why’d ya do it? Why’d ya kill me?”

Alex Kintner, 12 years old forever, is scratching and clawing at me with his decaying limbs, his nearly fleshless face nearly pressed up against mine. Alex Kintner, who I killed through my own arrogance and greed, who has decided to visit me almost every single night for the last decade.

“Why’d ya do it? Ya knew there was a shark, didn’t ya? Ya knew and ya still let it happen. How many kids are okay to kill? How many kids, Mr. Mayor?”

I’m screaming now the Kintner boy digs in deeper, embracing me.

“My mom never got to bury me, cause of you. I got to rot away inside of a shark’s guts, how about that? How does that sound to you? I never got to grow up, but you got to be mayor, huh? They even RE-ELECTED you, didn’t they? I guess that’s life, huh?”

“A-alex, please. I’m… I…”

“Uh oh, ya hear that?”

I do, of course. The shark. The shark that killed Alex and four other people. The shark that I willfully ignored. The shark is swimming around us now, drawn by my blood and my stupid thrashing.

“He thinks you’re his next meal, Mayor! I got some bad news, it’s gonna hurt! It’s gonna hurt a LOT! Hope it’s worth it to keep those beaches open, pal. I hope it was worth it to see my mom bury an empty coffin.”

He lets go now and drifts away into the darkness. I’m burning all over from the wounds he’s dug into my body. The light above me may as well be a million miles away, I don’t have a chance of reaching it before the shark gets me. I can sense it around me, can feel the water rushing around where it moves.

And then, without a moment for me to react, it’s in front of me. I feel the warmth rushing out from its open mouth, the water churning around its fins and tail. 

Then, just like always, I wake up screaming, the bed soaked in sweat.  It’s still dark outside, hours until I need to wake up. But I already know I won’t be able to sleep. I walk downstairs and start a pot of coffee. The stars are out tonight and I look out over the water. Something cold and unfeeling swims in the inky blackness of the water, poking a single fin out into our world for just a second.