Ocean water splashes across their feet. They stand a short ways from the shore, its sand dark and soaked. Their foot prints had been visible a moment ago. Now, washed away. When the waves recede, Gloria nods at Lin. Surfboards under arms, they move further out. The ocean rocks back towards them, bringing the unknown hidden underneath towards them as well. Gloria hears Mike through her earbuds. “Nothing yet,” Mike says. The wave hits them with harder force, causing Gloria to grab Lin’s hand. Her only hand. Lin’s remaining five fingers tingle intensely, almost as if they sense that this was the place where they lost their five companions. That was crazy, of course. But she couldn’t shake the eerie feeling. Was her lost right hand somewhere beneath the waves right now? Had the beast spit it out, sending it sinking to the shallow sand? Could it possibly stay buried here a year later? Was that her thumb grazing her leg just now? “Remember why we’re here,” Gloria says. Tears and sea water drip down her face, down the curve of her neck line, down her wet suit, down her right thigh with the fifty stitches. Even with the water numbing her lower half, she seems to feel those teeth sinking into her soft flesh again, pushing in so easily, like she was made of nothing. The waves move out. They wade forward. “This is for Valerie,” Lin says. “This is for Sarah,” Gloria says. Exactly a year ago, at this secluded cove, Lin had lost a hand. Gloria had lost some of her right thigh. Their friends Valerie and Sarah had lost everything. The beast had attacked their tiny boat right off the shore; close enough to be completely unprepared, far enough to not get to dry ground without gore and death. So close, Lin remembers. So unnaturally close to the shore. The way it burst onto their small boat that barely fit four petite girls; like it had been waiting for them. Specifically them. The material of the boat broke away at the creatures jaws almost as effortlessly as their skin. So fast, Gloria remembers. How it had gotten to all of them with such a short swim to the shore, it didn’t make sense. That’s why Gloria and Lin couldn’t think of it as a shark. A shark was an animal. Even a Great White was just an ocean fish, one of God’s creations, just doing its job as a predator. This was no creation of God. This beast had chomped its way out of the caves of hell. This was their first time back in the water. But this was no exercise in overcoming fear. This was about revenge. The girls sit on their boards and wait. “Anything yet, Mike?” Gloria asks over the oceans roar. Back on shore, Mike stares at the monitor of his drone, which was sweeping high above the girls, scanning the waters, which was also outfitted with a machine gun. “I don’t see anything yet. Maybe we didn’t do enough chumming,” he says. “No, it’s what I was afraid of,” Lin says. “The fish blood won’t call to him. He’s had a taste for human blood.” She pulls a pocket knife out of her wet suit pocket. She glances at Gloria who is in agreement, then, with her robotic arm, she slices neatly across her left palm. Blood quickly appears. Lin lowers her hand into the water. She tosses the blade to Gloria who prepares herself to do the same thing. Before she does, they hear Mike. “Guys I see something.” It can’t be, Gloria thinks. That’s too soon. The blood’s been in the water less than a minute. It has to be, Lin thinks. The creature knew they’d return. He’s been waiting for them. They both reach for their harpoons strapped to their backs. “I see it, it’s…nah, it’s a hammerhead, small one too,” Mike reports. A large wave begins to make its way towards them. “Wait a second..” they hear Mike say. “What’s..” “Mike? I couldn’t hear you, say again?” Gloria says. The mouth of a Great White Shark bursts out of the waters and closes around Gloria’s abdomen. She screams and flails. The shark is tearing her in half. Lin yells and dives into the flurry of blood and white water. With her metal hand, she grabs hold of the sharks face, her pointer finger piercing it’s eye. Lin holds tight and prepares to use her harpoon, but the shark thrusts right and left, jolting her. She’s whipped into the body of the shark, knocking the harpoon into the ocean. But she stays attached. Now the giant fish, covered in the blood of her best friend, speeds towards deeper waters, dragging Lin with him. Water stabs her face and before she’s ready, they dive under. Lin’s breath is shallow, she can’t stay under long. The shark, desperate to lose his passenger, swims fast and flails violently. Then Lin sees, stuck between its teeth, among the pieces of Gloria, the pocket knife. The blade is out and stuck into its gum. She yanks it out and stabs the shark over and over. She stabs anywhere she can, as fast as she can. Suddenly, the shark zooms upward, speeding to breach. Lin stabs. She has no air and her grip is slipping. The shark flys out of the water. Lin is tossed off. “Gotcha!” Mike says, starring at his monitor. His drone lets loose a barrage of bullets blasting through the shark. The shark splashes back into the ocean. Lin sees her surfboard and clings to it, too exhausted to swim to the shore just yet. The sea becomes still. Sadness and despair begin to creep into her. Then anger. “Got you, you bastard,” she says. Lin slowly wades to the shore to join the eager Mike. Moments ago, the waters here had been crimson with the blood of her friend and the blood of their enemy. Now, washed away.