I looked up at the sky, letting the sand sink in between my toes. Clouds were scattered across the sky, and the sun was beginning to set. Bright pinks and blues stretched across the horizon, making it even more beautiful.

My mom sat in her sunbathing chair with an umbrella attatched to it. She hated the water but she always came to the beach. I felt sweat drip down my forehead. It was still humid out. My sister, Veronica was getting very ansy from how long we’ve stayed. 

Veronica quietly used her small plastic bucket to pick up water. She made an indent in the sand and moved her hand around in a circle until there was a large enough hole. She poured the water in. The water crashed against the edge of the sand barrier before the water escaped from the sand. 

Seagulls sang in the skies, flying gracefully. Sometimes I just liked to close my eyes and listen to them. It was always interesting to hear them calling out to other seagulls. My body was all wrinkly from swimming. The water was very cool compared to the actual temperature (which soared over 100 degrees). 

“Mom, can we leave?” Veronica asked in her soft high-pitched voice. 

“Just wait a few more minutes, go swim or something,” mom suggested. 

Mom was horrified of the water. When we used to have a pool in our backyard, we always joked about pushing her in. Whenever we tried to help her get over her fear, as soon as her feet touched the water, she jolted backward and almost fell off the side of the pool. She said when she was younger she got stung by a jellyfish, which scared her for life. I don’t even know how long she’s avoided the oceans and pools, but it feels like my entire life at this point.



I got up off the sand and walked into the ocean. I coughed when some salt water infiltrated my mouth. I practiced my front crawl, trying to perfect it. I moved my arms around and then switched to my back, where I attempted the back crawl—my worst stroke. I struggled to stay afloat. I waved my arms around in a circular motion but I just found myself struggling even more. My face kept sinking down into the water. I gasped for air as I splashed my arms around. Then I started to tread water in an attempt to calm me down. My heart was still pounding. 

I closed my eyes and started to move back to the shore. That’s when I felt something rough and sharp scrape my leg. The sensation only lasted for about a couple seconds, but it felt like it lasted for an eternity. I frantically pulled my face under the water, trying to stop anything in sight, but the water was too shallow and too murky to see anything within 10 feet of me. 

“Mom,” I called out. 

“What?” She returned, taking off her sunglasses.

“I felt something touch me,” I answered, worry evident in my voice. 

 I shivered as I said it. All of a sudden, goosebumps crept down my spine. My body started shaking and with each second that Kim didn’t respond, I only got more nervous. 

“Don’t worry about it, it was probably just some old piece of trash,” mom said, trying to calm me down. 

“No, it was too rough to be trash. Why don’t you come in,” I exclaimed, smirking.

“I don’t think so Amar,” she replied, chuckling. 

I stroked my dark hair as I tried to relax. I put my hand out toward my side, there was a cut. I looked around to my hip. Just above my swim pants, was a small gash that looked to be pretty deep. My heart dropped. 

I tried to stay calm, cause I knew whatever was in the water with me would only target me more if I didn’t. I put my face in the water, slowly moving toward the shore. I dove up to get more air then continued to slowly kick my feet and move my arms forward. I could swear I heard something behind me, creeping toward me. I glanced behind me, but there was nothing. No shark fin, no fish, just me…



When I finally made it back on the shore, I put my hands in the warm sand that almost burned me. I felt the water move up to my toes, then receded back. Waves crashed against me, and I started to feel relieved. Maybe what happened in the water was all just a freak accident, just maybe it was all my imagination and I was freaking out over nothing. I looked back to my side. The cut was still there. The more I stared at it, the more rational I thought. Maybe it was just a hook that fell off a fishing pull brushing against my side. That wouldn’t explain how rigid and roughy it felt though. 

What if a shark had brushed against me, and I just didn’t look in the water soon enough. That doesn’t really make much sense either. Almost all the sharks are in deeper waters than this. The only shark I could think of that would be closer to the shore is a lemon shark, and even then, they don’t really mess with humans. 





My mind raced around in circles. With each new thought, I felt like I just went in a loop. I’m sure that it was all just a coincidence. Maybe it was just a combination of fear and some small fish brushing against me. Maybe that made me think it was something much worse. Thinking about it now, why would a fish brush against a human? Fish mostly avoid humans, not come to them. 

My skin was dark red. My mom didn’t out enough sunscreen on. My neck was all red, and I felt some skin peeling. My arms were almost all red, snd they ached with a stinging sensation. 

“What’s that?” Veronica asked curiously as she pointed to something big that had washed up on the shore. 

I ran over to whatever it was, confused. It was huge, but whatever it was, it was ripped apart into two pieces. The first part seemed to be the head of the creature, and the other part, which was ajecent to the first, just slightly turned. My heart was pounding so I hard I could hear it. 

“What is this?” I mumbled under my breath.

I rubbed my hand against the creature. It had hard and bumpy skin that felt like sandpaper. It had a long, stretched out fin near the end of the first half. I looked into the creatures black eyes. Its mouth was open, revealing sharp teeth. It appeared to have more than 3 rows of the teeth too. My heart sank. I realized that this was a shark, a huge shark. The first half was almost as long as Veronica, and the second was almost as long as me… 

My mom hurried over, having the same clueless expression and me. She grabbed out her phone and dialed a number I didn’t know. 

“Um, I’m calling to report something washed up on the beach, could you send someone over?” Mom asked, fear hanging in her voice. 

Mom proceeded to tell them our location. She hung up. We just stared at the creature, marveling at its abnormal size. I’ve never seen anything like it. It didn’t look like a great white shark, it was darker and more menacing. It wasn’t long before someone showed up. 



A crew showed up, and an old man in a black suit came up to us. He just stared at the creature in pure awe. 

“This thing…” He started. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything quite like this. This is just…I mean, it’s huge.” 

The old man hesitated. He continued to stare blankly at the creature. 

“If I had to guess, you may have just found evidence of a megladon…” He exclaimed. 

My heart dropped. There was no way that it was a megladon. I only thought they existed in movies and fake YouTube videos that were almost always AI generated. 



The question was, if this was a megladon, then what could’ve done this to it???