"The sun was shining, the sea was calm (except for some waves), and my family and I were having a picnic on the beach."

Hi. My name is Katie, and I didn't know what would happen to me that day. The sun was shining, the sea was calm (except for some waves), and my family and I were having a picnic on the beach. "Come on! Let's go for a swim!" said my older brother Carlos. "Okay, okay, I'm coming! But don't expect me to go far!" I called after him, as he was just starting to jump some waves.

I was having so much fun, until Carlos said, "Let's go farther out!" That's when I started to get scared. "Are you crazy? Why on earth would you want to go farther out, in an OCEAN?!" I yelled to him over the waves. "Because! I want to get bigger waves! Plus, I'm not a baby, and I can swim in deeper waters!" He called back. "You're not scared are you?" I didn't want Carlos making fun of me, so I said, "No! I'm fine I just wanted to know why." But really, we were already really deep.

I swam farther out to sea, with each stroke, I grew more frightened. After swimming out far, I realized that I couldn't see our parents anymore. "Carlos, I want to go back now!" I screamed. I looked around and realized that Carlos was no longer swimming in front of me. "Carlos? Where are you!?" I called. I was really scared now. Then, I saw something moving underneath me. Without thinking, I kept swimming farther out.

"Then, I saw something moving underneath me."

When I started getting tired, and thought I couldn't swim any farther, I saw something remarkable. An island was right in front of me. I quickly swam towards the land grateful that there was at least some hope left. To my wonderful surprise, I saw Carlos laying down, relaxing on a rock, with his his eyes closed. "When did you get here?" I asked as I climbed up to where he was. "A little bit ago." He said lazily.

"An island was right in front of me"

After about an hour, I asked, "Carlos, how are we going to get back?" "Swim I guess. I don't know." It took me a moment to actually process what he was saying. Was he serious? Or was he just kidding around and trying to play? "You're kidding, aren't you?" I asked him playfully. "No, I'm serious. There's like, no other way." I stared at him with fear. "Carlos I can't!" I said, still staring. "Uhh.. Yeah you can. You just do like a breast stroke or something." He said, totally ignoring me, and my face. "I think I saw a...a shark." I said to him with great difficulty.

"I think I saw a...a shark."

He looked at me in disbelief. "No you didn't. You're just trying to scare me." he said. But after a minute, he said, "Oh," He was still looking at me. "Well, the water here isn't that deep. We'll be fine." he said. "I guess if I can still touch the floor, I'll be fine." I said. But something inside me said to not go, and stay where I was. My first mistake was not listening. I had a lot of fun. I was splashing Carlos in the face, scaring him by jumping up out of the water, I had a blast!

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But then, I heard something. "Shhh... Do you hear that?" I asked Carlos as he splashed me in the face. "Hear what?" he asked. "That sound." I said. "Well I know it would be a sound! If you said Shh..." I ignored him. "I'm done swimming." I said. "Oh come on! Don't be a party pooper! Come on, just 5 more minutes."Carlos said. I didn't want Carlos to think about me like that, so I said, "Fine."

"Party pooper!"

Then, without any sound, a dorsal fin arose from the water. "Carlos swim!" I yelled, my voice trembled with fear. "Why?" he asked. "Just do it!" I replied, already swimming away. We swam further out, farther, and farther we went away from land. Soon sharks were everywhere, guarding the shore, circling me and Carlos, and to my greatest horror, swimming towards me. I rapidly slashed my arms everywhere, to try and create a distraction, but it didn't work.

"And to my greatest horror, swimming towards me.''

"HELP!"

The pain was worse than I had ever felt. All I heard was Carlos screaming, and the water splashing as the sharks were fighting over a piece of me. The water was turning red. "Hang on! I'm coming!" I heard Carlos yell. My vision started to blur, and then everything went black. I couldn't see sharks anymore, or hear the deafening screams of my brother. All I could do was float there, unconscious, waiting, hoping someone would come. I couldn't tell if the sharks were swimming beneath me or not, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that I got to safety, in time to survive.

I woke up on dry land again. I sat up and looked around. I saw Carlos sitting on a rock crying. "Carlos?" I said weakly. Carlos looked up, and he seemed to be relieved. "Katie!" he jumped up and hugged me so tight, I couldn't breath. "Carlos!" I choked. He stopped hugging me and just sat there smiling at me.Then, he looked down, and stopped smiling I followed my brother's lead and saw something that I could never erase from my mind.

Owww!