Shattered Soul

Chapter 3- Guilt

When we got to the reef, it was night already. Lenny was exhausted, but that didn't stop him from swimming over a small forest of long kelp to hide from the other sharks. Pop surely must have sent them to look for Lenny, and my brother obviously had no intentions of going back. But why…? What had I missed? Besides my own funeral… I swam towards the kelp forest and came to a halt right next to my brother. After a while, we noticed the sharks from earlier swimming around.

"Lenny!" one of them was calling, "where the heck is he? Lenny!"

Suddenly, the other shark gave his companion a smack in the head.

Hey, what are you doing?" he growled, there's a Sharkslayer around here! You want to die next?"

"You're right,"

They started to call for Lenny again, but this time in a low tone. What had they said about a Sharkslayer…¡

"How much time was I out?" I growled in annoyance

"About one day," Sonia replied. I hadn't heard her voice in the whole afternoon so it startled me. I would have replied, but then I noticed something small was peeking at the sharks.

"Phew, that was close…" he muttered in relief

That voice… it sounded familiar.

"Super close," Lenny spoke up, and looked down at the visitor; the visitor looked up in fear when he heard Lenny's voice, "don't panic,"

But it was clear in the visitor's face that he was panicking. He was about to scream but Lenny put his fins in his mouth and pulled him back.

"Quiet. We're safe," Lenny spoke in low voice to the fish

"Oh, no, not you again," the fish groaned in frustration

"Yeah," suddenly Lenny yelled in fear and looked around, "Ah! What was that?"

"Yo! What's with you, man?" the fish yelped in shock and confusion

"Shh! He could be anywhere,"

"Who?"

Lenny put his fins over the fish's mouth once again.

"Shh! The Sharkslayer."

Again with this 'Sharkslayer' guy! And what's with the name? Just what's going on?

"You really want to know?" Sonia spoke up

"Hey, would you stop speaking out of nowhere? You're starting to annoy me!" I growled softly to her

"I said if you want to know who the Sharkslayer is,"

"Whatever," I looked back at my brother

I noticed he was lying on a sea sponge bed, covering his eyes with his fins and… crying?

"Lenny? What are you doing?" I yelled at him, "you're a Great White! You shouldn't cry like a-!"

I stopped. Crap, I haven't gotten used to this thing of not being seen nor heard. The puny fish from before swam over to Lenny's face.

"No, no, it's not all that. Just relax,"

"It was my fault…" Lenny sobbed, "Well… kinda… not really… but still. My brother…"

Hearing this tore at my heart. Lenny… missed me? He really loved me that much? All these years I had only been constantly picking on and smacking him, and he still missed me, it made me feel… guilty… on the inside. I wanted to swim next to him, hug him and tell him it was gonna be alright… like when he was four. But when I reached out my fin for his shoulder, it went through him. Could I possibly be more miserable than this? I felt tapping on my shoulder, and turned my head to face Sonia once again. Her eyes were full of compassion.

"I'm sorry," she whispered

"For what?" I inquired softly; o was way too sad about this to even get angry at her.

"I know how much you want to comfort him…"

I didn't reply. What was I supposed to say, anyway? I noticed the fish was swimming away, but Lenny grabbed him again. I followed.

"Wait!" Lenny cried

"What, man?" the fish replied in surprise

"I didn't catch your name,"

"Oscar,"

"I'm Lenny. Hi."

"Hi," the fish called Oscar replied in annoyance

"Where do you live?"

"Lenny, where I come from, fish don't like to get grabbed by sharks,"

"Sorry,"

"Go home,"

"There is no home for me now. Don't you understand?" Lenny shook Oscar slightly desperate

"You're too big to be grabbing on me," Oscar muttered as he tried to swim away, but Lenny swam in front of him.

"Take me home with you," he begged

"What?" Oscar swam past him

"You won't notice I'm there. I'm like the invisible shark," Lenny the put his fins over his eyes.

I couldn't contain a small laugh. Lenny would always do that to try to convince Pop to let him go with him to a meeting when he was five years old.

"Are you crazy?" Oscar asked my brother uncredously

"Please. I'm begging you. Don't leave me alone," Lenny sobbed and pleaded at the same time. Both Oscar and I sighed in annoyance

"Put your fins on the wall where I can see 'em!" a voice startled the three of us. Oscar pushed Lenny into the wall and peeked over to see… I peeked as well, but I realized they were only kids. I noticed they had spray paint cans on their fins, and a drawing in the wall. I was so concentrated on the drawing that I didn't bother to hear what the kids were saying to Oscar. The drawing was spectacular, but when I noticed what it was about, I got angry. A fish was standing over a shark, controlling him with a chain and holding a sword. This was so insulting. I turned back to see Oscar and the kids.

"It is now, bro-bro. you're the Sharkslayer,"

My eye went open wide. Oscar, a punny fish, claimed to be a Sharkslayer? I would rather believe that Lenny was a cold-blooded, vicious killer than this!

"Hey, Sonia! What's going on here?" I growled

"See, you remember that you were supposed to teach Lenny how to be a shark, don't you?" she inquired.

I nodded

"Well, you remember what happened after Lenny refused to eat Oscar?"

Actually, I didn't.

"The only thing I remember after that is that I chased after the fish. After that, I don't know." Then it struck me like lighting, "does the anchor I saw in that field have anything to do with that?"

Sonia nodded.

"Effectively, that anchor was the reason you died in the first place,"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You died because that anchor crushed you to death,"

"WHAT?" I yelled in shock

"You were not looking were you were swimming and if fell over you,"

"What does that have to do with the Sharkslayer guy?"

"See, after your death, Oscar took advantage of this to become rich and famous like he always wanted because he was found standing next to your corpse,"

I smacked my head with my fin in frustration; just what I needed. Everybody thought I was killed by a puny little fish.

"Great, just great!" I snapped in frustration and fury, "a Great White shark like me supposedly defeated by a puny little fish? Could there probably be something more humiliating than that?"

"Hey, calm down! Besides, look over there, Lenny is leaving with Oscar,"

"What?"

I twirled around and saw that, indeed, Lenny and the Oscar guy were swimming towards a giant duct that led into the reef. I tried to follow them, but Lenny closed the duct.

"Great, what now?" I muttered

"You're a ghost, remember?" Sonia tapped my head softly, "you can go through it,"

Go through it… I had forgotten about it, I had swum right through the window back at the ship. I closed my eyes shut and swam forward… I didn't feel anything, and when I opened my eyes I realized I had indeed gone through the bars. I smirked slightly as I quickly swam forward to find my little brother, Sonia once again gripping on my dorsal fin.