Curse of the Late Night Swim

A Story by Karl Herzog

A bizaar story about an a terrifying but mundane incident at a beach...leading to a weir account of a shape-shifter.

I was drunk, alone and on the beach late on a full moon night. Why? You ask, because I can. I do what I want when I want. Besides, it was quiet, and I thought 'Wouldn't it be great to go for a swim!?' So, I stripped everything off but not before gulping down the sweet, cool bottle of bourbon and coke. I threw it aside and could hear the nice soft landing as it thudded on the sand. As I staggered towards the water, I stripped off my board shorts and tank top, briefs. The water was black and so cool. It was hot that summer and I wasn’t coping with the humidity so I dived right in and let the cool black water take. I was a great swimmer and very confident in the water. At least until something grabbed my leg, pulled me further down that’s when I panicked. I remember thinking.

‘I love the ocean…but not that much.’

I’m a great swimmer but I’m not Ian Thorpe. I used all my strength to fight back against the shark that grabbed me. Bashing what I could make out was its nose, trying to jab its eyes. I’ve been in bar-room brawls before but this time I was literally fighting for my life. It let go, I didn't see the shark until it swam away. In the dark water I briefly saw a shark’s tail swimming away but hind legs as well. I freaked out and quickly swam ashore, staggering in pain towards my shorts that still had my mobile, keys and wallet. My breath caught up with me and that's when I noticed my bloodied thigh.

The adrenalin started to ease the pain kicked in and got hell of a lot worse! I collapsed in a heap and manged to pull my mobile out of my shorts to ring an ambulance. I was totally naked but considering the circumstances I couldn’t care less. Not long after I managed to dial tiple zero I started to fade away right when I could hear ambulance sirens.

On my last day in the hospital, I recovered so well that the doctors were stunned as how quickly the bight had healed. What was a gory wound on my thigh was now a mild scar…but a big and impressive one! Next summer I’ll have a scar showing underneath my shorts that I could explain to my mates at the pub!

“You say a Great White got ya’?”

Asked the doctor as I sat on the edge of the hospital bed, gear packed and ready to go. The doctor was looking at the clipboard and flicking through as he queried me with genuine interest.

“I dunno, I thought it was a saltwater croc because when I saw it swim away it had legs! But they say it was a Shark….sure looks like a Shark bight.”

Just as I said that I looked down at my feet to see a scratch on my left shin. Clearly claw marks.

“Well…a crocodile would explain that claw mark…”

The doctor point at my leg with his pen. I stood up and grabbed my bag of items. The pain was still there but minimal.

“But your bight wounds resemble that of a shark.”

When the doctor was finished with me, he gave me a prescription, but I was quick to leave Queensland and flew back to Canberra and then I eventually got back to work. I Got a lot of attention on my first day back, work offered more time off which I declined and eventually things went back to normal...for a while.

Friday night and I was staying up late at night watching 'An American Werewolf in London'. The lights were dim, and the air pump of my aquarium was soothing. I was nice and relaxed, about to doze off when my scar started to hurt same as the night I got it, the pain spread through my entire body, I was burning up, screaming and tearing at my clothes. I felt excruciating pain, the most pain I had felt in my life, and I was terrified. I also couldn’t control what I was doing, on top of being scared I felt freakishly weird.

As soon as it happened, I woke up on the bathroom floor, naked and damp. As well as that the place was s mess.

'Must've been some party I went to.'

I staggered I to my room, feeling soar and tired like I had an all night of partying I got changed and went into the living room. It was trashed and my massive aquarium was smashed to bits, water and coloured pebbles all over the floor and my poor goldfish was.... dead!

'What the hell happened last night!?’

This wasn’t a one off, this weird thing would happen three nights a month. But the end scenario would change, I'd end up in a lake or creek if I happen to be out that night and I often was. If I was at home, I'd wake up in my neighbours swimming pool. That was awkward, I made sure I’d get out of there real quick before they wake up. I had a hunch of what was happening, so I planned ahead.

Next month, I drove up the mountains on the edge of town. Pulling over the road on a mountain top I grabbed my gym bag full of gear and started walking as far away from the dirt parking lot as possible. Few tourists would drive up to the bush covered mountain and take photos, but I was determined to avoid people. So, I literally walked off the beaten path, found a clearing and I set up my video camera and chained myself to a tree. When I locked the chain, I gave it three good tugs to made sure it was locked properly. Looking up I could see the sky darkening and the stars beginning to shine. Making sure I faced the camera I started to speak.

"G'day, my name is Geoffrey Wade. I'm a Gardener for ACT Government. A month ago, I went swimming during a full moonlight night at a beach on the Gold Coast. Something bit me, note sure if it was a shark or croc but si..."

Didn't time that well. The sun had well and truly gone down, the full moon was shining. The same intense pain hit me, and I started to change and that's all I remember.

When I revived the next morning, I felt like I just died. Was in same spot in the bush, still chained to tree but it was the daylight. My clothes were torn as if they exploded which is funny because I brought a bag of spare clothes without thinking why. I dug the key out of the pocket of my torn jeans and unlocked myself. My heart was racing as I was keen to see what happened on the video. I hadn’t felt that excited since I was 14 and my parents left me home alone with a stack of porno’s I had hidden underneath my bed. Except this wasn’t a happy-fun-times excitement, this was nervously awaiting blood test results excitement. I watched the video; I couldn't believe my eyes! Soon after I chained myself to the tree, I looked like I was in severe pain, I started to convulse then I fell to the ground out of camera view. When I stood up again it looked as though I turned into a Shark!

Miles from sea water I gasped and fell back to the ground, luckily the impact nocked the camera and so it tilted conveniently in view of my shark-like body on the ground. I flailed about like a fish out of water, gasping for air until eventually I suffocated and died...I just watched my self-die!

I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what was happening. The shark that attacked me had arms and legs, that happened during a full moon. I ticked off the days on the calendar when I had my blackouts and they happened three nights a month...I'm a Were shark!

Canberra's landlocked so being a Were shark was inconvenient. I'll just shapeshift an die! I could drive to the coast but that's hours away, to live there I'd need a new job and a home which would be expensive, but I had to be near water.

That's when it hit me, so simple! It's so much simpler if I'd drove to the aquarium, I could sneak in and help myself to the shark tank. It’ll be like a late night skinny-dip…but with sharks.

So that’s my problem solved, right? Wrong! The next full moon I packed spare clothes and a much-needed towel. Drove to the aquarium which is on the outskirts of the city next to a nature reserve of pine forests.

I manged to pull off the road into the forest where cars driving by the highway couldn’t see. Grabbing my kit out of the boot I waited for the traffic to die out then ran across the double lanes and snaked around the Zoo and Aquarium. Breaking in the back of the area I managed to sneak into the aquarium area and could see the massive round fish tank. It looked just like a water tank that you see in the hills of the suburbs. I climbed the steps leading up and looked into the nice, crystal-clear water. Then the full moon shone, and the pain hit me again. I collapsed in a heap on the metal, grill platform that loomed over the water. I changed, my clothes tore off luckily on the platform and with a mighty splash I fell into the water.

When the daylight hit the water, I morphed back into human form and ‘woke up’ in the water. I panicked at first, not being able to breath in the cool water I thrashed about. But my brain switched on and I remembered what had happened and my clever plan so I tried to swim to the surface but that worked the sharks up and they got curious about me, so they did what sharks do when they see something in the water they’re curious about, they took a nibble out of me and though it was just a nibble it hurt like hell. I bled and then I panicked swimming frantically to the surface, I raced to the edge of the tank where the ladder was and managed to pull myself halfway up.

Hanging on the rung of the metal ladder I took a breather, but the sharks were worked into a frenzy even more and one swam up to the surface and grabbed both my legs in its mighty jaws of sharp serrated teeth and I died. There was no way I could survive that, they all took massive chunks out of me until there was nothing much left, like a family devouring a roast chicken leaving a carcase of bone and gristle.

So, I’ve survived drowning during my shape-shifting but as it turns out only a shark can kill a Were shark.

THE END