Amidst High Tides and Circling Fins Chapter 1 Preview
MDNI
Word Count: 3,474 words
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Warnings: Kidnapping, Confinement, Cult Activity, Injury, Neglect, Dehydration, Starvation, Drugging, Non consensual touches, Non consensual kissing, blood,
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
||| Hiya! this is a part of the first chapter of my retelling of Shark Bait, The reader is GN and will be for the rest of the story. Reader will also be referred to as Y/N and won't be described beyond anything general. In this retelling I aim to make the situation surrounding the reader's sacrifice far more extreme. As well as aiming to make this story a slowburn. None of the actual consensual romance will occur until much later in the story when the Sharks stop seeing you as just another human sacrifice ||| I haven't posted this to AO3 as I am still working on finishing the chapter. (The chapter will end where it does in the novel) ||| I may change the title of this fic later on if I can think of a better one that suits the theme and I will try to post new chapters monthly, although I can't truly promise consistent uploads.
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The rays of the sun were the first sensation you felt as you blinked awake blearily. The soft beams beat aggressively down upon you as you opened your eyes to gather your bearings, as though Apollo himself was punishing you for daring to have your eyes closed for so long while bathing in his brilliance.
You try to lift a hand to shield yourself, to steal just a moment of reprieve, however the motion dies against cold, unyielding iron. The chains are tight across your torso, rough against your skin, anchoring you to the mast with no give. The more you strain, the more you feel the iron digging in, holding you fast beneath the burning sky.
You close your eyes and hang your head as your efforts bare no fruit. Curses swell on your tongue, held back only because no one was near, save the sky and the ocean, silent witnesses to your predicament.
Wryly, you wonder if the Gods probably watching your fate, though you suspect you are far too insignificant to merit even a twitch of their eye, let alone a glance.
How did things even come to things even come to this? The day prior had been so normal, you had been walking home from the university you go to, a small thing, tucked in the centre of town and you'd stayed late to study for an exam that would be occurring the next week. You'd done it before, had no issues. But you just had to take that shortcut through the park. Just had to fail to notice the people hiding behind the trees and bushes and just had to have been unable to scream loudly enough to scream loudly enough to get anyone's attention before you were blindfolded and thrown in the back of a van. Only to be told you would be the next sacrifice. You would be the next sacrifice to appease Akhelios, the wrathful God who demanded yearly tribute to spare the island town from his destruction.
They had kept you in darkness for days, though how many, you could not tell. Time lost meaning in that windowless room. There was no sun to measure its passing, only the stale air and the echo of footsteps that came and went.
Food came in meager offerings: a crust of bread, a cup of water, just enough to keep your body alive while your mind dulled and your strength ebbed. At first, you had tried to resist, to claw at the walls, to shout until your voice cracked. But hunger gnawed, thirst hollowed you, and before long your will thinned into something fragile, brittle.
Then came the night they prepared you. Rough, cruel fingers pried your mouth open to pour some bitter draught down your throat. It burned, then numbed, dragging your body into sluggish obedience. They stripped away your clothes and dressed you in ceremonial robes: gaudy fabric, loose yet suffocating, smelling faintly of smoke and salt. Hands fastened chains around your limbs, not harshly, but with the precision of ritual.
The world blurred. Voices murmuring words you could not understand other than 'For the sake of the town' and 'it's time'… Then nothing, as the drug overwhelmed you.
And when your eyes opened again, there was no darkness, no people, only the sea stretching endlessly before you, the sky pitiless above. For a moment, you almost wished they had left you in the quiet of that windowless room. At least there, you could pretend the world outside no longer existed. Here, bound to the mast, there was no pretending. Only waiting.
Wryly, you imagined what fate would befall you now, If this God Akhelios truly appeared, how would he choose to end you? Perhaps he would be merciful, swallowing you whole in a single breath like the dragons of old tales or like one would a sacrificial lamb. Or perhaps he would savor the act, ripping you apart piece by piece, prolonging your suffering. Worse still, maybe he did not exist at all, and you would simply wilt away beneath the sun, a forgotten offering left to rot like a neglected flower.
At the thought, your body rebelled. Your limbs seized and strained against the chains, driven by a desperate, instinctive urge to flee, though you knew the iron would never yield to your strength. An involuntary hiss tore from your throat as the motion only splintered the mast behind you, sharp slivers of wood piercing your skin. "Fuck!"
The pain seems to shut down your instincts, causing you to still at last, chest heaving, forehead damp with sweat. The sting of wood embedded in your skin joined the heat and thirst in a chorus of misery. Every shallow breath scraped your throat raw. It was so fucking hot… You were so thirsty and tired… You sag into your chains close your eyes, having no resistance left to offer as you resign yourself to waiting for your prophesied death. A thought you believed you'd never had to even ponder, yet had been realised and thrust upon you all the same.
For a long moment, there was only the roll of the tide and the weight of the sun. Perhaps you could afford to rest. Just a little bit. Hopefully, whoever this… ''Akhelios'' god was, probably wouldn't mind the state of his sacrifices when he received them right? If he did those cultists from earlier would have treated you way better than the level of hospitality they had deigned you with.
And then, something shifted.
At first, you thought it was a trick of exhaustion, perhaps there was no threat coming so your mind fabricated one purely to torment you. The waves seemed to lap slightly more aggressively against the shore as though something massive had temporarily displaced the water and yet, you kept your eyes closed.
Footsteps, deliberate and unhurried roused you from your stasis. They crunched softly against the sand. Not the shuffle of cultists, with bejeweled robes dragging obnoxiously across the ground, returning to check on their sacrifice. Something… else.
A shadow fell across you, long and vast. Blotting out the sunlight that had bore down on you relentlessly for however long you'd been trapped here.
You dared to lift your head. Up and up and up. Initially peeking through your eyelashes, still wary of the suns wrath, then opening wide with a mix of terror and awe.
The figure that stood before you was man-shaped, but only just. He was impossibly tall, towering well above any human you’d ever seen. His build lean but corded with strength. Sunlight caught on faint white freckles scattered across his cheeks and brow, stark against skin warmed by a warm tan. Black hair, paradoxically wild and extremely well kempt, tied back in a simple tail, gleamed faintly in the light breeze.
For a heartbeat, he could have been mistaken for a man. If it hadn't been for the fact you'd nearly broken your neck trying to crane you head back far enough to take all of him in. If not his height then his eyes betrayed him: black, swirled with shifting grey, fathomless as the deep. His ears ended in subtle points, his nails in slightly curved claws. And ink-dark blue scars traced the length of his forearms, patterns etched like waves frozen mid-crash.
He regarded you silently for a short while, his expression only betraying the slightest confusion. The ocean murmured at his back, and only then did you realize how utterly wrong his presence felt. He was not human. Not even close.
Your breaths come out in staccato rhythm as you stared up at him, paralysed with fear in the face of this entity… Was this Akhelios? You had thought he would be a monstrous sea creature, something that tracked down prey like a Great White on a blood trail.
Finally, he spoke.
"So you are the sacrifice."
His voice was deep and smooth in a way that slipped past all your defences and soothed your soul, a welcome balm to your frayed nerves. You weren't permitted to bask in the memory of his voice for too long as his hand raised slowly to reach for your cheek. Alarmed, you attempt to jerk your head away from his hand but your movements are limited as you are still changed to the mast. You clench your eyes shut and try to stifle a whimper as you feel the cool touch of his palm beginning to touch your cheek. His hand dwarfs your face as it comes to gently touch your cheek, guiding you to tilt your head up slightly to face him in a manner so gentle you thought perhaps you wouldn't be sacrificed this day.
"You're crying." He stated simply in that same, mollifying tone. Were you? The tears you now felt streaming down your face only just came to your attention. Those tears were tenderly being wiped away by a gentle swipe of his thumb across your cheek almost as though he cared. He would be the one to sacrifice you wouldn't he? Why did it matter to him whether you cried or not. You pull away from the gentle touch tilting your head down again to hide your expression, ashamed of the touch starved part of you that weakly protested your actions and wanted more of that safe touch you'd been deprived of by those cultists for who knows how long.
Surprisingly he didn't push further, letting his hand drop as you jerked away. He tilted his head slightly, his tone turning musing. "We weren't expecting a sacrifice for another month…"
At that, your head perked up. Surely that meant you could be let go right? Hope simmered deep in your stomach bubbling upwards and upwards as you envisioned your release and freedom. You opened your cracked lips to speak, the words coming out hoarser and meeker than you wanted. "D-does that mean I can go free…?"
A small sympathetic smile graced his beautiful features and the words he spoke next felt like cold water being poured all over your body. "If I let you free, would your people want you back? Or would you be an outcast? Wouldn't those who came after you before seek to erase their mistake and even more people would be sent here as a sacrifice in order to make reparations?"
As much as you hated it, understanding set in and you nodded hanging your head once more, dread pooling around your heart and squeezing, making you painfully aware of every painful pitter-patter of your rapid heartbeat. More people would be hurt if you tried to go back much more than just you. There is no escaping so easily.
Perhaps sensing your internal panic and fear, he speaks again to ease your fright. Whether he does this out of pity or out of genuine kindness you don't know. "You may call me Rhin. I am the shark deity sent to collect you."
Gently, he steps closer again, his movements causing you to flinch and rattle the chains gently with your instinctive motion. His gaze snaps to the iron restraints and his brows draw together slightly his mouth turning downwards at the corner in a small frown. "Are these chains hurting you? Here, Let me…"
He moves smoothly behind you and the next thing you could hear was the soft clink of chains breaking and then the chains were loosening around your body and falling limply into the sand like a string cut. You fall suit quickly after them, crumpling to the floor like a knocked over pack of cards, your limbs feeling like limp noodles as they fail to support your body, a result of the cultists meddling no doubt. 'great' you thought to yourself. 'a sandbath is definitely what I need right now.' You weren't faceplanting the sand for too long as large hands carefully lifted under your armpits and as though you weighed nothing hoisted you gently into the air until you were eye level with the man, no. Shark deity as he called himself . Gosh the ground was such a far way away but this could be your only chance, you squirmed weakly in his grasp, while his hold was gentle, his grip was as iron as those chains, but considering the ease in which he had broken them, probably a 100x more so.
"Please do not try to flee. You wish for your town to remain intact, yes? That's why you are here." He reminds you gently as though you had a choice in coming here when you didn't. You wanted to scream and beg to appeal to his humanity and help your plight. But there was no humanity to appeal to. He wasn't human, why would he listen to you?
"I admire your courage, but you aren't the first sacrifice I've met. Nor will you be the last…" *He continues, his words hammering what you'd suspected earlier repeatedly into your heart each strike just as agonising as the last as you realised the inevitability of your fate. You sag in his hold, your will to fight now as sapped as your strength. He looks you over once before his eyes land on the evident brusing along your hands and wrists, skin scraped away to reveal raw flesh beneath, blood pooled in the grooves in some areas others clotted with sand and blood that you felt vivdly, but had no strength left to react to.
"You're bleeding…" He says, his eyes focused on your wounds in mild surprise mixed with unerring focus. You flinch and try to hide your wounds. Sharks couldn't resist blood right? That's what you remembered from your biology classes back in highschool and the way he was reacting to your injuries only increased your fear.
Undeterred by your efforts to hide, he simply shifts his hands down your body to your waist for a more secure grip before lifting one hand off you to grasp your forearm and lift your wrist closer to his face. A terrified whimper escaped you as your hand approached his mouth. This was it, was he going to devour you. He pauses at that, his hand pets yours soothingly. "Shhh, shhh… It's alright. I'll help you stop the bleeding. I won't hurt you."
You calm down at that still terrified but no longer as vocal about it as you. Taking your silence as consent, he brings your hand up to his mouth once more. "Every shark in the ocean will smell that a mile away… I'm just going to clean it up a little." He murmurs lips so close you could practically feel the words brushing against your skin sending goosebumps up your arms. That's all the warning you get before his tongue briefly laps at the broken skin, clearing it of the blood which pooled there.
A shiver so great runs down your spine as his tongue continues its gentle work. Tracing the wounds with accurate precision, following the damage trail further up your arm as he follows the blood trails. Licking slowly as to not agitate the wounds further. You can feel the wounds reknitting in his wake as he continues his path. You don't remember when he switched to your other arm, only the feel of his cool tongue soothing away your pains. By the time he was finished, you were once again limp in his hold, breath stuttering as you tried to come to terms with what just occurred.
"Y-you can… Resist b-blood?" You ask trying to brace yourself for whatever the answer he gave you might be.
A soft chuckle escapes him before he responds, its deep and it reverberates through you rattling your ribcage. "Yes, I can resist blood. The others however don't have as much self control… You don't want them to see you bleed."
He analyses you again, checking your arms once more to see how they heal before his eyes widen with surprise. "Facsinating…" He murmurs to himself as he takes in the fully healed flesh there.
"D-did you not mean to heal me fully" You attempt to ask, trying to gauge why he was so shocked to see his actions actully leading to the wounds healing completely.
"I… I don't know… Normally what I did would only allow the wounds to clot and prevent infection but this…" He pulls away slightly, looking wonderingly in a different direction while he still held you.
You clench your fists and start to struggle again was he just prolonging your suffering was it his intention to heal you each time you got hurt over and over again. "Why… Why help me when you're just going to kill me…" Eventually you sagged again, tears forming once more in your eyes as you gritted your teeth, the true helplessness of your situation setting in. You try to make eye contact with him looking at him pleadingly "Please… just do I already before I… before I change my mind…"
At this, his eyes lock onto yours and his brows raise momentarily as though feeling some kind of command or compulsion before they crease again. He brings you closer still, staring into your eyes.
"Interesting…" He murmurs once more, what was interesting you couldn't tell but he wasn't deigning you with a response. Perhaps he found your persistent whining interesting and how you continued to plead even when the outcome didn't change. Just as you look away to cast your eyes down to the floor, He grabs your chin firmly yet gently with irrefusable force and meets your lips with his.
You yelp but its quickly swallowed as he slips his tongue inside of your mouth through the small entrance you allowed with your vocalisation. His tongue dominates your mouth with soft yet inevitable as he explores your every inch of your mouth. You remain in shock as the onslaught continues your hands resting on his chest trying to push him away but his hand on your waist only wraps around it, pulling you in closer, all you could do is endure it. You feel slightly dizzy with the breathless nature of it all the heady feeling of his tongue tangling around and rubbing against the sensitive areas of your mouth all too distracting even if you never asked for it. Finally, he releases you, you gasp trying to take back the air that was stolen from you for far too long. Shock and terror twists into outrage as you exclaim. "Why did you kiss me!??"
His reply is all too calm, as though he hadn't nearly kissed the living daylights out of you, you'd never been kissed like that before, so swept up as though caught in an inescapable riptide at the mercy of his lips. "That should allow you to breathe underwater for a small period of time and protect your body from the pressure."
You couldn't discern whether he was hiding more behind that matter of fact statement. You're heart was beating far too loudly in your chest you feared he would hear it, which he probably could, who knows what powers shark deities had.
"Y-you should have warmed me…" You whisper looking towards the ground as though trying to find refuge in it.
"And why would I do that?" He asked with a little smile on his face as though this was a perfectly normal thing to do without asking.
You stumbled to find the words to respond to that. "B-because you don't just kiss someone like that out of the blue…"
"Ah, yes… That's right. Humans are not always comfortable with such actions, I always wondered why that was…" He says it as though he's remembering some trivial fact that wasn't that important at all and you bit your lip in frustration. You wanted to hit him, to run away as fast as you could, but there was just no telling how he'd react to that.
He adjusts his grip on you once more to hold you more comfortably as he begins to make his way to the rocky outcroppings where the water was deeper. Pressing you against his chest while keeping his other hand under your legs to assure you were securely in his grip.
"I'll warn you of this then. Whatever you do, don't let go." He says firmly to you as he steps off the ledge. You squeeze your eyes shut grasping the front of his jacket and burying your face against his chest, bracing yourself as you feel the rush of air and then the splash of water as you two enter the ocean. You expected to feel wet but you don't nor do you feel cold. There was no sensation stronger than the fear you felt as he carried you to meet your fate head on...