I didn’t want to give up. I couldn’t.
I bent over in the water and grabbed at the thing wrapped around my ankle. That cold bacon feel on my hands was much worse than it had been on my leg. I squeezed back with my fingernails, and through squinted lashes, saw the blackness in front of me fill with little dots of bioluminescent liquid, right where my fingernails had anchored.
It writhed against my grip and squeezed my foot tightly. I couldn’t fight anymore…air was out, time was up. I didn’t want to think about it, didn’t want to suffer. I closed my eyes to the sudden burst of light in the water now gushing up all around me, and sucked the sea into my lungs. I couldn’t describe what it was like, and I’d never try. But just then, I felt a hand pulling on my shirt, even as I convulsed and passed into my own private darkness.
The Lusca is available from Amazon here
Hell's Teeth: A Deep Sea Thriller Page 11