'Oh my god!' Kristina screamed at the back of her mind.

Her back hit the groaning metal railings when the twelve-foot great white shark attacked her right side with open jaws. The railings against the shark's teeth grunted as they moved closer to each other the more force the great white shark applied with its deadly set of jaws.

With the railings now in disarray, what was once a small gap between the railings was now gone. Instead, each time the shark randomly came back to take a bite against the metal railings, more gaps were being made. Kristina knew that anytime soon, a gap would be created which would be wide enough for a shark's head to enter.

If this would happen, the shark could easily reach her.

Kristina, who was hunched at the left side of the railings that surrounded her while the shark had turned around for another round, shifted her attention to the direction where a faint red light gleamed amidst the darkness.

"I hope that you saw the bar counter, Lucas," whispered Kristina.

She knew that she failed to tell Lucas about the bar counter where he could buy some time while finding an exit towards the upper floor. Bubbles left her diving mask rapidly as her surrounding waters became stale – waiting for the apex predator to come at her again.

She needed to buy Lucas some time for there was at least six meters distance between her spot and the door where the red illumination gleamed the most.

On cue, Kristina looked at her oxygen meter. She was welcomed by a number three percent less than what she saw earlier. Biting the insides of her cheek, she drew a deep breath before she moved herself to the center of the railings once more. 

Her gaze wandered around the darkness which surrounded her like death's cloak. Through gritted teeth, her gaze focused on the stealthy shadows moving toward the direction of the red light.

"It sensed the vibrations from Lucas' movement!"

Kristina lost all the colors of her face – or what was left of it. Without thinking thoroughly of the recuperation that would follow her action, she fisted her right hand before she started to bang the metal railings around her.

Thump! Thump!

The banging of the metal railings released wave after wave of ripples under the water. Fishes and sea snakes that lurked around her swam away on instinct – for they knew what was come the next minute. And the sea creatures were not wrong at all. Against the waves of ripples from Kristina's direction, the water parted upon the

"Aaah!"

A sharp scream left her parched lips when the twelve-foot great white shark attacked the cluster of metal railings from the back.

Due to the force, the tip of its grayish snout hit her tank which made her stumble forward. This stumble made her lose her balance, resulting in Kristina almost leaving the protection of the railings. With her trembling lips and teary gray eyes, she turned around and came face to face with the humungous apex predator's head.

"Oh my god! I need to leave!"

Kristina did not need any reason anymore. She kicked her legs and stroked the black waters with her hands as she swam away from the protection of the metal railings. With her oxygen meter flashing orange for the warning, she left the safety of the staircase's railings without looking back.

'The great white is stuck in between the railings because of the impact of its attack. There is no better chance of escaping! My oxygen is at the limit already, I have to reach the reddened part of the waters before it can catch up to me!'

Thoughts of pure survival wracked Kristina's mind as she swam with renewed vigor. Though determined to reach the illuminated part of the waters, its surrounding area reminded her of the predator's eyes.

'It is as dark as death,' Kristina thought at the back of her restless mind.

Its bottomless big black eyes were seemingly fixated on her amidst the darkness. Because of the great white shark's gigantic head, upon its sudden thrust in between the small gap of metal railings, half of its humungous head was stuck.

This earned the apex predator a grunting noise from the metal railings as the great white turned its head from side to side. Its tail swirled upon the agitation of not being able to set free from the clutches of the metal railings immediately, creating wave after wave of ripples and vibration under the water.

In contradiction to her big kicks and sharp strokes, the direction where she came from had also continued to produce huge waves of ripples against the stale waters. With gritted teeth, Kristina doubled her kicks and strokes against the cold black waters that cloaked her entire body.

'Come on! Almost there! Faster! Come on!' Kristina groaned at the back of her head.

With no time to heave or to catch her breath, Kristina focused on the nearing cluster of red illumination from the emergency light above the water.

The moment her fingertips reached the area where the waters bathed with crimson illumination was also the moment that the ripples from the direction where the shark was trapped and seized.

"It is free," Kristina whispered with widened eyes and trembling lips.

As her heart pounded from the inevitable truth that a twelve-foot great white shark was hot on her tail with no weapon to defend herself or a safe place to hide, Kristina bathed with the red gleam. She stopped swimming as she remained still at the very apex of the two-meter wide luminance that the emergency light from above was giving the waters below it.

On instinct, Kristina inched her arms into her chest. She closed her arms before her as she twirled her body, looking for any looming shadow racing towards her.

This action of closing her arms was to avoid imitating the behavior of the common prey for sharks like the seals. By closing her arms before her along with the light provided by the emergency light above her, she had hoped that the great white would come to realize that she was not of the same species as its prey. She needs to establish the fact that she was an equal predator.

'But how? Clear eye contact would be the best solution, but with this unclear water, only silhouettes could be seen.'

"Where are you?" Kristina whispered under her breath. From her left side, she turned to her right only to be met by darkness. From facing the front, Kristina turned to her back and still found nothing.

It was in this eerie silence that a splash resounded from her left side. By the ripples that had reached her, Kristina could deduce that the source of the noise was located at least five meters from her left direction. On cue, she turned her head to the source of direction only to see the tail of the great white heading to the source of the noise as well.

One person entered her mind.

'Lucas!'

She stroked against the red waters while she took off her diving mask amid her swimming frenzy to resurface her head above the water. The first thing that welcomed her gaze was the sharp gleam from the emergency light which made her squint as she released a gasp.

"Kristina!"

A familiar deep accented voice drew her coughing fit.