“Kiiiiiiiilllllll…. Meeeeeeee… Gurgle, splutter, hack” the thing screams as its mouth submerges.
The meat’s eyes caul over, blinding it, and as its abdomen disintegrates, its torso and head float up and bob to the surface. Bubbles flow from the meat’s mouth as acid fills its lungs, drowning it, if not for the gills, still trying to process the oxygen out of the hydrochloric acids, keeping the unfortunate slab of sharkgirl meat alive well past the time any mammal would have asphyxiated.
“Uuuugghh.. Gurgle gurgle”

The cadaver tries to scream one last time, but finds it no longer has functioning lungs to do so. Acids pour into its brain case, frying its brain and making it convulse frantically, blind, deaf, tasteless, and unfeeling… but still tortured.

“Guuuuuurrrrrrggggglllleeee”

More skeleton than meat now, the slab of animal flesh finally expires and remains silent and still.
The last of its meaty red gibbets is digested off the bone, The skull’s jaw unhinges and falls from the cranium, in a string of thin scarlet gore.

The waters are red with blood and bits of bone fleck now, as the floating cartilaginous skeleton of the girl, who used to be surfing champion Daniela Shepard, now begins the long process of breaking down and being absorbed by the Pelican Eel.


The Eel swims away down to the ocean floor, happy with its full belly, for the moment. It doesn’t have much in its head in the way of thoughts… but it feels vaguely happy with these hunting grounds… they seem full of prey creatures… especially the ones with legs that are close to where the light is. It thinks it will stay here for a while, see how the hunting goes.

Daniela’s bones fill the Pelican Eel’s belly. It’ll be awhile before they too are digested, and the Eel is ready to begin hunting again. It squeezes out what remains of Daniela’s perfect shark girl body, a fishy excrement flecked with pieces of bone, that settles on the sandy seafloor, her final resting place.


……


In the months that go by, the disappearance of renowned surfing legend, Daniela Shepard, is big news. Family and friends cry uncontrollably, The Fans hope for her reappearance… Conspiracy theories surface, theorising what had happened to their worshipped idol. Everything from secret spy conspiracies, to alien abductions are floated as reasons for her disappearance. Eventually the authorities rule the disappearance was likely an accidental drowning, and life slowly returned to normal. As time went on, people began to forget about her. Life went on.


Every now and then, on the same stretch of coastline, a surfer, or a swimmer, or a diver would disappear. The coastguard would blame it on rips, or underwater whirlpools created by undersea caverns. But in reality, Daniela Shepard was just the first victim in a long line of men, women and children grabbed by the voracious new resident of the bayside area.

First it was a cute kitty surfer… then a hunky lifeguard, pulled underwater while rescuing a woman swept out to sea by a rip. Then a mother and her children, snorkeling out on a daytrip to a nearby reef. The heiress to a business empire, missing after disappearing from her luxury boat. A fisherman pulled overboard while checking his nets. Some cute teenage girls riding tandem on a jetski… only the jet ski returned… and many many more.

Their screams went unheard, deep underwater, begging for mercy, as they were digested alive by a nightmare creature from the darkest depths of an undersea trench. Their grisled scarlet bodies were transformed into a sanguine soup as they tossed in unimaginable anguish. Hundreds more joined Daniela in her gruesome fate. Never to be seen again.




Many thanks to Timo for commissioning this set, and for the use of his Mayo Shark character; Daniela Shepard