Cody and Valeria had become symbols. News outlets called them the Final Ones. Survivors who outwitted Death itself. Interviews, headlines, talk shows—they smiled through the grief. But deep inside, they knew the truth: Death doesn't forget.
So when they booked a quiet tour at the renowned Crystal Haven Aquarium, it was supposed to be peace. Escape.
The aquarium glowed blue and green, light dancing through tanks filled with jellyfish, eels, and drifting schools of fish. Children giggled. Families posed. Valeria smiled, just a little.
Above them was the main attraction—The Immersive Tunnel Experience. They walked beneath the massive tank, fish swimming above, sharks gliding just inches from the curved glass ceiling. On either side, vibrant corals pressed against the walls. Cody took a selfie. Valeria laughed.
For a moment, they forgot.
Then her stomach dropped.
Something felt off.
She turned.
The light shimmered strangely above them—like a tension, a ripple.
A little girl outside the tunnel pressed her face against the glass. She held a small coin in her hand, grinned, and—
Clink.
She tossed it up toward the tank.
Time slowed.
The coin spun in the air like a blade of fate, arcing high—
And struck the curve of glass above them.
Crack.
A thin white line split the surface. Then another. A spiderweb of fractures bloomed.
Someone screamed.
A woman. Running. "GET OUT OF THE TUNNEL!"
Valeria grabbed Cody's arm. "RUN!"
The aquarium groaned—metal and glass stretching like bones about to snap. The first crack exploded.
Water roared.
A wall of it smashed into the tunnel, shards of glass flying like knives. People screamed, slipping, falling. Blood spilled, pink tendrils in the crashing waves.
One man was impaled through the chest by a broken coral spine. A couple slammed into the steel railing, backs bent unnaturally. A boy's leg was severed. Blood swirled.
Then came the sharks.
Three of them—bull sharks, hungry, confused, drawn to the blood.
They tore through the chaos, snapping, slamming, thrashing. One latched onto a woman's neck, dragging her under. Another collided with a man, jaws clamping over his ribs.
Cody surfaced, coughing. "Valeria?!"
Valeria gasped beside him, trying to pull a child free from a current. Then—
The third shark came.
It struck her from the side. Her scream vanished in the water.
Cody swam toward her—but the water was red, cloudy, full of thrashing limbs and floating glass.
She was gone.
People above watched in horror. Emergency alarms wailed. Lifeguards dove in—but it was too late.
Death had claimed them.
The Final Ones… no more.
The End of Chapter 35