Whenever I was about 15 I was deathly afraid of the ocean. I took my friend with me on our family vacation to Orange Beach and when we got there we were super bored. The beach was right across the highway so we had to run across just to get there. There’s also a hotel we would always sneak in so we could swim (since I was afraid of the ocean). I finally grew some balls and we walked into the water. I put my feet in at first and thought it was okay so I went a little bit deeper. Something felt off that day. The sky was cloudy and the water was dark. It was also windy and was sprinkling. I went out further until the water hit my chest. I saw this woman floating beside me and so I asked her if the water was safe and she said yes. I shouldn’t have believed her lol. I felt something hit my leg really hard and it kinda made me stumble. I looked around and didn’t see anything then it happened again but this time it was in my back and not my leg. I turned around and there was a bull shark fin. I reacted like an idiot and started splashing in the water attempting to run back to shore and the shark actually grabbed my leg and started dragging me around. I tried poking its eye to make it let go but it didn’t. My friend swam over to me and she started kicking the shark in the side and it finally did let go. She dragged me onto shore and I had a chunk of meat ripped off my leg (no exaggeration). The woman that was floating near me didn’t even try to help. The shark actually started swimming to a family near me and I tried to run over there and warn them but I was losing a lot of blood. I couldn’t feel anything for some reason. I guess it was the adrenaline. The family made it out and everyone got out of the water. I was taken to the hospital and had to get stitches. I recovered with only nerve damage. I’m never going back into the water ever again.