She noticed Kev’s light had stopped moving. Relieved, she started swimming towards him.
Erin glanced at her depth gauge. She was at the absolute safe limits of her dive. Kev was at least another ten feet lower. It wasn’t like him to do something so hazardous. He knew the dangers of going too deep. At this depth, it could be fatal. If they stayed down too long and too deep, they risked the bends, a painful condition caused by nitrogen bubbles in the blood.
She swam closer to Kev, regulating the air in her suit as she went. From the look of it, he was on the lip of the drop off. The thought of the great depths below where he sat made her feel nauseous. Or was it something else making her feel ill? The pressure?
She shone her light towards him, trying to attract his attention. But he didn’t respond. Still unable to see him clearly, she descended deeper. She looked at her depth gauge. There had better be a damn good reason for this, she thought.
Close enough now to see him clearly, she thought her eyes were playing tricks. He looked to be buried in the seabed. All she could see was one of his shoulders, his head, and one hand holding the light, the beam of which pointed down into the depths.
Strong currents rose from the drop off, making Kev’s hair undulate like tentacles. Erin shuddered. Something wasn’t right. The substrate had been disturbed. A pale cloud drifted around his torso. She swam closer; her beam of light illuminated a thin red veil wafting gently around his shoulder. She narrowed her eyes, trying to see clearly.
When she reached Kev, Erin reached out and tapped him on the shoulder. He didn’t respond. Her mind whirled with questions. Fear circulated around her body. She grabbed his wrist and pulled.
And Kev’s severed torso gently rose from the substrate, leaving behind a thin red cloud of blood that swirled in the currents rising from the depths.
Erin’s eyes went wide. She gagged and the regulator flew from between her lips. Bubbles streamed from her mouth as she tried to scream in the water. She gurgled, almost choked. Frantic, she let go of Kev and searched for her regulator, sweeping her arm around in the growing gloom of blood and substrate.
Something moved in the darkness below the drop off. Erin gagged again. She floundered in the water. Where was that damn regulator? Her hands brushed against it, and she grabbed it and reinserted it between her lips; took a welcome breath.
She looked back at Kev’s body. Ragged strips of flesh waved in the water from his severed torso.
She watched Kev’s severed body fall over the edge of the drop off and descend into the depths. The beam of his lamp spiralled down, creating a macabre red swirling vortex as it illuminated the blood.
Crazy thoughts fought for dominance in her mind. How the hell had he died? What the fuck was down here that could bite a man in two? And more importantly, where was it now?
She spun around, pointing her light in all directions.
Erin felt totally alone. Panic swelled in her chest, aggravating her breathing. She willed her pulse to slow, fought not to lose control.
The beam illuminated something black that swam quickly out of sight. But from what she had seen, it had been big, very big. The blood froze in her veins.
Calm yourself girl, she thought. The surface is a long way up.
She considered an emergency ascent, but rising too quickly from such a great depth would result in the bends. So what else could she do?
She remembered the object she had seen at the limits of the light’s beam before Kev had distracted her. It occurred to her that it was a vessel of some sort.
Although she needed to get to the surface, she wanted to gather her wits. If she could hide for a little while, then maybe whatever was circling would swim away. Swimming faster than she had ever swum before, Erin kicked out into the cold water.
Something flitted about to her left. She flashed the light at it, saw two huge malevolent quicksilver eyes reflected in the darkness. Her heart leaped into her throat, but before she could identify it, the creature vanished into the depths.
Panicked, Erin felt her strength ebbing away. Whatever it was down here, she was in its domain.
The sunken vessel she had seen briefly in the glare of the light appeared ahead. She felt a moment of relief. Then the beam illuminated a jagged maw of teeth almost as long as her forearm–teeth poised to take a chunk out of her torso.
Chapter 12
Erin’s lungs felt ready to burst. She simultaneously hit out with the flashlight at the creature swimming towards her and withdrew the knife from the sheath on her leg.
In the swirling mass of bubbles and semi darkness of the deep, Erin couldn’t make out what she was looking at. There was something vaguely familiar about the monster, but she didn’t have time to consider it. Not when the creature was trying to kill her. Over four feet in length, it fixed her with its close-set eyes the colour of mercury. Its head was larger than Erin’s, but narrower. Its dark skin resembled the pitted surface of an orange, and when it opened its mouth, the real terror erupted in Erin’s brain. Lined with needle-sharp teeth, its jaws resembled a Venus flytrap. The bottom teeth too long to fit comfortably in its mouth, she could only assume that they slid into pockets in the roof of its mouth.
She stabbed out with the knife, slashing through the water in a demented, determined way. What the hell was that thing? The blade met resistance like steel. She had struck the beast, but it seemed to have little effect. Terrified, she shone the light at the creature, causing it to shy away. She watched it swim into the dark. The beam illuminated dark scales and spines along its back. In the moment before she lost sight of it, she thought she saw something even stranger about it. Something her brain couldn’t rationalize…
She thought she had seen arms protruding from its sides.
But that was impossible. She must have imagined it. Fear and panic playing tricks with her brain.
Even though she could no longer see it, Erin knew the creature hadn’t retreated. That it was waiting on the periphery of the beam. Waiting to attack.
Without wasting any more time, she swam towards the vessel she had seen. Fear propelled her along with the speed of a rocket. When close enough, she swept the beam across the object to discover it was a fishing boat. It sat on the ocean floor, stretched into the darkness beyond the beam of light, its tattered nets draped over the starboard side. Silver Queen. The boat that had gone missing a few weeks ago
With no other option, she swam towards the wheelhouse. Currents of water swirled at her side and she swept the light beam towards the source; saw a shape flash by in a terrifying blur of speed. The rate of its passing disturbed her swim pattern, threw her off course. She smashed into the side of the boat, jarring her skull. Momentarily disoriented, she shook her head to try to regain her equilibrium. Pure, unequivocal terror coursed through her veins, seeped through every pore of her body. She had to get inside the boat before it was too late.
Kicking furiously, she swam towards the wheelhouse. When she was within reach, she grabbed the sides and pulled herself in through a broken window.
Disturbed by her presence, pieces of debris drifted in the boat. A map floated by, followed by a small bag.
With no time to get her bearings, she swam towards what looked like a trapdoor in the far corner. She shone the light beam over it.
Sensing movement to her rear, she pointed the light back and almost choked as something rushed towards her face. Her heart stopped. She kicked out, realizing at the last minute that it was only a small fish come to seek shelter in the wreckage of the boat.