A cold sweat broke out across her body. She shivered. Her sudden movement moved the air around inside her suit, and like a marionette, her limbs moved in directions she did not intend them to go.
To regain control, she released some of the air through the valve in her arm. A geyser of bubbles gushed out and danced on the ceiling. A quick check of her air pressure revealed that she didn’t have much time left. She needed to get to the surface–fast.
She looked back towards the broken window, and was horrified to see the creature, clawing its way in with spindly arms tipped by wicked claws. Its large baleful eyes looked towards her, and it opened its mouth to reveal long, vicious teeth.
Erin wondered whether she was dreaming, whether she was trapped in a nightmare, but she knew she wasn’t. This was all too real.
The previous cold sweat intensified to freeze the very marrow in her bones. She needed to escape through the splintered trapdoor, but the displaced air in her suit still had control of her limbs, making movement difficult. She kicked furiously and scrambled with her hands, reaching for something, anything, to pull on to propel her forward.
There were now so many bubbles in the room, it looked as though the water was boiling. The creature was seconds away from her, its mouth open in anticipation of the bite it wanted to deliver. Unable to accept her fate, Erin’s feet struck the ceiling. Without hesitating, she kicked out.
The motion was enough to propel her to the trapdoor, and she grabbed the frame and pulled herself through, feeling the displaced motion of water at her rear as the creature bit down where her foot had just been. The flashlight dangled from a strap on her wrist. The wildly swinging beam revealed she was in a short corridor, and using the narrow walls, she pulled herself along.
The beat of her heart thudded inside her ears, making hearing difficult. Although she wanted to look back to see where the creature was, she knew she couldn’t. A second’s hesitation could lead to her demise. A short flight of steps at the end of the corridor lead down. Erin followed them to another door. It was shut. She reached out and pulled, but the door didn’t budge. It was probably the weight of the water holding it tight. Putting all her reserves of strength into it, she yanked the door open and a bulbous figure emerged, arms reaching towards her. Erin recoiled. Air rushed past her lips and streamed from around the regulator. The figure’s face was blue and swollen, the eyes like golf balls in the fleshy remains of its eye sockets. Disgusted, Erin clawed past the figure, sending it floating along the corridor behind her. She risked a quick glance back, saw the creature bite down on the carcass, saw skin and bone severed as it ripped its way through the corpse, shaking its head in frenzy. Bits of shredded skin hung suspended in the water like paper at a tickertape parade. A sick feeling climbed Erin’s throat. She fought it back down and swam on into the room. Once inside, she turned quickly and pushed the door shut. She was finding it hard to breathe, and a quick check of the gauges revealed that she was out of air, now running on what little remained in the tanks. Her vision was blurring, the edges of her sight going dark as though the world was shrinking.
There was no lock on the door, and when she turned to survey the room, she realised she was trapped in the boat’s galley. There was nowhere else to go. The sick feeling returned. Drown, suffocate or be eaten alive. What a choice, she thought.
It reminded her of when she’d accidentally locked herself in the cupboard under the stairs as a kid. The same feeling of claustrophobia. The same feeling of panic. Only this time it was intensified a thousand times. She cast her diminishing gaze around and noticed a wrench on the ground. Thinking she could use it to barricade the door, she swam across and picked it up. As she straightened, she noticed a fire extinguisher on the wall. She grabbed it, hoping that she could utilize it to cloud the water to allow her to escape. Every action made her lungs burn as she eked out the last of the oxygen.
She needed to act quickly, but what was the point? She was going to die anyway. Exhausted, Erin put the fire extinguisher on the table and floated buoyantly in the water at its side. It seemed ironic that the sea she loved and tried to preserve would become her tomb.
Before she had time to ponder the situation further, the creature crashed through the door. Although incapable of expression, she was sure the creature was grinning. It opened its jaws, drawing its razor-sharp teeth from the sheath of its mouth like daggers.
Heart beating like a jackhammer, she picked up the wrench and held it ready, one last defiant act in the face of adversity. Time seemed to stretch out, seconds drawn painfully into minutes. The creature glided towards her, trailing its strange limbs as it thrust its grotesque head forward.
Then an idea sprang into her mind.
It was crazy, but she didn’t have anything else.
She needed to time it perfectly as she only had one shot.
She waited…waited until the creature was five feet away, then she smashed the wrench down on the valve of the fire extinguisher with all her might and prayed to God that it would work. The valve shot away, and the fire extinguisher sped towards the creature like a torpedo, trailing white foam in its wake.
Blinded by the trail, Erin could only hope her plan had worked. She swam out into the milky depths, feeling her way. She expected any minute to feel the creature clamp its jaw down on her arm, and a cold dread nestled in the pit of her stomach. Her failing sight made the situation worse, and her burning lungs threatened to pump their last breath at any minute.
Up ahead, the water was clearer, and she could just make out the creature lying sprawled against the wall, the fire extinguisher at its side. Thinking it was dead, she swam across it towards the door, when the creature’s mouth twitched.
She raised the knife in her hand, then stabbed it into the creature’s eye. A milky liquid gushed out and the creature slashed out with one of its clawed appendages. Erin forced the knife as far as it would go; putting what remained of her strength into the thrust. Blood replaced the milky film. She watched it seep out and drift around her like a strange fog.
Exhausted and giddy with lack of oxygen, she swam out of the boat and started her ascent, going as fast as she dared, which didn’t seem fast enough.
Despite knowing the creature was dead, she couldn’t help feeling that something was out there in the inky blackness, watching her.
But before she could think about it further, the edges of her vision blurred and then darkness pervaded.
Chapter 13
“Why didn’t you answer your phone?” Bruce asked.
“Chill, dad. It’s not as if I could have gone far.” Jack patted Shazam on the head, and the dog reciprocated by licking his hand.
“That’s not the point.”
“What’s the big deal?”
“There was an accident earlier. A man was attacked in the sea. Some people think it was a shark.”
“Cool.”
“Cool? Jack, someone’s died.”
“Did you know him? Did I know him? No, then what’s it matter? People die all the time.” He could tell by his dad’s face that he wasn’t happy, but he didn’t care. At least they were now both of the same frame of mind. He’d only come home because he was hungry, and now he had to listen to this.
“If your mother heard you speak like that, she’d—”
“She’d what? Turn in her grave?”
The slap came without warning, knocking his head back with the force. Jack rubbed his smarting cheek. Shazam barked and then turned and padded away into the corner where she slumped to the ground, watching with puzzlement.