Mark stared at her a long moment. A look passed between him and the others that she didn’t like—at all. “If the lightning strikes get close, we will,” he said finally.
Cassie studied his face and then the faces of the other divers. After a few moments it sank in that they preferred chancing the lightning to the possibility of being trapped inside if the boat sank.
An hour passed. Cassie was still on edge, but she discovered she couldn’t maintain her fear. It was wearing her down. “This is so bizarre,” she finally muttered. “I almost feel like time has stopped.”
Linda, a woman who looked to be around thirty five, who should have had more sense than to consider going off on such a harebrained adventure, sent her a commiserating look. “It’s the waiting.”
Cassie shrugged. “Maybe, but I’m more inclined to think it’s the ‘nothing’ that’s happening. I guess my sense of depth perception could be off, but I don’t think those clouds are moving any closer. I feel like I’m in a … jar, or something.”
The comment didn’t pass unnoticed. The men exchanged that ‘look’ the one men always shared whenever they consider a woman had said something ‘womanish’—which translated to farfetched and hysterical. Shelly and Linda, the only women in the group besides her, looked thoughtful, though.
“She’s right,” Linda finally seconded. “The clouds are … boiling, but they don’t look any closer—nor further away. Even if it’s a slow moving storm it’s been an hour and half. We
should
be able to discern some difference.”
“So maybe it’s just stalled,” Carl said pointedly.
“Well, why is it that everything looks bluer? And why is it that I can feel my skin prickling if the storm isn’t any closer?” Shelly put in.
Mark surged to his feet. “I’m going down to see if I can find out what’s causing that glow.”
“Don’t be stupid!” Carl snapped. “What if the storm hits while you’re down there?”
“I’ll follow the anchor line!” Mark said angrily. “It’s not going to take more than a few minutes to have a look. I’ll come right back up.”
“It’s too risky,” Carl pointed out.
“He’s right, man,” Ben and Jimmy agreed almost in the same breath.
“I’ll spot you,” David, the other man in the group, offered.
“You’re both crazy!” Carl said angrily.
David shrugged. “Maybe, but this just sitting around is getting on my nerves.
And I want to see what’s causing the glow myself.”
“What if it’s like—gas?” Cassie asked, an edge of anger in her own voice. “I saw this special one time where they were speculating that the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle were caused by a rise of methane gases that made the ships loose buoyancy.
That’s where we are, isn’t it? In the Triangle?”
9
Mark gave her a look that she didn’t like. “The boat isn’t sinking,” he said pointedly. “I think that blows that theory.”
Carl shrugged. “We could be in the Triangle, but I don’t believe in that crap.”
The comment redirected Cassie’s anger in his direction. “So how do you explain this weird phenomenon?”
“Yeah,” Shelley agreed. “I mean, I’ve heard of freak storms, but this is seriously weirding me out!”
“All the more reason to check it out,” Mark pointed out with a mixture of amusement and excitement. “Don’t you think it would be cool as hell to be able to go back and explain the mystery?”
“No!” Cassie and Linda said almost in unison.
He gave them both a look that was a mixture of irritation and disgust. “Well, I do.”
He reminded Cassie of a sullen little boy as he stalked off and began to put his gear on. Right up until that point, Cassie had given him a good many points for looks and intelligence. Not that he was even close to an Adonis, but he was above average in looks and built pretty good—now she knew why. It was from all the swimming. And he’d seemed to be pretty smart and to have a sense of humor that was somewhat compatible with her own.
Staring at him, she was pretty sure, now, this was going to prove to be a bust all the way around. The scales were way against him now. Even if they made it back to the dock without disaster overtaking them, she didn’t think she wanted to go any further in pursuit of a relationship with him. She wasn’t going to give him any points at all for brazen stupidity and, in her book, the threat of the storm was enough to cancel out any pluses he might have gotten for bravery. As improbable as it seemed that he could actually protect her if the storm struck, he should consider keeping her safe as top priority, not going off on an adventure in the teeth of death!
“Idiots!” Carl muttered as Mark and David went over the side and disappeared.
From the expressions of the other divers, it looked like most of them were in agreement. Jimmy looked a little torn, as if he wanted to join them but just couldn’t get up the nerve.
Strike scuba diving enthusiasts, Cassie thought angrily—sky divers, mountain climbers, racing---If she met any other guys who ‘loved’ flirting with death she wasn’t going to give them the time of day.
Too nervous to sit still any longer, Cassie got up to pace around the deck, staring at the clouds, glancing at her watch from time to time—which was how she finally realized time actually
had
stood still—as in, her watch had stopped. About fifteen minutes later, David emerged beside the boat.
“You’ve got to see this!” he announced in a voice edged with hysterical excitement. “There’s a whole city below us—honest to god! I think we’ve found Atlantis!”
10
David’s excitement was contagious.
Cassie didn’t catch it.
The others did, however. When Mark surfaced a few moments later and added his description of the ruins they’d found below, there was a mad scramble to get their gear on. Even Carl, the eldest of the group, whom Cassie had considered the most reliable and sensible up until then, looked like a child who’d been promised a treat and feared it would be snatched away. He looked on as, one by one, the other divers leapt over the side and disappeared. Finally, he caved and began to put his own gear on.
“Hey!” Cassie exclaimed. “You’re not going down, too?”
He sent her a look that was sheepish and at the same time determined. “You said yourself the storm was stalled. I won’t be gone long.”
“You’re going to leave me here by myself?” she demanded incredulously.
He glared at her. “You’ll be fine. I’m just going down for a quick look. The instruments are shot. We can’t even be sure of the location—there won’t be any coming back later for a look.”
Cassie was still trying to reason with him when he leapt out of the boat and disappeared. Fear stole over her as she stared down at the water in dismay, watching until he completely disappeared from sight. How long she stood staring down into the water, muttering curses under her breath, she had no idea, but when she finally realized it wasn’t doing anything for her sense of desertion, she eased away from the side of the boat and looked around worriedly.
It seemed the strange blue haze had become notably more pronounced. Shivering, Cassie looked around uneasily and finally went to get her wet suit, pulling it on again.
“Idiots!” she grumbled, unnerved at the sound of her own voice even though she’d thought it would comfort her, make her feel less alone.
What was she going to do if they didn’t come back? She didn’t know the first thing about driving a boat! Not that it had looked all that difficult. She thought she could figure it out, but she had far less confidence that she could find land.
When she’d managed to get her wet suit on, she paced, gnawing at a finger nail, stopping every few moments to peer over the side in the hopes that at least one of the divers would surface. The longer she paced, the darker it grew. She stopped to stare at the strange clouds. Were they getting closer? Or did it just seem like they were?
Finally, she grabbed her tanks and put them on, struggling to remember Carl’s instructions about the gauges. She didn’t realize she’d come to the decision to go after them until she found herself standing on the diving platform.
They’d had plenty of damned time to look, though, she thought angrily! Surely she could convince someone to come back up?
She wasn’t convinced that she could and she had no real desire to go down, but she realized she was more afraid of being alone than going down. Finally, she leapt into the water, adjusted her mask, and dipped below the surface.
11
She couldn’t see a sign of anyone, but that was hardly surprising since she couldn’t see the bottom and they were undoubtedly
on
the bottom. After a moment, when it seemed terror was going to completely consume her, she finally decided she would use the anchor line as a guide. She would go down, look for the others and if she didn’t see anybody, she was going to come right back up. She wasn’t going to take a chance on getting lost. She couldn’t lose the boat if she stayed within reach of the anchor chain.
Fear dogged her all the way down. She considered turning back several times, but each time she did the fear of being alone on the boat superseded her fear of the ocean.
She kept glancing at her gauges, carefully monitoring the amount of air in her tanks. She not only had no desire to cut it close and wait until she had just enough air to get back, she wasn’t
going
to cut it close!
She’d reached the point where the fear of going deeper had begun to swing the balance when she saw something below her, regular shapes—like manmade structures—and irregular shapes that looked vaguely like people. Pausing, she peered toward them.
The water was hazy and dark besides, but she decided that the shapes she’d caught a glimpse of must be the others. Feeling a tingling of relief, and still reluctant to let go of the chain she’d been following, she propelled herself deeper, glancing at the figures every few moments.
She’d just decided that what she’d seen wasn’t the other divers when it finally dawned on her that the trembling she’d been dimly aware of for sometime wasn’t actually
her
trembling.
Well, part of it was. It wasn’t
all
coming from inside of her, though. Part of it was from the water surrounding her. Pausing in consternation, she tried to think what might be causing it. Nothing came to mind, and she dismissed it after a moment, unable to focus on anything beyond the need to find someone, turning in a slow circle to see if she could catch a glimpse of any of the others.
Either they were a lot further away than she thought they should be, or the visibility was a lot poorer than it seemed.
She checked her gauges again, debating whether she actually wanted to move away from the only landmark she had.
She could see the closest figure pretty clearly, though. Shouldn’t she be able to spot the anchor chain if she could see that far?
Distances were really deceptive under water, though. She’d already discovered that.
Maybe she’d just take a quick look? Maybe, if she went over to the figure she could see the others?
Glancing down in search of something else to use to mark her bearings, she thought she saw a faint shimmy in the formations below her. But maybe it was just the odd waffling of the current? Or maybe it was just her? She was shivering, from the chill of the water now, not just nerves.
She’d come this far. She should at least make a push to find one of the others before giving up and returning alone, she decided.
She
did
not
want to be stuck on that boat alone if the storm hit!
12
Trying to calm herself so that she wouldn’t be sucking up more oxygen than she could afford, she glanced down one last time, trying to imprint the image below her on her mind’s eye, and finally let go of the anchor chain.
She was afraid to stare down as she swam toward the image, afraid she’d lose the advantage of that one point of reference. It took longer to reach it than she’d expected and the realization slowly dawned on her that she hadn’t been mistaken. It
was
further away that it had seemed. As she neared it, though, she became more focused on the figure as she began to make out details she hadn’t been able to before. She’d more than half suspected that it was nothing but a formation of rock that
appeared
to have been formed in the shape of a man.
It wasn’t. It wasn’t even in the shape of a man.
It was a sculpture of a merman.
Intrigued despite the fear inspired adrenaline still pumping through her, she swam closer. As she drew nearer, she discovered it wasn’t just one sculpture. In the distance she could make out others. Awe began to supersede her fear.
David might have been stretching it to guess that they’d found Atlantis, but this was no illusion. It really was a sculpture, fashioned by the hand of man, not nature!
It was beautiful, she thought as she finally got close enough to see it really well!
It reminded her of Greek sculptures she’d seen in pictures and reproductions of those classic sculptures. She wasn’t certain why it did unless it was because it so faithfully depicted a man—a merman—with such accuracy of detail.
It was life-sized, too—or maybe larger than life? As she reached it at last, she discovered the figure dwarfed her. If the sculptor had used an actual living man as a model, he’d been a big man, and beautifully formed! God! She hadn’t seen a man built that impressive outside of bodybuilding magazines! His
back
was muscular! His arms, one of which was lifted to hold a lethal looking trident, were huge!
Surprise flickered through her as she allowed her gaze to follow the contours of his back down to the dolphin like tail. He had buttocks! Nice round ones! The fish part seemed to start around the tops of where his thighs would’ve been instead of at the waist as she would’ve expected.
That was odd! In every depiction she’d ever seen of merfolk, the upper torso was human and they were fish from the waist down.
It leapt into her mind to wonder what he looked like from the front.
Naughty, Cassie, she chided herself! But the thought had barely flashed through her mind when she pedaled forward to see if the statue was anatomically correct in every way.
Despite her suspicions, she was still startled when she discovered he
was
anatomically correct—sort of. The genitalia
definitely
didn’t look Greek in origin. He might’ve been hung like a dolphin—she’d heard they were huge—but he definitely wasn’t hung like any human male she’d ever seen and she damned sure hadn’t ever seen a Greek statue with a dong like that!
Abruptly embarrassed at her focus, she jerked her head up and glanced around guilty. Unfortunately, she saw no sign of the other divers. Guilt gave way to consternation. She didn’t know where they were, but she wasn’t hanging around any longer! The urge to explore what looked to actually be the ruins of a city warred briefly with her chicken shit side, but the yellow streak won out. Almost with a sense of regret, 13
she returned her attention to the statue again, allowing herself to briefly examine the beautifully sculpted torso and face.
She shouldn’t have been surprised to discover the face was as beautiful as the rest of the sculpture—angular and manly, but with features so classically perfect ‘beautiful’
came to mind before handsome did—but she was.
Greek, she thought again, definitely Greek, though how the sculpture had ended up in this area of the world was a mystery destined never to be resolved. Even the merman’s long hair seemed to be arranged in a style reminiscent of the height of the Greek era of enlightenment.
What she wouldn’t give to be able to lug this thing home and just admire it!
Even the stone that had been used to sculpt it was unusual, had an almost pink tinge to it that made it look like living flesh—except for the tail. That was a pale, grayish-bluish looking stone, very close to the same color as a dolphin and she thought it likely that was what the sculptor had used as a model—a dolphin.
Shrugging the thoughts off, she allowed her gaze to sweep over the statue one more time before she checked her gauges again, feeling real regret when she saw she’d been under as long as she dared stay.
She just wished she’d thought to bring a camera.
But then she’d been scared shitless. She hadn’t had anything on her mind but finding the others.
A shudder rippled through the water around her, this time far harder than anything she’d felt before. Her mind registered ‘quake’ even as she was pushed by the force of it against the statue. Pain shot through her as her face plate connected with the stone.
Panic followed the pain. Placing her hands on the sculpture, she shoved away from it, glancing at it to see if she’d damaged it when she’d been slammed against it.
Her heart leapt into her throat when she saw the eyes were open.
They’d been closed before, hadn’t they?
She would’ve noticed, she realized, if they’d been open.
The eyes, unfocused for a split second, abruptly focused and looked directly at her.
Cassie screamed. It emerged as a bubbling gurgle around her mouth piece and a cloud of bubbles.
Too panicked to even think about the anchor chain she’d followed down let alone to look for it, Cassie backstroked the closest approximation she could manage to a leap backwards and then shot toward the surface of the ocean, swimming for all she was worth.
She hadn’t gone far when something clamped around one of her ankles. She was so blind with panic it took her several heartbeats to realize she was no longer making any progress toward the surface of the water and several more before it dawned on her that she was tethered. The discovery when she glanced down to see what she was snagged on, however, that it was the merman she’d been admiring only succeeded in bringing her fight or flight instincts to the foreground. She was incapable of anything even approaching logical thought.
Whirling, she commenced to hammering on his head, shoulders, and arms, trying to kick him with her free leg at the same time. The drag of the water on her arms and 14
legs not only made her blows completely ineffectual, however, it drained her of any ability to even try to fight within moments.
The panic cost her more than that, although she was in no state of mind to realize right away. Her swift, ragged breaths ate up her oxygen far more quickly than would’ve been the case if she hadn’t been panicked.
He released his grip on her ankle as the fight drained out of her. Shooting upwards with no more than a slight flick of his tail, he grabbed her around the waist with one arm. With his free hand, he grasped her mask and ripped it off, dropping it as soon as he’d removed it. Cassie grabbed for the mask frantically as she saw it drifting downward. She whirled to stare at him in wide eyed horror as the mask disappeared.