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I let the air out of my BCD, keeping an eye on Eric as he did the same. About five feet down, my ears popped, releasing the pressure in them. The fog had departed and the sun shone down on us. In some oceans you could see hundreds of feet in the beautiful crystal waters. Here on the coast of California the Pacific could be cold, dark, and murky. There were times you could only see five feet in front of you, making it that much more important that you stick with the group and your dive buddy.
We were lucky today and had about twenty feet of visibility. I watched as Donna waved, indicating that everyone should follow along after her. Angling next to Eric, I swept my gaze over each of our guests. Everyone was doing fine, though the man next to me was the epitome of tense.
He’ll settle and be fine once we get going.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. Eric was stiff, tense, and fighting the swell that was swinging us to and fro. We’d made it over to the other side of the rock, where it joined up with another and a lot of sea life liked to hang out. Being near the rocks usually meant the swells were larger as they displaced the water, but as long as you relaxed and let it take you where it wanted you were fine. It wouldn’t crash you into the rocks. But if you fought it, you not only wore yourself out, and used up more air, you ran the risk of causing yourself to hit objects.
Catching his arm, I forced him to look over at me. I gave him an indication to calm down. His eyes were wild, pupils blown wide as he stared at me.
What the hell?If I didn’t know any better I’d say he’d never been diving before. That wasn’t possible, though. Our dive shop owner always checked people’s dive certs before allowing them to come out with us.
I looked up and realized there were no bubbles rising up from Eric. Was he holding his breath?
No, that wasn’t it. He ripped the regulator from his mouth, panic on his face. He was floundering around, unsure of what to do as his cheeks bulged out from holding his breath.
I calmly detached my octo and gave it to him. He stuffed it into his mouth and his brow drew together and up in worry.
Frowning, I reached over and pressed the front of the regulator to depress air through it, forcing the water out so he could get air.
Relief instantly settled on his face as he started breathing. What had happened to his gear? It didn’t matter. We’d have to surface. Donna would eventually realize we weren’t there and bring the group up to find us.
Grabbing the front of his BCD, I swam us upward. He was still spooked, and let me take over. We hadn’t been down long enough, or deep enough, to worry about a safety stop, so I brought us straight up to the surface of the water.
I inflated my BCD and watched as he struggled, kicking to stay afloat. “Inflate your BCD.” When he didn’t listen, I reached over and did it myself. Again I wondered what was going on. He hadn’t known how to put together his kit, clear the regulator, or inflate his BCD? It didn’t matter if you were rusty, you didn’t forget those skills.
We were floating on the surface now, the sun shining down on us as I waited for a glimpse of the boat. “You okay?”
“Fine,” he growled. Now that he wasn’t under the water he was back to being surly.
Probably embarrassed. A lot of people were after something like that.
Splashing sounds made me turn and I saw him swimming for the rocks.
“Hey! No, stay over here.” On the surface you had less control and the waves and currents could easily send you hurtling into the rocks. It was dangerous. Still he kept swimming.
Swearing under my breath, I followed him into the little cove the two rocks created. Greg wasn’t going to find us here. I needed to get us back out into open water so we could get picked up.
Finally, Eric listened and stopped swimming. He turned and watched me as I approached. “We need to-”
His hand came out of nowhere and shock silenced me as he backhanded me across the face.
Pain splintered through my head, and I grabbed it while staring at him. When people are drowning sometimes they’ll shove you under to use you as a floatation device. They’re panicked and don’t know what they’re doing.
That wasn’t the case here. I didn’t know what was going on but there was determination in Eric’s eyes. He looked deranged. That feeling that had been warning me about him rose again as he smiled at me.
“Get over here,” he demanded.
Fuck that.
I turned to swim away from him, but he managed to snag my fin and he pulled me under the water. His hands were grappling with me as I struggled to get away from him. He was stronger than I was, however, and his hands planted on my shoulders, shoving me below the surface.
My eyebrow rose as I tried to figure out what he was thinking. It was clear to me now that he had no idea about diving. He was trying to drown me when I had an almost full tank of air.
I needed to be smart about this. If I put my regulator in the bubbles would clue him in. I’d gotten a good breath of air and I did a lot of free diving so I could hold my breath for up to four minutes at a time. It’s not easy and it takes a lot of practice to be able to do. I doubted Eric knew about it, so I struggled against him, then let myself go limp.
He held me under for another long minute before he let me rise. My body floated, with me face down and as soon as he let me go, I grabbed my dive knife.
His eyes widened when I straightened in the water, sucking in a lungful of air. When he lunged toward me again, I swiped out at him. The knife cut him across the cheek. He grabbed it, glaring at me as blood dripped into the ocean around us.
