"I"ll be fine, what am I up to now?" She asked him, forgetting what her personal record time was so far. She tied the back of her bikini top in place while she looked for the monofin she had brought with her.

"I think you"re up to five minutes. I know my personal record is four and I"m going to beat you today. I beat you in training and I"ll beat you on the court too." Marty said with a smile as he untied the boat from the dock.

Bracing herself for the boat to rock, Darya grabbed the sides of the boat while Marty started the engine.

"I almost thought we wouldn"t be able to come out here today. That storm was a weird one." Marty said while directing the boat towards the area they needed.

"I know! Did I tell you about the boat that hit our house? My mom had to go out and see what it was, luckily your dads came over when I was leaving to help her move the debris. It was scary when it happened. A huge crash into the house...almost sounded like a small whale or shark being thrown at us." Darya organized her stuff in the boat as the wind picked up over the speed of the boat while the mist of the seawater splashed on her face.

"That"s weird, maybe your mom"s covering something up. It could have been an animal and she just didn"t want you to worry?" He shouted over the sound of the engine.

"Maybe, hey stop here this is the area we found that opening at." She shouted over the boat"s engine. Marty brought the boat to a stop and lowered the anchor down since there wouldn"t be anyone in the boat to watch it this time.

"Using the monofin or the separate ones?" Marty asked while putting his own fins on.

"Mono, of course, I love the monofin makes me go faster." She smiled while shoving her toes into the monofin and looping the rubber strap behind her heel. She sat up on the edge of the boat like they did when they went scuba diving for her birthday.

"You ready?" She asked as her eyes landed on him trying to shimmy his way into his fins for the dive. She choked back a laugh and focused on her breathing for the moment. Even with asthma, she held the best time in her cla.s.s. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. She felt the boat rock slightly telling her that Marty took a seat next to her on the edge of the boat.

"Are you sure you can do this? That hole was a bit farther than we"ve free dived before." Marty said with a hint of worry for his best friend.

"I"ll be fine, I"ve done my exercises and I want to know more about that hole." He handed Darya her goggles as they both finished getting ready. She nodded to him that she was done and they both turned on the edge of the boat and let their flippered feet dangle above the water.

"Did you pull the lines down so we can get up faster this time? We don"t need another training incident." Dary shouted through her masked face.

"Hey, you were racing through the water that day too!" Marty shouted back making Darya laugh before she hopped into the water, fins first with Marty right behind her.

Just like when they went scuba diving they let their fins power their strides through the water. Gliding gracefully through the blue and green ocean, Marty and Darya came upon the hole they had discovered a couple of months ago. Without the weight of the scuba tanks, they were able to get much closer to the mysterious opening.

Darya checked her waterproof watch and made sure they had enough time before they had to go back up. She was still doing good, her lungs seemed to be made for things like this. But running a few miles on land is what usually gets her, she didn"t understand it but she didn"t care. She was swimming through the ocean, her favorite past time.

Darya reached for the entrance of the cave when Marty"s hand grabbed her shoulder. He shook his head back and forth telling her not to do it. She furrowed her brow in confusion. This was the whole reason they were diving today. She ignored his warning and reached into the opening to the small mysterious cave.

The water turned warmer and for a moment she thought she could feel the absence of water, an air bubble. She knew that if they were even able to get into the small cave-like structure then the air pocket wouldn"t be safe to breathe in. Looking at her watch again she could see they were nearly out of time. Her chest gave her a warning pain and she looked up at Marty who was pointing at his own watch.

She nodded her head and began to follow him. Before she let go of the small opening something grabbed her arm. She was jerked back letting her elbow smash into the edge of the rock that made up the opening to the cave. Her body buckled at the pain and when she looked to see what had her arm in such a tight grip she let out all of the air that had been stored in her lungs.

There was a scale-covered hand gripping her from the opening. She quickly picked up a rock that she could grip easily and slammed it down on the hand that had her in its grip. The hand retracted and she kicked off with her monofin racing her lung capacity. She kicked and kicked until she reached their rescue lines. Marty had just reached the boat and pulled himself up when she got to her line.

She pulled herself up on the line until she reached the edge of the boat. Marty quickly leaned down and pulled her all the way up to the boat. Lifting herself into a seated position on the edge of the boat she took a deep breath trying not to make herself hyperventilate with the amount she let go when she was startled down there.

"Marty something grabbed me." She confessed as he gave her a weird look.

"What, like a piece of coral or something? You got stuck on something right?" Marty asked trying to make sense of what she was telling him.

"No Marty, it was a hand that was covered in scales, it grabbed my arm. Whatever is down that opening is something more than we could imagine. I don"t know if I can go back down there." She confessed.

"That"s impossible, fish don"t have hands that can grab people. I think the lack of oxygen got to you." Marty didn"t want to call her crazy but what she was saying was impossible.

"I saw what I saw, Marty! Look at my arm!" She shouted making him jump. They rarely ever fought and when they did it would get heated. The last one they had was when they both wanted the soda in the fridge and Denise made them split it.

She showed him her right arm where the thing grabbed her. There was a faint bruise starting to form on her forearm and Marty"s eyes went wide when he saw it. He fell to his knees in front of her and took her arm in his hands. He turned it over to see more of the mark.

"What the h.e.l.l is down there?" He said with a surprised tone.

"Whatever it is, it didn"t like me," she spoke in a low tone that made Marty"s stomach drop and both of them go silent.

"Let"s get home," Marty broke the silence and walked to the front of the boat to start it and get them away from what just happened.