Remembering the feeling of the breaking bubbles, I reached my arms out and placed my palms on top of the water. Completely engulfed in Finn’s eyes, I forgot all about what I was supposed to be doing. All I could think about was what it would feel like in his arms. Run my fingers through his hair. Then he smiled.
“Perfect,” he said. That was an understatement. Wait.
“What’s perfect?”
“What were you thinking about?” he cocked his head to the side and raised an eyebrow.
“Nothing,” I spit out a little too quickly. At least he couldn’t read minds. I filed that away in my ‘good-to- know’ folder.
“Obviously it’s a little more than nothing, look what you’re doing,” he pointed behind me.
I turned to see the boiling ocean had turned into a tranquil lake. Completely still and utterly quiet, an eerie silence had fallen over the night. I glanced to my left where waves were crashing farther down the beach and saw the same to my right. The ocean-turned-lake was only in our immediate vicinity.
“Holy shit,” was all I could manage. Finn laughed and it sounded louder amid the calm of the ocean. “But this can’t be me, I wasn’t even trying yet,” I tried to argue, shocked by what I was seeing.
“It’s all about harnessing the energy from your emotions, then transferring them to the water.
You must have been thinking about something pretty powerful.” His crooked grin was back. But my mind was on to a more frightening issue.
“How do I make it go back to normal?” It would be my luck to break the ocean.
“Lift your hands,” he instructed. My arms were still extended, so I took my palms off of the water. A concrete wall of sensations slammed into me. Adrenaline coursed through my veins and every emotion I’d ever felt assaulted me in an instant. Completely overwhelmed, my body went limp and I felt myself slip under the water. Finn’s arms slid under my knees and back, lifting me up. I looked into his eyes, mere inches from my own.
“You okay?” he beamed at me.
“I think so” I replied, unsure of myself, “what the heck was that?”
“Your energy returning to you,” I barely heard him as I became acutely aware of the amount of skin touching as he cradled me in his arms. Being held by him, I got the feeling nothing could ever hurt me.
“I knew you’d be amazing,” he said with admiration, which quickly turned to sadness. He released my legs so I could stand on my own again, but I held onto his arms to test my strength. He steadied my waist and I could feel the taught muscles in his arms as his skull and crossbones trace sparkled brightly just under the surface. My eyes moved over the rest of his torso, glistening in the moonlight. I wanted to wrap up in him and never let go. I met his eyes. He was watching me with something that resembled restraint. He cleared his throat, let go of my waist and ran his hands through his hair. With my heart beating out of my chest, I glanced back at the shore to see the waves had resumed crashing. It was as if time had stopped. The whole experience was exhilarating.
“I want to do it again!” I told him eagerly. But he shook his head.
“Let’s stick to smaller things for now. You should pace yourself.”
For the next hour we practiced making bubbles (which I had done unknowingly when I had first gotten in the water), making little ripples, whirlpools like we did in class, and small waves. It was as if I was meeting a part of myself for the first time. It was as natural to me as breathing.
“So you’ve gotten the hang of some things above water,” he paused and his face lit up, “but you haven’t tried anything under the water. It’s an entirely different experience.”
“But its dark, I won’t be able to see anything,” I countered.
“Afraid of the dark, Stasia?” At that he disappeared beneath the surface. Left alone in the moonlight, I suddenly felt very alone. I thought I saw something move on shore, but then again it could have been just a trick of the moonlight. As a chilling feeling crept up my spine and settled in my chest, my heart rate quickened and I decided it was time to join Finn under the waves. With one last look toward the beach, I took a breath and dove under.
I was immediately shocked by how well I could see. It wasn’t as bright as during the day, but everything had somewhat of a glow, making it very easy to see. I spotted Finn a couple yards out emanating the same glow. Once he saw me, he continued swimming away from the beach. I followed him out as the ocean floor dropped farther and farther beneath us. He finally stopped and turned to face me. His stormy blue eyes had taken on a completely new quality underwater. I could see flecks of teal and green among the darker blues. He grinned at me as his hair danced in the current. He put both hands on my shoulders and ran them down the outside of my arms, stopping at the crook of my elbows. He pulled me closer and I noticed without our arms to tread water we began sinking quickly.
A look of determination settled on his face and the grip on my arms tightened.
I stared back at him trying to understand what he was doing. I tried to move my arms, but I’d have better luck getting out of a vice grip. Then I tried to push away by kicking my legs, but that turned out to be a futile effort as well. I looked up and realized just how far we had descended. Each inch we dropped was an inch between me and life sustaining oxygen. As my lungs burned for air, panic set in and I tried to think of a way to get away from him. Coming up with nothing, I continued struggling, which only made the need for oxygen that much worse. Why was he doing this? Was he going to kill me? Why? His face remained so eerily still, while a terror like I’d never felt before emerged from the depths of my soul.
Cursed. That’s what Carmen had said. Thanks to my made-up excuse, no one even knew I was out there. He could anchor my body to the bottom of the sea and I could be eaten by sharks before they found me. I began struggling again, but my lungs were at their breaking point. Small black spots formed in my vision and Finn began to blur in front of me. I could only make out his lips moving.
‘
Or crazy. Or both. My lungs were on fire and the urge to take a breath became intolerable. The small black spots turned to larger black splotches and I knew I’d lose consciousness soon. Suddenly, all on their own, my lips parted and my lungs inhaled.
Chapter 15
Water immediately poured into my nose and throat, filling my lungs. I felt the pressure pushing against my chest. It was cold, foreign and I waited for the pain to come, for the blackness to take over.
Then I exhaled. My eyes zeroed in on Finn, who was concentrating on me like a science experiment, and it frightened me all over again. Then I inhaled. And exhaled. No pain. No blackness strangling me in to oblivion. Just me and Finn, suspended in the ocean. I started taking deeper breaths as my vision cleared and my energy returned. I watched him carefully and saw that he was breathing too. This couldn’t be happening. People couldn’t breathe underwater…it was impossible.
He smiled slowly at me and a red hot rage filled every fiber of my being. Having use of my arms again, I pushed away from him as hard as I could and kicked up to the surface. I broke through and immediately took a breath of fresh air. In the back of my mind, I marveled at how easy it was to go from breathing water to breathing air again. Then I remembered why I was breathing water in the first place as Finn broke the surface beside me.
I swam towards shore. The waves had greatly increased in size and the thought crossed my mind that my anger was causing it. Good. Maybe they’d swallow him whole and keep him out there.
I finally made it past them and onto the beach, when I felt him right behind me. I whipped around, narrowing my eyes. “Get away from me.” I turned on my heel and kept walking.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt you, Stasia.”
I turned on him again as a fresh wave of anger engulfed me. “Drowning me is you NOT trying to hurt me? Is that supposed to make me feel better?!”
“I wouldn’t have been able to convince you any other way.”
“So that was your solution?!”
“I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you.” He tried to touch my arm, but I slid out of his reach and glared
