Laurel

30

The two days passed quickly.  The morning the boat was supposed to arrive, Laurel practically jumped out of their bed and was bouncing on her toes all morning like a child excited the night before Christmas. She had packed them a small day trip bag since they would only be gone one night, after breakfast it was hard to keep her from waiting at the dock for the boat to arrive.

Damon had a pit in the bottom of his stomach that he couldn’t explain, he had planned carefully, had the best equipment, and Laurel was so excited. So he tucked away the nerves he was feeling, and chalked it up to just not wanting to have to share her with anyone else after enjoying having her all to himself.

The boat arrived and Damon asked Laurel one last time if she was sure she wanted to do this. She of course was not deterred from what she wanted, her passion was something that attracted him in the first place so he could hardly try and suppress it now. They spent the morning jumping waves in the small speed boat as they raced towards the Great Blue Hole. It took most of the morning and the sun was high in the sky when they finally arrived.

Laurel’s eyes went wide as her smile grew even wider, taking over her face when they reached the sink hole came into view. She was bouncing on her toes again in excitement. Damon wished he could join in her excitement but he just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

But there was no turning back now. Laurel practically leapt from the boat to the shore, splashing in the still deep water, laughing as she went. Once she reached the shore proper, she was instantly kicking off her clothes revealing the small bikini she had underneath and started the embarrassing process of jumping, kicking, and struggling to get into her dive suit. The suit was almost entirely black, but there were swirling lines of white highlighting all of her curves from her collar bones,around her breasts, down to the swell of her hips before cascading down her legs.She did look sexy once she was zipped inside the neoprene second skin, he tried to be a little more graceful as he exited the boat, and struggled into his dive suit, but he doubted he was able to succeed. The demon inside was quite vexed by the indignity of it all, and just to make Laurel happy.

Laurel was bounding ahead, carrying her flippers and helmet in her hands, the O2 tank already strapped to her back. When Damon caught up with her, she was hooking up the oxygen to her mask, and sitting down to pull on the flippers. The sense of doom was still present in his mind, but Laurel looked so happy, he didn’t want to stop her good mood on account of nothing more than a bad feeling. Laurel moved a few items into her waterproof safe pouch, and attached it to her dive belt along with all the safety gear required. Damon quickly got himself ready and with a nod, they rolled forward into the deep sink hole.

The water was sapphire on the surface, but once below the surface it was crystal clear. Laurel and Damon dove down a few feet, marveling at the smooth edges, the strange sea kelps and weeds growing along the walls, and the schools of small fish they broke through.

“This is amazing!” Laurel exclaimed a little too loudly over the communication system. Her eagerness was infectious, dragging Damon along with her.

“I’m so glad you are enjoying it. Lets go deeper.” he said, pointing below.

They went lower in the water column, the sunlight fading as they began to broach depths the light struggled to penetrate. Laurel began to hear something, it didn’t seem to be in the water, or through the communication systems. It was like a rushing wind or water or maybe drums? It was something she had never heard before. But if she focused too hard on it to figure out what it was it was like the sound slipped away from her, avoiding her direct focus. 

“Damon, do you hear something strange?” she asked him eventually, when she could no longer ignore the sounds she was hearing.

“Nothing but you baby, why?” Damon asked, the pit in the stomach deepened.