Deep Water

Chapter 5

Well who knew my life could get any worse. I already had the abusive dad, the long dead, slightly crazy mom, and now it turns out that that was just leading up to the biggest shit show ever.

Enough of me complaining, on with the show.

I rushed down the stairs with the lunch box in my hand. I didn't really know where I was going, Harley had just said to go to the basement, hopefully that meant it was watertight or I was screwed.

"Ugg, why are there so many stairs in this dumb lighthouse!?" I grumbled to myself, thinking that the stairs would never end, and they just kept on going!

Then finally, finally I reached the end and stopped in front of a large door. It was a fancy, thick, metal door with intricate, swirling designs around the edges. It seemed like a typical front door for your home until I noticed the keypad tucked away in the corner.

I tugged at the door praying that it wasn't locked, but of course it was. Just my luck. I hurriedly worked through what had just happened in my head, trying to remember if Harley had told me a code, but I didn't remember. That's when I glanced down at the box in my hand.

Of course, what better place to have the code other than the box with all of their information.

I hastily set the lunch box on the ground and flipped the latch. Inside there was a pile of documents, so many that they almost fell out of the open lid. On top there was a small cream colored piece of paper with some numbers on it.

12508

I felt a tear leak out as I realized what the numbers meant. They were my mother's birthday. A day I hadn't been allowed to remember thanks to dear old dad.

I stood back up and typed in the keypad: 1-2-5-0-8.

Stepping back and I stared at the door, waiting for something to happen. Then I heard a click and the door swung open.

Inside was like a super hero's hideout (but if the hero was some crazy scientist.) I slowly walked in, my mouth open in shock. It was amazing.

In the middle of the room there was a large circular table with lights glowing from underneath. All around there were gadgets scattered with half finished projects sitting near them. Large televisions covered half the room and a row of futuristic looking dive suits hanging in the other half of the room.

It reminded me of some crazy sci-fi movie scene, not something my mother would have helped make.

I was shook out of my daze by a loud rumbling, that's when I remembered the reason I was here. Quickly, I turned back towards the door, trying to remember what Harley had told me.

"Lock the door, put on the suit and get out," I muttered quietly to myself while quickly closing the door and punching in the code, "Okay, 1-2-5-0-8, there we go. Great, now we are locked in a room with no other doors or a way out, just how I wanted to spend my day."

I tugged on the door to make sure it was locked and when it didn't budge, I turned around and surveyed the room. Tentatively I made my way over to the dive suits. I had been scuba diving before, so I knew what all of the normal devices were, but these were like nothing I had seen.

There were wetsuits, fins, and a buoyancy compensator devices (BCD), but that was all I recognized. Sitting next to these were futuristic looking helmets, they were black and looked like some crazy robot contraption. The weird thing was that I felt like I recognized it from somewhere. I reached out to grab one to get a closer look  when suddenly my mind went blank and I was transported into some sort of flashback.

***************

I was swimming in our small pool in the backyard. I had to have been only eight years old because we haven't had a pool since the summer before mom died. 

Then she walked up, my beautiful mom, acting like nothing had happened, of course nothing had, this was only a flashback of what already was.

Mom came up to me holding the weird helmet looking thing.

"Hey Alex, can you do me a favor honey? It would be a really big help for your mommy." She pleaded with me.

"Of course mommy! What do I have to do?" I said while looking curiously at the helmet.

"All you have to do is put on this helmet and go swim under the water, make sure to come up when you run out of air." She told me while brushing my wet locks of hair out of my face so she could put on the helmet.

She slowly slipped the helmet on my head and I giggled, "This feels funny, it's like daddy's bike helmet."

"Yes honey, it is like daddy's motorcycle helmet, but now I need you to go swim for me."

I nodded my head and dove under the water.

It was amazing! I could breathe underwater! I took a deep breath to test it out and it was just like breathing on land.

I swam around for felt like minutes until I felt a tug on my swimsuit. Standing up in the pool, I looked at my mom who was standing soaking wet with water dripping down her face.

"What's wrong mommy? I thought you didn't want to swim"

"You were under there for too long! It has been almost 30 minutes, I kept yelling at you, but you couldn't hear me, so I finally jumped in to get you. I was so scared!"

She was close to tears, so I walked over and wrapped her in a hug, "It's okay mommy, I'm okay. That was amazing, I could breathe underwater like a mermaid!"

I stood there with my mouth agape as the flashback ended, then I heard a loud thundering noise.

I know now one even reads this and the book is kind of crappy, but this is my first book, so constructive criticism is much appreciated! That's all for now, have an amazing day!

And please, please, please don't forget to share, comment and vote!

-G