My Modern Kaidan: Meibatsu

Chapter 13

My fingers find the rope to the pulley system lying limply near the edge of the drop. Tucking my arms into my sleeves to guard my palms, I grip the rope and pull it taut. "Still works," I murmur. "I'm coming down!" I say, half to myself. "Here goes nothing."

My fantasies of gracefully propelling down the side of the drop are quickly squashed as soon as my shoulders leave the edge and I go careening down into the hole, gripping the useless pulley as the bucket on the other side goes rocketing up. Luckily, water breaks my fall and I become completely submerged before breaking through the freezing cold surface with a gasp.

My blurry eyes search the darkness but it's impossible to make anything out.

"Amaya?" Kenji's voice suddenly permeates the void in front of me.

I turn towards his voice, treading water. "Kenji?"

"Here," he says. "This way."

I begin to swim in the direction of his voice. My stomach flutters. There's something terribly creepy about swimming in pitch blackness.

A hand reaches out and grips my arm and it takes everything I have to keep from screaming before I realize the hand belongs to Kenji.

"Are you okay?" he asks me.

"I am now," I respond, my self-editing severely handicapped by the current circumstances. As my eyes adjust to the darkness, I can just make out the glistening rock of the sloping walls around us. The whole lower level of the spring is probably the size of a small swimming pool.

"We can use the rope to climb back up," I say. "Just hold both sides, I just learned that."

"I can't." Kenji replies.

"Huh?"

"My foot," he tells me. "It's stuck in the rocks.

My arms and legs are growing more and more tired by the second as I struggle to stay afloat, but I shake my head defiantly. "Okay, no problem. We'll get you out."

As I say this, the water churns violently behind me, washing me into Kenji. As this happens, there's a noticeable rise in the water level.

"I think we are running out of time," Kenji says breathlessly.

I nod. "Okay. Here goes." I dive below the pitch black water, which is harder than I thought it would be. For one, I definitely can't see anything now, and more importantly, my head refuses to stay below my feet. I burst back above the surface. "Okay," I declare. "I can do this." Just as I say this, more water rushes in, creeping up to our chins.

I dive back below the ice cold surface, guiding myself down with handfuls of Kenji's pants, until I reach his stuck sneaker, wedged tightly between two jutting rocks. I wrap my fingers around the edge of one rock and pull but it doesn't budge. I pull at Kenji's foot until my lungs are burning before coming back up for air. The journey up takes seconds longer than it did before.

"It's really in there," I say.

The water has risen again, so far that Kenji has to tilt his chin up towards the top of the cave to speak. "Amaya," he says. "You should go."

"No!" I say. "I can do it!"

I dive down again, bubbles rushing from my lips as I strain to free Kenji's foot from the stubborn rocks.

The next time I come to the surface, the top of my head grazes the top the cave. Kenji's head is now totally below water.

"No!" I cry, wrenching at his collar. I can feel him touch my arm lightly. He's still conscious. Drowning, but still conscious.

"Kenji!" I shout in desperation, like the sheer power of my voice can draw him forward to the surface but I know it can't. He's stuck.

I take a giant breath and dunk my head underwater, meeting Kenji's lips with mine to give him air. His lips are freezing cold. I've been waiting for what resembles this moment for so long, but not like this. Never like this.

Kenji takes what little air I can provide and I have to take another deep breath before diving down again and pulling at the rocks with all my might. I feel the slightest bit of movement, but I'm almost out of air. As I attempt to rise to the surface one more time, a hand wraps itself around my wrist.

From below me.

I scream, but the only thing that escapes my lips are bubbles.