The Colour of Your Aura (Enoch O'Connor)

Chapter 10

We gasped in horror as Emma stripped, walking into the ocean with her lead boots still on. I tried to call her back but Jake shushed me, his eyebrows scrunched together as Emma sunk further and further beneath the calming lapse of the waves.

"Wait for her signal," He said, his eyes flicking across the surface of the water. I knew that Emma's peculiarity would help her breath underwater but I was still on edge.

Bubbles appeared on the surface of the water about fifty meters away from the beach. They bubbled up like a geyser, and we waited eagerly for it to explode. It never did though. After a few seconds, it disappeared.

"She wants us to swim out to where the bubbles appeared," Olive realised and we all started to remove layers. I pulled my dress over my head and shielded my body from everyone else. I never cared for the underclothing that the women wore in the mid-nineties so I still wore modern underwear.

I was almost entirely exposed to immature teenagers. Fantastic.

Jake was the first to walk into the sea, the early morning sun bouncing off his pale skin. Olive followed next, with the little ones trailing behind her. It was then Enoch's turn and he tried to make me go in front of him but I refused.

"What I said at the house still stands. I can see everyone this way and make sure they're safe. Go on," I pushed him forward a bit, avoiding his glare as I took the first steps into the sea after him.

My teeth started chattering the minute I the cold hit me, shivers travelling up my spine. My hands gripped around my body as I tried to ignore the chills. The waves lapped against my calves as I shuffled further and further.

I grabbed Enoch's hand in the fear once the sea level has risen up to my neck and I found it harder and harder to breathe.

"You'll be fine. Don't panic," He whispered to me as my head was submerged. Everyone was swimming in front of me towards the bubbles and I was pulled along, paralysed by the fear that I never knew that I had.

We swam through the bubbles and I took a large gasp of air. I squeaked as a bubble had formed around me head, allowing me to breathe the same as if I was on land. We descended deeper and deeper into the darkness of the sea and I raised an eyebrow when I saw our ride.

It was a boat that had sunk years ago, limpets and barnacles clustered around the exterior of the vessel. Rust decorated the steel and climbed up the riggings and I was wondering how we were going to get this ancient thing to move off the sandbank, let alone travel the whole way to Blackpool.

Jake pulled open the rust coated door, the creaking noise that I had expected was silenced in the vastness of the water. We swam through the small opening, and into what appeared to be an old ball room.

Claire clung onto my leg as skeleton upon skeleton came into view. There were ones that wore caps and ones that wore elaborate gold bracelets. The wooden tables had rags floating off of them, the remains of the tablecloths brushing against our bare skin.

The doors slammed behind us and we whirled around to see Emma grinning at us. She parted her arms as if she was going to swim but it was a signal instead. We all moved out of her way as she took in a deep breath.

A large column of bubbles spewed out of her mouth and we were flung as waves crashed down on us. The bubbles stayed solid as we were pressed to the wall, you room slowly filling up with air.

Jake helped her open the doors for a minute so that the water could filter out and then slammed them, coughing as they could breathe in the then dry room. I gasped lungful after lungful of air, a hand over my chest.