Escape to the Blue

Ripped Away.

I turn over in our soft bed and reach for Yvette but find an empty space where her softly sleeping body usually lies.  She's probably in the kitchen making her usual Monday morning toast, I think to myself.
I crawl out of bed and boil the kettle for my morning cup of coffee before stumbling into the aquariums in my groggy state to feed our pets. The fish swim to the surface of the water and gobble up the krill and homemade flakes I made out of seaweed, creating a ripple on top.
You're lucky, little fishies, you can surface whenever you want without being scared of what they'll do to you.

My mind travels back to the thought of Yvette. I search our house, sticking my head into every room. Still no Yvette.
I usually see her lying beside me almost every time I wake up, if not I'd greet her with a kiss in her studio or the kitchen but I can't find her anywhere.
With a slight pang of worry knotting in my stomach, I check the port room and find it empty apart from the second mini sub we just finished building.
I walk towards it to find a note.
Hey Max, I've just gone to investigate some noises I heard in the Blue, I'll be back by 9am to help you with the crops.
With the utmost love, Yvette.

I check my watch, 9:47. It's very unlike her to be late to anything but she's probably found another beautiful cove to photograph for her inspiration notes.
Well, time to get started on the farming and wait for her to come back

. . .

10:30, still no sign of her. I've had to do all the housework on my own which makes it twice as hard.
She definitely owes me for this one.
With nothing left to do and boredom setting in, I open my laptop to work on one of the books I've started.
A little red flash catches my eye in the top corner of the screen with a message from Yvette.
Stuck in seaweed and can't access the blades to cut them off, please come get me. Sorry to be a pain.
Thank you!

Sent 32 minutes ago, shoot. Hold on, my love, I'll come get you.

. . .

After suiting up in my boating gear, I pull the vessel into the water and slide in, leaving the empty room behind me as I drift away in the underwater currents.
I've located her pods' coordinates and pinpointed where she is on a map, thank god she taught me how to read one. My pod settles into autopilot and I check for any messages.
Hey you, are you coming to get me? Sorry if you were sleeping haha.
I send a quick reply telling her not to worry and that I'm on my way when a huge shadow is cast over the pod. I look up to see a long tentacle-like shape, only there's no suction pads.
It slithers away just as fast as it appeared, leaving it too late to snap a picture.
Damn, Yvette would've loved to see that creature, I think to myself.

She absolutely loves discovering new species and, if they're small enough and safe for the other wildlife at home, she'll take a couple of rejected eggs or live offspring and raise them in a new aquarium. We decided that human kids weren't an option for us because of where we live and our life situations so we settled for the creatures down below that were the ugly ducklings of their families, doomed to be forgotten and neglected.  It fills my heart with pride when I watch the small eggs grow into beautiful animals. Sharks, sting-rays, all sorts of tropical fish, you name it, we've raised it.  We can only take home small eggs though, anything bigger and we could end up as their next meal since we raise them to be released into the places they truly belong.  We accidentally brought home a geilor egg mistaking it for a different fish and it took off my left pinky by the time it was three months old.

Geilors are beautiful creatures but they sure are dangerous if you're not careful. Their razor sharp teeth can cut through all the protective clothing we have except for our iron gloves. Not to mention the scales they leave behind contain enough toxins to knock out most species of whale.  We've certainly learned to pick our rejected eggs carefully, that's for sure.

My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of a soft cry coming from the water in front of me. I can't pinpoint what animal makes that noise, I've never heard anything like it before. I lean forward and peer into the abyss when the tentacle shape zips across the windows view and knocks the pod, tipping it and causing me to jump back in fright.
What the hell is that thing? It looks like an eel but four hundred times bigger than it should be!

I stand at the ready with the camera but the beast of a thing doesn't return.
What Yvette wouldn't give to see it, even if only on a still screen.
Erring on the side of caution, I activate the tiny stun spikes that cover majority of the outside of the pod. The gentle tranquilliser we have in the spikes will give us a chance to get away from danger whilst keeping the wildlife safe and free of harm.

Another half hour passes and my messages beep with another text.
Be careful, Maxwell. There's something down here we haven't seen before.
Hmm, I wonder if she's met the beast too.

. . .

I finally reach Yvette's coordinates and start searching through the seaweed when another huge shadow is cast upon the sea floor.
The eel is back and it thrusts itself into the pods walls, splintering its skin with the tranquil spikes.
For a few seconds it spasms amongst the seaweed before slithering off into the depths. How did the tranquillisers not work?  They've been crafted to knock out the biggest of animals!
My messages signal again with a text from Yvette telling me to look up.
I turn towards the giant rock wall and spot her waving through the glass of her mini sub and crank the engine to float up towards it.
Her pod is lodged between pieces of coral and sea stones that make it impossible to get it out. She holds up a piece of paper with it was the eel scrawled over it.

Well that certainly explains how she got into this predicament, now to get her out of it.
Hang on tight, I mouth through the window panes as I hook her pod up with mine and try to accelerate. It's no use, it won't budge whatsoever.

I scribble a note back, you'll have to come to mine.
She nods and strips off to shimmy into her heated bodysuit and scuba harness, ready to swim over to me. Just as she reaches for the handle of her pod door, the eel lashes its tail and thumps the pod free before curling the thin end around Yvette's propellers, yanking her deeper and deeper into the darkness.  I can just see the look of terror in her eyes as she's dragged further down.

Panic fills my chest as I desperately chase after it before a second eel appears and thrashes me against the sea floor, pinning my pod down. I smack the window and feel the vibrations of her screams through the glass.

My throat is too tight to make a noise as I helplessly watch the love of my life being ripped away from me.