Free Pressure by Brian Keene Page B

something new, something she hadn’t experienced on the dive with Peter. Or, if she had, she no longer remembered it, overcome as she had been by the other events from that fateful excursion.
    Kicking hard, she swam out to the side of the chasm, above and to the right of Paolo. Yes, she was certain the cold was radiating from the chasm. It was easy to imagine it as an almost physical thing. She thought about the horseshoe crab Paolo had recovered—frozen solid. Curious, she pulled a torch from her belt, and dropped it downward.
    Her lips began to tingle again, but this time, the sensation was much stronger, and the numbness occurred more rapidly. The water temperature continued to fall, along with the torch. Alarmed, Carrie watched the light descend. It seemed to slow, as the numbness crept into her cheeks and nose. The torch twisted and turned, and she had a flash of memory—her and her sister catching fireflies one summer and putting them in a mason jar with tin foil over the top. It had been a magical night. Their parents had let them stay up late, and they’d danced around in the backyard, laughing with delight, chasing after the diminutive and fleeting lights as they flickered from one blade of grass to another. They had caught them carefully, mindful of not squishing the fragile creatures. As the moon rose higher, and the evening grew darker, they had pretended the insects were fairies, just like Tinker Bell in Peter Pan. Later, they had poked tiny holes in the tin foil with a toothpick, and put the fireflies on the nightstand between their beds. All night long, they’d slept in the soft green glow emanating from the jar …
    Carrie suddenly came back to herself, wondering just how long she’d been daydreaming.
    What the hell is wrong with me?
    This wasn’t like her at all. This was the type of thing that got a diver killed. And why did Paolo seem oblivious to what was occurring? He was supposed to be her dive partner. He should have noticed her state. And surely, he could feel the temperature plunging? It was all around them now.
    Her lungs ached. She was nearing her limits. She needed to start ascending now.
    Panicked and disoriented, she focused instead on the spiraling light of the falling torch, just as something hiding in the darkness snatched it from the water. She couldn’t tell what—the water was filled with too much debris—but she caught a glimpse of something spindly and knobby and segmented. Whatever it was, the thing broke the torch into pieces, extinguishing the glow. Then, the creature moved toward them.
    Carrie felt the water shift as a massive, dark form glided from the trench. This must be it, this is what she saw with Peter. It was much closer than it had been on that previous dive. Then, it had been far away, a shadow amongst the other shadows in the trench. Now it was emerging. Indeed, it didn’t seem to stop emerging. Like a long train, coming out of a tunnel, more and more of it appeared, flowing from the crevice. Terrified, she glanced at her partner. Paolo’s attention was still focused on the coral, and he seemed unaware of the danger surging toward them.
    With little air left in her lungs, she darted toward Paolo and caught his attention. He smiled as she approached, holding up one hand and giving her the okay symbol. Carrie grabbed his arm and pulled hard, kicking for the surface. Offering no resistance, Paolo immediately followed her.
    Carrie couldn’t see much beyond the light of their torches, and the dim hue of the sun far above—indeed, the surface had never seemed farther away than it did now. But despite the engulfing shadows, she had a sense of something aggressively pursuing them, pushing both water and cold in front of it like a wall as it ascended. Paolo must have felt it too, because he suddenly paused and turned. Then, he lit a torch and dropped it toward their pursuer. As they watched, the shadows seemed to snap the