Eyes of the Sea

Chapter 12

Water surrounded me as I squeezed my eyes shut. The pressure on my chest was almost unbearable, and for a moment, I felt like my eyes were going to pop out. My lungs hurt, desperately needing air. My heart raced. Aren't I supposed to be able to breathe underwater? Just as that thought passed through my mind, a burst of air filled my lungs, and I subconsciously smiled.

A laugh of relief escaped me and a hand grabbed mine. I opened my eyes, and found out that I could see underwater too. Coral was beside me, with Heather right beside her, gesturing for me to follow her.

I looked around, and my breath caught in my throat. We were in a village of some sort. Sea fish of all kinds were swimming about. I saw schools of fish, dolphins, and a lot of seaweed. What surprised me most was the civilization.

Houses built out of colourful stones and pearls, benches weaved together by seaweed, and a tall building at the edge of the village. It looked brooding and dark; a sharp contrast to the bright happy mood of where I was.

I was mesmerized by what I saw. It was hard to drag my eyes from the scenery back to Heather and Coral. Wait, how is Heather breathing? Frantically, I swam to Heather and saw that she was in an air bubble. Coral must've made it for her.

The sight of my little sister in a bubble looked so ridiculous that I couldn't stop laughing. I was giddy with this new exploration. Until I noticed Will floating in the water near us. He looked unconscious, as he didn't have an air bubble around him.

I quickly swam over to him, and felt his pulse. It was faint, but at least it was there. I didn't know how Coral made the air bubble, so I let instinct take over.

I took a deep breath of air, and slowly exhaled it, but this time it was different. As I exhaled, an air bubble started to form. It took a couple of deep breaths, but eventually, the air bubble was big enough to surround Will. I pushed the bubble to him, and it went around him.

Within a few seconds, he started to cough and wake up. His eyes opened in shock, and he looked around, confused.

"What happened?" He asked, his voice slightly softened from the bubble.

"You must've jumped in after us, Will. Don't worry, you're safe now." I wasn't too mad at him for jumping in after us, but I was worried. What were we going to do with him now?

"Were you following us?" An angry voice demanded. Coral came up from behind me, her eyes glaring at Will. Heather stayed behind a few paces and watched.

Will's eyes widened at Coral's aggressiveness. He backed up to the edge of the bubble, and gulped. "Y-yeah," he stammered.

Coral looked like she was considering popping his bubble and letting him find his own way out, until I stopped her. "Well, here's here now. There's nothing we can do about it." I said reasonably.

"Well, there is something..." I didn't like the glint in her eye, so I changed the topic.

"What now?" We were here, inside the sea. I looked up, expecting to see the surface not too far ahead, but instead, there was only more blue. It was like we were in a totally different world, which I guess we were.

Heather swam towards us and pointed at Will. "Is this the boy you were talking about, Hazel?" I was going to punch her arm for saying such a stupid thing, but I didn't want to pop her bubble. I was embarrassed but not that mad.

I felt my cheeks go red and I nodded. "Anyways, Coral, answer the question. How do we get the key from here?"

"What key?" Will interrupted. He looked like a lost, scared puppy, and I felt slightly frustrated that we would have to fill him in on everything that happened so far.

"I'll tell you later," I groaned. "Now everyone stop talking and let Coral speak!"

She glared at Will, and rolled her eyes before looking back at me. "Right now, we're at the Centre. There's no distinct location where this is, but everything ends up here one way or another. We're lucky we came here on our first try."

"Wait, but you said to imagine my mother, and it'll bring us to her," I asked. "So is she here?" Frantically, I looked around, trying to see if my mother would be here, but I only saw fish.

"Not exactly. Since we were brought to this place, that means that she was either here before, or will be here soon. That goes for Cain and his henchmen too."

"So we just have to wait and see if Cain's henchmen come and then get the key?" Heather asked, already trying to explore this new world she was in.

"That's right. Let's spend a couple of hours exploring the Centre and getting a new feel of this place." Coral suggested.

"Let's split into pairs, then," I said. Instantly, Heather sprang beside me in her little bubble.

"I'm with Hazel!" She called. Will and Coral looked at each other, and they both started to protest."

"No way, why am I with-"

"I'm with the pipsqueak? Not happening-"

"Fine!" I shouted, interrupting them. "Will, come with me. Heather, go with Coral. Meet back here when-"

"When the clock strikes six." Coral finished. That means we would have... thirty minutes? Coral saw the confused look on my face, and explained. "Time runs differently in the sea. We actually have around four hours."

I looked around at our group. Coral was waiting to answer any questions. Heather was anxious to explore. Will was just happy not to be teamed up with Coral, and me? I guess I was just worried about what we got ourselves into.

Stop stressing, Hazel. Just relax for a few hours. I gave in to reason, and took a deep breath.

"No more questions?" Coral said, raising an eyebrow. "Good, because there's one more thing I need to tell you. You may be wondering why you only see fish and not any daughters of the sea. That's because most of them went into hiding. Why, you might ask?"

She paused for a moment and we all faced her, even Will, and awaited what she was going to say.

"Let's just say, watch out for the hunters."

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