Ari and Zac

Chapter 4: Drowning

Chapter 4: Drowning

At the flash of movement, Ari turned. She cleared the swath of hair from her face, and her eyes landed on the boy who had entered the viewing chamber. Their eyes met through the plate glass window of the aquarium—and just like that, Ari forgot all about the fact that she needed oxygen. She'd forgotten how to breathe altogether.

Who was he? Not a local. Not anyone she'd ever laid eyes on before. She would never have forgotten a face like that.

His body was all wrong though. No manly shoulders and chiseled pecs. More like the thin, gangly frame of a teenage boy who hasn't yet finished growing. But the body didn't really matter. It was the face that made her stare.

She'd seen that face a million times before. She recognized it instantly, as improbable as it seemed. She'd spent her entire childhood gazing at it. She used to dream about that very face at night when she was younger—before she'd given up on that particular dream.

Blue eyes. Square jaw. Dark hair, a touch too long, with a thick cowlick swept across his brow. Lips plump and kissable, but yet completely flesh-tone. Not even a hint a color, the way they blended into the rest of his face. Did lips like that actually exist in real life?

A ghost of a smile crossed his face, and she saw the little creases that bracketed his mouth—creases she knew would be there, even before they appeared. She knew every inch of that face. Every angle. She'd made a slow and careful study, many times.

The Little Mermaid's prince? Impossible... And yet there he stood, with the face that graced the pages of her favorite illustrated storybook, fully wrought in flesh and blood.

Ari drifted closer to the window. She saw him take a half step in her direction, his eyes never leaving hers. It was Ari who broke the moment first. She sensed the change in atmosphere—the menacing presence that had entered the room behind him.

Her gaze flicked in the direction of the emergency exit door. A man had propped it open and stood in the rectangle of sunlight that poured in from outside. Ari couldn't make out his features against the glare. She could only see his dark shape in silhouette, with his long shadow stretching clear across the room. He stood still, feet planted firmly on the floor with his arms crossed over his chest. A second man emerged from the main gallery entrance—the only other way in or out.

The boy's eyes followed hers. She saw the change in his face. He didn't need to say a word for her to understand the thoughts racing through his head.

Panic.

Danger.

Life or death.

This boy was no tourist taking in the sights. And neither were those men.

But who were they? The boy was around her own age, but the men chasing him definitely weren't teenagers. The one she could see clearly looked to be in his 30s, dressed in brightly colored neoprene with a black baseball cap pulled down over his eyes. He had a smart-ring on his finger, and he lifted it to his mouth to mutter a few terse words. Some kind of security guards? But Ari knew they didn't work for any of her father's businesses along the boardwalk.

Could they be undercover cops? Maybe the boy was about to be arrested...but for what? What did he do?

The men were close behind him now. She heard the distorted sound of their voices calling out:

"Hey! You there!"

The boy froze in place. He knew that he was trapped. He didn't make a sound, but his mouth moved. He reached out in her direction, extending his left hand—or what should have been his left hand. The cuff of his long-sleeve cotton shirt flapped emptily on the end of his waving arm.

Ari only half-registered the sight of it. Her eyes were fixed on his face. He was mouthing something. Soundless words, meant only for her.

Help me.

Then his eyes squeezed shut, braced for impact. His colorless mouth went slack. He looked like he could sense the solid ground giving way beneath his feet. Like he was sinking, Ari thought. Like he was drowning, right before her eyes. Which was absurd, of course, since she was the one underwater. She was the one who still hadn't taken a breath for nearly four minutes now...

Ari realized that she didn't care who he was or what he'd done wrong. He was in trouble. He was asking for her help. This boy with the face that she'd been waiting her whole life to see—and he was about to be dragged away by some menacing force, some overpowering current that she didn't understand.

She needed to take action.

With a flick of her tail, Ari spun away and darted toward the tower of rocks in the far corner of the tank. The boy's expression had brought a specific page from the story into her head. She could see it now in her mind's eye: The moment when the prince needed rescuing, when he fell overboard from his ship, and the Little Mermaid had to save him before he tumbled to the bottom of the sea. 

A plan had begun to take shape. Maybe she could still save him. He could slip away to safety, if only she could create some kind of diversion.

She'd reached the scuba tank now, concealed from public view behind the rocks. She filled her screaming lungs with a deep breath of precious oxygen. All the while, she squinted at the tank, as her mind raced back over the scuba safety lectures that she'd heard a thousand times from the instructors in her father's dive shop.

"Ladies and gentlemen, a scuba tank is not a toy. It's a potentially lethal weapon. The air inside this tank has been pressurized to 3000 psi, which is approximately 120 times greater than the typical ambient air pressure at sea level. That means the canister you're strapping to your back is essentially a loaded torpedo. If the air inside were released in a single rush, the explosion would be strong enough to...."

Ari's eyes traced down the length of the air-hose to the point where it met the rusted metal cylinder. A bubble was forming at the junction point. She'd been noticing that leak for days now. The O-ring that normally acted as a seal was starting to corrode. One hard knock would jar it loose.

And then what? What would happen if she did what she was thinking? Would the rush of escaping air really be as forceful as the dive instructors said? Would it be dramatic enough to distract the attention of everyone within eyeshot?

It would probably look like a big swarm of churning bubbles, Ari thought. Not like an actual explosion. Not like gunpowder going off.

Would it? Would it be forceful enough to do bodily harm? Ari clenched her fists, steeling her nerves. Those safety lectures were always full of scare tactics. They were mostly intended to keep people from damaging the equipment.

In any case, she didn't have time to think of a better plan. She only had a split second to act, before that boy would be dead in the water. She had to do something now. The Little Mermaid didn't pause to consider the consequences when she saw her handsome prince drifting toward the bottom. She'd acted on pure instinct to save him despite any danger it might pose to herself.

Ari nodded firmly. She picked up a loose piece of sandstone—the biggest rock she could find within arm's reach—and hoisted it overhead.

Maybe it wouldn't work... Maybe she wasn't strong enough to do any real damage... Maybe all those stupid lectures were a big exaggeration...

Only one way to find out.

With a final burst of courage, Ari brought the jagged rock down hard. She smashed it against the leaky valve with every ounce of strength that she possessed.