sink
verb. go down below the surface of something, especially of a liquid; become submerged.
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They woke up with the sunrise the next morning. Lee waited with John B and Kiara while JJ and Pope went to get the Heywards' boat, which was significantly more substantial than the HMS Pogue. The sky was still slightly ominous and Pope encouraged them to wait a few more days to use the drone camera in hopes that the weather would improve, but the majority had ruled against him. In Lee's professional opinion, waiting left too much risk that the weather would only get worse or, with their luck, that someone else would get to the Royal Merchant before them.
By the time the sun was reaching over the horizon, Pope and JJ had arrived to pick up their friends from John B's dock and the group was soon cruising towards the south end of the island. Lee wasn't familiar with the area that they were heading to, but she had heard several rumors that there were nasty shoals near the island's southern tip. She crossed her fingers that the rumors weren't true—if they ended up needing to navigate shoals in bad weather, they were doomed.
"All right, JJ," John B called from the back of the boat. "Pin it here."
JJ nodded from inside of the cockpit. "Roger that! X marks the spot." He slowed the boat, bringing it to idle in the water.
Lee walked towards the stern of the boat, unsure what John B and Pope needed her to do but prepared to help in any way. She patted Kiara's shoulder as she came up next to her friend, smiling encouragingly when Kiara gave her an uneasy frown.
"All right, ladies and gentlemen," John B said, picking up the camera as Pope watched warily. "To going full Kook," he continued, one eyebrow raised, as he lowered the camera into the water.
John B passed the tether off to Kiara, who gestured for Lee to help her unravel it into the water.
"I don't wanna be holding this thing alone if the weather gets bad," Kiara explained.
Lee nodded in agreement, gently grabbing onto the tether as Kiara began to lower the camera steadily.
"All right, JJ, we're right over it," John B called to the cockpit. "Ten seconds northwest."
JJ yelled back in confirmation, rotating the boat just slightly as they tried to maintain their position.
"A hundred feet!" Lee said as she and Kiara passed the first red marker on the tether. "What's it look like, Pope?"
Pope hummed, frowning at the screen before answering. "Uh, some fish."
Lee raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. When Pope suddenly gasped a moment later, her grip tightened on the tether and she looked up towards Pope.
"What?" she asked, her hands trembling with adrenaline.
"Uh, nothing. I just thought I saw—" Pope started to explain.
"Don't do that to me man!" JJ called from inside the cockpit, glaring at Pope over his shoulder.
Lee sighed. "Do you guys want to hear the speech?" she asked, continuing to thread the tether through her hands alongside Kiara.
"No!" her friends chorused in response.
She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "You people have no taste."
"To quote The Hobbit," Pope said, "'Down, down, to Goblin Town. Down, down, you go, my lad.'"
Lee looked between her other friends in annoyance. "He's allowed to nerd out and quote The Hobbit but I'm not allowed to perform a speech from Independence Day, the greatest movie of all time?"
John B glanced at Lee skeptically. "I thought that Cars was your favorite movie," he said, frowning in confusion.
"What? No," Lee responded, slightly taken aback, "Cars is a cinematic masterpiece, but it's not my favorite movie. Neither is Independence Day. Inception is."
JJ turned to eye Lee from the cockpit. "Since when do you like Inception?"
Lee shrugged. "Since I fell in love with Leonardo DiCaprio."
The answer seemed to satisfy her friends, who each shrugged and went back to their respective duties on the boat. Lee supposed that their confusion over her favorite movie was warranted, but Cars? It seemed like an insult.
She and Kiara continued to lower the camera, and soon they had reached four hundred feet. Kiara had come up with the idea to mark their footage count in chalk on the side of the boat, just in case they forgot. Thunder rumbled in the distance and Lee felt the tether pulling slightly sternward in her hand.
"The tide's turning!" Kiara called out, struggling with Lee to keep the tether from moving too much.
"Hey, JJ?" John B said, turning to the cockpit. "Ten seconds easy. South-southeast."
JJ nodded. "Copy that!"
Having JJ steer the boat was the easiest decision the group had made so far in looking for the Royal Merchant—he was certainly the best boater of the group and his innate sense of direction was far superior to that of most people. Not letting Lee hangout in the cockpit was the second easiest decision, because she was the most skilled when it came to distracting her friends—especially JJ.
The boat turned beneath them and the tug on the tether eased as Kiara and Lee continued feeding it into the dark water. Lee glanced at the sky, which was quickly growing darker, as another clap of thunder echoed across the water.
"JJ, twenty seconds mid-speed, all right? South," John B commanded.
"Copy that!" JJ replied.
John B working as navigator had been another simple decision. He was best able to read maps and direct a boat through troubled waters. When Lee had volunteered, Pope and Kiara had both laughed—she could read maps fine, but she struggled to navigate waters that she didn't visit very often. It was one of many reasons that she wasn't allowed to captain the HMS Pogue anymore, although the primary cause for that ban was her affinity for racing other boats around the marsh.
Lee tugged harshly at the tether as it veered towards the stern of the boat. She and Kiara were struggling to control the direction that it headed because of the quickly changing tides.
"I'm gonna try to keep the tether out of the prop!" Lee said to Kiara, keeping a firm grasp on the tether as she walked closer to the stern.
She pulled tightly on the tether, forcing it to straighten out beneath her instead of continuing to travel backwards towards the propeller.
John B glanced at Lee nervously before looking at JJ again. "JJ, keep going!"
"John B, is that good?" JJ shouted back.
John B responded affirmatively, holding up a hand for JJ to stop.
"Seven hundred feet!" Kiara called.
Lee clenched her teeth as the tether pulled harshly at her hands again. She cursed as it continued to travel sternward, her muscles tight as she leaned back to control its direction. Thunder crashed in the distance and Lee flinched. Rough weather and potential shoals? Not her ideal combination. Lee glanced at the weathervane on the roof of the cockpit and saw it spinning wildly, indicating the speed of the wind. She grimaced, focusing back on the tether as the waves beneath the boat grew larger.
"JJ, hold it steady!" John B called, looking nervously at the weathervane as it sped up.
"Nine hundred!" Kiara shouted, her voice rising as the wind increased.
A wave crashed against the back of the boat and Lee stumbled slightly before grabbing onto the edge to steady herself. She looked over the edge into the dark water, unable to see more than a few feet deep. Kiara continued calling out footage markers as she lowered the camera and Lee struggled to keep the tether away from the propeller.
"JJ, we'll turtle in this storm," John B said, watching as waves continued crashing into the boat. "Crank it north by northwest! Ten seconds!"
Lee could see JJ struggling at the helm, the storm taking its toll on their ability to control the boat. The tether pulled sharply on Lee's hands and she shouted in alarm. "There's too much current!" she called out, leaning back so that the tether wouldn't pull her overboard.
"We're gonna lose it!" Kiara said desperately, helping Lee to pull back on the tether.
Thunder rumbled overhead as John B shouted, "South, southwest, JJ! Hard!"
Lee cursed as the tether stayed tight in her hands. She would definitely have calluses after this.
"Half speed," John B said, watching Lee warily. "Steady at this bearing, JJ!"
The boat straightened out slightly and Lee felt some momentary relief in her arms. She was breathing heavily, the tether was pushing her muscles to their limits.
"Pope, please tell me you see something!" Lee pleaded, glancing over her shoulder as the tether began to tug at her hands again.
"Come on, man," John B encouraged. "What do you see?"
Pope hesitated, shaking his head sadly. "Nothin'. A whole lot of nothin'."
John B groaned, "You should be right above it, brother."
Lee hissed as a wave hit the side of the boat and splashed into her face.
"Nine-sixty!" Kiara called out.
The camera was more than deep enough, if Pope's calculations that the wreck would be at 900 feet were correct. Lee didn't point this out, not feeling like it was the right time.
"Nine-seventy!"
The tether ran quickly through Lee's hands as Kiara sped up her unrolling, burning the skin on her palms. She struggled to keep it far from the propeller but didn't complain about the increased speed, wanting to find the gold and get out of the storm as quickly as possible.
"Nine-eighty!" Kiara called.
"I'm at the bottom!" Pope said in excitement.
Lee tightened her hold on the tether, refusing to let anymore slip through her fingers.
"Steady here, JJ!" John B shouted. "Quarter speed, all right?"
Lee turned to John B and Pope, her hands gripping the tether tightly as she stared at the boys expectantly. "Do you see anything?" she asked.
"You should be seeing something," John B said desperately, squinting at the screen as he tried to make out any shapes.
Pope hummed in exasperation. "I know, I know! Wait, wait," he suddenly said, his eyes widening at the screen.
Lee stared at her friends expectantly, not wanting to leave her hold on the tether for fear that it would travel back towards the propeller. "What?" she demanded, her eyes begging for any information. "What do you see?"
"See anything?" JJ called from the cockpit, his blue eyes flashing wildly.
John B smiled softly. "It's the Royal Merchant."
Lee's eyes widened. "Are you serious?" she said hesitantly, not allowing herself to get prematurely excited and then be disappointed.
Kiara nodded at Lee, a beam breaking out across her face. "He's serious," Kiara confirmed, looking back at the screen with John B and Pope.
A grin split across Lee's face, ear-to-ear. She exhaled in delight, turning back to the water and laughing softly. She waited, quiet excitement building in her chest as Pope and John B steered the drone through the wreck once, twice, three times. Each time through seemed more disappointing then the last as they struggled to find any signs of gold on the camera or the metal detector.
"It's not there," John B suddenly sighed.
Lee turned around, her eyes flashing a menacing steely blue. "What do you mean 'it's not there'?" she asked.
John B grimaced under her glare, not used to seeing the girl so dangerous. "Look, just pull the drone up," he said, hanging his head in defeat.
Thunder rumbled overhead and it matched the confusion in Lee's heart. She had gone from total elation in one moment to utter desolation in the next. It was a rollercoaster. She cursed, turning back towards the sea and slowly beginning to pull the tether up.
"We can do another pass," Pope suggested, watching as John B marched around the deck in frustration. "Recharge the battery! We can go back down!"
"We've been through it three times," JJ called, his voice disappointed. "There's nothing there."
Kiara turned to JJ angrily. "Shut up!" she yelled.
"What? It's true!" JJ defended.
"The gold could be buried!" Kiara argued, the wind whipping through her brown locks. "We don't know!"
John B shook his head in frustration as he slammed his hands down on the edge of the boat by Lee. "If it was there, it would've been found on the metal detector, okay?" He looked across the water.
"Those square groupers died for this gold," Lee mumbled, mostly to herself although she knew her friends were listening in. "It has to be real."
"Somebody beat us to it," John B suggested, running a hand through his hair in frustration.
"Or it was never there," JJ muttered angrily.
Lee and Kiara continued reeling the tether back in as JJ kept the boat idling, allowing John B to brood in the corner over his disappointment.
Kiara called out, "a hundred feet!" as she and Lee continued to pull the camera back up.
Lee suddenly felt the tether resisting in her hands. The tether wouldn't budge. She pulled sharply, leaning back to use her full bodyweight, but she couldn't move it.
"It's stuck on something!" she shouted to her friends. Pope and John B came to where she was standing, each unsuccessfully attempting to pull the tether up.
John B cursed. Lee sighed in frustration, her hands fisting in her hair as her friends began to argue about what to do. Thunder rumbled overhead and she looked up to see dark clouds forming just above them. Their time was running out. She glanced down into the dark water, ignoring the heated debate happening between her friends as an idea formed in her head. She quickly whipped off her shirt and shorts, getting ready to dive one more time.
"What are you doing?" Pope asked, calling his friends' attention to Lee.
She rolled her shoulders, tossing her clothes onto the deck as she hopped up onto the edge of the boat. Her knees bent under her, allowing her to keep her balance as the boat rocked on the waves.
"Look," Lee explained, running a hand through her hair in frustration, "Someone's gotta get the tether unhooked before the storm gets bad. I can—"
A large wave hit the side of the boat and Lee was cut off as she lost her balance. She fell backwards off of the boat, hitting the water in a splash that stung the skin on her back. Blinking quickly under the water, she kicked to the surface. At the edge of the boat, Lee made eye contact with her friends and she saluted them before diving back under, looking for the tether. Seeing the yellow line shimmering under the waves, Lee kicked over to it, trying to spot what it was stuck on. Noticing it latched around the rudder, she swam to the surface.
"It's on the rudder!" she called to her friends, wiping water from her eyes. The waves pushed at her roughly and it took a lot of her concentration to keep from being carried away from the boat. "I'm gonna undo it, just... please do not turn the boat while I'm down there?" she said, looking at JJ pleadingly.
Her friends all nodded in understanding, watching silently as Lee ducked back into the water.
Her hands glided along the bottom of the boat as she kicked to resist the currents that wanted to pull her in every direction. Reaching the rudder, she latched onto the tether and tugged on it twice to no avail. Mentally cursing as her lungs began to burn, Lee put her feet on either side of the rudder to brace herself as she pulled sharply on the tether. It came free and she swam out from under the boat, holding the tether up victoriously. Lee surfaced, grinning at her friends as she showed them the tether.
"Told you I could—" she was cut off by a large wave crashing over her head, causing her to release the tether as she was thrown under the water without a chance to catch a breath.
Bubbles foamed around her and she struggled to find the surface as her lungs ached. Recognizing the bottom of the boat, Lee kicked up. She surfaced to hear her friends shouting at her fearfully. Glancing up, another wave pushed her back under.
Lee spun through the water dizzily, struggling to orient herself to up and down as wave after wave began crashing down on her. It seemed that no matter which direction she kicked, she was wrong. The current pulled her around swiftly, like a cow in a tornado. Her lungs ached, begging her to reach the surface. She wanted to breathe so badly but she couldn't—she couldn't.
A small part of Lee had always wondered what it felt like to drown, and she supposed that this must be it. Desperately trying to swim, being pulled in every direction, struggling to not breathe. Her vision darkened around the edges as she fell deeper and deeper through the water. She let her arms and legs go limp, not knowing where to swim even if she had the strength to.
A voice seemed to echo through the water to her.
Lee. Lena.
She looked around but everything was fuzzy. Everything was dark.
Lena, it's me.
She knew the voice—it was her father's. He had been there when she was born and she had been there when he died. It was only fitting that he be there when she died, Lee supposed.
Lee, swim. Swim, honeybee.
Every bone in Lee's body was heavy. No part of her wanted to swim. Her lungs were being crushed by water, her vision was going dark without oxygen.
Swim, Lee. You can do this.
Kicking forcefully, a last ditch effort to survive, Lee repeated that.
I can do this.
The world blinked in and out of her sight as her legs pumped through the water desperately. She had to survive. Not for her, but for her mom. For her friends. For her dad. She wanted to inhale so badly as the water pushed against her. Her chest felt like it was going to explode. She grabbed at her throat as her lungs began to give in, inhaling the water like it was oxygen.
The water was so heavy in her lungs. It seemed to pull her down even as she saw the surface, even as her fingers grazed the air above. The water begged her to stay, begged her not to leave. Suddenly something was pushing her up, fighting against the way that the water was embracing her, but she was choking as the water filled her lungs because she couldn't stop breathing. Her vision was dark around the edges as a hand reached down from above. She grabbed it—out of instinct or force, she couldn't be sure. The water disappeared as she was pulled up and up and out, onto a solid surface but this was worse somehow.
She couldn't breathe. The water was inside of her, filling her up and she couldn't breathe once she was out of it. She arched her back as a cough came from deep in her ribcage, pushing and pushing on her lungs. And then she was coughing and flipping onto her stomach, water spilling out of her mouth as her lungs thanked her. Oxygen flooded her veins and she collapsed onto the ground, a million voices echoing above her head and then condensing into one as the world around her faded into darkness.
"Carter?"
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Lee woke up to the flicker of bright lights and voices echoing along tile hallways. The room around her was pure white and Lee knew immediately that she was in a hospital. She sat up slowly, noticing her mother asleep in a chair near her hospital bed. A small patch was attached to the skin on her abdomen, connected to the vital signs monitor that was beeping steadily.
"Mom?" Lee said, her voice hoarse.
Her mother sat up quickly and, when her eyes locked on Lee, she materialized at her daughter's bedside.
Lee grunted as her mother's arms wound around her shoulders tightly. She could feel her mother trembling as gentle sobs wracked through her body.
"Lena," her mother whispered, stroking Lee's hair. "Don't you ever scare me like that again!" she scolded, pulling away from Lee and gripping her shoulders.
Lee's eyes widened at her mother's sudden outburst. "I'm sorry—"
"You jumped into the ocean during a storm? Are you crazy? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"
"Mom, I—"
"Not to mention the danger you put your friends in trying to get you back out! Did you know JJ jumped in after you? And John B almost fell overboard trying to pull you back in?"
"Well—"
"You are not going out on the water again!" her mother declared, ending her rant.
"What?" Lee gasped, her mouth falling open. "You can't do that!"
Her mother placed her hands on her hips and Lee shrunk under her glare. "I can and I will! If you're going to throw yourself off of every boat you get on, you simply won't get on any more boats!"
Lee stared at her hospital gown, fiddling with the rough fabric as she avoided her mother's harsh glare. "I'm sorry, mom," she said quietly. "There was something stuck on the boat and I needed to get it off. I wasn't thinking about how dangerous it was." She slowly looked up to her mother's blue eyes, watching them soften as she listened to her daughter. "I'm really, really sorry."
Her mom sighed, sitting lightly on the edge of the hospital bed. "I understand, Lee. I know you'd do anything for your friends." Lee grabbed her mom's hands comfortingly. "And you're not banned from getting on boats."
Lee smiled softly. "Thank you," she said, kissing her mom on the cheek. "I really am sorry for scaring you."
Her mother only rolled her eyes, but before she could reply there was a knock on the door. It cracked open and the voice that echoed through grated against Lee's ears.
"Are you decent?" Ward Cameron asked.
Lee sent her mother a sharp glare. "Cameron?" she whispered in disbelief.
"I had to," her mother hissed. "We can't afford another hospital bill. Be nice."
Ward opened the door further, a sickly sweet smile adorning his face as he stepped inside. "Lee, I'm glad to see that you're all better. Sarah and Rafe will be glad to hear that you're okay."
Lee forced a smile in return. "Yeah, I'm okay," she replied. She almost gagged as he walked further inside, taking a seat near the head of the hospital bed opposite her mother. Maybe I could pass it off as saltwater-related nausea...
"Thank you again, Ward, for your help," her mother said kindly, squeezing Lee's hand as a reminder to suck up a little.
"Yeah, thank you," Lee echoed weakly.
Ward's gray eyes were cool under the fluorescent hospital lights. "Anytime, Laura. You guys are family. All that matters is that Lee is okay."
Another knock sounded from the door and Lee's heart clenched at the idea of having to see Rafe or Sarah.
"Come in," her mother said quickly before noticing Lee's confused look. "Probably the nurse," she explained.
Lee nodded.
It was certainly a surprise when Sheriff Peterkin walked in, her brown eyes immediately focusing on Lee. Lee's eyes widened and she crossed her arms over her chest, feeling exposed in the hospital gown. The Sheriff approached the foot of Lee's bed, her face serious.
"Lena, it's good to see you awake," the Sheriff commented, her eyes meeting Lee's blue ones. "Ms. Carter, Mr. Cameron," Peterkin continued, greeting the adults in the room. Lee frowned as she noticed Ward sending the Sheriff a soft smile.
Lee felt frozen under the Sheriff's stare. She was nervous about why the Sheriff was visiting her. Had they found out about Topper's boat somehow? Had Rafe told the Sheriff about her carrot attack? Was this about breaking into the cemetery? The possibilities were almost endless, but Lee couldn't see her conversation with the Sheriff ending well.
"I need to ask you a few questions for an ongoing investigation we have," Peterkin explained, her voice steely.
Lee's mother frowned. "Sheriff, she just woke up—"
"It's fine, mom," Lee said, cutting her mother off. "I can answer some questions." Anything to get her away from Ward Cameron.
The Sheriff smiled coolly. "I can assure you that your daughter isn't in any trouble, Laura," she said. "Lena, if you want to change into some clothes, there's a room down the hall where we can speak."
Lee nodded. The Sheriff left the room and, after a moment's hesitation, Lee's mother followed the Sheriff out. After a nurse had come in to check Lee's vital signs, she removed the patch from Lee's hip and left so that Lee could change. There was a stack of clean clothes on a chair and Lee quickly slid into them, appreciating their softness in contrast to the scratchy hospital gown. JJ's hoodie was there, too, and Lee wondered if he had left it for her intentionally or accidentally.
She exited the hospital room, steeling herself. She could lie if she had to. Down the hall, the Sheriff beckoned to her.
"We'll be right in here, Lena," she said.
Lee nodded, stepping into the room. It was completely bare aside from two hospital chairs on either side of a white table. The Sheriff gestured for her to sit down in one of the chairs and Lee did, forcing herself to fold her hands in her lap instead of fidgeting with the ring hanging around her neck. Her palms were sweaty and her heart was beginning to beat nervously in her chest, but Lee kept her facial expression neutral as the Sheriff sat down across from her.
Peterkin picked up a file folder, shuffling through a few papers before selecting one and pulling it out. Looking at the image as Peterkin placed it in front of her, Lee focused on remaining neutral as she recognized a picture of the Royal Merchant wreck.
"Do you recognize this, Lee?" the Sheriff asked, staring intently at Lee, watching for any glimmer of recognition in Lee's eyes.
Lee shook her head in denial, keeping a straight face. "No, sorry."
The Sheriff raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "It's the wreck of the Royal Merchant. This picture was found in a motel room that Scooter Grubbs was staying in before he died. You're sure that you've never seen it before?"
"I'm sure," Lee said, shrugging in an attempt to seem casual. Fuck, that motel was truly coming back to haunt her.
Peterkin nodded slowly and Lee could tell that she didn't buy the lie, but she said nothing, looking through the folder again. Pulling out another paper, Peterkin placed a new picture on the table. Lee's eyes went wide at what she saw. It was the bodies of the groupers. Their abdomens were torn open, as if someone had sliced them down the middle and let everything spill out. Teeth marks lined their sides and arms—clearly from sharks. Someone had treated the groupers as chum. Lee put a hand over her mouth, trying not to gag as the image replayed in her mind.
"Do you recognize this man?" Peterkin asked, carefully gauging Lee's reaction.
Lee blinked slowly, shaking her head. "No, I don't."
"Are you sure?" the Sheriff pressed, leaning towards Lee.
Lee swallowed, clasping her hands tightly. "Very." She hesitated before asking, "What happened to them?"
Peterkin shrugged casually, raising an eyebrow before flipping the image over. "Not clear. Looks like somebody threw them to the sharks. This kind of thing doesn't happen on accident," she explained. Leaning forward, Peterkin continued, "I need to warn you to not go looking for the Royal Merchant, Lee. This man may have died searching for it. I'd hate to see anything similar happen to you or your friends."
It seemed like a threat, leaving a bitter taste in Lee's mouth. She was frozen, staring at the Sheriff as her mind reeled. Peterkin had just confirmed her fear that whatever was on the Merchant was worth killing for–was worth dying for. If someone had been able to rip apart two men who were armed to the teeth, what would they be able to do to Lee and her friends?
"I think we're done here," the Sheriff said, collecting the papers back into her folder and standing up abruptly. "Thank you for your help, Lena," she continued, opening the door and ushering Lee out into the hall. "I'm glad that you're feeling better. You should go to the Summer Movie Series this evening, if you can. The weather is supposed to be perfect."
Lee nodded, smiling timidly at the Sheriff. She knew that she was still skating on thin ice. "I just might, Sheriff. Thank you."
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Updated 8/17/22. If you see this note and realize this book has been updating as you have been reading, I recommend going back to the beginning to reread the changes. Otherwise, please look at the pinned message on my profile for more information on updates to "The Deep End."