"This feels amazing." Velori announced to the sun as she reached for her drink on the poolside table.
The words hung in the warm Colorado air as she sipped on her pink lemonade. The ice caused condensation to curl over her fingers.
It had warmed up almost overnight. The sun chasing away the white gloom that had settled over her home for months. When she walked out onto the balcony that morning and saw the gardeners trimming the rose bushes, she dashed back inside and donned her favorite white bikini.
Gently, she placed the tall glass back on its coaster. With a soft sigh, she lifted her already sun-kissed face back up to the warm rays. She stretched back, in the white and blue lounger, letting the rays reach as much of her as they could.
Cell phone on silent and all business forgotten this would be a day she would claim for herself.
No talk of numbers or worry over when the next meeting was going to be, with people who liked the sound of their own voices.
Maybe she'd spend some quality time with her dad. She couldn't remember the last time they'd had an outing. Thinking about it now was putting an ache in her heart.
"Nope." Her lips tightened and she shook her head. "Today, it's just you, me, and my lemonade." She spoke to the sun again.
"And maybe a little of you too." Her eyes fell on the cool blue waters a few feet in front of her. She could just barely make out the smell of chlorine in the air.
Reaching over, she grabbed her folded white towel and slid her legs off the lounge chair. Rubbing her fingers through its soft fluff, she stood and walked over to the edge.
"Mmmmm. Yea, I think I will." Dropping to a crouch, she placed the towel at the edge and dipped her fingers in the water. It was still chilled from winter but had started to warm up thanks to the sun and the heater attached to it.
Standing, she meandered back over to her lemonade for another long drag on its sweet tanginess.
She could imagine how she must look to the house staff. All prim and proper, sipping juice by the pool. With her long mahogany hair pulled back, out of her face, in a tight ponytail. The heat, already beading sweat on her tanned skin. She'd have worn heels if she thought it would give them something to talk about. Being away from the estate had turned the normally busy staff into bored paychecks. Besides, she could use the height as she was only 5 foot 3, but who needed heels by the pool?
Carefully, she pulled her shades away from her hazel green eyes and placed them and her drink on the table.
The staff floated back into her mind. They weren't really all that bad. Only the chef had been annoying recently. Testing out new recipes and buying ridiculous ingredients. The best she could assume was that he didn't want her to leave again, so he was trying to impress her with his skills. Most of them had been there for as long she could remember, especially Anne the head housekeeper.
Looking over at the main house, she smiled as the warmth from something other than the sun filled her. She loved this place. It was three stories high with a fourth-story attic. The outer shell of the house was covered in dark brown and red brick. For most, it was too much but to her it was perfect. She loved the openness and freedom. She didn't mind, and instead quite preferred, the silence and soft sounds of the house staff. Even the black iron fence that surrounded the estate felt like home to her.
She was glad to be back. Again, the ache from before settled over her like a dark cloud.
Determined, she pulled her gaze from the house and focused on the beautiful blue of the pool. Without waiting any further she jogged to its edge and dove into its crystal-clear waters.
She sank to the bottom and kicked off, swimming sleekly to the surface. She gasped for air as soon as she breached it, letting out a surprised yelp in the process.
She knew it would be cold, but she hadn't prepared herself for it and was now shivering as she waded through the water.
She dipped her head again before coming back up to get her hair out of her face. And for just a moment she saw movement under the waves on the other side of the pool.
Her breath picked up and she quickly swam to the edge, gripping the concrete as she reached for her towel. Its porous stone scraped against her palm. As hurriedly as she could, she wiped her face with the folded material and then peered into the water.
No dark shadow moved. She laughed at herself then, tossing the towel to the concrete. It seemed like a childish fear, but she couldn't run from thoughts of sharks in the water.
She was about to kick off the wall when something grabbed her leg and yanked her beneath the surface. She nearly sucked in water as she was pulled further and further down.
It felt like a full minute had passed as she fought the grip on her leg. Clawing and punching, she ripped at it until her nails bent and broke and her fingers became weak.
Finally, she worked up the courage to open her eyes and look down but the only thing she saw holding her calf, was her own hand.
Bringing her gaze away from her hand, she also noticed the flora and fauna surrounding her. There were splashes of pinks and purples in a coral reef that she'd never seen before. The creatures darting around the edges were also unfamiliar and there were rock outcroppings that fell into dark oblivion. Now frenzied, she frantically kicked for the surface, lungs burning and heart pounding.
When she got there, she gulped in the salty air, looking around herself for any purchase of land to hold onto. Turning in circles, the closest land was more than a thousand feet away.
As the panic overwhelmed her, breathing became near impossible and her limbs began to cramp. She was able to cry for help once, before she forced herself to take a deep breath, as her body floated below the waves once again.
Thoughts weren't processing right. She kept hearing someone say, just breathe, over and over again. She grabbed at her ears, her hair tangling between her fingers.
Nooo. I can't. I won't make it. She thought to herself.
Stars began to fill her vision behind tightly shut eyes and the pressure in her head became an overriding torrent.
"BREATHE." The same voice demanded.
Unable to control it, she obeyed the command and sucked in her death.
Only, it wasn't death. It was euphoria. She took in gulp after gulp of water as a heaviness settled over her lungs. Elation was the closest word she could use to describe what she felt. She wasn't dead. Instead, she was breathing in water like it was air.
The pressure in her head abated and she gradually started to feel her fingers and toes. She'd been clenching her muscles so firmly that the lack of strain was causing leftover spasms. Pain slid through her veins like black dye in water, but she couldn't find it in her to care.
I'm alive! I'm not dead!
What was she then? Obviously not alive because alive people don't breathe water. It was then that she took in her surroundings.
Sitting on the sandy sea floor, she could see moss-covered boulders and jagged round coral with odd, unfamiliar fish swimming through them. Around her were long stretches of purple seaweed that reached up, about ten feet, like fingers trying to touch air.
Uncurling from herself, she reached out and touched one of the tendrils. Like a snake, it curled itself around her hand and up her arm.
Screeching as best one could screech underwater, she ripped her arm away, but not before the top of the thing curled down and peered at her with white glossy eyes. It had no mouth or distinguishing features aside from large, pupilless eyes that were the size of golf balls.
She crawled backwards through the sand, sending up silt in her wake. She watched as one by one the rest of the seaweed-like creatures curled down to inspect her. Her skin crawled and her screaming grew louder, sending pulses through the water like sound waves.
As the pulses reached the creatures they twirled in on themselves, resembling the tongue of a chameleon. Twisting and curling down until they were only about a foot long.
She sat for a second, looking at the gross creatures, and catching her breathe, so to speak, when another creature caught her eye. It had been outside the wall of creepy grass, so she hadn't seen it before.
It was the largest shark she'd ever seen. If you could call it a shark. Its skin was black and slick and it had four pectoral fins that shot out from its sides like long oars. Its tail was nearly as long as it's upper body and the end of it split into two long fins. Absently, she noticed that the top fin was missing, leaving the top of the beast as smooth as its underside. She could remember how sharks needed that fin to maneuver in the water.
It wasn't moving at all, just staring at her as it sat motionless, facing in her direction.
She wasn't sure if she should try moving slowly away or stay sitting, at the bottom of this foreign sea bed. What would force the beast into action?
That was when a giant golden spear sliced into its side, shoving it side ways and spurring her into kicking backward and swimming for her life.