Suspense Magazine July 2013

the inhabitable depths below.
He cut off his light. Only Kal’s flashlight—which was veering off somewhere behind him—illuminated the liquid world
around him. Sepi knew the eventual reveal had to come out of nowhere, so he swam further ahead and gave the dark a few
seconds to grow, to expand into consciousness. As it did, he questioned himself, his juvenile motives and the crass notion
of fright in general. But he knew there was no turning back—under the circumstances the idea was too compelling, too
inescapable. He was already visualizing the outcome, claiming it as foreordained. Kal would understand. Hell, he’d probably
even appreciate the execution of the terror.
Sepi figured his depth was close to thirty feet, thirty-five at most. He swam further and higher, the water pulsing with
bursts of warmth that he could feel against his face. He was edging closer to the region below the sound of the splash. Then
he stopped.
“Now!” he said to himself. He pushed the button on his flashlight. A movement, swift and fleeting. It came against the
furthest reaches of his light. Was he mistaken Was it still descending Only the craziest of kids would be diving down this
far. That’s it, he thought, I’ll give it to him good.
He swam faster. Rising bubbles wavered in his light, giving him a jolt. He turned back around, and looked below. Twenty
feet deeper was Kal’s beam heading in his direction. Sepi could see Kal’s light shining into the depths, and while gazing past
his fluttering fins, he saw it: the mass assembled on the quarry floor, incongruous and out of context.
With a head of light, he descended, closer and closer toward it.
It wasn’t just one—if that was all, Sepi’s heart might not have skipped a beat—but a heap of them, their alabaster flesh
peeling away in the current’s easy sway. Skulls atop torsos, legs and arms twisted perversely around like tangled wire, soft
white flesh mixed with even whiter bone. The fresher ones were amassed atop figures of indeterminable decay. All were
quieted by their conjoined company, all except the school of bottom-feeding fish milling about, nibbling from cranial cores
and pecking at limbs that dangled with scraps of clothes. Hollowed skull holes, that once held eyes that held the world, stared
blankly at him. From above, another thud. From behind, Kal’s light, adding depth-of-field to a field of death. Cinderblocks,
everywhere cinderblocks, holding the beings to their grave, keeping the crush and pile forever entombed.
A swiftly sinking human figure raced by, roped at the waist, fingers twitching in the water’s resistance. The bottom edge
of Sepi’s light caught the eyeballs, saw them briefly locking into his own. Alive Possibly. (Or tricks of a panicked eye). But
what he saw—if for only a split second—was a human being beckoning for succor, grasping for one last moment of existence.
He couldn’t give that to him, no, he could only give that to himself.
In a frenzy, he headed to the surface, with Kal trailing directly behind.
They surfaced at Monolith Rock, slamming atop it with the same haste as sea lions under pursuit. They threw their arms
and chests against its slope, tanks bobbing behind them in the water. Sepi spat out his mouthpiece and threw his mask to the
crown of his head. He gasped for air. His eyes froze into Kal’s, not so much for comfort, but for an explanation to what he
had just witnessed.
Kal pointed up over Sepi’s right shoulder, straight up over the rock wall that jutted out beside them. He could tell Sepi was
in a state, foggy-eyed and panicked. But he knew they had to be quiet, that revealing themselves would be disastrous. They
were in no position to be exposed. Gingerly, Kal held his index finger to his lips and portrayed an unmistakable calmness.
Sepi took a deep breath, nodded, and laid his wobbly arms flat out against the rock. He rested there a few seconds, silent,
shaken. Then Kal gave a gentle push against Sepi’s arm, motioning him to move along the rock, real slowly towards the edge.
He wanted to get a direct look at whoever was up there and verify their presence without being seen. With their air tanks
holding them buoyant, they eased along, hand over hand, until a clear line of sight was achieved.
By the falling crescent moon, they could make out a truck’s tailgate laid open fifty feet above them. Despite the cliff ’s edge
obscuring their vision, they were able to make out two burly figures, chest high to head, standing on either side of the truck,
their backs turned. The distant resonance of their voices seeped down into their ears, like the murmurings in a troubled
dream.
They both kept a keen eye to the cliff for a moment, trying to maintain a low and calm posture, but Sepi’s stomach had
a hard time not retching for relief. A mouthful of mucus and water shot out. Quickly, Kal grabbed his arm, forcing him to
tread back out of sight.
“Get off your gear,” demanded Kal.
“What”
“I said take it off. Quietly, up on the rock.”
“Why” Sepi asked in a faltering whisper. He was already shedding his vest and fins.
“We need to get up there and we can’t have all this shit on us. Got it”
“The authorities. We need to call...the sheriff or someone.”
“Hell that,” struck back Kal. “Ain’t no time for that. They’d be gone by then.” Kal’s voice began to rise, and he checked it
down. Distant and desultory laughter could be heard, and they inched over to take a look up again, to make sure they weren’t
discovered. In the pale light, they could make out one of the figures hoisting a cinderblock overhead with each arm, up and
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