Ryan Lockwood - Below

He could tell the squid was assessing him, its dark, animated eyes rolling in deep sockets. They resembled the expressive eyes of a doe, Steve thought, but had an alien quality to them. Unsure of how he should interact with the large animal, or what it might do, he remained motionless. The squid drew closer and he raised his left arm to maintain distance.

When it was near enough, it reached out and explored Steve’s outstretched hand with its tentacles. He could scarcely feel the gentle touch through his neoprene glove. Its body, covered in scars, rotated and he caught a glimpse of the dark beak, nestled in sphincter-like muscle at the axis of its meaty arms. Steve turned to smile at the other divers, but quickly realized that with all their lights aimed downward they wouldn’t be able to see his expression anyway. Apparently this squid wasn’t much different from an octopus. With one exception.

If this thing wanted to, it could really do a number on him. Steve had no doubt about that.

The animal suddenly pulled back and its entire pale body emitted a shimmer of light. A moment later, a similar incandescence lit the water all around the divers. There were more nearby. A lot more.

Steve Black had logged thousands of dives, but he had never seen anything like this. He figured there had to be hundreds of other squid around him. He should have brought his camera.

Steve recalled something else other divers had said about their encounters with these squid. While the animals hadn’t actually harmed anyone, they had showed some aggressive behavior, pulling at one of the divers, forcefully gripping her air hoses and limbs. He better keep a close eye on the Jacksons. He hadn’t checked on them for a few minutes, entranced by the strange animal hovering before them.

He turned to face the other divers. Curtis was right behind him, his sister Jennifer at the boy’s side. They were holding on to one another. He raised the light over them to check on their parents.

Mr. Jackson was just behind his kids, looking delighted. And his wife…

Steve scanned the water all around. Nothing but blackness.

Shit.

Steve swept the area again with his light, startling a few more squid. Mrs. Jackson was gone. He turned to face her family. They were looking back at him, clearly unaware of her absence. He held his palm up toward them, looking them in the eyes. Stay put. The boy nodded. His sister just stared back, wide-eyed.

Steve looked at their father, who was turning his head side to side. Steve saw the recognition dawn in his eyes. He lifted off the bottom and started to swim into the darkness.

Steve grabbed at him in an effort to hold him back. He needed to maintain calm in the group. As he struggled to maintain his grip on the flailing man, one of the children made a break for the surface, kicking toward the boat in a cloud of bubbles. Jackson struck Steve’s mask, instantly filling it with seawater. As he struggled to readjust the mask on his face, he felt Jackson slip past him in the water as he went after his wife.

Steve tilted his head back and held the top of the mask in place, then exhaled through his nose to force air inside it. The water drained and his vision restored, he realized he had dropped his dive light. He kicked down a few feet to the bottom and retrieved it, then began to sweep the beam up and around him.

They were everywhere.

In his light, an impossible number of squid revealed themselves, the closest just a few feet from his face. The enormous shoal dispersed explosively and in all directions as soon as the light hit them, as if Steve had detonated a depth charge. He flinched backward and exhaled all his air, sinking down into the rocks. Obviously, these animals were afraid of his light. He shined it above him protectively, hoping that like vampires faced with a crucifix they would keep their distance. He had to regain control of the situation.

Find the kids first.

He had seen one of them ascend a minute ago, but where had the other one gone? He scanned the reef where they had been before the struggle and saw nothing. That was where he had been before, wasn’t it? In the dark water he had totally lost his bearings. He spun around, searching, and finally saw a dive light a short distance away. He pushed himself off the bottom and kicked toward it.

When Steve neared the light, he saw that it was resting on the rocky reef. There was nobody around. Okay, so the kids must have surfaced.

A powerful urge to head for the boat overcame him. Don’t think, some part of his brain urged him , just go. He fought off the impulse. This family was his responsibility, and he was merely letting his imagination get the best of him now. The Jackson family had predictably panicked when they saw the school of huge squid so close to them. It made sense. If he couldn’t find the two kids, he would surface, to make sure they’d made it back to the boat. Then he would come back down for the two parents if necessary. Everyone still had plenty of air left—

Something struck Steve in the back of the head, hard.

Dazed, he turned to face his aggressor, but as he spun something tore at his air hose and wrenched the regulator from his mouth. He jerked the backup regulator free from a clip on his vest and shoved it into his mouth, gulping in air to calm the sudden burning in his lungs. Adrenaline flooded his body and he couldn’t get enough air, drawing it in faster than the regulator would release it. Whatever was gripping his hose began dragging him backward.

Helpless against the powerful pull, Steve tumbled over the reef, striking his hip on the rock as he tried to roll over onto his stomach. The light. They’re afraid of the light. He aimed the beam over his shoulder where he thought the squid must be. A moment later, it released him and he rolled over in the water, no longer sure which way was up. His rear end struck the rocky bottom and he found himself tank-down, like a helpless turtle. He scanned the water above him before he attempted to turn over, and caught a glimpse of three large shapes passing by in the narrow beam of light. Squid. These fuckers were actually attacking him.

One of the other divers came into view behind the three enormous squid, and appeared to be following them. Steve shook his head to clear it. The diver—was that Jennifer?—was moving oddly after the squid, though, somehow swimming sideways. No. She wasn’t swimming at all.

Oh, Jesus.

They were dragging her.

One of the squid towed the girl’s limp body along with some white ropy thing. As they neared Steve, he got a better view in the dive light, and he felt bile creep into his mouth. It wasn’t a rope.

Jennifer looked desperately at him through her fogged mask as she passed, dragged by her own entrails. A fourth squid appeared and wrapped its arms around her elbow. It began to pull her body in the other direction.

Steve watched the macabre tug-of-war for what seemed an eternity, until it ended in a draw as a mass of organs silently erupted from the girl’s torso. Her body disappeared into the darkness as two more squid lunged at the drifting sac of entrails.

As Steve rolled onto his knees and began to push off the bottom, something smacked his arm, sending him tumbling forward. He looked down and saw that he had dropped the light, which shone sideways in a crack in the rocks below him. He shoved his arm into the crack and felt his fingers brush the handle of the flashlight. Before he could grasp it, something settled on top of his head, followed by a mass of tentacles that covered the glass on his dive mask.

The squid began groping at his head and hair. He felt his mask pull free of his face and the regulator wrenched from his mouth. He reached blindly for the dive light, taking water in through his nose. A viselike grip closed on his thigh. A tentacle tore at his face, slashing it. Something sharp pierced his left eye, and he screamed into the black water.