Water Pressure

Bill looked at the water pouring off the cliff. The water came down into the deep pool starting the next part of the river. The noise that it made, similar to an eighteen wheeler speeding with a load just under the weight requirements. Downstream, the clear water was just shallow enough to see the muddy-hazelnut bottom of pebbles and sand.

Above Bill were four friends and his older brother, ready to do their stupid “synchronized jump” into the pool of water below them. They wore no helmets, only one wore anything, that being a red cap. They wore no pads, only various colors of swim trunks, with two wearing similar swim shirts as well. His brother, smug faced and taunting glare, stood slightly above the others. Jason had given Bill his chance for fun, now he got to miss it.

Jason and Bill’s friends had wanted him to come with, to have some fun, to make a leap. No matter what, he refused to join.

“It’s pretty deep, we won’t get hurt if we don’t dive,” Ralph had encouraged earlier. “And there’s only so many days left of summer. Come on, we need to do this!”

“I’d rather not die even after summer. We saw signs and warnings not to jump off any waterfalls here. And it might be shallower then we can tell.” Answered Bill.

“We came all this way for this. There’s no alligators anywhere in this state, or really anything that would be down there. Except, maybe a turtle or something…” Ralph continued. “I said, NO.”

“Alright,” Jacob spoke, walking between the two, “If my little baby brother doesn’t want to have some fun and take a tiny risk, he doesn’t have to.” He gestured to bill. “He can stay down and tell us how cool we looked when we come out.”

Bill looked off to the side. “That’s fine. Go ahead.”

The guys (minus Bill) started to hike and climb to the jump zone. Fred almost fell from a random root in the way, but managed to catch himself to join the others at the top of the waterfall.

Then, the part of ground that Jacob was going to jump from gave way. Had his arms and grip not been stronger, and his reflexes failed to clutch that one root that he happened to notice, he would have bounced onto the rocky Cliffside and then into the water. The other four up there grabbed his arms and pulled with all their might, steadily hoisted him up.

Bill watched as they neared a sturdy part of the falls. Fred did a motion, expecting they would hold hands, but the others laughed at him and shook their heads. Even Bill thought that was kind of weird, laughing from down below them. Disappointed and embarrassed, he brought his arms to his side, head bowed in understanding and shame.

They counted from 5 to 1. Then, they jumped.

Three did cannonballs. Jacob did a weird pose, like a cat rearing up to fight something. All of them made some pretty impressive splashes.

All of them surfaced at roughly the same time. They gleamed and laughed, making glances at each other and splashing in the pool of darkened water they were swimming in.

Bill looked at the ground, shame on his face. He still thought that it was stupid, but maybe he should have been stupid with them. Either way, he still thought he made the safer decision. But even then, maybe on the next one…

“Somethings grabbing me!”

Looking up, bill saw one guy staring intently into the water. Who it was, he couldn’t tell, they all looked the same in the water except for Jacob, who was bigger and had his hat. The others looked over to the yeller in surprise.

With a singular, startled yelp, the swimmer who had been looking down was pulled under with great force. There was very little splashing as he disappeared into the depths. Instinctively, the others backed away from where he was.

Then the other two lookalikes looked down in panic, and same as the first, they gasped in shock, then vanished into the depths. Bubbles of their breaths floated to the surface. Jacob started to swim for the nearest bit of shore, to Bill. In his panicked freestyle and frantic splashing, Bill saw the fear on his face. He started to make his way down to help him, even though he had no idea what was happening.

The hand that grabbed Jacobs leg at the knee was humanoid, though defiantly not human. On its tips, were claws from the fingers, not nails. The skin was darkened grey, similar to coal ash. Part of a fin was visible on the forearm the hand belonged to.

He was pulled down at an angle. Bill saw the bubbles that left Jacobs mouth float to the surface, making a sort of trail. Then, the trail stopped.

As Bill franticly sprinted to get back to town, tripping on some of the fallen branches and rocks in his rush, he ran past the red cap, floating along the waters downstream, gently to the town.