Chapter 15 - The Sounds from Below
Valeria weakly clutched her swollen belly, coughing so hard her entire body shook. The baby kicked furiously against her hands, a strong, reassuring sign of life.
She looked frantically around the chaotic pool deck, her eyes darting past the firefighters and the screaming guests.
"Daniel..." she gasped, her voice barely a whisper. "Where is Daniel?"
Aunt Elena dropped to her knees beside Valeria, tears streaming down her wrinkled face. She pointed a trembling finger at the completely sealed, black pool cover. The firefighters were hacking at it with sparking saws, shouting orders over the deafening noise.
"He... he got pulled back down," Elena sobbed. "The chain caught his leg when the cover closed."
Valeria let out a gut-wrenching, agonizing scream that cut through the noise of the power tools. She tried to crawl toward the sealed pool, but the paramedics held her firmly down on the deck.
"You have to stay still, ma'am! You are in shock!" the medic yelled.
"Get him out! Please, God, get him out!" Valeria shrieked, fighting against their grip.
Suddenly, over the roar of the circular saws and the wailing sirens, a distinct, rhythmic sound echoed from beneath the heavy Kevlar deck.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
One of the firefighters operating a saw suddenly stopped, lifting his visor.
"Hold on! Kill the saws! Kill the saws!" the captain ordered, raising his hand.
The heavy machinery powered down, plunging the deck into a terrifying, tense silence.
Everyone froze, staring at the black surface of the pool cover.
From deep beneath the water, vibrating through the thick Kevlar, came a series of loud, desperate, metallic bangs.
THANG! THANG! THANG!
"Someone is banging from underneath!" a firefighter shouted, pointing at the center of the cover.
They fired the saws back up, cutting with a renewed, frantic desperation.
May you like
But as the sparking blades slowly chewed through the incredibly tough material, a horrifying thought settled over the crowd. The banging was loud and metallic. Daniel didn't have any tools down there.
No one knew if the sound was Daniel fighting for his life... or if someone else was trapped in the dark abyss of the pool.
