Sorry this is late, but I had to refresh my memory on scuba diving by reading Peter Benchley's The Deep
Thank you all so much for your overwhelming response! I am so glad I finally get to write this
-,-,-,-,-
Belle looked up from her map and stared out into the turbulent waters as the boat zoomed across the bay. She and Ariel were going to try their luck with diving today, hoping to solve the mystery of what was destroying the boats once and for all.
A local named Leroy had offered his boat for their use. He wasn't a fisherman but often rented out for romantics who wanted to take their dates out on the bay. The recent boat attacks were a scourge on his business and he wanted it solved as much as the rest of the town.
"Alright Sisters, look alive!" Leroy roared as he eased the boat to a stop roughly 5 miles off the coast.
Belle gripped one of the railings, feeling her stomach jostle just slightly at the rough stop. Years in boats had made her practically immune to seasickness.
"Great job Leroy." Belle praised. "According to the locals, this is where the most activity has been."
Ariel came sauntering out from below deck, her arms full of scuba gear. Ariel was a certified diver and the best swimmer Belle had ever met. They had met in college and had instantly clicked over their love of anything that existed under water. It had been her to suggest they take the case to come out into Storybrooke and she had kept her spirit lifted when they continued to come up empty on answers.
Their reporter friend Merlin followed her clutching his stomach and looking positively green.
"You okay?" Belle asked her reporter friend.
"I think I'm going to just sit this one out." Merlin stated, falling unsteadily onto a deck chair.
"That's fine." Belle sympathized.
Merlin gave her a thumbs-up as he spread out on the chair.
Ariel and Belle dressed in their swimming gear and prepared for the dive.
"Be careful." Leoroy warned. "There could be some Jaws shit going on down there."
Belle and Ariel exchanged good-humored eyerolls before diving into the waters.
Belle remained calm at the change of pressure, letting the weight belt change her momentum as she took in her first careful breath from her oxygen. She opened her eyes to adjust to the low, murky light until she spotted Ariel who was pointing down.
They swam down and saw remains of some of the previous attacks littered on the otherwise undisturbed sand: broken propellers and large shards of wood.
Belle brought out her waterproof camera and began snapping pictures of the damage, easing her way along to try to figure out what was strong enough to swim with such large beams and heave them into boat propellers from underwater. The local police had ruled out another diver a week ago since such a stunt would be too dangerous for one to attempt, but it still had to be something with opposable thumbs at least.
Something human but…not human.
As she puzzled, Belle noticed that her oxygen was getting thinner. Thankfully six months in scuba therapy had taught her how to hold her breath for a maximum of nine minutes, but even a professional couldn't shake the air of fear that came with the loss of oxygen. She took shallower breaths to limit her oxygen increase.
She turned and saw that Ariel was holding up one of the propeller pieces and putting it into her bag for evidence. She met her eyes and pointed to her mouthpiece and then up. She was running out of oxygen too and needed to refill. Belle gave her a thumbs-up and began her descent to the surface.
Suddenly, a shimmering light reflected off her goggles and crippled her sight. She paused, her scuba instincts kicking to keep her from panicking. She blinked rapidly to clear her vision, beginning to feel lightheaded as her breath-holding reached its maximum limit.
She looked around to gain just how far she was from the surface and caught site of the shimmering, now not nearly as blinding as it moved. She squinted and swam closer despite knowing the risk.
She expected to see some more wreckage but instead saw that the shimmering was from scales.
Scales on a really big fish. As she closed in, the fish dashed towards her, it's human-like arms flowing behind it.
Belle gasped and lost all her air, black dots beginning to cloud her vision. She gripped the camera, the light causing the creature to shrink back. With the creature distracted, Belle stripped her weight belt and dashed to the surface just as she lost feeling in her legs.
She sputtered and gripped onto one of the legs of the boat's ladder, exhaustion nearly causing her to lose her grip and fall back into the waters. Luckily, a large pair of strong hands gripped her arms and hoisted her to the boat.
"Oh my God!" she heard Ariel screaming. "Is she unconscious? Does she need CPR?"
"No Ariel, she's fine. She just got too much water."
Belle took in several uneasy breaths, her eyes still blinded with the sight of those shiny scales.
What had she just seen?
-,-,-,-
"A giant fish?" the lady mayor snarled, tossing a blurry polaroid down on the table with the rest of the evidence Belle and Ariel had gathered earlier. "You're telling me that the thing causing havoc in my harbor is a giant fish?"
Belle flinched under the mayor's harsh exterior. She certainly looked like a woman to be feared with her immaculate pantsuit and death-defying glare.
"Yes. Well, I mean, I'm not so sure."
The lady mayor looked like she wanted to rip Belle apart with her eyes.
"Miss French, I did not pay your way into my town for you to be unsure."
Ariel stepped in as the mayor's voice began to rise. "Belle had an accident while we were scuba diving this morning Madame Mayor. She ran out of oxygen and nearly drowned taking the pictures."
"Very well." The mayor calmed at last. "You saw a fish. The bay is full of them."
"Like I said, I'm not sure if it was a fish. It…I think it had arms."
The mayor stared at her like she was watching an idiot dance naked in public.
"So…it had a fish tail and arms?"
She was mocking her now and Belle, tired and sore, wanted to throw her out of Merlin's house.
"It was something. A fish alone couldn't do all this damage to those boats. It had to be…something!"
The mayor looked her up and down. "I thought you were a scientist Miss French, not a delusional dreamer who blames her failures on fairy tale creatures."
Merlin stepped in just as Belle was ready to lunge. "Regina, it's been a long day. We'll give it another go tomorrow and hopefully find more sustainable evidence."
The mayor bristled. "I'll have you treat me with more respect than that Merlin." She grabbed her purse and stalked off the peer, her expensive high heels clanking against the aged wood.
Leroy whistled from his secret hiding spot.
Merlin chuckled. "She's actually very nice."
Belle didn't add, too busy rummaging through the evidence they gathered again.
Merlin looked to Ariel for guidance.
"Belle," Ariel beseeched. "Please go lie down."
"Do you think I'm crazy?" Belle inquired instead.
"In general?" Ariel tried to tease but Belle's glare indicated that she was in no mood for joking.
"I wasn't hallucinating down there Ariel. I know what I saw."
"I'm sure you saw something." Ariel agreed. "We have enough evidence to show that. But we can't just spout off theories until we photographic proof at least."
Belle nodded, picking up the polaroid of their mystery creature while Ariel gathered the evidence to take down to Merlin's basement.
Something unusual and amazing was in the waters of Storybrooke, and Belle was going to find out what it was.
-,-,-,-
Belle set out to the beach around 5 a.m., leaving a white lie of a note to Ariel and Merlin stating that she was going for a jog. Her head was pounding and her sinuses were shot, but she had to know what she had seen and she knew her well-meaning friends would strap her to her bed if she told them she was going back into the water.
Despite it being early June, Maine mornings were cool and Belle was grateful for the physical excursion rowing the boat provided. The sun was peaking over the horizon by the time she got to the area she dived in the day before.
She knew it was a long-shot, that there was hardly a chance she'd see whatever she saw again, but she had to take a chance.
The current began to pick up with the wind and rock the boat roughly. Belle wished she had thought to put her wet suit on before she got into the boat. She tried to carefully change out of her shorts and t-shirt but found the slight movements too hazardous. She decided instead that she'd just slip her gear over her outfit. She tugged on her swimsuit but annoyingly found that she was sitting on one of the legs.
She gave it a rough tug, wanting to get in the water already, but miscalculated the force and fell back, causing the boat to tip on its side and her go sprawling out, hitting her head on the edge of the boat as she struggled for a grip.
Her vision went instantly black, her body loose as she sunk into her cold watery grave.
Several feet away, the creature watched the commotion, believing it was just another human dumping their garbage. He watched the boat tip and several objects sink and then, to his absolute horror, a person.
But not just any person, but the woman he had become smitten with at the beach the other day. The woman he had tried to make contact with yesterday.
He hadn't meant to scare her when he swam up to her, and hadn't expected her to nearly blind him with the light she struck him with. He had bitterly begun to rationalize that she was like every other human and that he was a fool for thinking otherwise.
However, seeing her flowing unmoving into the water now caused his protective instincts to kick in. He swam up to her, more cautious this time. He panicked when he saw her eyes clothes and her mouth without the oxygen stick he knew the humans needed to breathe underwater.
He grabbed her wrist and pulled her light body into his arms speeding to the surface. He swam until he found a beachy area—the same beach he had first seen her.
He laid her out on the warm sand, his hands flinching with uncertainty. Her chest wasn't moving and she had become as pale as pearls.
Air! Humans needed air all the time! Taking a deep breath, he pressed his mouth on hers, breathing his life into her.
"Live." He cried quietly when he pulled back, cupping her soft cheek with his talon. "Please live."
Suddenly, Belle began coughing, her throat burning as salt began to splurge out.
Her head was thumping with pain, her entire body exhausted. She looked around, wondering briefly if this was the afterlife. She could hear the water and birds flying far off. When she opened her eyes, she saw a pale, scaly creature staring at her, his reptilian eyes wide with fear, it's equally scaly hand lifting her head so that she could breath.
"You are real." She gasped, smiling at him and covering his hand with hers.
The creature nodded, staring at her hand, his first physical touch from a human.
"I am." He said.
"You can talk." Belle sighed. "That's great."
The creature panicked when her eyes closed again.
"Human? Human wait!" he stopped when he saw her chest was still moving, indicating that she was still alive. Sighing away is fear, he reluctantly released her warm hand and cheek to return briefly to the ocean.
He came back with a blanket of seaweed and covered the human, smiling happily when he saw some of her color coming back. He edged onto the sand and pulled her under a rock so that she wouldn't be roasted by the sun.
He allowed himself to lay beside her for a moment, knowing he couldn't stay much longer. If she was seen, she could be taken back to her kind and given proper aid. If he was seen…he'd never see her again. Not alive anyway.
He placed a hesitant kiss on her hand before he returned to the lonely waters. "I'll be back, little human."