JONAH POV

She let go of me. The idiot actually let go.

Spara's scream was heart shattering as she fell, and I just hung there.

I was in too much shock to do the intelligent thing and push myself forward, to run away from this sharp smoke thing.

The pain was unbearable and I needed to get away.

Yet the thought that Spara had just sent herself plummeting to her death so I could live, brought tears to my eyes, and caused something to gurgle nauseously in my empty stomach.

If only I was stronger, faster, she wouldn't have fallen.

And then there was that familiar rush of heat surging through my veins, the tighting in my core and my clenched jaw.

How dare she make it her decision to let go? How is the state of my life her decision to make. And how dare she leave me to deal with this hell all alone.

Before I had the chance to do anything, to push myself forward, the pain cause my hand to flex outward and I fell, joining Spara in falling down the black whole.

Unlike the halls, where if you focused enough you could see a little way ahead of you, this was pitch black.

I lost all sense of everything.

Was I falling? Did time stop and I was just floating. Even the pain seemed to ebb away into nothingness.

For a few moments I thought this was an actual black whole, that I would fall for the rest of eternity, and that thought scared me. It terrified me.

The hairs on the back of my neck and my arms stood up straight and I could feel the cold chill of goosebumps growing on my skin.

My heart seemed to bang against my chest rapidly, trying to burst out. My breaths came out fast and sharp.

Actual tears feel down my cheeks.

What had I ever done to deserve this fate?

My fears were halted to a stop when I crashed into something that gave way a little bit then flung me up into the air a couple times, like a trampoline, before leaving me to sway up and down.

I was caught in some sort of net, that had holes the size of my palm woven into it.

The material felt slick and smooth, but I could still feel the intertwining of threads that told me my savior was made from rope.

If this caught me, did that mean it caught Spara to?

"Jonah?" A weak trembling voice called out, as if answering my thought.

"Spara?" I called back, rushing over to where I heard her voice, though it was hard to pinpoint because it was very echoey here.

Trying to crawl across the netting was difficult, my limbs kept getting caught in the holes and my body was definitely exhausted espeacially my hands.

"I'm down here!"

Down? We were caught up in a net, how could she be any more down?

I crawled forward some more before the front half of my body fell through a huge whole in the netting.

My foot was caught in the netting, saving me from the fall, causing me to hang upside down.

So this was what she meant by down.

"Spara?" I asked, my voice revealing my annoyance.

"Yes?"

Her voice was close to my face. She had to be right next to me.

"You could have told me there was a hole." I narrowed my eyes at her as a glare, even though I new she couldn't see me.

"Sorry..." she apologized, and I could could picture her scrunching her shoulders as if to say that there's nothing she could do about it.

"Are you going to help me down or what?" I asked crossing my arms.

"Um, about that, I don't have any clothes...."

"And why the fuck not?"

"I, uh, burned through them."

I rolled my eyes. Of course she did.

"And I suppose you burnt this hole in the rope too?" I asked in the most sarcastic voice I could muster.

"Yeah, actually." Her voice was firm, but I could hear a hint of embarrassment in there.

"Take my shirt." I ordered her, stripping it off of myself. I was tall enough and broad enough that it should fall down just above her knees.

"Thanks," she replied. I felt her hands brush against my face, "Is this you?"

I felt my heart speed up a couple notches, and the heat rise to my cheeks. As a knee-jerk reaction I turned my head away.

"Who else would it be?" I muttered, rolling my eyes.

She found the shirt in my hands with no further comment, and I could still feel the lingering sensation of her brushing fingertips accidental caress of my cheek.

"Okay, I got it on, let me help you down."

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes, still trying to shake off her touch.

How could she have that much of an impact on my body? And not to mention now was not the time to be distracted by someone...physically. Besides, her hands were dripping in sweat. It should disgust me, not the opposite.

She grabbed my arm and pulled, sending an unwanted pleasant shiver through me.

"Your funny if you think that's going to wor-"

I fell out of the netting and landed into a body of water with a splash.

Saltwater entered my mouth, and it took me a moment to surface and spit it out.

I now realize that her hands were wet not sweaty.

"You could have mentioned the fact that there's a lake down hear." I snapped after having a coffins fit. "I almost drowned."

"Sorry. In my defense I fell into the water as well. From all the way on top."

How was she not dead? I wondered. I was able to stand, with the water only a little bit past my waist and not to mention the height she fell from should have caused the water to feel like she was slamming into a brick wall.

"How?" I simply asked. I wasn't sure exactly how to phrase what I wanted to ask her.

"It's like the water reached up and grabbed me... I know it sounds unbelievable."

"Honestly after being kidnapped, attacked by mannequins, the whole fucked up water thing, the stabbing fog thingy, plus falling all the way down here, I'd believe anything at the moment."

"Would you believe that I could breath underwater?" She asked.

"What?"

"And I can sense everything that's in the water? This is real water unlike the water gel stuff."

"Stop fucking with me Spara."

"I'm not!" She sqeualed at me in a very annoying high pitched voice. "Im freaking out here!"

"You don't need to yell." I huffed at her.

I wasn't sure if I believed her. Spara had no reason to lie, but the stuff she was spouting was all a bunch of crack.

"Sorry. " she apologized with a murmur.

I instantly felt bad for doubting her. There was some pretty supernatural stuff going on with us. Like her glowing eyes and her burning the mannequins. Not to mention my surge of absolute power I received kicking that door or basically resurrecting Spara when she drowned.

I ignored her apology, and asked her a question.

"If you can "sense" whats in the water, then can you tell me how we are going to get out of here?" I made quotation marks with my fingers when I said sense sarcastically, even though I knew she wouldn't be able to see me.

"There's a ledge about 20 feet to the left of me, and a hole that I think leads to the outside roughly 40 feet from there and about 15 feet down."

"Okay." I said. She seemed confident about the answer she gave me, so I decided to believe her for now.

"Jonah, you are for sure going to need to hold your breath for at least 30 feet, can you do it?" She asked me.

30 feet definitely seemed like a lot. I had  to go down 15, and up another 15. I probably couldn't, but what choice did I have?

SPARA'S POV

"Just follow my voice for now, okay?" I spoke to Jonah.

"Whatever." He replied and I could sense him rolling his eyes, so I rolled mine right back at him.

I start to sing a song as I half walked half swam to the ledge I could sense ahead of me.

"Records scratch Steve Miller Bend," I started off, with We Don't Have To Dance by Andy Black.

I could practically hear the eye rolling from Jonah at this point, he was so predictable. So instead of being annoyed I pondered over what was going on.

When I fell, I seriously thought I was going to die, my life had flashed before my eyes. I was hot, burning brighter then the sun, my clothes never stood a chance. Then out of nowhere, the water showed up.

At first it cradled me as I fell, slowing down the speed at which gravity was taking me. And then it was like a slide, twisting me in spirals, until I burnt my way through the rope and landed with a gentle splash into this pool of water.

From there everything felt different. It was like I was a part of the water. In books or movies when this stuff happened, the characters always would explain that it speaks to them or it just draws them to its power or something of the such. But this, this was different.

As for breathing underwater, it was just something I knew that I could do the second I touched the water. It was weird.

The ocean was like an extended limb of mine. I could feel the vibrations of small fish swimming around and the rocky walls of the cave that surrounded us, trying to keep me from flowing outwards.

Below was the sand. It was grainy yet smooth, by the leafy feeling I could tell some seaweed had managed to grow in some random splotches on the seabed.

At this point we were now half way their and I was at the chorus of my song. It was very difficult to sing and swim at the same time.  I was honestly waiting for Jonah to start critiquing my voice, but he stayed silent; I could not hear so much as a splash from him.

I was worried for a moment that he had fallen too far behind, but after a moment I could feel the vibrations from his swimming body directly behind me.

We finally reached the wall, and I stopped singing my song.

"Hold my hand." I ordered, as I grabbed his, not leaving him much room to reject me.

I ducked my head under the water before breathing out and then letting the water fill my lungs.

It was an odd sensation, but releaving, unlike when I was drowning in the water-gel when my lungs burned, this felt cool and natural.

I exhaled the oxygen and breathed in more water as I swam deeper below the  surface.

We were almost to the hole when I felt Jonah tug upwards. He was running out of air.

I pulled him down closer to me.

In the water I could feel his entire body. I just knew where his lips were, and I rested my free hand under his chin, trying to tell him not to panic.

I allowed my lips to touch his, and parted them a little bit. I forced air from my mouth into his, and then swam into the hole dragging him along.

Thankfully it was wide enough for both of us to swim through at the same time, and swimming upwards was way easier because the waters buoyancy helped to push us up.

I surfaced a moment before Jonah did, and opened my eyes. The world was bright and sunny.

We were outside!

The sun shone bight in the sky and only a couple of clouds lingered overhead. The air was deliciously fresh, a nice change from the stale drafts that lingered in the labyrinth we came out of.

I turned to face Jonah, who had red face, and refused to meet my eyes. He must be embarrassed from the kiss I sacrificed to give him some breathable air.

So instead of talking to him, I looked around at our surroundings. Surrounding us was a wall that seemed to fade into a rocky outcrop directly behind us.

The wall was maybe one-hundred and fifty feet high or so, and only small fidh and seaweed could be detected in the water.

The wall reached down deep into the earth, separating me from what I hoped to be the rest of the ocean.

"So close," I muttered to myself, trying not to think about my seemingly hopeless escape for freedom.

"So what now?" Jonah asked.

That was a good question.

What now?