Dead in the Water [Venetian ball task, Tag: Jim]

Jane woke up. 'Not again.', she pressed her eyes together and tried to suppress the feeling to vomit. After a few deep breaths she calmed down and looked around. Her eyes widened. She was underwater! Jane looked around more carefully. Next to her was a boy. He seemed to be still sleeping. Hopefully he'll be awake soon. Jane took the shackle of her chain and pulled herself deeper. A rock caught her eye. Maybe she could use it to get free? Seeing that the boy was chained himself to, made her bit her lower lip. Jane didn't know in which water of the island they were, but she hoped that Eris hadn't chosen to make it more dangerous than it was.

Slowly the name of the boy came back to her mind. She knew him. Her first group, the cave, John's death. "Jim?", she whispered softly. "Jim! Please wake up!"

Jim woke up. Before he even opened up his eyes he felt the water around in and panicked. He started swimming up by instinct, but he soon notcied that there was a chain around his ankle. It took a while before he notcied the bubble around his head that allowed him to breath. When he had calmed down he noticed a girl.
He pulled his chain, but it was no use. He looked at the girl again. "What's going on?" he said with wild eyes.

Jane sighed relieved. He did wake up. "As you can see we are stuck under the sea.", she said dryly. "I guess we need to break the chains to get free.", Jane looked around again carefully. This water was too dark to be good for them. "A nice game from Eris, I guess.", Jane added sarcastically. Every time she was with someone she liked, Eris seemed to be happy to destroy the peace. "Goddess of discord with all honor.", she mumbled. "Can you come down to me? Maybe we can destroy the chains with the stone there.", she pointed at a rock between them.

Jim nodded, listening to the girl. "Yeah, I'll come down there," he said and started pulliing the chain, getting himself down to the bottom. "This stone here?" he said as he tried to lift a big stone from the bottom of the sea. "Hey, wait a minute. There's.. something," Jim said and tried to get a closer look. He thought he had seen something sparkle slightly under the stone. Jim lifted the stone and revealed a key.

Jane's eyes grew bigger. "Is that the key for the chains?", she whispered. She looked around again. There was surely a trick. Something bad that will happen if they took the key or use it. "Do you think it would be good using it?", she asked hesitantly. "If it's a game, something bad might happen.", Jane was unsure. It would be easy to use the key and flee, but...

Jim looked at the key for a while and considered Jane's question. "I don't think anything good will come out of just waiting here under water, doing nothing," he said eventually. If they did that, they would surely die. With the key they might be able to survive. "Maybe we should see if it actually fits into the lock."

Jane nodded. "I guess you're right. We need to do something.", she looked at Jim. "Do you want to try first?", Jane didn't knew him well, but she knew she had to trust him in this situation. The dark water around her made her feel uncomfortable by every second that left.

Jim nodded and took the key. Somehow he felt a bit relieved that he got to try first. At least that way he was sure e wasn't going to be left alone. But did she really trust him that much? Him. A stranger.
He shook those thoughts away. It wasn't important right now. The key was slippery so it took a while before he managed to get it into the lock. With a silent click it was open. "It worked," Jim said, slightly surprised. He looked at Jane and reached out his hand with the key. "Your turn."

Jane smiled and nodded. When she reached out her hand to take the key, a quiet noise made her turn around. "That's not good. Definitely not good.", she hurried to take the key out of Jim's hand and opened her chains. After Jane let it fell on the ground and grabbed Jim's hand. "Hurry!", she said nervous and pointed at the surface of the water. "We need to hurry to go out here. I don't want to know what escaped there.", Jane swam up to the surface, pulling Jim with her.

Jim heard the same noise Jane heard and froze. That didn't sound good. It didn't take him long to come to the same conclusion Jane had come to, and soon after he followed her towards the surface.

Jane broke through the surface and gasped for fresh air. She didn't looked behind her if Jim was there, just hoped it was that way. If not, she would definitely go back and get him. Crawling on the shore Jane coughed a bit. The salty water got in her lungs when she broke through the water. Careful she stood up, looking at the sea. She waved towards Jim, making sure he would reach the beach without any harm. "We should move away from the water, I don't know if this thing can go on land.", Jane said advisedly when she reached out her hand to Jim, to help him on his feet.

Before Jim reached the surface the saw some dark shadows coming closer. He bursted the surface and tried looking for land. He followed Jane.
"Thanks," Jim said with a little smile and took her hand. He got on his feet and looked back at the ocean. "Yeah, I think you are right." He wasn't sure what he had seen out there, but that sound.. It was best to not have to find out.

Jane sat down on a stone. "Have you seen what's out there?", she asked nicely. Her hand patted on the stone next to her, inviting Jim to sit down next to her. "We haven't seen each other in a while, huh?", she smiled softly at him. "And you are still not the one who talks a lot.", Jane chuckled amused.

"No.. but there's definitely something out there," Jim said and looked out at the water. But nothing could be seen from where they were. Jim turned towards Jane and sat down next to her.
"Hmm, yeah.." Jim said at her comment and looked away. She was right, he had never talked a lot. "Do you think we should just stay out here for now?"

Jane looked of the sea, striking her hair back when the wind blew it in her face. "Better than going back into the water.", she answered. The deep and dark sea still fascinated her. Jane remembered this place, she was here with Esmeralda before they ended up at this mysterious party. "We can't go away from here either. You can try, but if it's like the time I was here before you won't get far.", Jane turned her face to him and smiled.