Gray's Domain: Purgatorium Series, Book Two by Eva Pohler Read Free Book Online

the sea lions, isn’t that right, Daph?”
    He wanted her to go in again? Why should she go in? Shouldn’t Brock be encouraged to swim after Bridget? That seemed the most logical thing to her. Daphne narrowed her eyes with uncertainty. What if her scarf came off?
    Daphne looked from one face to another, all eyes one her. “Right. It was…awesome.” Was she really meant to jump in again?
    Mary Ellen said, “Oh, I’d love to see that, dear. If I were younger, I’d go, too.”
    “If you’re sure it’s safe, I’d like to get a picture,” Joe added.
    Both Cam and Mary Ellen were silently urging Daphne to jump. As she glanced over at Emma, Gregory, and Vince, she could feel all of them willing her to dive into the sea. She wasn’t about to remove her shorts and t-shirt and strip to her underwear in front of her parents, so she jumped in, clothes and all, careful to keep her head above water so her scarf stayed secure, and swam out past Bridget toward the sea lions, all the while wondering why it was she who was being forced to play the victim again.
    The water was cold and exhilarating but added to her trembling. Even though she knew the sharks that were coming for her weren’t real, she was nevertheless nervous about how the game would go down. Then Daphne had her Aha moment: Hortense wanted Daphne in the water with the sharks because losing Daphne was her parents and Brock’s greatest fear.
    She used to fantasize about how her parents might react if she were dying. That night she had taken the bottles of Prozac and Tylenol, she had fantasized about what her parents would say over her dead body—how they would hold her and kiss her and say lovely things to her. They would feel terrible for anything bad they had ever said to her. They would finally love her as much as they had loved Kara.
    She blinked a few tears from her eyes and glanced back at the boat just as Bridget was being helped back onto the deck by Cam and Gregory. Daphne eased out toward the sea lions, taking the opportunity to get another good look at them. They really were amazing creatures—golden in color with dog-like faces, little flaps for ears, and long whiskers.
    “Hello,” she said to one of them, who had turned to study her.
    Then the screams began.
    Daphne pretended not to see the three dorsal fins approaching from her left. She waved at the boat, offering a repeat of her thumbs up. She saw her mother leaning over the rail, with one hand at her mouth and another pointing.
    Before Daphne could catch her breath, she was suddenly dragged beneath the surface. She reached for her scarf as the water swept it from her head, and she kicked and pulled, but a hand caught her wrist. It was Stan behind a diver’s mask. He fit the mouthpiece from his oxygen to her mouth. She gagged at first, needing to force water out. She scrambled to the surface, coughing and gagging. The screams from the boat startled her. She took a breath and went under, anxious to conceal her bald head. Then, after emptying the air in her lungs, she returned the mouthpiece to her lips and sucked in, relaxing her limbs in the water. Stan held one hand on her shoulder to prevent her from floating to the surface and, with the other, gave her the same thumbs up she had just given the passengers on the boat. He said something, but she couldn’t make out his words as the bubbles floated from his lips. Then Pete came up beside her with a knife, and Dave came up behind, and before she knew what was happening, Pete cut a gash into her calf just below her knee.
    It stung and the salt water burned. She kicked and pushed away from them, angry and shocked that they would physically harm her for the sake of the exercise, but she found no resistance as the men quickly swam, with flippers on their feet and oxygen on their backs (beneath plastic dorsal fins), down deep and out of sight.
    When Daphne emerged, coughing and choking, and without her scarf, which she’d lost in the chaos, she saw