The Green Light

Will-o-wisp - 1. a misleading illusion, a fallacy. 2. a pale light seen occasionally at night in marshland under the right conditions.

Light travels differently in water, it doesn’t reach as far. Distorting and warping into shapes unseen on the surface. The suns beams shone down in brilliant columns of golden light illuminating all that it touched. But only to a point. At a certain depth the sunlight got weaker and dimmer until it bore more of a resemblance to a flickering candle in the wind than the fierce rays of the sun.

After that it was nothing, just dark and still. The occasional flickers of a diver’s headlamp lighting up the gloom briefly, like dying stars in the night. That was Amira’s favorite part, how the light changed in the transition from land to sea. It never got old and she hoped it never would. While she was still on her first year of diving as a job rather than an expensive hobby, the thrill of it still hadn’t worn off. Amira smiled goofily under her mask as she gazed at the light beaming down from the surface. At times like this she wished she had artistic talent to capture such a lovely sight. She was pulled from her thoughts as one of her coworkers nudged her shoulder, jerkily signing for her to stay with their group.

Amira’s tan face flushed with embarrassment as she hurriedly swam after her colleagues. The bulk of the group was several meters ahead already, with some pairs branching off to collect samples. The entire point of this diving expectation was to investigate the source of strange readings in the area that the radar had picked up on. Amira had pointed out how incredibly vague their objective was to her more seasoned teammates and was met with rueful nods. Apparently this particular client company always had odd requests. Nothing dangerous though the senior members assured her upon seeing her discomforted expression. Something about their explanation left a bad taste in her mouth but Amira let it go, not wanting to rock the boat. Plus she was getting paid good money to do what she loved, what was there to complain about? The worst that could happen to her was getting the bends.

Just as that thought crossed her mind she saw a glimmer of light out of the corner of her eye. She almost dismissed it as a reflection of the sunlight but paused. It was… coming from the wrong direction. She craned her head down as she squinted, unsure if what she was seeing was real. Far far down below was an impossibly flickering green light .

What was that? And unwary driver with a green headlamp? Why were they so far and down if so? Maybe it was some sort of bioluminescent underwater plant, or some jellyfish group together? Her mind spun wildly with countless questions all the while her eyes fixed on blinking light on that eerie impossible green light. The light was in between the shades of emerald and Jade flickering periodically it seem to be drawing her intention unerringly couldn’t look away even if she wanted to which surprisingly she didn’t. The light was… entrancing, beautiful. Where was the light coming from? She had to know. She had to.

A buzzing vibration on her wrist finally threw her eyes away from the bewitching light. Disoriented Amira looked at her wrist to find that her oxygen levels have maybe 10 to 15 minutes left until it ran out. Amira shook her head disposing me as her features twisted in shock and horror she had entered the water with a full tank the descent had taken maybe five minutes She rationalized frantically. That meant… That meant that she had been floating down here staring at this light for well over an hour at this point.

“No way no way no way.” Amira mumbled unconsciously bubbles sputtering out for her mask as she flipped her head around desperately trying to find some trace of her group, to no avail. Her heart plummeted as she came to the realization that her group was long gone.

In her frantic searching her gaze caught a flickering and immediately slapped her hands over her eyes. Not wanting to be caught in the green light’s grasp again. Just as she thought that the water around her shifted and the light shone ever brighter, painting the insides of her eyelids with its intensity. The water surrounding her was moving oddly and she risked just the tiniest of peeks, trying to see what was happening. What she saw nearly made her scream in incredulous terror.

The green light was pulling her, like a reverse tractor beam taking her down instead of up. Now entirely certain the source of the strange readings was this light, she pumped her arms and legs for tickly trying to swim upwards. Suddenly her limbs felt like anchors weighing her down. As Amira descended ever further she felt the pressure increasing drastically, she swore she could feel all of the thousands and thousands of pounds of water pressing down on her. At last when she was sure her eyes were about to pop out of her skull the pull suddenly stopped. She had found the source of the green light, albeit unwillingly.

Amira looked at the source and began to feel a yawning sense of dread. Like when you’re walking down the stairs at night and step down confidently, only to be met with empty air. It was a massive piece of sea-glass the largest she had ever seen, even in pictures. And as she turned her head to look closer the beam from her headlamp reflected back at her with a terribly familiar eerie green light.

Amira’s lungs and eyes began to burn in tandem. The former from lack of oxygen and the latter from an excess of tears. They start to pool in the bottom of her mask, distorting her vision further as she raised her fist to pound weakly at the horrid, lovely piece of glass, strength fading quickly. Amira’s final bewildered thought was, how it was physically impossible for light to travel so far underwater.