The new film
By Carolyn and Riwa
Dan was sitting on the deck of his swimming pool. He was drinking a beer and watching one of the many movies from a company called Aquafans. Their specialty was making fetish movies for people like himself. Specifically, it was those whose fetish was watching girls drown. He had quite a collection, and had found even more like them on the internet. Still, sitting there with his Ipad on his lap, he wasn’t happy.
Things just weren’t the way that they used to be. Once upon a time he’d feel himself get hard and rub one out by watching his fetish collection. Now he was just bored. At one point it had just become unrealistic because the girls could always hold their breath for 20 minutes, and sometimes even more. Also, he’d seen them all dozens of times and there were just no more to be seen. Sitting there, he just closed the Ipad and thought “now I could do a better job than that, and maybe even sell a few.” He thought about it and mulled it over for several days. With time an idea came to him and he set his plan into motion.
The first thing that needed to be done was to get the right equipment. That was the easy part since underwater cameras weren’t hard to get and, as an expert scuba diver, he could be his own cameraman. Getting the right actress would be the hard part. She had to be young, with an excellent figure who could swim well and was just 18 but not over 24. Dan even put out a casting call in the local paper and used his home pool as his testing studio.
Things didn’t prove to be as difficult as he had thought they would. Rather than getting 2-3 girls calling with interest he was inundated with young ladies who wanted to audition. He let the paper run his ad for a week before he took it down. Each screening had him in the pool with the girl who was auditioning. He didn’t have them do a drowning sequence. Dan didn’t want to tip his hand so he just had them model in their swimwear in, out, on top of, and underneath the water. After that first week he had 107 auditions to sort through. Dan felt that it was best to pick out several and keep several more in reserve. Then he began to do just that.
It was a lot of video to sort through. There were a lot of girls to review. He was a little surprised so many had responded to his ad. Some were aspiring actresses; others wanted to become models. There were those who were ambitious and those who were curious.
He spent several hours looking at footage and comparing notes. Modeling was one thing; starring in a video a totally different situation entirely. What he wanted would depend on how well they could perform underwater.
It took a while to narrow down the field. Some were in it as a lark; most of those he threw away except for a few intriguing possibilities. The others he sorted depending on how well they filled out a swimsuit. After all, he was a male… and if a girl didn’t appeal to him, chances are she wouldn’t appeal to the audience he had in mind.
After a while he began to whittle down his list. He had a number of callbacks to contact. Then it was only a matter of devising the scenarios he envisioned. After all, he had underwater action in mind and he needed these girls to be able to perform.
After watching and re-watching what he thought were most favorable prospects for what he had in mind, he called back 10 of the girls. He’d decided to come up with two who were serious and two who’d he’d use as understudies. After watching all of the auditions he’d decided that she had to be physically fit but not a gym rat, have long hair (but the color didn’t matter), and be no more than 24 years old.
Although that age group wouldn’t be a problem, he reconsidered. On the one hand it was obvious that some of the girls were lying and were still in High School and he didn’t need that hassle. Also, he wanted to be different so maybe an older woman might work as well (as long as she wasn’t gumming her food and could walk on her own).
Dan made his calls and scheduled each of the ladies for a call back. Once they arrived, one at a time, he brought them back to the pool and had them each do laps and then, while he was in the pool, pretend to do a drowning scene. In the end the finalists were:
Lisa; She was 22 with long red hair that went halfway down her back and had worn a bikini that was the same color as her hair.
Jamie: Shoulder length brown hair and a slightly larger frame. She was 34 but still a looker.
For his understudies he picked:
Tonya: at 20 she was the youngest of the bunch. She was the only brunette in the group and her hair went just past her shoulders. On the one hand, she was the least experienced swimmer but she was also the most experienced actress in the group.
Last of all there was Betty. She had a simple farm girl look about her and had accidentally showed up in a black one piece instead of the bikini. Her inability to follow directions bothered him but she was the most attractive of the group. So Dan put her in the understudy group instead of bouncing her.
Once he was done getting the necessary materials together, doing the boat rental, and all the other details he made his first call.
“Hello, Lisa? This is Dan. I want you to know I picked you out of all the girls I auditioned and called back over the last few days.” She responded by telling him she was thrilled he had picked her.
“Listen, The scene I have in mind requires open water. How comfortable are you in open water?” She told him she was happy doing anything so long as she got a little money out of the deal the way he had discussed with her earlier.
“Fine; fine. Can you meet me down at the marina? I have a boat all rented out. I thought you would enjoy a nice ride out on open water while we get ready to film this. Consider it my way of saying thank you for responding to my ad and being so enthusiastic about my project.”
She told him she was more than happy about it. She was a little hesitant about doing a drowning scene. But mostly he’d just asked her to bubble and float. Since those involved doing a little acting while holding her breath she figured she would be up to the challenge.
“I’ll try to come up with a little bit more for you to do, Lisa. I know you were interested in taking some acting lessons. Maybe this film I’m wanting to make will further your acting career. I know we’re only talking about being underwater here. But you do have to act underwater. So it would make a nice addition to your portfolio.”
She responded over the phone how appreciative she was to have this opportunity. She said deeper water should be no problem because she was used to treading water. And a ride in a boat sounded like a lot of fun.
“That’s great, Lisa. I’ll meet you down at the marina. I’ll be right there at the entrance so you shouldn’t miss me. I’m looking forward to working with you.” She thanked him and then hung up.
Dan went out to the Marina, determined to beat Lisa there. The boat, and all of its supplies, were already there and waiting. An hour later, Lisa arrived. She was wearing cut-off jeans and a white shirt. But it was easy to see that same red bikini under her shirt. Her hair, which had gone all the way down, was tied up so as not to get in the way.
“Thanks for being punctual,” he said.
“Thank you for choosing me,” she replied. “I really appreciate the chance.”
Dan nodded and turned the engine over. As he untied the boat and set out he told Lisa about the part that he wanted her to play. As he drove the boat to the middle of the clear lake, being careful that there were no other boats around, he told her that she needed to play the part of a good friend to another actress who, as a character element device, falls overboard and starts drowning to bring out the main characters courage.
She bought it.
They were approaching the middle of the lake and Lisa saw Dan reach down into a bag by his feet. The engine died and, not turning, told her that she need to change into her swimwear.
Lisa started to take off her shirt. But before it was off, while her arms will still trapped, she felt Dan grab her from behind. She cried out as a cloth was suddenly forced against her face, covering her nose and mouth. She tried to fight back but quickly lost consciousness because of the chloroform that Dan had soaked the rag with.
Dan lowered Lisa onto the deck, untied her hair, and finished taking off her street clothes. He couldn’t help but get a little hard looking at her in the bikini. He told himself that he had made a good first choice.
Dan thought about what he was going to do next. The camera would need to be ready to record what he wanted. After all, he would only have one shot at this.
As he looked at her lying there in her bikini he thought about all those videos he had watched and how they had been losing their luster as of late. Was he prepared to go through with this? He certainly thought so as he wanted something a little more “realistic”.
He looked down at Lisa again. He was definitely glad he had chosen her, definitely glad she’d agreed to come out on the boat with him. She would be a prime candidate for his first video. He just hoped he wouldn’t screw anything up during the video portion of his plan.
“Ok,” he told himself. “It’s showtime.” Then he smiled at Lisa lying prone on the deck. He was definitely getting hard just thinking about this…
–
Lisa slowly came awake and felt the water against her skin. Her head hurt from the chloroform but she realized that she was surrounded by water and would have already drowned if not for the air regulator that was taped to her mouth so that it couldn’t fall out. She breathed deeply, trying to clear her head and analyze her situation.
She looked up and saw that she was easily 70 feet below the surface and could see the clear blue sky above it. Her hands were bound in front of her by a cord and she immediately pushed off the bottom and kicked to the surface. She was surprised when she didn’t go up and realized that is was because her legs were not responding to what her brain was telling them to do. She looked around, frantically trying to see what was holding them down, but found nothing.
Then she saw Dan in front of her. He was holding a sign with large block letters written on it. She squinted, trying to read it but it was difficult since she had no mask and her long red hair kept floating in front of her face. As Dan came closer, in full scuba gear, she was able to make it out.
“Don’t worry about your legs,” the sign said, “Before I brought you down I put an anesthetic in your spine. You’re legs are paralyzed and won’t respond or work for several hours. The good part is that you won’t feel any pain during our filming. Clear so far?”
Lisa nodded.
Dan flipped the sign over and she read the other side. “Now if I were you I’d swim for the surface.”
Helpless, she watched as he came close with some very expensive underwater camera equipment. Still unnerved, she watched him go behind her and felt the regulator yanked out from her mouth and felt the knife go under her shoulders and slit the rope binding her hands together.
Free, but without air, she swam for the surface with all the strength she could find. She didn’t pay any attention to Dan as he followed her up, keeping the camera between them.
Lisa was a good swimmer, something that she had proved during her audition. But her entire lower body was deadweight, her legs useless. Still, she kept pulling for all she was worth, trying to get to the surface. Dan watched, smiling behind his camera, as her cheeks puffed up and her long red hair trailed behind her.
Lisa felt herself starting to fade, the weight of her body to much for just her arms to handle. But with a final effort she was able to break through the surface. Her nose and mouth were blocked by her own hair and she quickly brushed it aside and took deep breathes.
Her arms were killing her and she tried, to no avail, to kick away. But whatever Dan had used on her was still working perfectly. Still, in the open air, she was able to get just enough air to maintain the strength that her arms needed to keep her head above water.
Lisa took a desperate look around, wanting to signal for help. But she didn’t see any other boats.
There were bubbles in front of her as Dan broke the water, well out of her reach. He took out his own regulator but never dropped the camera down.
“Not bad for our first take…but that was just the rehearsal. Now we’re going to do the real shoot.”
Lisa watched as Dan swam under. Then she was yanked under the surface, being pulled down by her legs. As she went down and her lungs started to pull, she saw the air tank that she had abandoned. Turning, she used her arms to swim down to it. Dan was more than happy to let her go.
Lisa took large gasps of air from the regulator and propped herself up on the bottom, waiting for Dan to join her below. The air tank showed 3/4 left. But that didn’t do anything to alleviate the terror that she was feeling.
This whole thing felt insane. What was he trying to do to her?? He never mentioned knocking her out or paralyzing her legs during the audition!
It didn’t make sense; she had barely made it to the surface using only her arms. She didn’t like this at all. Now she was scared… and she wanted to go home.
She sat on the lake bottom wondering what the hell kind of scene he wanted at this depth. And where were the safety divers? She’d expected to remain close to the surface; that she could have handled. But this… this was crazy!
She inhaled deeply from the regulator, watching in alarm as Dan came down to her. Now she didn’t trust him anymore… couldn’t trust him anymore. Nothing about this gave her any sense of ease or comfort.
She tried to move her legs again and found they still didn’t function. That was the worst of it all. It made no sense for him to cripple her like that. Didn’t he realize she needed her legs to swim around? What the hell was he thinking??
She watched as Dan came towards her. He constantly kept the camera between the two of them and went this way and that, obviously trying to capture her at every angle and vantage that he could. Lisa tried to follow him as he circled around. But she accidentally wrapped herself up in the regulator’s hose. She kept having to take out the regulator to untangle herself, although he made no move to take it away from her.
Lisa was able to get a quick glance at the meter. It showed that she had a tad over half a tank left. Again, she pushed up with her arms and kicked for the surface, but her legs just stayed on the bottom.
Dan was truly enjoying himself. He liked the look in her eyes with no mask to hide them. Her struggle above had even gotten him hard and he was able to capture it from every angle. Right now her hair floating was what was turning him on the most.
It was time to finish filming though.
For a second time he yanked away her regulator and pulled it out of reach. All the while, Lisa had been taking deep breaths, preparing herself for what she knew was coming. The moment it was gone she brought out her arms and went into gear, going for the air at the surface again.
Something was wrong though. She didn’t feel any pain but did notice how her hip moved when Dan acted. Still behind the camera, he had pulled a dive knife out and stabbed her in the legs. She felt no pain and for a moment her sight was obscured by the blood that was coming out of her.
Pulling for all she was worth, Lisa found the surface again but realized that it was just the two of them. Trying her best, she was able to keep treading water and stay in the air. And, once again, there was Dan in front of her. She lunged at him but didn’t come close.
Still, treading water and keeping her head above the surface, she suddenly started to feel a bit light headed. Her head slipped under for a moment but she was able to use her arms to pull herself up again. Still, it was becoming harder and harder for her to do it.
Looking down, she cried out in horror as she realized that there was too much blood coming out of her leg and starting to weaken her.
She looked at Dan in astonishment. Why the hell had he stabbed her? What the hell was he doing? She was bleeding out in the water; what was he thinking??
She kept trying to stay at the surface, her arms sculling like crazy. But she was becoming exhausted. She was also feeling faint.
She took one last look at him before she slipped under the surface. This time she didn’t have the strength to scull herself back up. She tried pulling with her arms but her bleeding legs were dead weight. She couldn’t make them kick, couldn’t make them function.
She was going to die out here; she knew that now. She couldn’t explain it; there was no rhyme or reason for it. He’d simply brought her out here to kill her… and now she was going to drown, too weakened to reach the surface again.
With a final burst of her reserves Lisa was able to pull her body back up to the surface. Her head barely broke the water. Tilting her head back she took a final breath of air before she slipped under again. Then she began a slow descent down. She kept telling her legs to kick, but they weren’t listening.
Dan went down with her, but paused before he followed so that he could get an angle from up top. Her arms with their weakening efforts and her hair swishing around was getting to him.
Still sinking, Lisa spied the oxygen tank below. She turned her body so that it was facing downward and swam for it. But in the end she had lost too much blood and was too weak to make it all the way. Dan watched and filmed, only a few feet away, as her cheeks puffed out and she brought her hand up to cover her mouth.
Her body started to hitch and suddenly she lost the air that she was holding. She made a final effort for the tank but was still almost twenty feet away when she was overwhelmed by the lack of air and blood. Dan moved in and got a great shot of her face as her neck arched back and her eyes closed.
Lisa’s limbs extended out in all directions and she eventually settled on the bottom, less than five feet from the tank that could have helped her. Dan kept her in full view of his camera and kept filming until she had been on the bottom for over five minutes.
Dan stopped filming and looked at his watch. From the time that she had managed to grab her last breath until she passed out was about a minute and a half.
“Twenty minutes…who are they kidding?” he thought to himself.
Swimming up, and looking back down at poor Lisa, he started to wonder if he should try to make another film or not.
© 2016 (written by Carolyn and Riwa Jul 11 ’16)