text: I was cave diving, like I did every summer. My brother was with me, but he stayed up top. He kept an eye on my lines. He never liked caves, or swimming. I took after our dad. There was a tug on the rope in my hand and I tugged back, letting him know I was still alive. It was tied around my wrist. If I didn’t respond, my brother would reeling me back in. It wasn’t the right way to handle stuff like this, but we’d come up with a system that worked for us. These caves were new to me. I’d done all of our local ones, water caves and dry. I’d managed to convince my brother to come with me to the next state so I could explore here. He was still grumbling when we got to the entrance this morning. He’d settle down once I surfaced and we could head home. The rope tugged again and I pulled a little harder this time, thinking that maybe my tugs hadn’t gone all the way to the end. The line stilled after that. I rolled my eyes and swam a little deeper. It was like another world. The only light was from the waterproof headlamp I had strapped to my forehead. I had a hand flashlight on my belt if I needed it. But I liked to keep my hands free so I could run my hands over the rocks like I was doing now. Again, the rope tugged at my wrist. I gritted my teeth and pulled hard twice. Why the hell was my brother tugging so often? Was he really just not getting my responses? If I wasn’t careful, he’d start reeling me in. And I really didn’t want to start again in these caves. I’d gotten really far in. I waited for the tug to come again. Or for him to start pulling me through the caves. But there was nothing. I counted, reaching sixty twice before I turned and started heading deeper. My harder tugs must have reached, or I had pulled him into the water. I grinned. I’d gotten maybe ten metres further before there was another tug on my wrist. I could have sworn. I gripped the rope and placed my feet on the walls, using some small outcroppings as a platform. I reefed on the rope. There was no tension in it. There was way too much slack. There was something wrong. I started swimming back, keeping my hands off the rope. I didn’t want to pull it all the way down with me. Not if it had broken somewhere. It was my guide out of here. I’d gotten too arrogant. It had been years since I’d stopped mind mapping when I dived. Oh! I knew that clump of plant. It wasn’t often that plants grew in underwater caves, and yet here it was. I was about halfway up. The rope still trailed away around the corner, hidden by the plant. I swam closer. The rope was cut. The end floated in front of me. I grabbed it, fumbling for my flashlight. The beam of light bobbed through the water, bouncing off rocks. But the other end of the rope wasn’t here. My brother must have reeled it in. Or it might be around a corner. I just had to look. I tried to kick off and went nowhere. Glancing down at my feet, I found that the plant had wrapped itself around me. I kicked hard. Pain shot through my ankle and I saw red leaking from under the plant. It had cut me! I kicked again but there was more pain. A tendril lashed out, wrapping around my wrist. I tried to pull away, but the edges of its leaves cut into my flesh. More and more tendrils wrapped around me, dragging me closer to its centre. And with every tendril, there was more red, and I grew weaker.