When I saw the flooded basement, my first thought was "Well, there goes my vacation." It was flooded almost to my waist. Had the storm really been that bad? There would be thousands of dollars in water damage alone, to say nothing of the furniture I would have to replace. Luckily, all my storage was in the attic. I didn't have to worry about family heirlooms like my neighbor.

I turned to go back up, and switched off the light. That was when I noticed the glow. Last I'd heard, phosphorescent bacteria weren't a thing in the foothills of the Rockies, nor did they form a stationary circle like the one in the far corner of the room. I grabbed a flashlight and a snorkel and waded over to the anomaly.

Ducking underwater revealed what could only be something out of a movie. It was like someone had cut out a perfect circle in the floor. Was the water coming from this? My explorer's instincts left me with only one option.

In an hour, I was in full scuba gear. Any neighbors who might have seen me would have thought I was crazy as I hooked a lead to my belt and swam down into the hole. It was a climbing rope, long enough to reach a half a mile without stopping. I figured it might be dangerous to go farther than that without help.

Looking back the way I came, I could see faint sunlight shining through. All around me was complete blackness dotted by phosphorescence, as if I were in the deep ocean, but the pressure at those depths should just kill me instantly. All I felt was coldness like tentacles wrapping around my arms, my legs, my neck.

Abruptly, something pulled my mouthpiece out of my mouth. Water rushed into my lungs. I was drowning . . . wasn't I? Instead of rebelling at the water, I was breathing like normal. A tug at my waist, and the light went out completely. The aperture, gone as if it had never been.

My wetsuit suddenly felt constrictive, painfully constrictive. Disregarding all common sense, I removed every stitch, every bit of rubber, until I wasn't even wearing my Speedo. Odd, I could see better without my goggles than with them. Wait, what was happening to my hands? They were webbed like an amphibian's, with sharp claws where fingernails should be. My legs were constricted by an invisible net, until they moved as one, transformed into a long serpent's tail.

A voice echoed in my mind, cutting through the horror. You're his now.