Maybe it would be better to drown first, I thought weakly, although drowning seemed inevitable either way.
Something snapped around my arm, pulling.
The tugging continued, now on my wrist too, rough and hot, the two grips, tearing me in opposite directions.
Something tight, strong, circled my waist, and I screamed behind my lips as it won the battle, my ankle burning and snapping with the sudden change in movement.
Bubbles rushed past me. We were hurrying now, the water heavy but fluid. A body brushed against my side, shot me forward, and continued to push, the grip on my ribs fierce.
I nearly let out a startled cry as I finally realized. A rescue.
Light was a tiny pinpoint above, rippling through the seal of the pool, and my vision was all but black for that tiny little glitter of hope.
And then we broke the surface. Cool air kissed my cheeks. My hair slapped against my skin, and there was a great gasping from behind me.
I still couldn't breathe.
"Come on, puisín, just a touch further."
The ropes of water were still in my chest, and though my mouth had fallen open and my head was drooping forward, nothing came free.
"Esther!"
A solid, determined grip squeezed around my arms, my body a dead weight as I was hauled out of the water.
"She can't breathe."
"Too much water."
"What do we—"
Such a burning horrible squirming pain. Numbness also. How could it be both?
Briefly, there was nothing, nothing but my own terror. No sound, no air, no touch, just a deep case of black, as thick and impenetrable as it had been while I'd been dragged down. Death, I assumed calmly.
Then I rattled. Pain walloped, vivid and loud against my back.
And everything came back up my throat, spilling black and glossy over the stones, my eyes aching in my skull, wide with alarm. My nails clawed at the stone, and the sudden smack from somewhere deep in my belly and rising up to my lungs, blessedly out, returned. I heaved again, before being roughly torn away from the floor.
And as if I'd forgotten how, I found myself taking a breath with a bone-deep shock. Had I ever been so aware of air in my lungs before?
I let out a shriek, thrashing against the touch on my cheeks, unseen but warm.
"Shhh, Esther, shhh."
"Farther back, I think, Mr. MacKenna," a soft voice urged. "She's about to—"
Now, suddenly remembering how to breathe, I hauled in another deep breath until I could pull no longer. And then I was gone.