Chapter 1
A sharp ringing blares in my ears as consciousness finds me. My lungs ache with need and I try to suck in a breath around this devastating darkness only to be hit with an extraordinary pain that I’m not prepared for.
I choke back, desperately searching for oxygen as pressure weighs down heavily on my chest.
What’s happening to me?
The pressure hits again. Fast, rhythmic movements that ache.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
Something touches my face as my lungs scream for sweet relief and then finally, the heaviness weighing down inside of me comes tearing up my throat.
I choke back on the water, desperately trying to cough it up. It fills my mouth and as I try to suck in a breath, the water falls to the back of my throat, more than ready to end it all.
Hands grab me and I’m forced onto my side. The movement has pain shooting through me but I can’t deny the relief as my lungs start emptying of water, allowing me short, pained gasps of sweet oxygen.
Fingers are forced inside my mouth as I choke and sputter on the murky water, desperately needing to get it all out.
Images shoot through my mind of Slade’s Dodge RAM catapulting off the bridge and crashing down into the freezing water of Aston Creek. I’ve never been so scared in my life.
What the hell happened to us? Did he get out? Did I get out or is this the awfulness of hell? Am I dead and sentenced to spend the rest of eternity with this deprivation of oxygen, desperately searching for air as the agony claims me? I know this couldn’t be heaven as I don’t deserve that.
I cough and splutter and after what feels like a lifetime, the water is gone and I can finally breathe. Each pain-filled gasp is accompanied by a burning agony that sails down my throat and right through to my lungs. Despite the torture, it’s one hell of a welcome burn.
I’m not ready to die.
My head lolls onto a hard surface as my eyes refuse to open. They’re so damn heavy, my whole body is. I’ve run from the devil and yet I’ve never felt so physically exhausted in my life. I’m completely drained, absolutely empty. I feel the need to cry and sob but I simply don’t have it in me.
Hands are pulling at me painfully, grabbing at my arms, legs, and neck. The ache in every inch of my body threatens to pull me back into unconsciousness, but I fight against it. I will not lose this one. I can’t.
The hands continue pulling until someone grabs my head, forcing my eyes open and shining a flashlight back and forth. It crosses my vision three times before my eyelids are released and my eyes snap shut again.
My body is jostled around with bumps and I distantly realize that I must be in some kind of car. The motion has me wanting to hurl but I’m too exhausted to even try.
Where’s Slade?
The thought has my eyes peeling open to find a man hovering in front of me, busily reaching for bandages and gauze.
I glance up and down, looking as far as I can without having to raise my head off the gurney. I’ve got to be in an ambulance, that’s the only logical explanation. If I’m in an ambulance then that means Slade must have gotten me out, but where is he?
I need him.
My eyes grow watery and I choke back a sob that has my throat and lungs desperate to give out. This has to get better. The guy who I now realize is an EMT crouches down to get in my face. His lips move but all I hear is a sharp ringing.
There’s a strange urgency about him that I don’t understand until he stands up and presses his palms down on my thigh.
I scream but I don’t know if any sound comes out.
What the fuck is that? Why does it hurt so fucking bad?
I try to reach for my thigh when a hand is shoved into my aching chest and I’m forced back down to the gurney. The guy gets in my face. He yells something but I don’t know what he’s saying as the ringing continues, getting louder and more intense.
Why won’t this end? I just want to sleep. I want Slade and I want to go back to before this whole night even started. We were having such a great time until it was all torn away.
I just want to go home.
Please, God, tell me that Slade made it. The look in his eyes as the water crept higher and higher until I’d completely gone under…fuck. I never want to see that fear again. It was like nothing I’ve ever witnessed before. It was simply horrifying. Devastating.