Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 216(@200wpm)___ 173(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 216(@200wpm)___ 173(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
My mother and I were on vacation, having booked this short trip to Tybee Island, a barrier island some eighteen miles east of Savannah, Georgia on the Atlantic Ocean. At that time, I couldn’t remember ever being out of Tennessee or ever even seeing the ocean, though my father said I’d been born in Greece, and we’d come to America when I was a baby. I didn’t remember any of that, so this was a special treat.
Now that I knew what I was missing, though, there would be no going back. Since we arrived late the night before, neither of us went out to see the ocean, though we looked at it from our beachfront window. I lay awake all night long, the anticipation keeping me from being able to sleep. What I couldn’t wait to do was just go wading out in the waves, but we had arrived so late, it hadn’t been an option. This boat trip into the waters of the Atlantic, however, was turning out to be the most exciting day of my life. My soul felt like it was vibrating inside me.
Suddenly…and I mean out of fucking nowhere, the skies darkened, huge clouds rolling in from the open sea. Waves started thrashing against the boat, causing it to rock dangerously. The crew of the boat yelled at us to sit down and be sure we were wearing our life jackets, but I hesitated too long, watching the dolphins disappearing, diving deep into the ocean water that only moments ago had been a beautiful blue. Now, the waves were murky gray and dangerously choppy. I checked to make sure my stepmom had her jacket on and sat down.
The captain turned the boat back in the direction of the docks, though we were still a good way out. A few passengers were clinging to their kids and holding onto them tightly. It didn’t help much—the kids screamed louder, and everybody got a shocked, scared, seasick look on their faces as the small boat was tossed about in the waves.
With horror, I watched a huge wave smash into the side of the boat, nearly toppling it completely over. As soon as it righted itself, a set of parents who had brought their young child with them on the trip began screaming wildly. Their little girl was suddenly gone, swept overboard by the huge wave.
Without thinking, I dove into the water after her. I had been the best swimmer on our swim team at school. Since she had thankfully been wearing her life jacket, she was easy to spot. She was gasping and choking though, and totally panicked, so I scooped her up and returned to the boat, handing her up to her parents, before I tried to climb back in myself. With me kind of proud of myself and feeling like a hero, the waters around me began to grow rougher—nothing I couldn’t handle—but even more choppy, not to mention dark gray and wild. The waves were trying to tear me away from the side of the boat, no matter how much I struggled against them.
The captain slung a makeshift rope ladder over the side. Someone threw me a life preserver, and everyone was yelling encouragement at me. But just as I managed to grasp the rope ladder, something wrapped around my ankle and yanked me down beneath the surface. Deeper and deeper, twisting and turning as I struggled against it, I lost all sense of direction—wouldn’t have even known which direction to swim in if I could have gotten away, and I was having zero luck at that. If anything, I was getting more and more worried with each passing second.
Then I felt a rough, slimy touch on my bare leg. I looked down in horror and all the air fled my lungs in a panic. A huge, green tentacle was slithering over my leg, trying to latch on and move upward to imprison my arms. No matter how much I struggled, pushing and hitting the things with my fists, there was no escape. They were pulling me down to the bottom of the sea, and I was drowning.
I knew it and yet a sense of calm came over me. It seemed inevitable, and maybe it would hurt less just to let go. But I stubbornly continued to hold my breath for as long as possible. I’d heard it wasn’t a painful way to go once you finally gave up and sucked the water into your lungs…yet I still instinctively fought it. I fought to live, even when I knew there wasn’t a chance. Hell, I was way too young to die.
In the inky blackness, a pale face suddenly appeared right in front of me. It was a beautiful young man, and at first I thought I was hallucinating. He looked to be my age—with bright green eyes and hair the color of seaweed. Not the dead, ugly brown seaweed I’d seen washed up on the beach, but the lovely green jewel tones of the living plant. Its long strands wrapped around him all the way to his waist. I stared right into those beautiful eyes of his, and I noticed the exotic slant of them, along with his high cheekbones. The apparition moved even closer and palmed both my cheeks. His eyes met my own oddly shaded blue-green ones, and it must have been a hallucination brought on by lack of oxygen because I thought I could honestly feel him probing my mind, like he was searching out my thoughts. Then he spoke to me. Not with his voice, but inside my head.