The Black Necromancer-Book 4

Chapter 36

                Up ahead, the slide forked into two different exits. Dahlia hurtled down the one on the right; her light weight caused her to angle into that one. Due to their heavier masses, Troy and Kayla were both sent spinning into the left slide.

                “Troy!”

                “Dahlia!”

                The duo shrieked each other’s names at the same time as they were split up, both trying to grab onto anything to halt their slide. Kayla clutched Excalibur to her chest, trying to prevent the sword from stabbing Troy as he tried to stop their fall.

                “Kayla, do something!” Troy yelled frantically.

                “What?” Kayla demanded.

                “Anything!” he shouted back.

                Before Kayla could do anything as Troy said, the slide levelled out and they flew through the air once more. Kayla’s shriek of terror was cut off as they crashed straight into an ice-cold lake that immediately made Kayla’s teeth chatter with cold as she sank. Frantically swimming against the cold dead weight of her silver weapons, she struck out desperately for the surface, unaware of where Troy was.

                For a brief second, she thought that she would not be able to reach the surface, but with a pop, the water surface yielded and her head broke the surface. Gasping for air, she treaded water desperately, trying to swim in a circle to find Troy.

                “Troy!” she shouted.

                There was no response. Dread filled Kayla as she realized just how paralyzing Troy’s fear of the water probably was, considering how afraid Dahlia was of fire. Panic blazed through her like a warm fire. The next second, Excalibur was ablaze, lit up above the water surface.

                “Bloo-” Kayla began and then she gasped as the light illuminated Troy’s body beneath the water surface.

                All shock about Excalibur’s fire, she dove for him, surprised at how the flame stayed alight even though she was beneath the water surface. Troy was sinking, but unlike Dahlia, he was trying to swim against the heavy water current although it was clear that he was not a strong swimmer.

                Kayla grabbed his hand to try and pull him up, but they were too heavy for either of them to swim up to the surface again. Lungs burning, Kayla attempted to swim upwards. The weight of their weapons was so heavy that neither of them was able to rise. Bubbles rising in the water above her mouth, Kayla instinctively opened her mouth to breathe. Water rushed in and she started choking and coughing.

                The next second, they shot out of the water like a torpedo. The second they broke the surface, Kayla gasped desperately for air, relief flooding through her as her lungs filled with air. Choking and coughing on the water that still flooded her lung, she vomited up whatever water and food that remained in her stomach.

                “Kayla! Are you alright?” Troy gasped, still gagging on water.

                The duo smacked back into the water, but this time, nearer the surface. The next second, the water swirled, sending them spinning through it like rubbish in a fiercely-powered water chute. Kayla yelled Troy’s name, trying to grab hold of her brother. He seized her arm, grimacing as his injured palms made contact with her arm. Without time to ask him was wrong, they went back under the water surface.

                They were tossed about every which way, unable to make sense of what was up and what was down, where was right and where was left. Every time they broke the surface of the water, they gasped for breath, just enough to stay alive until their next surface.

                “Hang on!” Kayla spluttered, in her next breath, but there was not much they could do.

                Troy gasped suddenly as a new water current sucked on his legs, pulling him downward faster than they could swim away. With another gasp of air, Troy shouted, “Whirlpool!”

                “Troy!”

                Kayla managed to free herself from the whirlpool’s clutches before it got a firm grasp on her, but it refused to relinquish Troy. The tighter Kayla held on, the faster the whirlpool threatened to suck her in too.

                “Kayla, let go!” Troy shouted, full of idiotic bravery for Kayla knew that he could not swim. “This is my challenge! You have to let go! You’re going to get sucked in too!”

                “No!” Kayla’s protest was cut off by another wave that swept her underwater again. Clawing herself back to the surface, she gripped Troy’s hand as tightly as possible, although she could already feel herself being tugged into the whirlpool.

                “Sorry, sis,” Troy panted and the next second, she felt a sharp pain in her injured leg. With a cry of pain, she released his arm. Too late, she realized the trap that she had fallen into.

                “Troy!” 

                Her yell was full of rage, but it was too late; she was knocked away from Troy as he was sucked into the middle of the whirlpool and the siblings were separated.