I'm not broken (RoyalChaos)

Chapter 26 - The deep blue sea

"You taste salty!", he complained and frowned.

I bit down on my lip to stop myself from laughing at how dirty that could be understood as. Ze had seemingly noticed that too and blushed.

"You know what I meant. C'mon, let's swim out a bit", he suggested and before I could protest he was already swimming against the waves.

I sighed and followed, ducking underwater as a wave crashed down on me. It was a scary, yet somehow funny feeling being pulled in by the retracting water, only to be pushed back a bit by the next wave. I came back up and stuck my tongue out at Ze, who was hopping around on one foot again. I dove in to the water and let myself get pulled in again. It was kind of like sliding down a slide, only did you not have to sit or lie down, you could just float around and let the water do the work. After a while I got bored though, and the permanent current was draining my energy a bit. I wanted to get out and maybe get an ice cream with Ze, so I turned around again. It was only then that I realized just how far away from the shore I had gotten. My heart started beating faster as the fear returned to my body, and I hurried to start swimming back again.

My breathing stopped for a moment as I realized that the waves were pulling me away from the shore even more now, no matter how much energy I put into swimming back. My already fast and almost painfully beating heart quickened it's pace even more, I felt my chest get heavy and my throat close up. I was going to drown, I was going to die here and it wasn't going to be painless or easy. I choked on my own spit and coughed as I tried to call Ze, but he seemed to have heard me anyway, because he turned around and threw his arms over his head. He was so far away though, no, I was so far away. Something touched my foot, it was probably just some kind of underwater plant, but it freaked me out and I tensed up so much that every move hurt. I felt the energy getting drained out of my body and it was quickly getting hard for me to keep my head overwater. I gasped in the air as much as I could, my chest still feeling painfully tight.

"Anthony!", I heard Ze's voice in the distance and just a second later a wave from behind pushed me underwater.

My first instinct was to breathe and as a result of that I swallowed a bunch of salt water. As I struggled to get back up to the surface - the waves still tugging at my body, pulling me back again - I started to feel sick as well. I wanted to throw up, breathe and cry for help at the same time. I barely noticed that I reached the surface, and as soon as I did I coughed to get the water out of my lungs.

"Heeelp!", I yelled as I managed to catch a bit of breath.

My throat hurt, my chest hurt, my lungs hurt, my legs hurt, everything hurt. I was panicking again, whimpering like a child and struggling to breathe. I was going to drown for sure, there was no way out of this horror. I gave up the struggle and let myself go. Another wave crashed down on me and pulled me underwater again. I held my breath and waited for my body to float up to the surface again. If I was going to die I'd atleast try to make it easier. I'd go under in the deep blue sea, the ocean of the unknown. Would my body ever be found if it got dragged out further to sea? Would Ze be scarred from my death as much as he was from Mira's? But none of that was ever going to happen. I felt hands grab my arms and pull me up to the surface again. I wanted to open my eyes, but my vision was blurry and it kept getting dark again. Strong arms pulled me onto what I guessed was a surfboard and moments later I felt a cool wind drift over me. Was I being rescued? A short while later I was lifted off of the board and dragged along the beach until my rescuer dropped me on my hands and knees. I was so weak that I nearly fell over, but the same arms wrapped around me and pressed against my stomach, causing me to throw up.

"That's right, get it all out", a voice sounded from behind.

My throat was burning and I starting coughing to get the rest of the salt water out of me. More voices appeared, those of random passing people and finally the one I had hoped for, Ze's.