▲ My Vampire Best Friends ▲

Chapter Five- After Death Surprises!

  I woke up with no world around me. Everything was black. I opened my eyes and they were raw like twin fish sitting on my face. I yanked myself upwards, and pulled to the side. I couldn't move. My arms were held straight, and so were my legs.

  "Help!" I shrieked, breathing in salt water. I gasped and gagged on it.

  It was true. As I looked around myself, all I saw was filmy black. Wherever I was in was filled with water. There was no air at all. My arms were bound behind my back with rope. My legs were strung together.

  "Help!" I shrieked, only breathing in water, and sputtering.

  I wrenched myself backwards, but like a fish, could barely flop forward. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see. Where the fuck was I?

  "Help!" I sputtered out again, "Silvia, where are you? What the fuck happened?"

  The more I fought, the deeper I fell. I could feel myself sinking into the coiling, salty abyss below. Everything was shivering and trembling and cold.

  I fought to look below me. My once-smooth skin was slashed and bruised with knife-marks and bite marks. My party dress was so bloody, it was practically dyed black.

  "Oh no," I cried out, choking back a sob.

  That night all came back to me. The last night of my life. A fun night until this happened.

  Silvia and I had bite marks all over our bodies. They'd bitten us. Did strange things to us.

  And now the whir of the water filled my ears. The rush, the gush, the shhhh. Where the hell was Silvia?

  "Silvia!" I screamed.

  Was she anywhere near me? Was she here like me? Had she been taken downhill by the current?

  Last night, Lorenzo had smiled at me and squeezed his knife into my chest. I watch the blood ocean out of me, as him and the others were all over me, inside all of me, blood blue-black as all my oxygen spat away. So why was I awake? Shouldn't I be dead?

  That night, I had prayed for death, I had begged for death. I even talked to God. At first I begged not to die, but then I just wanted it all to end.

  Silvia and I were both shivering. We screamed before; when they wrenched the car door open. We screamed as they attacked us. But now, they'd left us, they'd left us for dead, and now Silvia was gone. And all I had was silence.

  "Help!" I shrieked, breathing in more water. I choked it back out, gagged it back out.

  I wrenched my muscles to either side, trying to snap the ropes right open. I bucked against them. I did the same with my legs, wrenching them to either side.... Snap. Snap. Snap. PLEASE! Please! I had nothing else! If nobody came soon, I was going to drown!

  And nobody was coming. I had to save myself.

  I couldn't snap them open, but I fought to get a little slack in the ropes. With that, I slipped one hand out.

  I couldn't breathe. I was still sputtering. But it must've been the endorphins, because my head was not foggy or cloudy with the lack of air. Ha-ha! Maybe I was used to it! 

  I think that I was crying and sputtering and crying out for my Mommy. I wasn't really listening. In a demented, distant, long-lost state, I pulled my hands out of the ropes and then moved to untie my feet. They were tight and wet and soggy. They had sunk inside their formations. I dragged and clawed at them. I picked at the knots. I held myself floating midair like a baby, cuddling myself in my mother's womb. Only if this was my mother's womb, then why was I tied up?

  Finally, I got my feet free. I slapped against the black bag which hung around me. I slapped downwards, but it was tied at the bottom. So I clawed at the top, dragging the sides apart. They pulled themselves open in a glorious show of ripping plastic.

  Then, I sunk up to the top, pulled by a new current. I wasn't drifting anymore. Once I reached the surface, I could see the blinking streetlights, to one side.

  They had tied me up and thrown me in a river. But why would they tie me up if I was dead?

  Maybe they thought I was almost dead, but not quite... I highly doubted that they had expected me to be alive.

  "Silvia!" I called out. "Where the hell are you, Silvia?"

  The black water shimmered like it knew a secret. So I slapped my way back in. Ducking down, I forced my eyes back open. I could feel the dirt and grime and salt caressing my eyelids. I shivered, pulled deeper, and that's when I saw the trash bag deeeeeeeep below me.

  I had no fucking clue how deep that was. I threw my way down, crawling, clawing downwards. Everything was hazy shapes. I couldn't clearly see everything.

  Okay, everything was fine, June... Just fix this. Go find Silvia.

  I sunk further. I wasn't going fast enough. My lungs quaked against the air. My clothing was slashed. I wanted to pull myself up and inspect my wounds. Was my gut really spilled open? Or had I blacked out the real incident? Was I just hallucinating at some point? Did somebody slip something into my drink? Maybe none of last night was real. God, I sure hoped so.

  The streetlights faded the lower I went. My vision got darker. I finally sunk low enough to grab Silvia. I held her in my arms and her body was so limp, I almost died.

  I kicked and fought and paddled upwards, with her in my arms. It was surprisingly easy, like I was propelled through the air by some kind of invisible motor. I guess that's the power of endorphins. I wasn't about to let Silvia die. No fucking way.

  Once we reached the top of the water, morning light was filtering through the sky, with greys and oranges and pink. The sunrise destroyed the darkness outside. Still bobbing for air, I ripped the plastic bag open, showcasing Silvia's black-and-blue face. She was all covered in blood. I shivered back. My eyes filled with tears. What the fuck had they done to her?

  "Silvia?" I wailed out, trying to keep my voice under control but not succeeding. "Baby? Come and look at me, honey. Silvia. Baby. Please look at me."

  I talked to Silvia as if she was a child, because in that moment, she was. She was mine and my only solace. And here she was, in my arms, dead. I dragged her to the side, paddling water, forcing myself to gasp in salt water as I pulled her to the side, to real land. I shoved her into the grass. Then, clambering, I practically crawled on top of her.

  She had no heartbeat. Oh no.

  I forced all remnants of the trash bag behind me and threw it behind me. Then, with rushing hands, I undid the knots that tied her.

  "Silvia," I begged. "Please wake up. Please wake up."

  I looked at her wounds. It was so much easier than looking at my own. Silvia had red, raw bite marks all her body. And her dress was still mottled by the red that crusted over into deep, dark black. She looked like a dead zombie.

  "Silvia," I wailed out. "I love you. You are my sister and my best friend. Please come back."