A Tale of One Deviant (Book One)

Chapter 28: Unexpected People, Unexpected Place

I fell back and crashed to the ground, shattering the shield I though I put up and sending my mind into a flurry.

How?! Why?! What is going on here?!

Those thoughts were flowing through my mind as I was sent crashing and tumbling through the greenery. Apparently there had been a small hill behind me hidden by the frickin' thirty foot tall bush I crashed through.

I crashed on rocks and dirt mounds, whatever was there. My clothes were shredded instantly by little animals popping out of the holes, taking oval cuts of meat from me as I passed by and securing dinner. I yelped from the sudden slashes that marred my arms and legs, disturbed that it happened so suddenly.

When I reached the end of the hill, I suddenly couldn't breathe.

I was in water. Running water.

I had splashed into a river running at rapid speeds that I hadn't heard before. My arms flailed around in the water uncomfortably, unable to touch anything or grab hold. Even if I said it was a mere river, it was more like a deep stream that had the pretense of rocks on the surface, with the jumping white bubbly waters on top succeeding in making you think it was only two feet deep.

No, underneath the water was an expanse as deep as the ocean. The sides of the river hadn't been very wide, maybe about ten feet. This was like Grandfather's house, with the illusion of being not too big on the outside and being enormous inside, and then the large ancient backyard/basement down below. It was like the first layer of the cake was a cupcake, the second was a car, and then the third was the size of the continent.

It was that deceiving.

There was nothing in the blue expanse, like that part of the dark blue ocean without seaweed or life or anything at all. No pollution, coral, anything. It was like a fish bowl, except you couldn't see the edges that expanded into darkness.

Light only shown through in the narrow part that was the river surface, making streams of light that reached down to me. I had tried to put up a magic barrier to be able to breathe again, but for some reason I couldn't use magic. With no magic, I struggled to breathe, to get to the surface.

Blood was flowing above me in trails as I sunk farther down, becoming lax. There were missing chunks in my arms and legs, which were quickly recovering because of Vampire healing at insane levels. The one thing it didn't fix was that I couldn't BREATHE.

What was that one Vampire weakness? They can't cross running water? Yeah, they really couldn't. Thanks Aloire, you told me I didn't have regular weaknesses. Look where I am now, I scoffed.

I sunk farther and farther with unusually hard currents picking me up and tugging me down suddenly, eyes blackening. I couldn't struggle anymore. No matter how much I tried, it felt like I couldn't do anything, felt worthless.

My body turned around in the water all of a sudden, and below me I saw something. I didn't know what it was, I just kept on traveling down towards it like I was falling face first. As I got farther from the surface and closer to the thing, I noticed that the tug I was feeling wasn't affecting the water in other areas, just the place I was.

Then, I noticed that the something was white. And sharp. It was as big as a billboard, I saw, as sharp all around.

And then, I saw more rows of sharpness. They went inwards, like...

Shark's teeth.

I'd never seen something so unnatural and wide, and the fear of death had never been more present.