Author Games: Tempest

Semifinals: Adrian Lovett

I woke up drowning.

That's not an exaggeration. I woke up underwater, with my throat burning and my nose clogged with water. Opening my eyes did nothing, the water was too murky to see a thing. Instinct took over and I thrashed, trying to regain any semblance of control. My head spun as I realized that only my head was truly underwater. Slowly my mind realized. Then I should be able to pull myself up.

My fingers clamped down into the water ground and I pushed. Sand gave way under my clenched fists. I felt a heavy weight on my back, and when I pushed against it, something press down harder against my throat. Something... Someone was holding me down, my muddled brain supplied. I thrashed again, hoping to buck whoever it was off. The pressure increased, but it also began to push.

Or rather, pull. My mind was still swirling around, trying to connect dots off of the few moments I had since I woke up. My mind and I came up with nothing as I breached up out of the water. My chest heaved, trying to take it all the oxygen in the world, while my throat sputtered to expel all of the water. Whoever was holding me down moved backwards, but I could feel their glare on my back as I coughed up a lung. A familiar shudder raced down my back at the familiar feeling.

Wanting to avoid the stare, I took my surroundings. I was at the ocean's edge. A place where a river from the forest made the endless blue of the ocean. The ground beneath us was sandy for the most part, with packed in rocks to made it more stable.

I didn't want to think about the other person there, but my mind gave me no rest. Without even looking, I knew I was being attacked by the feral child I had met yesterday. So, with a sigh, I turned to face them. Their wild hair remained the same, but their eyes were different. The first I had encountered this thing, they had the killer glint shining in their eyes. But now? They seemed more... critical, judgmental, and... They looked like a disappointed parent. A strange look on a child, but yet they had the look down to a T.

I glared right back. The child shook their head, and tightened their glare. Like a test, daring me to back down now.

"What?" I croaked out, exasperated. "You try to drown me, and then act like that was a fair punishment."

They bared their teeth.

"No, no you don't get to do that." I spat, before rubbing my eyes. They felt like they had a filmy layer of grim right under my lids.

I was suddenly thrown back, and my head was back under the water. This time, my chest made it under. The child sat on my legs and pushed my shoulder blades to keep me under. I craned my neck, desperate to put my nose or mouth above my wet new prison. No such luck. My eyebrows were lucky to breach.

Suddenly.

A sound, like several maracas being constantly shaken. I looked around frantically, that kind of sound shouldn't be possible under water. The water around me swirled. I swear that after time I blinked, the river cleared just a little. I saw colors, a dark purple, full of dark black shadows. The shadows grew hundreds of feet and they looked to me with beady white eyes. Despite the distance, the wavy resolution, and the weird new eyes I knew what I was seeing. Those damn bugs that had bitten and attacked me.

Without thinking, I thrashed. The sound intensified, and my eyes were drawn back to them. One by one, the dozens of nasty underwater bugs curled up and died. They floated suspended, bumping into each other until they were a strange black cloud of buggy death. A huge wave of déjà vu hit me. But before I could really think about it, hands clamped onto my legs and yanked.

My face dragged across the sandy water, then the sandy beach. I coughed up, and honestly threw up, some of the water I swallowed. It was too late to hope that any made its way. Into my system. My lungs burned from the lack of use. Though time had passed so much quicker with the strange vision, I knew I had been held under for a longer time. If I was wanted to survive, I had to figure out what this strange feral child wanted.