October Academy

Chapter 54

All I see is darkness. Then I start to see white. I'm dying. This is death.

Suddenly, I'm out of the fountain and I'm sputtering and coughing out water. Someone dragged me out by the collar of my shirt. They pull me over to sit on the ledge of the fountain. I cough, eyes focussing back, slowly regaining my hearing.

Someone is shouting at Xander and Gadi and Alyssa and Chloe. He's so angry at them, I think he might just explode. He tells them to go to their rooms, and that he'll deal with them tomorrow. That they should expect expulsion. That they should pack their bags.

"Jade," he says, voice course after all the yelling. "Are you okay?"

I try to stand up and fail, coughing more to the point of choking. I turn away from him and cough.

"Jade?" he says again, this time more worried.

"I..." I turn to look up at him. My eyes finally focus on his concerned features. His wide eyes look more grey than green. A tattoo poking out from beneath the collar of his shirt. It's Callum. Callum saved me.

"I'm fine," I say, and I'm shocked to hear my voice as dry and rasped as sandpaper.

"They almost drowned you," he says in disbelief.

"How did you...?" find me.

"Can you stand?" he says.

I try to pull myself up, but the blood rushes to my head and I black out.

I blink back to life, Callum is standing over me, shaking me lightly. "I'm back," I say, knowing I must have only been gone for a few seconds.

"You're going to freeze to death," he says. He stands up, eyeing me up and down, then leaning forward and picking me up like a bride.

I shiver against him. Even though I'm out of the water, I still struggle to breathe and I gasp for air.

He walks hurriedly, but not in the direction of my dorm. He takes me behind the glasshouse, where I know a short distance away was Coach Goscicki's old cabin.

I start to fade away again – I don't know if it's to sleep or if I'm passing out – but I don't wake up until we're in a small one room apartment like place.

I'm laid out on a bed. I sit up and am hit with a dizzy spell, but I persevere. The room is long and rectangular with me, in bed, on the far end of the room. In front of me is a small couch pressed against one wall and opposite it a small tv. In front of that is a small kitchen. Everything is grey – the walls, the cabinets, the couch. Behind the wall of the kitchen is (I imagine) the bathroom, and a small hallway leading to the front door.

Callum is calling someone but they don't seem to be picking up. He is scrambling in the kitchen, looking for who knows what, searching things up on his phone.

He walks over to me and says, "you need to change."

Even half dead I know better than to do that.

"Now," he says, passing me a hockey jersey and some sweatpants. He leaves the room and goes to the bathroom.

I change quickly, almost toppling over (and actually toppling over a few times) before sitting back down. "I'm dressed," I call out.

He rushes back in with about twenty towels in his hands. "Lie down."

"Noo..." I begin to say but it sounds empty. I'm already laying down before he comes and sits on the bed beside me.

He covers me in towels from head to toe. "Hypothermia..." he says absently.