Aquaris

Aquaris 2

Aching. That's all I could feel. A cold aching, deep down in my bones. My mind was swirling.

"Emma!"

My mom's high pitched voice came through to my brain.

"Emma don't do that!"

"Goodness child how can one person possibly be that stupid!"

"Why can't you ever do anything right!?"

Images of my mother's hand swinging, meeting on my face, flashed into my unclear vision.

It ended, and my mind began swirling again.

This time, I heard my dad's voice.

"Samantha! I don't like the way you treat that child!"

"But baby, the dumb kid is like an animal. Why worry about the thing?" A tear rolled down my cheek at her reply.

"No Samantha! I won't listen to you this time! I'm leaving."

He turned to me now, his voice soft and soothing. "I will be back for you baby. Don't you worry, I will get you out of this."

His eyes flashed with an strange red before all went black again.

I choked and flinched. I am awake from the flashback to more than 15 years ago.

Tears are streaming uncontrollably down my face, as I remembered that day. The day my father left and made me the promise. But he never did return. Mother even forced us to move so he could not find me. I hoped and prayed he would come to my rescue. But he never did.

Because he is dead.

No! He isn't dead! That never happened! Stop it Emma! He lied to you! He is still out there, and he's not searching!

I constantly tried to convince myself of this, but the truth always has a way of winning me over. The night when I got a phone call from my aunt, I had cried so much I ended up sobbing without tears, for they were all dried out. Father had been killed in a motorcycle accident on his way to my new house. He was riding his motorcycle when an oncoming car with a drunk driver rammed into the side of him, killing him instantly.

I shook my head, clearing my thoughts. Now is not the time. Something is not right, I can feel it.

I died.

Remembrance of what happened came crashing into my head. The strange wind and water, something grabbing me and dragging me into the water, drowning... It came back so hard and fast, I felt an immediate head ache coming on. Forcing myself to slow my thought, I focused on the main thing.

I'm not dead.

But how...?

There's no possible way I could have survived that.

What happened after I fainted?

Instead of hurting my brain trying to figure that out, I looked around and tried to make out where I am.

It is very dark, so I can barley see anything, but I am able to depict shining, wet, rock walls, stretching up in three directions. In the fourth direction, my sight is swamped by darkness. I assume the cave like thing went deeper that way.

How the heck did I get here?

A lurching sensation clawed at my throat, and my stomach heaved. Keeling over, I vomited onto the cave floor. Saltwater mixed with my breakfast poured out.