Ethereal

Chapter 2

The first thing that hit me was how dreadfully cold the water was.

In contact with every inch of my skin, I felt sure that I would freeze before I found my mum.

Forcing my eyes open, despite the awful sting of the murky water, I kept them open, looking around myself, desperately trying to find her.

The water had looked so still from above, yet it seemed to be churning, chucking me around, making me fail in my attempts to search for her.

And it was so dark, I could barely see a thing!

I could feel the intense pressure of the water, pushing on my lungs, trying to force me to breathe.

My clothes did nothing to help me, they felt so weighed down by the water, but I pushed through. I tried to push myself downwards, away from the surface. But it was too dark to tell which way was up and which way was down.

Finally, below me I spotted a wisp of darkness, my mothers hair?

I kicked as hard as I could, trying to get down to her, but before I could something solid and hard smacked into me, as a reflex, my mouth opened, releasing my air and filling my lungs with water as I breathed in by accident.

"Mum!" I tried to scream, but only achieved swallowing more of the disgusting tasting water.

I couldn't remember where I had seen her, I couldn't remember which way to go. My lungs were straining, desperate for air. I tried to find my way out but I felt like I was kicking myself down, further into the water.

And then something grabbed me.

A strong arm, holding me tightly to a warmer body, pulling me in a direction that I couldn't see.

And suddenly I was choking.

Gushes of water were coming straight up and out of my throat, spewing onto the wooden boardwalk that I could now feel underneath my hands.

The water just kept coming up, how on earth had I possibly swallowed that much?

I had to have been under for only a minute...

Oh my god...

"Mum!" I gasped, sitting up, looking around me wildly and not seeing her.

"My friends are taking her to the hospital, she was unconscious." A smooth, melodic voice said, talking to me.

My eyes flickered around, until they landed on a tall guy, crouched down besides me. One of the ones from the lake, the one that had dark brown hair.

His skin was pale but it glowed with a kind of radiance, the kind that people photoshopped onto models to make them look flawless. There was not a single imperfection on his face, it was slightly unnerving. Despite the fact that he too, was completely drenched in water, his hair still lay perfectly against his head.

"Are you alright?" He asked, offering me a hand.

I frowned but took his smooth-skinned hand, pulling myself up.

My throat was burning wildly, but I no longer cared.

Turning away from the stranger, I walked down the boardwalk.

My trainers were squelching as a result of all of the water in them, and my jeans were stuck to my legs so tightly I'd have to peel them off later. I couldn't go home to change, I had to get to the hospital.

"Hey, wait!" He called out from behind me, and suddenly I felt a hand grab my arm and spin me around.

Wobbling on my feet as I turned, I was struck again by how flawless this boy looked... like a real life model.