Prisoners Of Paradise (CTBB Spin Off)

~7~

Darkness. It was cold, it was wet, and it was all I knew until I took my first breath again, blinded by water and a cacophony of noise my water-logged ears couldn't quite process properly. What was happening? Where was I? Questions swirled in my foggy mind until I blinked the water from my eyes and assessed the situation.

"Huda!" a familiar voice called my name above all the noise, and he kept calling it as I realised I was in the ocean, feeling like I was being pulled down into its jaws.

"Help!" I thrashed about, splashing about madly until I remembered. I could swim. I knew how to swim, so why wasn't I using my skills? Because I was in shock.

"Hold on, Huda!"

To what? I wanted to retort, but my mouth was clogged with water. Ya Allah, was this how it felt to drown?

As I attempted to keep my head above the water, I noticed I was holding onto something in my right hand. Something solid, rectangular, and painfully familiar...

My phone.

I used my arms to keep me afloat, kicking madly in my stupid wedges I decided to wear tonight. Oh, no, they were ruined! In addition to my beautiful outfit. Ugh, this was so not planned.

"Huda, hold onto this!" out of nowhere, a rope appeared on the surface, and I grabbed it with my left hand, making sure to keep my phone in my right hand. I didn't care if it was completely full of water, I couldn't bear to part with it yet, and no way was I letting it go like Rose let go of Jack in Titanic.

"I'm gonna pull you up, okay?" the familiar voice turned out to belong to Ilyas, and he was in some kind of life boat, holding onto the other end of the rope that I gripped for dear life. All I could do was nod back as I moved closer to the boat, and when I got close enough Ilyas suddenly grabbed my arm, hauling me onto the boat, but he must have pulled too hard for I fell straight onto his chest, my phone slipping from my fingertips in the process, as well as my pride.

"Get off me," I cried, even though I was the one on him, and he gently pushed me away so that I could sit opposite him in the boat.

"A thank you would be nice," he said, but I didn't hear him at first, because of all the noise from the –

"Police?" I said aloud as I saw the sirens, but on further inspection I realised it was some kind of coast guard or something, pulling up beside the yacht, which was at least fifty metres away from where we floated right now.

"What's going on?" I asked Ilyas, who had begun to use the paddles provided by the life boat to paddle us away from where we were supposed to go – the shore. "Hey, what are you doing?" I demanded, before noticing a flash in the skies. So that had been lightning I had seen before.

"I can't get caught," Ilyas said with a grunt as he worked the oars.

"Caught by who? The coast guard people?" I inquired. The more Ilyas paddled, the more the skies rumbled with thunder, which I recognised to be the other sound I had heard amongst all the noise, and the fainter the yacht's music became.

"They are arresting everyone on that yacht," Ilyas told me, and I felt my stomach drop. My friends. Oh my God. "Apparently the yacht was not theirs – the people that invited us. I knew it was too good to be true."

"Shit," I exhaled, feeling a shiver down my spine. It was starting to get cold, and it was probably because there was a strong wind blowing, and I was still dripping wet. "Hey, are there any towels in this thing?" I rummaged about in the darkness, but all I found was a woollen blanket. Good enough.

As I wrapped myself up in it, I felt a drop on my nose. At first I thought it was from my forehead, since I was still wet, but then it happened more frequently, until it was completely pouring.