Divulging Remorse ✔

Chapter 21

The cold water brought her back to consciousness in a second. Dread surged through her, icy daggers straight to the heart. The numb abandonedness she'd felt on the island was nothing compared to how she felt now. Now, she was being held underwater, gasping for air but not being able to do a damn thing about it. She thought that maybe it would be better if she drowned. At least then, the nightmare would be over.

Just when she had let go of all her senses and reflexes to survive and upthrust, a protective arm encircled around her. She couldn't quite see in the dark, everything was cast blue, but she knew it was Moutasim; a couple minutes ago, she had heard him yell, faint traces of her memory were starting to show up.

He bobbed both of their heads out of the surface of the powerful currents of the deep ocean, to get some breathing in order. Muffled gun shots on the water could still be heard but he was now under the cave-like cliff, unable for the gang who were still bombarding just to finish up even the smallest possibility of leaving them alive, to spot them.

Moutasim tapped on his watch several times to get through, he was getting impatient, but he was also sort of, weirdly relaxed. The hard part to get out of their hold was over, now, he only had to get away along with her.

He held her close, both his arms were around her waist when he noticed she was now fully awake and was staring at him, ready to explode in her usual loud, aggressive style. Before she could even think of doing that, with one hand, he covered her mouth and ducked under the water.

Pressing his mouth close to her ear, he mumbled, "Zip your mouth if life is dear to you."

His voice sounded like a singing toy when its battery is dying. She came out of his grip and hurled upwards to catch some air, but he pulled her toes to stop her. He paddled her behind him, away from the rock which stood on a cliff above and moved up to the surface with a gist.

Taking a deep breath, he almost whispered, "I'll tell you everything, but not now. I don't want to hear a word."

She opened her mouth to do exactly that, but her gaze fell on his shoulder, "Blood..."

He grabbed her and dipped in again, he had sensed that someone had dove from the cliff; after them. Moutasim swooped down to the sandy bed as fast as he could, the deeper they swam, the darker it got; the rocks and reef merely a silhouette against a faint light that penetrated in and out. A school of coral fish glided through them, thankfully, the wild marine was nowhere to be seen. Or else, that would have been another knockoff with other crisis at the moment.

Danger stood timelessly. If they stayed, they were both likely to die out of breath and if they rose up, they were obviously going to be captured as some of those men were now within the proximity, but not yet in sight.

With the increasing pressure, the water got thicker, each second ticking by faster than it should. They had only about a minute to float out and be able to get a burst of air, but as he glanced up, the surface seemed infinitely far away.

Thirty seconds were over.

Just then, he caught a green line of laser flickering about five meters ahead, a small object wobbled, giving away glistening bubbles above it.

It was a drone; a small and compact one.

That was it.

He held Riya's hand and plunged toward it. Quickly grabbing the vest harness attached to the drone, he slipped it on her and squeezed her in his strong arms. With a touch on his watch, they were both escalating upwards like a flash of thunder stroke.

As soon as they were pushed out from under the water, a gust of air hit their drenched bodies and they sucked it in like nothing else was more precious. The powerful cold wind ruffled their damp hair and they thrust through it, skyrocketing at open throttle. It was kind of like a parachute, except so much smaller and instead of the basket, there was a harness to be worn which was attached by a cord to the drone fluttering above.