How to Catch a Fish (ManxMan)

Chapter Fourteen: How Did This Happen?

~Chapter Fourteen: How Did This Happen?

Instead of Heather staring up at me with dull, lifeless eyes, it is Sidr with his dark brown eyes lacking any shine. There is trail of black blood leading from his mouth down his chin, and a hole in his chest still seems to be leaking blood through his white uniform, even though Sidr himself is clearly dead. Horrified, I drop down to my knees next to him and try to stem the blood flow with my hands, as dead or not, he needs to stop losing blood. What I manage to stop by applying pressure only finds a way out through his mouth when he suddenly coughs.

"You're alive," he whispers, dead but speaking. I shake my head, my heart clenching in pain when my efforts seem to do nothing to stop him from bleeding out. Sidr slowly closes his eyes and chokes out, "Why didn't you help us?"

Suddenly, the battlefield starts to rapidly fill with water, and it is not long before I have to swim to keep my head above the surface. Sidr's body floats next to me, dead and no longer responsive. Something cold wraps around my neck and yanks my head underwater. At the end of the chain, the witches from that night are slowly reeling me in like a fish, staring at me with twisted smiles. I fight the chain, but it does nothing to help me escape. I start to drown.

I wake up with a start, but it is like I am still drowning, like I have forgotten how to breathe. I press my hand over my throat, but with nothing to do except try to take a breath, the action is pointless. Even with my eyes closed, darkness still encroaches on my vision, but before I can pass out, warm hands turn me on my side, and an equally-warm body presses itself against my back.

Fingers force my mouth open, and I can feel them on my tongue before Nero makes a sound of frustration that is just barely audible through the ringing in my ears and removes his hand from my mouth to press it against my bare sternum. "You need to breathe, Atasah," he demands, voice rough. "You need to copy my breathing."

I try, but when that fails to work after a few seconds, he moves so he can turn me onto my back and kisses me. Maybe it is the shock, or maybe I just needed a distraction, but I push him away and start taking deep, gasping breaths. A watery laugh escapes me as I continue to fight for air, and it makes it harder to breathe, but at least I can actually breathe now. When I open my eyes, though, Nero is hovering over me in concern.

"Sorry," I rasp, my throat irritated with how hard I was gripping it a moment ago. "You can go back to sleep now. Won't happen again."

Nero does not even entertain the idea. "What was that?"

"It's nothing. Just a little nightmare," I mumble. However, the fact that my breathing is still a bit erratic, my dismissal of his concern does not hold much weight.

"Nightmares can be bad, but they don't normally cause panic attacks, Atasah," he says, brushing his hand over my forehead to wipe away some of the sweat. "I thought you swallowed your tongue."

"It's really nothing," I repeat, fighting back a shiver. Nero might be warm, but nightmares always leave me feeling cold. I am just lucky I woke up without enough oxygen to combust right away, or I might have burned Nero.

"Atasah," Nero snaps, frustrated, "that was not nothing. And if you tell me it was nothing again, you are going to be in trouble."

Since I do not want to be punished right now, I stubbornly keep my mouth shut. Nero, though, is not so easily deterred. "I suggest you tell me what your nightmare was about before I figure out a way to make you," he says, his eyes narrowed.

"It was really just a nightmare," I try again, but that is apparently the wrong answer, as he slides off the bed and tugs me to my feet. When my legs threaten to give out, he catches me behind the knees and picks me up.