I was drowning without any water. Was that even possible? There was no light, but I could feel water in my mouth. There was so much that I couldn't cough it up, it was just washing down my throat. Then it started to surround the rest of me, like a blanket of water.
After a while, it wasn't so bad, really. Not like the time I broke my arm when I fell out of a tree. This was much more pleasant. Almost like I was floating off to sleep. What had the letter said? I couldn't even remember anymore. Did it even matter?
I had heard that drowning wasn't the worst way to go. Was this why? Because once the water has taken you for its own, you just give up? Corrine, I heard, like a whisper in my head. It was my father. Fight. And I did. I remembered that I had a life to live, and that I didn't want to die. Not here, not anytime soon. So I kicked in the darkness. There had to be a light. My father wouldn't have just sent me to my death.
It wasn't pleasant anymore. I could feel each second without air and it was torture. It was too much, it had been too long since I breathed. My whole chest ached, and a part of me was telling me to stop. That it was almost over, if I just gave in. No. I wouldn't.
And then it was over. I could see blue skies above me, and I was so cold. I felt like I was going to cough up a lung. I could feel something around me. Arms. A person! Someone was in the water with me, and it wasn't dark anymore. I felt a surge of gratefulness to whomever it was that had pulled me out of the water, because I was alive. No matter what happened next, I was alive.
I could hear a voice in the distance. At least it felt like it was in the distance. I finally finished coughing and spitting and vomited up water. I'm sure I gave a great first impression to whomever I was about to speak to. They just saved a strange girl from drowning, and now she was coughing and spitting and hacking all over the place. Real attractive.
I could hear him now, much more clearly. "Are you alright?"
"Miss?" No, there were two voices. Both boys; well men. Maybe. But my view was of the water and soaked grass, so if I wanted to try and speak to them, I really had to look up.
So I did, slowly. In front of me crouched a man, maybe twenty or twenty five, his brow knit in concern. He had blond hair cropped close to his head, and dark blue eyes that seemed very worried to me. He looked oddly familiar, in a way I couldn't explain. Not after almost drowning, anyway. He spoke slowly, as if afraid to scare me.
"Miss? Are you alright now?" he asked. I nodded slowly.
"Thank you. I don't really know how I ended up in that river," for that was what it was. A river, moving too fast for my liking. "Thank you for saving me."
"It was Horatio, I assure you," he answered, nodding to the man behind me. Horatio? Oh no. Oh god. This couldn't be happening. It had actually worked? No. I mean... someone could name their kid Horatio, right? Maybe another Shakespeare lover like my dad that didn't have a spouse who talked them out of it? And I had just lost some memories. Maybe I had sleepwalked. Yeah, that had to be it. I sleepwalked, and ended up in a river. Of course, Corrine, that makes perfect sense. Not.
I turned my head to look at Horatio. He too looked strangely familiar. He looked a few years older than his companion. He had a mop of curly red hair and a spattering of freckles crossed a nose that looked like it had been broken once or twice. He smiled slowly at me, also looking worried. I saw that the blond was right. While the blond was dry, except for his sleeves, Horatio was soaked, clothes and body both.
"Thank you, Horatio." I murmured, my mind still racing. There were no good explanations for what was happening right now. Either I was insane, or my father, and I, both had some kind of magical gift. I wasn't sure which option I liked better.
