The Alpha House

Chapter Nine

I splashed to the surface with a gasp, inhaling about a gallon of pool water as I did so. The pain in my side was excruciating, and the skin on my face stung like it had been peeled off.

I was in the middle of the pool, waves rocking all around me and bubbles burning my eyes as I tried to look for the other girls around me in the water.

"Allesia? Chey?" I screamed, treading water desperately even as the pain threatened to overwhelm my body.

"Here." Cheyenne had made it to the side of the pool, and had one arm thrown over the edge to support herself. Her other arm hung limply from her side, blood rushing down her face from a watery cut above her eyebrow. I realized her arm looked too limp.

"Is it--?" I gasped, my head bobbing above the surface of the water.

"I don't know."

"Allesia? Allesia?!" The scream came from the shallow end of the pool, and I saw Henny swimming over to where Allesia was floating on the surface.

"Oh my God."

She looked...dead. Allesia had landed in the shallowest part of the pool, and even from where I was, treading water in the middle of the pool, I could see the blood ballooning around her crumpled form.

Oh no.

"Addison!" Cheyenne called from behind me, and my gaze was pulled from Allesia to where Cheyenne was pointing. A mess of bubbles and splashing in the far deep end of the pool alerted me to what she was screaming about.

It was Sophia.

The adrenaline that shot through me erased every inch of pain from my body, and I dove frantically under the water, swimming as fast as I could towards Sophia's thrashing body. Just as I reached her, she went limp, and my eyes stung from opening them underwater as I searched for her arms to grab.

My lungs were burning, the pain in my side coming back with a vengeance. Sophia was too heavy; her arms kept slipping from my grasp and we sunk lower and lower. My head was swirling again, my vision blurring, and I fought with the lack of oxygen.

Come on, Sophia, I begged silently.

Just as my body was screaming at me to give up, I felt hands around my waist, pulling me up towards the surface. I tried to kick them off, reaching for Sophia. I refused to leave her behind.

The hands continued to drag me up, and I scratched and bit at them until they let me go. Just as I made another dive for Sophia's body, however, blackness overtook me.

                                           ***

I woke up in a hospital bed. It was dark outside the small windows, the fluorescent lights glowed too brightly above me, and the small television mounted across from my bed was playing Family Feud.

I blinked several times, trying to clear the fog from my brain. What happened? How did I get here?

I tried to reach my hand up to tuck my hair behind my ears, but it got stuck halfway, the IV in my hand tugging. I surveyed my body in surprise; I was bandaged up, my left ankle and my torso feeling particularly tight. My arms were covered in bruises and scrapes where I could see them, and my head steadily started to pound.

I groaned.

"Officer, Addison Brooks is awake now if you would still like to question her." I heard the words spoken softly from the hallway, and my attempt to turn my head resulted in agonizing pain shooting from my torso up my body and down my arms. I hissed in pain.

A dark figure appeared at the door, and as my vision cleared a bit more, I was able to recognize the navy uniform of a police officer.

"Good evening, Miss Brooks. I'm Officer Reaumont," he rumbled in his deep voice, sitting down in the chair beside my bed. I peered at him to the best of my ability without moving my head again.