Forsaken

Chapter One

I registered the icy cold first – a slow, painstaking ache felt all the way down to my soul. The realization that I was swimming at a dangerous depth came next, followed by an absolute and suffocating panic. The pressure surrounding my body had become utterly relentless and my lungs screamed for oxygen. Suspended in the darkness, I couldn’t see anything except for a thin ribbon of silver appearing in my line of sight. Slithering side to side, twisting and turning, it taunted me. I froze when it slowly wrapped around my neck and left a trail of icy pinpricks across my bare skin. It continued down my body; encasing me in fear. Suddenly, it tightened with such force that the small amount of air I had been clutching in my lungs was forced out. As I heard the sickening crack of bones and felt a paralyzing pain searing through my body, I knew no amount of struggling would help.

Unable to do anything but watch the last of my oxygen bubble up to the surface above, I tried to come to terms with what was about to happen. I was going to die. Completely alone and scared, I was going to drown in this darkness.

Unbelievably, just as quickly as it had locked around me, I was released. I looked around frantically and braced myself for another attack, only to find a pair of piercing blue eyes watching me. The same deep blue eyes I’d seen in so many other dreams glared back at me with something that resembled rage.

“Why are you here?” I barely heard his next words as my lungs began to burn and my vision blurred. “Your soul will never survive.”

He turned abruptly and my vision cleared just enough to catch a glimpse of the horrors lurking behind him. Hundreds of silver ribbons quickly morphed and twisted into shadowy human forms. They turned in my direction in unison and descended upon me.

I bolted upright; my heart hammering relentlessly against my chest. Warm water surrounded me, but it was of the bubbly, lavender-scented variety, not the cold, murky darkness I just came from. I was still in my bathtub. No wonder I dreamed I was drowning. Shaking my head, I tried to erase the vivid memory of it. Unfortunately those eyes - his eyes - never faded. They had haunted my dreams for years.

I rolled my eyes at my own unruly imagination and slid down into the tub so that my head and shoulders were the only things showing above the thick layer of bubbles. My heart rate eventually slowed and I began to think straight again. I closed my eyes and tried to relax…

“Hannah Elizabeth Whitman!!!” So much for the slow heart rate. I rocketed back into a sitting position and covered myself with my hands.

“You scared the crap out of me, Dee!” Doris Whitman stepped all the way into the steamy bathroom, and the smell of baby powder and freesia followed her in. She shook her head at me. “You’ve been in there so long, I swear I can hear your fingers and toes wrinklin’ up. Now get washed up and get dressed – we’re gonna be late!”

“I’m hurrying, I’m hurrying,” I mumbled as she turned on her heel and marched back downstairs, already giving out orders to the rest of the family.

I decided I’d rather hide under the blanket of soapy bubbles and try really hard to disappear into an alternate universe instead. Submerging my body completely underwater, a smile crept across my face as the sound of the outside world became instantly muted. All I heard was the faint lapping of water on the sides of the tub, my own beating heart, and a faint melody tickling at my ear drums. It reminded me of wind chimes blowing in the wind….wait. Wind chimes? I listened harder and heard them again, this time louder, and something else… like someone singing…

With ninja-like speed, I jumped out of the claw foot tub in one swift movement and stared down at the water in shock. I tried to convince myself I was just hearing things. There were no wind chimes hiding in my bathtub. I’d just add that to the long list of weird things that had happened to me over the last couple of years. That list was getting way too long for my taste.