Vampire Island

4 - The present, the past, it's all the same

Dawn had just crept up when I opened my eyes from a stiff sleepless dream. I gazed at the sand. Had there been a man standing there last night? No, there couldn't me. My tired eyes must have been playing tricks on me.

I shuffled and noticed Corey's arm that was wrapped tightly around me. I made a disgusted face and shoved it off. He continued to snore loudly.

Mel's eyes opened at the sound of his arm hitting the wood. "Thea?" Her voice was raspy and quiet.

"Hey," I looked over at her. "How you doing?" She was wearing the same white matching sweat suit set she had been on the plane. It was now nearly completely brown, with only hints of off white showing.

"I feel like shit," she moaned. "Every muscle in my body is sore." She suddenly frowned and looked down at Damien. "Does he feel like really hot to you?"

I leaned over and put a hand on his chest. She was right, he was really hot. "That can't be good." I lifted the make shift bandage off of his wounded head and saw the mess underneath. "This is definitely infected. We to clean this somehow." I kicked Corey with my foot and he woke with a grunt. "Corey, did you have any alcohol in your backpack?"

"No," he glared at me. "Do you really want a drink that badly?"

I ignored him and turned back to Mel. "There has to be a first aid kit in the plane. If I could swim down there-"

"You're crazy!" Mel yelled at me. "That plane could be hundreds of feet down. You'd never make it back up."

"I did it once, I can do it again."

"That was one way. There's no way you could make it there and back."

"If I don't try... things aren't looking very good for Damien right now Mel." She pursed her lips together and looked down at him. "If you don't come back up in three minutes we're going in after you."

I began to take off my boots, then the rest of my clothes expect my underwear. I couldn't risk getting my clothes wet. I dipped a foot into the water and ice shot through my veins. Cursing, I jumped into the water, tensing up.

"Hurry back Thea," Mel called as I swam out to where I remember the plane being. If I stuck my head in the water I could see it below me. It wasn't as deep as I remember it being when we were trying to carry Damien to the surface, it would be a quicker trip by myself.

Under the water I swam as fast as I could. My brain was screaming at me. Who is their right mind swims towards a plane underwater? My mind started to wander back to last time I had been underwater... what had happened to Michael...

My family hadn't been the same since the boating accident. It was supposed to have been a fun day at the lake, swimming, eating sandwiches, building sand castles. Me and Michael were fourteen, reckless teenagers without logical minds. We swam farther and farther into the water, dunking and splashing each other. It was sunny and bright. A perfect day. We had been laughing when a boat started zooming towards us. Michael saw it before I did. The driver was drinking, one beer in his hand, the other half on the wheel, his head turned to his friends on the boat.

"Thea, look out!" He'd dove into the water, shoving me to the side before the boat could slam into me. All I'd seen was the boat, heard the smack, and when my head came back from the water I could see blood. Smell it. Feel it. It was taking over the water, turning everything around me crimson.

I was pulled out of the water by a pair of strong hands before I could see what Michaels body looked like. Later I found out he died instantaneously. The driver would serve ten years. And my family would break and crumble. My dad took it the hardest. He needed an escape and a young blonde girl half his age seemed to be just that. He left us six months later and moved to California. My mom was a dermatologist so we didn't have to worry about money, but she lost herself in the tragedy too. She had her share of boyfriends but none of them stayed. Especially not when her bipolar came out.

I brought my attention back to the present as I reached the plane. The door was still wide open, and I slipped inside. I grabbed my carry-on backpack that would probably have something useful in it. I scanned the walls for a first aid kit. There were a few extra life jackets so I bucked them to our backpacks and pushed them out of the door, sending them to the surface. Maybe Mel would calm down a bit when she saw I sent them up and was probably still alive.

Over in the pilot area I saw a shiny silver glimmer. A knife. Something useful in the middle of nowhere. It was laying beside Tim's body, and had presumably fallen out of his pocket. He probably wasn't supposed to have brought it on to a plane, but clearly he didn't play by the book. I grabbed it and shoved it in the waist band of my jeans so it wouldn't fall out.

At the back of the plane there was a white box with a red x on it clipped to the wall. I broke the clips off, not wanting to waste time. My breath was starting to run out.

As I moved back towards the exit the plane shifted in the sand, tilting the nose downwards. One of the counters had come loose and was falling quickly towards me. I flailed but my leg was pinned between it. I shook my head, clutching the first aid kit.

This wasn't happening. I was not stuck underwater.

A sound suddenly caught my attention. A song. A beautiful song. It rang in my ears, but I couldn't see anything. It was like the voice of an angel. But it didn't make me swoon... it made me afraid for my life. The noise sparked terror in me and I shoved the counter harder. It squeezed my leg but I managed to move it, leaning against the wall and pushing it with my free leg.

My head was started to pound when my eye was caught by a bright yellow bag. An oxygen bag. It might be filled with water, but it was sealed... if it only had one gulp of air inside it I could make it to the top before passing out.

I grabbed it and out it around my mouth before releasing it. Stale air seeped out and my body welcomed it. I twisted it shut again when my lungs were full. There would be at least half of another breath in there.

I moved out of the plane and into the open water. The song was gone, and everything was silent. No fish, small or big. No crabs. I must've been hallucinated from no oxygen when I'd heard the song. A conjuring of my deprived brain.

My movements were fast and hard but a swoosh next to me caught my attention. It sounded like something big.

Please, for the love of god, don't be a shark.

Suddenly my foot was yanked downwards. The first aid kit slipped out of my hands and my body was being tugged farther and farther down.

My eyes were wide and I wanted to scream, but the remaining air in my body was precious. No one would hear me down here.