Down By The River

21

ℍ𝕠𝕝𝕕 𝕞𝕪 𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕆𝕠𝕙, 𝕓𝕒𝕓𝕪, 𝕚𝕥'𝕤 𝕒 𝕝𝕠𝕟𝕘 𝕨𝕒𝕪 𝕕𝕠𝕨𝕟 𝕥𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕓𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕠𝕞 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕣𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕣

When Charlotte woke up again, the first thing she felt was a lot of pain and a lot of confusion. She felt like she could only vaguely remember what had happened before she woke up with a thumping headache and it all seemed like it wasn't really in chronological order. She slowly opened her eyes and looked around. All she could see was the bright moon in the sky. It was dark around her, so it had to be the middle of the night. She felt cold and wet and she could hear an unfamiliar noise... Where the hell was she? She could hear the wind in the trees and... water?

It suddenly hit her. She knew exactly where she was. She was by the river. Or judging from how wet she was and how cold she was in the river. Why was she in the river? In the middle of her night? All by herself? How the hell had she gotten here? And why was she in so much pain? Why was her head hurting so badly? None of it made much sense to her. She closed her eyes with a groan and tried to remember. Maybe she'd be able to put whatever she could remember back in order.

She could remember watching the Fletchers' house nervously. She wanted to talk to Ephraim and she was scared of it. She was incredibly scared. She remembered getting ready to knock at the door and then... the memory was getting fuzzy. She could remember feeling something painful. She could remember waking up somewhere dark and seeing a large hulking figure in the distance. There was the smell of hay and manure and animals... it had to be some sort of barn she was in. She could remember groaning in pain and then the hulking figure was coming closer to her and then her memory became fuzzy again. She remembered waking up shortly and looking at the flowing river and wondering whether she was dreaming. She remembered having an argument with Ephraim Fletcher and getting cornered by him. She remembered feeling the cold water on her skin and shivering, but her body being unable to move much.

Charlotte abruptly opened her eyes again. She hadn't been able to move. And she had felt the water of the river flowing around her body. The level of water must have been low at that point, but right now she could feel her entire body being surrounded by water and the water was steadily rising. The river flowing through their town was a tidal river and it was about to hit high tide soon enough. And she was right in the middle of it. She had to get out of here, before she was swept away or before she was pulled under and drowned. She could always figure out what to do afterwards. If she even made it. She'd figure out how she had gotten here once she was safe.

Charlotte took a deep breath and tried to glance down at her body. She found it difficult to see anything and she found it difficult to move. She seemed to be lying on the riverbed, but that wasn't going to last much longer. She could already feel the water coming up to her chin. She tried kicking herself free and to see what was going on. Charlotte wasn't a bad swimmer by any means, but it seemed like she wasn't able to move her legs or her arms. She tried bringing her arms up to the surface to see what was wrong with them and only then did she notice that they were tied with a thick rope. There was no way she'd be able to rip that apart, it was way too strong. She was trying not to panic, but it was easier said than done.

Her arms being tied wouldn't have been much of a problem, if it hadn't been for her legs being tied as well. Of course Charlotte couldn't see that, but from the way it felt, they were tied as well. She tried to move them quickly. If only her arms and legs were tied together, she'd still be able to make it out. It would be much more exhausting, but it was at least a chance for survival. But no matter how hard she tried, it was as if she was stuck on something.

Once she noticed that she was most likely not going to get out of this, she started breathing faster and faster and was feeling light-headed. She had no idea what was happening to her and she wanted to stay calm and be rational, but this was all just so scary, she couldn't help but panic. She didn't want to drown. She had always known and somehow accepted that she might not make it out of this whole little adventure alive, but it had always seemed like such a far off possibility. Now that she was actually faced with death she realised just how terrifying it all was.