The Kelpie's Curse (book #1 in the Kelpie's Entrapment trilogy)

Day 3 pt. 1

She couldn't breathe, It felt like someone had lit a match in her throat, in her lungs and it wouldn't go out. Her hair floated around her, seeming almost black since it was wet. Wet? Water, she was surrounded by it. Which way was up? Which way was down? She didn't know. She-

There was a shift in the water around her, a ripple. She wasn't alone. She turned around and around in the water. What was there? Would it help her? Someone had to help. She couldn't hold her breath much longer. Then, there it was – a set of eyes, red eyes.

She started to panic. Every instinct in her said run! Get away while you still can!

She kicked as fast and hard as she could. She was no longer concerned about up or down, only about getting away from whatever those red eyes belonged to. That was a mistake because it started again the tightening, the twisting, the burning in her throat and lungs.

Where was it? She couldn't see any kind of light in this darkness. Spots started to form in front of her eyes and that's when she knew she couldn't hold it in anymore! She opened her mouth to gulp for the air that wasn't there and...

Renestrae woke up gasping for breath, her limbs flailing as if she were swimming to such an extent that she nearly fell out of bed. Thank the gods it was only a dream! Thank the gods it was only ever a dream!

'That's not entirely true.'

She shook her head, trying to dispel that particular nasty thought, but in a way she knew it was true. She had heard once that you could die in your dreams and you would die in real life. It made sense she supposed. If you could trick your eyes into seeing things upside down for a couple of days, couldn't the brain be tricked into thinking you were dead and just shut down? With her dreams in particular couldn't she think it was real and forget to breathe? It wasn't really something she wanted to test.

However, this one had been different, the red eyes. That had never happened before, nor had the feeling of being chased. Usually, she was only drowning, as she had been in this one, but the water was so dark that she couldn't figure out which way she was supposed to go.

She shook her head, sighed heavily and looked over at her clock. Five o'clock, at least some things never changed.

Suddenly there was a tap at her door followed by "Ren? Are you awake?"

It was Kali. She remembered briefly Kali saying reassuring things to her last night as the horrifying truth had caught up with her. Alec had drowned. No one deserved to die like that. Her reaction last night had surprised even herself because it wasn't like she cared that much about Alec. Actually she hadn't known a thing about the boy except that he apparently liked to drink. No, it was the idea of a killer that drowned his victims that had her crying and shaking in terror for most of the night.

"Yeah, just one moment," she called back. She then stumble out of bed and groggily made her way to the door. If her mind would ever allow it she would much rather sleep in.

"It's a little early, isn't it, Kali?" Renestrae asked as she opened the door and was surprised to see Kali fully dressed and looking entirely too cheerful. She would have been suspicious if it had been Evelyn, but this was Kali. The girl didn't usually have anything up her sleeve, well nothing that wasn't immediately obvious anyway.

"Maybe for the rest of us, but you're always up this early. Come on, I made your favorite breakfast."

Renestrae would have commented. She wanted to comment that she was definitely not worth all the fuss but, as Kaloria had grabbed her arm and proceeded to drag her into the kitchen, she hadn't had the opportunity to voice her objection.