The 34th Floor

The 34th Floor - Chapter 37 - Rachel

Author's Note:

I did not realize until a kind person informed me that my book had been one of the ones chosen by Wattpad to advertise as a Mystery book. By no means is my book popular or better than any of the ones posted here, but it means a lot if you have given it a chance. I hope I don't disappoint you. I have a lot more to add to the ending and it's going to be huge after this chapter, and so much more to edit in and out. Thank you for all of y'alls endless support. If there is anything I can do then by all means ask away.

The 34th Floor

Chapter 37:

Rachel

I floated on the surface, my head tipping down into the water every now and then. The sound of gargling water was invading my ear drums, and the coldness of the liquid was knapping at my skin. My body simply stirred from one corner of the room to another like a hollow log as the water rose higher and higher.

No scream, no shriek could be heard. No window, no door for escape; simply my body and a dark room with endless amounts of water. The same water that had turned my fingers and toes to raisins was everywhere.

As the pressure of the water increased in the room, my body sunk lower and lower. My legs could no longer be kept up; instead they were wiggling underneath the surface. I swung them back and forth furiously trying to bring them back over the surface, but I sunk further down the sea of water.

“No!” I uselessly shouted. “No, please!”

My heads bobbed up and down the surface, slicing through the surface every now and then. The salty water sprayed my face, licking my lips and gnawing at my scalp. I extended my arms out in front of me and moved them in and out of the water, trying to keep my body aloft. My motions bid me no avail as I sunk into the water immediately.

“No,” I cried, furiously slapping the surface as the truth of my fate came before my eyes.

“Please don’t do this to me,” I crocked, the salty water rubbing against the back of my throat.

I struggled to breathe through my nose as if I was suddenly being deprived of air. My lungs felt useless in my chest as I gasped for air.

“Oh, please…have…I...we…don’t…” I was at a loss of words, forming coherent sentences far from reach for me.

I clawed at the water, trying to not sink like an anchor, but my attempts were becoming useless by the second.

“Why the hell would someone be so cruel? No one deserves this!” I shouted to no one in particular.

The rage began to fill inside of me, coursing through my veins and setting my body on fire. I paddled to a side of the arm, my strokes furious and accurate, and then I put in all the strength I had and kicked the wall. It made no effort to budge, but I kicked endlessly until the fearless pull of the currents tired my limbs and my toe was bruised.

“I hope you, you who made this damn house, suffer like I have to, like…like Cade, Grace, and Noah must have to. I hope you feel the pain I do in hell ‘cause you damn right deserved it,” I venomously spat, filling trying to stay up in the water.

As the pounding in my legs increased, I felt the rage vanish, replaced with dismay and distress.

“I just want to go home and live my life,” I whispered. “I didn’t ask for this, no one did.”

I let my feet reach the ground beneath me, brought my hands up to my face, and sobbed silently.

The water licked my chin, assaulting my face as I buried my face further in the water. My limbs were worn with fatigue, my body felt numb under the pressure of the water, and my mind was at the verge of insanity.

A tear trickled down my cheek, mingling with the water droplets from the sea surrounding me. I let it all out, everything I had been holding in since the moment I had huddled on that bed in the locked room to abandoning Cade. It all just flowed out from inside of me like the leaky pipe spewing water.  And as it sprouted out, my legs gave out from beneath me and I crumbled to the ground, head ripping down away from the surface, body waving like a fair memory in the murky water, and legs crushing against the hard surface.

The gargling of the water echoed in my ears, whispering in a muffled sneer. It bombarded my ears with words I sought to bury deep. Noah’s voice ran in and out through my mind, “I thought you were a better person, Rachel. Not a hideous monster that you have turned out to become…” and it tortured my ears with the whipping of the waves. I let the words swarm through my head, all the while holding down the urge for a lungful of air. My lungs rattled my chest and my heart thumped so it matched the pounding of the water against the walls. I was being thrown from one side of the room to another like a worthless, valueless, meaningless object, good for nothing.

I wanted more than anything to be set free, but the waves wrapped their fingers around my body and tugged me forcefully down at each attempt. Eventually, my lips succumbed and I inhaled the rusty smell of sully water, chocked as it filled my throat. A jumble of words attempted to leave my lips in a cry for help, for mercy, but it was silenced by the currents. 

I felt faithless and hopeless as my body descended to the ground, draping across the floor like a corpse that deserved no burial, no ceremony. My hands fell by my side, my blond hair coiled around my body like seaweed, and my legs cluttered to the ground. The water surged through me, pounding my body at every angle until I was but a broken toy, discarded at the bottom of the sea.

At last, I thought I saw a bright white light cast over my eyelids, something of a mere illusion or the wings of a guardian angel, I knew not. I just felt the last of my breath go through me as I sunk Hell deep.