Submerged

Taken

The air was chilling, and I stared out across the still water, watching the moon and it's reflection. It was so peaceful. This would be my life. Looking out onto the lake and sitting next to my prince to be. There was a smile plastered on my face. I took a deep breath and got up to go back up to the camp, my legs stiff from kneeling for so long. As I was turning, something in the bushes to my left moved and immediately caught my eye, my body tensing up and my smile feeling slapped from my face.

Oh my god... What was that?....

I leaned toward the sound and squinted my eyes, straining to see anything I could see. The bushes quivered a little, and my feet took a step back without warning me. I was suddenly fearful of whatever was in that bush and without thinking, I bolted into a run. I felt the wooden dock tremble under my bare feet as they pounded up the ramp, my eyes focused on the dirt trail that lead up to camp.

All at once, just as my toes touched the dirt and I felt safe and off the water, a dark shadow came from the side and I felt a solid blow on my ribcage.

I gasped for air as me and the mass fumbled around on the mossy ground, the cool dirt sticking to my skin and pricking me with pine needles. Cold and clammy fingers griped my arms as I tried to swing at my attacker. My fingers found some cold flesh so I dug as hard as I could.

The villian let out a harsh howl which quickly turned into a deep growl, and he lifted his arm above my face, his fist tightening and coming down on my jaw. I felt a crack, then everything was burning and I went black.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I could hear my surroundings before I tried to open my eyes. There was an echoing drip somewhere to my left. I felt the familiar cold rock under my back and fingertips as I slowly moved them like I was making a snow angel.

How long was I lying here? I opened my eyes and there was a dull blueish green glow coming from the floor a few feet away from me. I stayed on the ground and let my eyes wander around.

I was in a cave. Surprise. But it was a smaller cave, the size of a small car. It wasn't very tall, I could maybe stand on my knees without hitting my head, but it would be close. It was like a perfect half circle was cut out of the rock and made into a personal jail cell.

Wonderful.

I decided now would be a good time to try and sit up. As I lifted my head, I felt a sharp pain on the back of my head, then it was cold. My hand automatically found the spot that hurt and there was a lump for sure, but something else.... A cool wetness... Blood? It was too dark to tell. What little light there was came from the hole in the floor of the cave. I turned myself over and felt the burning, throbbing pain in my jaw. I remember where that came from... Ass-hole and his right hook.

As I crawled over to the hole the light got a little stronger, and it started to look like a blue-green moon had fallen onto the ground. I looked into the hole, which was a little wider than me, and a perfect circle. How did they create these things? I would have to make a point to ask Mikko that when I .....

I was suddenly awear all over again where I was and that Mikko was probably waiting for me at the dock right now and I'm in this cave. I could try going through the opening, but I had no idea what was on the other side or how long I would have to hold my breath. But if the light was this bright, that means the surface should be close. That made sense to me.

 I sat down in front of the opening and put my legs through, the chilling water feeling familiar and welcoming. I looked one more time through the hole and saw nothing but glowing blue, there were no rocks or anything that I could see, which gave me some hope that jumping through wouldn't kill me. So I jumped.

The coldness of the water felt amazing on my jaw and the back of my head. Like my own giant ice pack was relieving me of my pain. I forced my eyes open to observe my surroundings, ignoring the water stinging my eyes. The water around me was glowing blue, but when I looked down I could now see that it was cave below me. Sharp, jagged rocks that I nearly landed on reached up for my kicking legs. They spread  across the whole bottom of the cave as far as I could see, until the water darkened and I couldn't see any further. I looked up and saw water reflecting light, which meant there was a surface up there. I felt my lungs begin to strain and I kicked my way to the light.

I filled my lungs with the sweetest oxygen that I have ever breathed. I looked up at the ceiling and was shocked to see what looked like a sheet of a million tiny glowing specs, like stars hovering above me. Some of them flickered and blinked, and they had what looked like strings of glowing blue light hanging from them making the shape of the rocky ceiling look like waves. Glow worms? A whole football field sized cave full of glow worms was above me, reflecting into the crystal clear water around me. If I treaded slowly and tried not to disturb the water, it would reflect as far as I could see these tiny blue lights that were so abundant. What a beautiful, peaceful thing that I get to witness, even under the circumstances, this was the most amazing thing I had ever seen.

I treaded there for a few minutes before getting back to the reality that I was still trapped and had no idea when I would see Mikko again. I decided to try to swim to the other side of the cave and see if there was an opening anywhere. I was brought here through an opening somewhere and I was going to find it. If I made it here without breathing and didn't die, I could make it back out.

After swimming for a long while, I could see the pointy rocks getting closer and closer to the surface as I passed them. I was scared they would be too close and I would kick them and injure myself, but I kept going. I was almost at the other side and I hadn't seen anything that looked like an opening or tunnel. And I was getting very tired, my hope dwindling to nothing. I reached the edge of the cave and met a wall, like the one I left behind. Maybe the opening isn't directly across from my prison, why would it be? It was probably on the edge or on the bottom somewhere and if I was going to find it I had a lot of swimming and searching to do and it wasn't going to get done right now. I had to focus on getting back to my cave so I could rest my burning legs. I put my head under the water to better see where I was going and put my legs on one last blasting push, reviving my swim training from school and igniting my powerful kicks. I made it back to the cave entrance in just a fraction of the time it took to tread across the jagged rocks. I limply grabbed the opening and held my breath again, thrusting my head through, pulling my body up and in the second my head cleared the hole.

I could bearly pull myself up onto the rocky floor of the cave before I collapsed in a heap. I focused on breathing slowly, my heart pounding out of my skull. I tried to clear my mind and rest so I could search for a way out, but all I could think about was Mikko.