The Prince's Songbird Slave ✔️

Just Breathe

Thought around time of publishing - Why did I buy that thing? None of us can work out what it is.

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I don't think I've ever moved so fast yet it seemed to take an age to reach the pools edge. The water was white and frothy from her panicked struggle and her helpless shouts under the water. It seems physically impossible that someone should be able to move like that, but her terror fueled thrashing was like that of an animal. I've heard that one of the rules of life guarding is to never try and help the person directly - the drowning person will probably drag you down too as they struggle against the water. Unconsciously push you under as they fight to reach the surface. In such situations you should throw them a life-line.

Screw that.

I divided in without hesitation, swimming into the middle of the pool where her white clad figure was. I took a breath and dived under to her, the pool was three meters deep here and she was almost at the bottom. She was only 153 centimeters, and I knew there was no way for her to stand up.

I was a bit taken aback at just how deep she had sunk into the water, and it seemed she had taken some other guy down into the water down with her.

Her panicked eyes were open wide under the water, the whites of them bloodshot from the chlorine in the pool. The air at the surface hadn't been frothing from her fighting it directly but rather from the bubbles that came streaming out her mouth as she tried in vain to scream.

She saw me, and I'm not sure what happened, maybe she tried to take a breath in, but the flow of bubbles stopped suddenly and her body gave a sickeningly sharp jerk as the pool water suffocated her.

By the time I reached her she had stopped moving altogether. As conscious control left her, her face relaxed, and she looked like she was sleeping. I wrapped my arm tightly around her waist, kicking off the pool floor, and dragging her up to the surface. It seemed some others had now jumped into the water to rescue the other guy, who was already unconsciousness.

As soon as we reached the edge of the pool and broke the surface of the water I lifted her out onto the poolside, some other people helping me get her clear of the water. Once she was safe on land I dragged myself out too, and crawled over to her side.

Now she was out of immediate danger, I quickly checked for a response, shaking her softly and repeating her name, hoping for a reply, though I knew in my heart there wouldn't be one.

RABCC - Response, Airways, Breathing, Call for help, CPR.

She was defiantly unconscious, and I didn't even need to listen to tell that her lungs were saturated with water and that she wasn't breathing - the instincts and monster I usually kept tied up had freed itself in the panic and there was no sound of air moving through her lungs. In fact her lungs weren't moving at all.

What scared me even more was the silence of her absent heartbeat.

I tilted her head back and lifted the chin, making sure her tongue wasn't blocking the airway.

I shouted to someone to call for help as I knotted my hands together and found the center of her chest, right on the breastbone, and compressed down 5-6cm with my arms straight, starting the first of what would be 30 compressions in the CPR cycle.

The first compression just caused her lifeless body to role slightly. The second caused some water to leek from her mouth, and the third forced a large amount of water to come out. It was a lot, but the back of my mind reminded me that it wasn't enough - the lungs have a combined capacity of 4 litters.

After four more terrifying compressions her whole body arched upwards, and the rest of the water left her. She drew a chocked breath in, and spluttered, her nose had also been blocked, and her damaged airways were unwilling to supply her with oxygen, her throat screaming as if it was on fire.

I hit her on the back, making sure she didn't choke and holding her upright, helping her to support herself as she was too weak to even support her own upper body weight.

She looked around, her blue eyes glazed and unfocused, teary from the coughing and chlorine. They found my face and locked with mine for a few moments before rolling back into her head as she fainted again.

I lurched my hand out, and supported her head to prevent it from cracking into the tiled poolside.

I re-tilted the head and lifted the chin again, ensuring that her airways were clear, and lowered my head to her chest to listen to her breathing. It was weak, but regular now, and I noticed that she was starting to shiver, probably entering into shock.

I was about to shout out and ask if anyone had warm clothes to wrap her in, but a paramedic arrived just in time, passing me a foil blanket to wrap around her.

A minute later a stretcher arrived and she was lifted onto it before being taken off to a more suitable place.

And I was left behind, sick with worry, trying to sort out what had just happened, and how it had happened.

()()()()()()()()()()()()

Second update today! Yay(although it was kind of short)!

So, some first aid knowledge there... anther thing is get a pocket mask to put in your first aid box, because mouth to mouth resuscitation isn't necessarily a good thing. The medic who took our course pointed out - what if they're ill, or chocked on vomit... Hence pocket mask, which separates you and prevents contamination.

So what did you think of that chapter? Any good? Were you worried?

Have any of you readers out there nearly drowned? I came close once, and I'v chocked under water a few times - it's absolutely terrifying. A pretty little sentence made from words cant describe it.

That's the first 'ark' of this story done, see you soon as we start the second half!