Sinking

Chapter 1

       I tilted my head back, wincing as the burning liquid rushed down my throat, cringing as the burning sensation fell into my belly. I set the tiny glass down, the room swaying a bit before my eyes refocused.

    "Round three, done!" Cleo shouted, shoving the half empty bottle of tequila into my face. I shoved the bottle away half-heartedly a grin spreading across my face. I collapsed back onto the mattress the springs beneath me groaning in protest. Cleo jumped up from the bed placing the tequila onto the ancient dresser, and crossed the room to the mirror.

     I closed my eyes, my head swimming when Haley leaned over breathing onto my face. Her breath smelled strongly of alcohol and I opened my eyes with a cough. "How many shots have you taken?" I wheezed, shoving Haley's face away. She let out a laugh, standing up shakily,her brown hair dangling in her face messily.

   "I..uhhh..I don't know Emma." She hiccuped out, collapsing onto the bed. I looked at the ancient alarm clock sitting next to the bed. It was only one in the afternoon? I sat up slowly, black spots dancing in my vision. I climbed to my feet grabbing onto Haley's shoulder for support.

"What do you guys wanna do?" I asked giving them both a grin. My parents were both out on the small town our lake house was located in, so we had the entire house to ourselves. Pretty much explains why we had gotten our hands on alcohol. They both shrugged, as they also stood following me out of the tiny room. "How about ice cream?" I questioned slipping on a pair of flip flops.

    "I'm down." Cleo said, grabbing her shoes as Haley gave a brisk nod.

   "Ice cream it is then." I giggled grabbing a 10 dollar bill from the counter and opening the door. I waited before both of them were out before slamming the door shut behind me.
—

"Ooh, how about him Emma?" Cleo asked pointing at a guy. I removed my head from my hands, the heat making my head hurt ten times worse. I looked at the tan boy as he walked along the sidewalk slowly, his green eyes briefly meeting mine before he continued walking away.

"Eh, he's ok I guess." I shrugged taking a tiny bite of the slowly melting vanilla ice cream in front of me. I winced as the coldness sank into my belly, another wave of nausea rushing over me. Ok so maybe stealing the alcohol wasn't such a great idea, but it seemed as if I was the only one being affected by it. I pushed the remainder of my ice cream away and stood up abruptly, clutching my stomach. "Are you guys about ready, yet?" I asked, the sky seeming to darken even more.

    "Yeah, I'm ready. I don't know about Cleo though, she seems to be caught up with the that guy over there." Haley replied waving her hand over to where Cleo was standing talking to a guy that looked a bit too old. He was wearing a black sweatshirt with jeans, as if he was in the middle of winter. I raised an eyebrow, an icy feeling in my gut. Who was this guy? Was he trying to hit on Cleo? When did Cleo even leave the table?

"Cleo! Come on!" I yelled, trying to get her away from the guy, but she simply waved her hand, continuing on with her conversation. I exhaled slowly before walking over to her, latching my hand onto her shoulder.

"Sorry to interrupt but we really have to get going." I said giving the man a bright smile and turned on my heel, dragging Cleo away.

"What the hell Emma?" Cleo asked through clenched teeth. Her eyes were bright and feverish, anger radiating through her pupils. I stared back at her, feeling confused. Did I, or did I not just save her from a total creep?

"We have to get back, in case you haven't noticed. My parents are going to be back soon, and you need to get rid of the alcohol smell on your breath. Not to mention the fact you need to sober up before they get home." I explained, finally catching up to Haley. Cleo became quiet, shrugging my hand off, as she stumbled down the path towards the lake house. She was obviously pissed off, but that wasn't my fault, if anything I saved her life in a way. Crossing the tiny path that led to the lake house I breathed in the summer night, a small breeze making me shiver.

I gazed around the tight thickness of the trees, their branches looking like skeleton arms trying to crawl their way through the darkness. I hurried my steps just a bit, making sure Cleo and Haley were keeping up. I licked my lips nervously as the breeze blew through the trees making the leaves whisper on their branches, making the night seem just a bit more dangerous.

"Lets go, this is starting to creep me out." Haley whispered gesturing to the trees around us. I gave her a brisk nod, before breaking through to the clearing, the lake house windows shining brightly, meaning my parents were back.

"Ok Cleo, you just need to be quiet. We'll just say you aren't feeling very well and we're going to take you to bed. Don't say anything about what happened,ok?" I asked grabbing her arm. She nodded in response her face a ghostly white. "What's wro-" I began to ask before she leaned to the side and began to throw up.

So much for having to tell a lie.
—

The next morning, the sun was shining brightly, the humidity seeming to stick to my skin as we walked down to the lake. There was barely a breeze as the sun shined brightly off of the lake, causing my eyes to burn from the brightness.

"You sure you're feeling alright Cleo?" I asked gazing over. She gave a tiny nod before breaking into a jog towards the waters edge. I followed, more slowly though before setting my towel down.

"Don't forget, we have to be back by noon or else my parents are going to leave us here." I reminded both of them with a look, before lifting my hair off my neck for a second as I waded into the water. Last night hadn't gone as planned. Cleo had forgotten to put the liquor bottle back before we left so of course, my parents found it. It wouldn't have taken long though, considering we drank over half the bottle. We were lucky that they had even let us come to the lake today. We all had trouble waiting for us when we got home though. I glanced over at Haley and Cleo before diving into the freezing water, forcing my muscles to propel me forward as I swam down.

Returning to the surface I began floating on my back, treading the water lightly as I listened to Haley and Cleo talk. They were discussing their plans for the first day of school. Where they were going to sit, who they were going to try and "get with", and who they were going to avoid.

"Emma! Wanna join in our little competition?" Haley asked swimming over quickly. I looked at her before nodding a tiny grin on my face.

"Of course I do, what did you guys have in mind?" I asked glancing over at Cleo who just joined us. Her eyes looked a bit unfocused as she stared at us blankly. When she had woken up, all she could do was complain about her headache, until I finally yelled at her to shut up. Now she was pissed at me again.

"Whoever can swim down the farthest, wins! Careful though, I'm a champ at this." Haley replied swimming towards the deepest part of the lake. I hesitantly followed, Cleo right next to me as we finally reached the spot Haley had chosen. How were we supposed to tell how far down each of us went?

"Ready..set..go!" Haley screamed diving under. I watched her brown hair disappear into the murky water before I turned, watching Cleo's strawberry blonde hair also disappear. I breathed in a gulp of air before disappearing after the both of them, the icy feeling returning to my gut.
—
Hey everyone! I'm back with a brand new story :) Did you like the first chapter? I plan on making the chapters of this book long, like more than 1,200 words each chapter.

If you haven't already, check out my other books! If you're into the horror of being kidnapped, then I think that those books are just for you❤ They are currently being edited and some of the parts are being rewrote, so be patient with the grammar mistakes, etc.

Thoughts about what's going to happen?? Sorry if the details are a bit missing from it, but I promise i'll try and do better next chapter!And of course, if people want more details I can defenitely add more!

Sorry there isn't much action in this chapter, but of course this is only the first chapter! I wanted to be able to introduce the characters, and I wanted to get the base of the story done. So bare with me, and wait till next chapter because that's when all the juicy stuff is going to happen :)

sorry about the long note, promise this is going to be the only one for awhile.

enjoy your day everyone!

-maegan