Life and other Disasters

13. Things that pull you down

Ava ran down, to the place where she had seen David go under while yelling at the top of her voice.

There was no sign of David. The only evidence that he had been there was the pile of his clothes, lying in the grass. Ava sighed. She couldn't let him die like this - killed by some unknown monster. But how could she get him out? She stared into the water and thought she could see him beneath the waves. Maybe she could get him out before he was drowned.

Just when she wanted to jump into the water she saw David come up again. It appeared as if he was laughing, enjoying himself, but that was only an illusion. He was screaming, an unheard scream, drowned out by the deafening noise of the waterfall. Ava didn't think twice, jumped as far as she could in the water and started to swim where she had last seen him. She felt hands of things, monsters, humans trying to drag her down, but she resisted. She knew she was close to where she had seen David go down for the last time and went underwater. It was different here, the noise of the waterfall was gone, the colors were different, shadier. Then she heard the voice.

"You're never going to make it," it whispered.

"He's going to drown, and so will you," it said after a couple of seconds when Ava didn't react.

Determined Ava continued. No one would stop her from rescuing David, no matter what strange voices were telling her. Especially if strange voices were telling her she was going to fail.

"It's no use, just give up now," the voice said again. "You are tired. You might as well let it go."

The swimming became more difficult now, there were too many hands pulling at her. Ava became more determined with every stroke she swam. She didn't come this far to die here, that idea was just ludicrous. She became angry, at the ones that tried to drag her down, at everything that had happened to her so far. She found a new core of strength.

And then she saw him. David, floating unconsciously through the water. Big bubbles of air were leaving his mouth. It scared her to see him like this. It was one thing to see him storm off angry like yesterday, but she preferred that to his lifeless body floating through the water.

Angry she made some strokes, but she barely made progression with the hands of unseen monsters holding her back.

"You are not going to make it," the voice said again. "You will die."

She could see with her mind's eye see the person smirk who was whispering to her. That image made her more determined. This wasn't going to happen, this wasn't how her story was going to end. She was not going to die today, she was convinced of that. She became stronger and stronger, she had heard enough times in her life on earth that she couldn't do certain things. 

Well, guess what? Today she would show everyone what she was capable of, that she was able to do certain things, and if people thought she was going to hold back because they told her she couldn't she would show them what she was made off.

Just one more stroke, she said to herself, blurring the taunting voice out. I can make it, I will make it. She had never been so sure of herself, she had never been angry like this before, and with an immense force of power, she reached David's lifeless body.

All the air bubbles were gone now and she knew she was running out of time. Once more she made a big push from down the bottom of the lake, hoping it would give her a small jumpstart to the surface, but nothing happened. Hands were holding her down, dragging her back to the bottom, to the slimy mud.

She fought against them, trying to rub them away, but she had used too much of her breath and power to get to David. Slowly she felt her life slip away, and for the first time since she jumped so carelessly into the water, the feeling that she might not survive this went through her mind.

"You are not going to leave. You are going to stay here," said the bodiless voice again. "Just like you never chose your own path in life, I will choose your path in death."

A red flash of anger ran before her very eyes. She hated it that her parents had already planned her whole future, and she hated it even more that she wilfully obliged to do business school instead of what she really wanted.

"O yeah?" she said in her mind. "We'll see about that."

The new taunt had channeled a new source of anger and with all the power she could muster, she fought her way back to the surface, dragging David after her.

She was dead tired when she finally took a breath of oxygen again, but she was still alive and kicking the last hands away.

David didn't look so great. He looked even worse than before. He was paler than a ghost, almost translucent, she noticed when she pulled him on the shore. She slapped the last finger of an insistent monster away and then started worrying about David's state.

She checked for his pulse. It was barely there, but it still existed. David had still a chance. What worried her, was that David wasn't breathing at all. Not a huff, not a sigh, not a death rattle.

She tried to remember what to do in such a case as she had followed a first aid course once. She checked his mouth, to see if something was stuck, but she knew there was only water in his lungs and there was only one way to get it out. So she pinched his nose, bend his head backward, opened his mouth slightly, pushed her lips on his, and breathed him back to life.

David coughed loudly and dirty water came like a small fountain out of his mouth. Clots of mud were on his cheeks and there was more color in his face than Ava had ever seen. The coughing continued for several minutes, David fought for air, heaving big breaths in between coughs. It didn't matter how gross it was, he was alive and that was all that mattered.

When he finally caught his breath again, still slightly panting, he said: "Well, not sure where you came from, but you were right on time. Thanks for saving my life, but you still lost the game."

Ava had been trying to wring out the water of her clothes. She had never liked wearing wet clothes, never liked the feeling of the wet cloth scraping against her skin.

"You are welcome, but I think you are wrong about that winning," she said. "The tower is still far away, it even seemed further than yesterday."

David smiled his warmest smile. "It must have been my lips that left you delirious, but the tower is right here."

Ava, ready to make a sharp remark that her lips were the ones saving him, followed David's gaze. And there it was towering above them, right next to the waterfall.

She was just wondering how she could have missed it when she realized there was something strange going on. She could clearly see the top of the tower, but the lower it got, the more transparent it was and where the foot of the tower should have been, there was just empty space.

"What is going on here?" she said.

David shrugged. "Weird, eh?" he said. "I've been looking for an entrance all morning, but it just doesn't seem to be there. You can walk right through it, no walls keeping you back. I had hoped I would find a door or an entrance down the waterfall, but there were those things down there that completely disoriented me. How did you deal with them?"

This time Ava shrugged. "Just a lifetime of training, I guess."

She walked to where she thought the tower must have started, but she didn't feel or see a wall. She shouted several times, to check if there was an echo. Maybe these walls were made of sound or something different, but she didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. She walked around, trying to solve the riddle, but she couldn't find a solution. 

"I did all of that as well," David said, still sitting on the spot where she had left him. "There just doesn't seem to be a way in."

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