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Oh my god . . . oh my God!
With Hayes’s help, Ethan hoists me onto the boat and then immediately dives back into the water. The world is darkening by the minute.
We’re all bleeding. Hayes still from his forehead, Sybil from her forearm which looks broken, Chandler has a split lip, and Amelia already has a blackening eye and bloodied nose. My left leg is all scuffed up and my hip hurts like a mother fucker. I’m sure it’s going to be purple for a week. But none of that matters right now. I can’t look away from the water where Ethan disappeared beneath the surface.
“Where are they?” I beg. “Where is Ethan and Cooper? Where’s Uncle Gregory?”
Nobody has an answer for me.
Amelia ignores me as she frantically digs through the area underneath the bench, yanking out another lifejacket and tossing it to me. Seems a little late for that but at least we’ll all have them on if this boat starts to go down too. She turns to Hayes and begins instructions for contacting authorities to send out a distress signal. Surprisingly, he’s the one with the least amount of damage to his body.
I’m shivering and Sybil finds a towel, draping it over me. We sit side by side, staring down into the lapping waves. Her hands are covering her mouth and she’s crying.
“Cooper was right there in the water a minute ago,” she says between sobs. “He was yelling at us. And then there was blood in the water and he just sank.”
My heart rate speeds. It’s an image I don’t want in my mind. I can only imagine the three of them under that water right now, all drowning and being pulled away by the current. Lost to the sea forever.
“What about your dad?” I whisper.
She shakes her head. “He went in after Cooper about a minute before Ethan did.”
Then she stands, hoisting her leg over the side of the boat as she fumbles with her lifejacket to remove it.
“No!” I grab onto her. “Can you swim?”
“I’m good enough.”
Amelia is there, helping me to pull Sybil back. “You can’t go down there, you are bleeding and you’re not a great swimmer.” Her voice goes quiet, the undercurrent of fear unmistakable. “Losing blood isn’t good for swimming and it’s not good for the sharks either.”
Did she just say sharks?
“Because there are sharks in these waters,” she continues. “We’re all bleeding. It’s not safe.”
“I’m going after Dad.” Hayes doesn’t wait for permission, his life jacket is off in seconds and he dives over the edge.
Sybil starts screaming again.
Bile rises up to my throat, panic setting in all over again. My vision narrows around the edges, too bright in the center and too dark around the sides. I can’t focus, can’t grab onto a thought long enough to process through it. My emotions are as volatile as this horrible crash.
I stare into the murky water, imagining the sharks circling. Imagining what else they might be doing. I can picture the blood and hear the watery screams that come out as gurgles.
Someone is screaming with Sybil. They’re screaming for Ethan and Cooper and Gregory. And it’s only after Sybil shakes me, do I realize that the screaming voice is my own.
It doesn’t help. They don’t resurface.
Until finally, something bubbles and Ethan’s head pops back up, followed by Cooper and Hayes.
“I can’t find Dad!” Hayes is desperate.
And Cooper? Cooper looks like he’s already gone. He’s not responsive, his eyes are closed, and his face is way too pale.
“Help me get him up,” Ethan yells, and immediately he’s at the edge of the boat and the three of us women are yanking Coop into our small deck space.
There’s blood everywhere.
“I’m going back to look for Dad,” Hayes says and then he’s back in the water.
Ethan is already in emergency CPR-mode. Amelia is yelling at him to leave Cooper to us, to go back into the water to help Hayes and Gregory. But Ethan isn’t listening to her, she could be invisible for all he cares. He’s solely focused on his twin.
