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He breaks into a fit of laughter, which only makes me clench his collar harder.
“Oh, I like her. She’s a feisty one,” dreadlocks implies. With his one good hand, he reaches out and wraps his fingers around my hair. He pulls hard, and I yelp in pain from the wound already inflicted by Saturday’s assault.
I let go of the redhead, panting frantically as dreadlocks holds me by my hair and pulls me back so forcefully I don’t have time to think.
Everything happens so quickly.
The redhead jumps in behind me. He yanks my hands before I have the strength to pull them away. Suddenly, he’s clasping something around my wrists, locking them together, almost like handcuffs, but they don’t feel like metal, more like leather. As I start to let out an almighty scream, dreadlocks gets to me first, letting go of my hair and smothering my mouth with a cloth.
An overpowering chemical smell invades my senses—smelling like cleaning products but definitely something toxic—as I try my hardest not to breathe in. My eyes begin to fog, and my body shudders, feeling limp. I shake and try to fight with everything I have in me, but my body won’t react as it has no choice but to inhale the fumes.
The cloth is removed, and my eyes roll around in my head while I blink a few times. I’m still awake enough to know what’s happening, but my body isn’t functioning. I can’t move or speak as they attach something heavy to the cuffs of my wrists, pulling me backward as they hold me up. Everything’s happening so swiftly that I can’t register the true enormity of the situation. My eyes flicker open in time to see the redhead look me in the eyes and grin.
“Anchors away,” he sneers, then brings up a black sack and slides it over my head, turning everything black. Even in the haze and the fog of the chemical-induced vapor, my adrenaline kicks in, and my heart beats at a crazy speed, pumping so fast it becomes painful. My breaths are so rushed I know I am hyperventilating, but my body won’t cooperate and fight to keep me alive. The effects are too powerful as they lift and start walking with me. My eyes flood with tears as the black cotton sticks to my face with every inhale of frantic breaths.
The sound of water splashing instantly heightens all my senses, and if possible, I begin to panic even more.
Death by drowning is my biggest fear.
Now it seems like it’s going to be a reality.
A heavy, heaving sob wracks my limp body as I zone in and out of the fog, gasping for sound, trying with all my might to scream for help, but nothing is coming out. The sound of the water splashing is coming closer and closer. My muscles tense while my heart is ready to burst when all movement stops.
My breath catches, and I shake violently as one of the men holds me, the river water lapping at my back.
It’s freezing.
No, it’s arctic.
And it sends a chill down my spine when the water hits my back.
“Shame. You’re quite the looker. I could have had fun with you. Rest in peace, Makaylie,” one of the assholes says.
I hear a splash, and then my hands are being yanked under the water by the weight of something unbelievably heavy. My body has no choice but to fall backward into the river’s murky depths. I try to take a deep breath before my head goes under, but I don’t make it in time, and instead of air, water covers my entire body, hitting all my nerve endings at once, sending coldness inside me so chilling it hurts my bones.
My mouth floods with water as I sink further and further into the depths of the river. The black hood sticks to my mouth, while my puffy jacket and gloves make it even harder for me to function. I shake my head from side to side, trying as hard as I can not to swallow, but my lungs are burning, hot and tight, needing air.
I can’t hold on any longer.
I gasp.
Hoping like hell there’s a pocket of air somewhere in this hood.
But all I get is a flood of water invading my lungs, deep, fast, and unrelenting. I choke and splutter, trying to bring it back up. My eyes close, and tightness stiffens my entire body.
I’m trapped in the Mississippi River…
…drowning.
So this is the end.
I stop fighting and close my eyes, letting the darkness overcome me.
My mind drifts to Cain and the good times we had. Even though I know I’m here, dying because of him, I’m still glad I met him. I’m happy to have had our time, and I’d do it all over again.
Calm washes over me as I let out any remaining air.
The darkness fades, and warmth encases me, filling me with a glow that wraps me in comfort.
