I can’t tell. I can’t even tell if I’m on land, or still in the water. All I can hear is the rush of rapids in my ears. All I can feel is the rocking motion of my body.
I think I must be sleeping, because I hear the sound of wolves in my dreams. They sound louder and more agitated than when I’ve heard them in the forest before.
My eyes open again, and even the overcast light seems painfully bright. I turn my head away from it and see trees, lots and lots of trees; and something looks at me between their trunks.
Actually, several somethings look at me through the trees.
I think they’re wolves, but then again, it’s all just a dream so who knows. The darkness swims back.
This time when I pull my eyelids open, I’m keenly aware of the fact that I am, in fact, breathing.
It hurts, beyond anything I’ve felt before. My lungs feel like they’re trying to pass gravel through my airways and my throat stings as if I’ve swallowed knives, not water. I see Rory above me still.
He’s sitting above me, thighs straddling either side of my body with his weight lifted off of me so that I can try to breathe. This god-damned painful breath.
Each inhale is torture. The most wonderful torture I could ever hope for. Each breath, as painful as it is, clears some of the fog from my brain.
The light is definitely playing tricks with my eyes, or maybe it’s because I’ve smashed my head, but Rory looks odd His eyes look particularly strange as I try to focus on them. They’re a shining yellow, like the kind of reflective yellow city workers use to paint the traffic lane stripes on the highway.
Why are his eyes yellow?
I wish the darkness would stop coming. It makes it so hard to tell what’s real, and what’s not. Part of me still wonders if I’m already dead.
My next dream feels more like a memory. I remember Rory grabbing me as we surface from the water. I remember the feeling of his strong, super-warm arms around me. Why is his body so hot? Not the cute kind of hot, but the temperature-inducing kind that makes me wonder if I am feverish.
The contrast of his body heat against the frigid water almost snaps me back into consciousness. He whispers something in my ear, and I can feel his mouth close to the side of my neck as he does.
How can you expect me to let you drown? He says in my dream-memory. How could I ignore your scent carried out to us across the water? Forgive me, Sabrina. What was I supposed to do?
19
Sabrina
When I finally wake up, I mean really wake up, Rory has just finished giving me CPR, I think. But since I’m breathing now, and awake, I’m not quite sure why his mouth is still on top of mine. I can feel the words that he’s uttering under his breath against my lips.
My voice comes out like a croak.
“What are you saying?”
It sounds like he’s speaking in an entirely different language. Before I get any kind of answer from him, I hear more voices coming from the trees behind us.
“So, this is what the whole thing has been about,” Kaleb’s voice shouts from a near distance away. “You just wanted her for yourself. You’re so completely full of shit.”
Kaleb and Marlowe come into view and I try to make sense of what they’re arguing about.
“It’s not my fault that we’re all drawn to her. I’ve tried to stay away from her, trust me. What was I supposed to do, let her drown?” Rory’s voice is sharp and less restrained than usual.
“Maybe you could have just stopped with saving her after you plucked her from the water, instead of making out with her while she’s still half-unconscious,” Kaleb says.
Rory looks stricken—like he can’t decide whether to be furious or ashamed.
I must have hit my head harder than I thought, because whatever I think is going on here, definitely can’t really be happening. First, I hear the howl of wolves all around me as I’m getting ready to drown, then I see Rory’s eyes look like they’re glowing as if they’re backlit, and now it sounds like all three of these brothers are fighting over me. Three very unavailable brothers mind you. There’s no way this is real, so I’m either unconscious still, or dead.
Dead seems a lot more likely as the moments drag on.
Marlowe is hovering over me and holding out his arm for me to take. Why does he look even more attractive right now than normal?
Yeah, I’ve definitely hit my head too hard.