I unleashed what sounded like a roar filled with pain and anguish, and then brought both of my hands down on top of the water with such force it stung. Words flowed from my mouth with a ferocity I hadn’t known I possessed.
“You will not take any lives tonight!! Give her back to me!! Now!!” I yelled at the top of my lungs and squeezed my eyes shut.
I hit bottom with a thud, momentarily knocking the breath out of me. I looked down at the ocean floor. The ocean floor? I tried to get my bearings and realized the ocean had receded in about a five yard radius all around me, as if I was standing in an oversized bubble. The waves sloshed up against the sides, unable to reach me. Miraculously, Phoebe was laying a couple of feet away from me, still unconscious and ashen. She had long gashes along her arms and legs. I lifted her up and tried to remember how long a person could go without oxygen before brain damage set in. I felt like we’d been in the water for hours. Surprisingly, as I walked towards shore, the protective bubble followed, allowing me to walk all the way up to the beach untouched by the waves. Finally on the sand, Carmen and Willow took Phoebe from me, staring at me wide-eyed. I was just hoping Carmen wouldn’t ask me to show her how to do what I just did. Because I had absolutely no idea.
Carmen gently rolled Phoebe onto her back and began trying to resuscitate her. Every ounce of energy left me and I collapsed on the sand. The stinging rain battered my body. I made an effort to catch my breath, but the wind just kept blowing sand in my face, clogging my nose and mouth. I shakily lifted myself up and crawled on all fours to where Phoebe lay in the sand. I tried to wipe off my face, but the sand had mixed with my tears and I only succeeded in scratching my skin. I gave up and I fell down beside her. Willow was cradling her head while Carmen performed CPR. I just looked on helplessly.
Time slowed as I silently watched the frenzy around Phoebe. Willow and Carmen were saying something to me, but all I heard was the howling of the wind. Something caught my eye through the rain a couple of yards away. Movement. A figure was retreating in to the night, but I was too exhausted to worry about it. Instead, I tried to concentrate on Phoebe’s cold, limp hand in mine. I tried squeezing it and started talking to her.
“Phoebe, you gotta wake up,” I whispered, as tears streamed down my sandy face. “Please wake up.”
Carmen continued to administer CPR, rhythmically breathing into her mouth and pushing on her chest. Over and over and over. Suddenly, Willow opened her eyes and released Phoebe’s head.
Phoebe began coughing violently as water spewed from her mouth. My heart swelled, and Carmen turned her onto her side. She continued to cough for several more minutes, as all the water was expelled from her lungs. Willow moved behind her and placed her palms on the cuts and bruises decorating her arms. She slowly opened her blood shot eyes and focused on me. Her lips were returning to a normal color, but her face was still deathly pale. Her hair was twisted around her head, matted from the sand.
“Why are you all wet?” she asked weakly, attempting a smile.
“You decided to go for a swim,” I told her, and Carmen smothered her in a hug.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again!” Tears of relief rolled down her cheeks.
Phoebe just smiled up at her, “And you said you weren’t going to do mouth to mouth when you saved my life.”
Chapter 20
The next day I awakened to driving rain and screeching wind. What sleep I had gotten was restless. There were too many thoughts floating around in my head. After almost losing Phoebe, none of us wanted her out of sight, so we had all piled into the living room. Phoebe was still asleep on the couch, Carmen was on the floor and Willow had curled up in the arm chair. How she slept like that was beyond me. I tiptoed to the balcony doors and peeked out through the blinds. The only thing visible was the rain blowing completely sideways. I looked down at the beach I couldn’t see and hoped the turtle eggs were still safe. The four foot wide hole we had dug among the dunes put them within the safety of the shield, but I had no idea when they would hatch. I planned to check on them several times a day until then. I couldn’t let them down. If it was the last thing I’d do, I was going to make sure they made it into the ocean unscathed.
The one tiny detail I’d spent all night coming to grips with was that I saw into the future. Not just saw, but actually experienced it. I was there. Between reveries and visions of the future, my true reality was becoming more and more complicated. During a reverie, I seemed cognizant of what was happening; I knew I was sleeping and where my body was. But in a vision, I had no idea that I’d randomly blacked out and subsequently travelled days or weeks in time. I only realized it after I woke up, which was slightly unsettling. What if I blacked out in the shower? Or swimming? And what if I did something stupid during one because I didn’t know I was in a vision? What if I saw myself?
Would I disrupt the space-time continuum, ending all life as we know it? I had no idea how these things worked.
The other small technicality weighing on my mind was if this last blackout was a vision of the future, then the first one would have been too. That explained how I saw Nicolet’s death a week before it actually happened. It also explained why Finn asked me if I had a reverie Friday. He had seen me earlier that day. It was just the ‘me’ from a week ago. So what I saw during my blackout at the party in Atlanta had been real. It just hadn’t happened yet. Which meant Nicolet didn’t kill herself. Which meant she really was murdered. And the only people that were there were Nicolet, the man who killed her, me, and Finn.
A buzzing sound from my bedroom made me jump. A new text. From Finn. My heart jumped into my throat.
Meet me on the beach In a hurricane? I texted back. He was out of his mind.
Trust me.
You’re crazy.
About you.
“Stasia?”
“Morning Sunshine!” I walked back into the living room. Phoebe propped herself up on the couch and stretched. She immediately clutched her throat in agony.
“Ow. I feel like somebody strangled me. It hurts to swallow.” She leaned back and closed her eyes. My phone beeped from my bedroom.
“You need to rest, Phoebs, you went through a lot last night.” I pulled the blanket back over her and smoothed her hair back. We had both painstakingly taken showers when we got back to Maren, but it was a little easier for Phoebe since she could command the sand to jump off of her body at will.
Pretty cool if you ask me, considering I would never need an exfoliation ever again. I lost about ten layers of skin in the process of scrubbing it off. “Okay…but will you tell Carmen…” she was asleep again before she could finish. Willow shifted in her chair and mumbled something about bacon cupcakes. I chuckled and darted back into my bedroom.
He couldn’t be serious.
See you in 5 min That was three minutes ago. So, he just assumed I was going to go along with his brilliant idea? He was probably out there, standing in the rain, soaking wet, waiting for me. I mean, I couldn’t just leave him out there to catch pneumonia, right? Or, what if he got hit by a piece of flying debris?
It could happen. Damn. He was definitely going to pay for this one.
I searched my wardrobe for anything remotely waterproof or at least water-resistant. I finally found a pair of black wind pants, a red ski jacket (maybe if I got washed away, the Coast Guard would be able to spot me), and pulled my hair up into my Georgia Bulldogs hat. It might be more fitting to wear Phoebe’s wet suit and goggles, but this would have to do for now. I couldn’t believe I was doing this. There weren’t many people I’d venture out in a hurricane for. Against my better judgment, Finn was apparently becoming one of them. I tried to sneak through the living room, but my wind pants were anything but quiet. Just as I turned the doorknob, Willow turned in her chair again and I froze mid-step. Holding my breath, I clicked the door shut, turned around, and walked right into Olivia and Cassie.