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THIRTY-TWO
Floating...sinking...drowning...
This feeling all too familiar.
Silence deafening, the compression in my lungs, suffocating.
I'd felt like this, how many times before?
The weighing sensation of my mind, so impossible to drag myself up and out of my thoughts like concrete, pulling my soul downward, down, deep.
I tried to pull the cover out from over my head but couldn't move. My eyelids, dense and heavy; my arms like anchors; my thoughts muddled.
I didn't want to face the world again.
Not today.
The darkness had crept in while I was sleeping and now, I would drown in my misery.
I would allow it. Just for a couple of days.
Knight was here...somewhere? He'd just been by my side, his bare chest against my arm, his arm binding against my ribs. Keeping me nestled into his warmth.
The burning in my lungs grew and billowed, slowly pulling me from my sleep. My weighted eyelashes forced open.
Blink. Once. Twice.
Panic setting in, as the rippling world of white and blue filled my vision. Tiled squares and white lines, as checkered as my past, filling the spaces.
The hotel pool.
I opened my mouth to scream, releasing a burst of air, the bubbles escaping to the surface, leaving me behind.
I've been here before.
Water filled my mouth, the panic inside shooting outward, a shriek in the night.
I was drowning.
Knight had spoiled me with a spa and hotel stay. Wrapped in fluffy robes, we ate in the room, then made love. I'd fallen asleep, ensconced in the safety of his arms.
...And woken to this hell.
They must've drugged me!
My arms were bound to a chair, the rope burning, digging into my skin as I struggled to free myself.
My hair floated upwards, the darkness silhouetted against the moon overhead, the burning in my lungs growing stronger.
Knight!
Somehow they'd managed to take me from him.
Was he still alive?
My thoughts were foggy and confused. I had to focus. I yanked my arm upward. The burning of the rope jerked me awake.
I blinked rapidly, trying to see through the chlorinated water, trying to find something, anything, that would help me.