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I felt the water shift in front of me and knew it was now or never. I wouldn’t get another chance like this again, and I wasn’t about to waste this one.

I pulled on my chains, stretching as far as I could. My legs met with something heavy, a body. I wrapped my legs around what I could of his robust frame and tightened, pulling him into me.

I fell to my ass on the mattress with Adrian’s back pressed tightly to my front, hip to hip, and completely submerged under water. Stupidly, I hadn’t prepared myself properly, and my mouth was wide open. I sucked in a mouthful of water before I pressed my lips shut, but the damage was already done. I was trapped underwater with a lungful of water and an angry, chubby genie in my arms.

My eyes were wide open and burning, but for some reason I couldn’t explain, they refused to close.

My lungs burned.

My entire body was numb.

And I felt more alive now than I had since waking up in this shitty hole. I wasn’t so sure that said anything good about me, but I didn’t care.

Adrian flailed around, rolling to his side and taking me with him since I was latched on and going absolutely nowhere. My head bounced off the mattress, and for the first time, I was glad it was there—the ground could be very unforgiving.

Adrian’s body bucked against mine in an attempt to get away from me. I might not be able to see the chains, but since they were attached to my limbs, they were easy enough to find.

He grabbed at my hands as I wrapped the chain around his neck, his fingernails clawing and ripping my skin open. My skin stung, but that was the least of my worries. I wrapped that chain tight and lay back flat against the mattress.

I pressed my thighs tighter to his sides and lifted my feet from his stomach. I slammed my heels down into his big, rounded belly and felt what little air he had in his lungs leave his body in a rush.

I tightened my grip on the chain wrapped around his throat, forced my eyes closed, and held on for dear life. If I was going to drown here in this fucking hole, then I was taking this total son of a bitch with me.

We’d die together.

16

Drowning wasn’t something I’d ever recommend.

Especially not while clinging onto a man over three times your body weight and almost a whole foot shorter than you.

I never let him go as I died, as we both died. It was the one thing I’d done this entire night that I could be proud of.

Adrian, for as much shit as he talked and for as big of a bully as he was, didn’t put up much of a fight. It was pathetic really. I put up a better fight than him when I’d been a young girl growing up with Vivian.

Adrian ought to be ashamed of himself.

After spasming violently in my arms, his body went limp, and I still did not let him go when my own body convulsed and my lungs filled with water. When it felt like my lungs were going to burst and my head might explode, I still didn’t let him go.

My life didn’t flash before my eyes.

There was no light at the end of the tunnel. There was only darkness waiting for me and a nothingness that was vast and empty.

I didn’t know where I’d gone wrong in my life, but there’d been no pearly gates in sight for me. It’d been terrifying, but at the same time, oddly liberating.

I coughed, rolled over onto my side, and promptly threw up a whole lot of water. My body racked with each hacking, violent cough that spilled the remaining water out of my lungs.

My lungs burned and my entire body ached like it never had before. But I was alive, and that was all that really mattered to me, all that should have mattered to me.

The sound of someone coughing beside me drew my attention away from my own miserable condition, and I rolled over onto my other side to see what was going on. My cheek brushed against grass, and I finally realized I wasn’t in the hole anymore.

What in the hell was going on around here?

And, really, how was I not dead? Not that I wanted to be dead, but it’d be really nice if things started to make sense for me.

Adrian was on his back not five feet away from me, and the coughing had come from him. He had angry, purple marks around his neck, and the skin on his face looked thin, almost like a layer had been peeled off.

We were both outside of the hole, and we were both alive. I didn’t get it.