Did You Get What You Deserve?

I peeled off my jeans, shivering in my bathing suit. James grinned at me and pulled off his shirt before kicking off his shoes and running to the edge of the lake. Dad wound the car window down and stuck his head out.

“Take care of Dani, don’t do anything stupid, and we’ll be over in the picnic area if you need us.”

I nodded and took Dani by the hand. With her eyesight failing, we were taking what could be her last chance to see the lake. We ran over to join James at the water’s edge, and laughed as he dipped a toe in.

“It’s cold!”

I grinned and pushed him. He stuck out a hand to get his balance and grabbed my wrist, pulling me into the water with him. I shrieked and dunked him under while Dani laughed. As James broke free and turned to drag his sister in, I swam away to the middle of the lake. When I could no longer detect the bottom, I took a deep breath and went under.

After blinking a few times, I took off for the bottom. I brushed away the weeds that caught at my arms as I got deeper, and finally my fingers brushed the bottom. I did a few tumbles, spinning around in the deep water. Then I turned to go up for air. However, having stirred up the silt at the bottom of the lake, the water around me was clouded, and I couldn’t see which way was up.

No matter, I thought, and released a few air bubbles. They floated up, and I took off in that direction. Suddenly something caught my arms, and I realised I had swum right into the weed that had caught me on the way down. I grabbed it and started to unwind it. But as I turned to swim away, it wrapped itself around my ankles. I was starting to feel the slightest twinge of panic, but patiently bent down to untwist it. However, the weed caught my wrists as soon as they were anywhere near it, and soon I found myself well and truly stuck.

Shit, shit, shit. The more I tried to break free, the more entangled I became.

Shit, why didn’t I tell James I was going down? I was desperate for air, and couldn’t think of a single way to tell James where I was. Unless...

I breathed out, releasing a stream of bubbles. Then I waited, fighting the urge to breathe. After a few seconds that felt like eternity, I saw the light flicker. I looked up. James was swimming down towards me. As he reached me, he grabbed the weeds around my wrists and yanked them away. Then he looked at my face, something close to terror in his eyes. He tore away the weeds trapping my ankles and pulled me away from the plant. Then I realised what he must have seen in my face. Tiny little lights were flashing in front of my eyes, and my limbs felt like dead weight. I gave a half-hearted kick, and my brain ached with the effort. James grabbed me around the waist and kicked for the surface. But the light wasn’t getting closer... If anything, it looked like it was getting darker...

**Author's Note: Ha! Short chapter! But there will most likely be more up soon. I just love cliffhangers.

Thanks to Days_News and Critical_Lemon for commenting.**