You Gave Me Your Life. I Give You Mine.

I was sitting on a park bench. It was getting dark and I had nowhere to go, the only thing I had with me was my small bag full of food and the dress I was wearing. The sunset was beautiful, but as soon as the sun went down the temperature rocketed down to a mere 35 degrees.

I shivered and stood up, walking would heat me up for sure. I walked down towards the docks where warehouses lined the bay just waiting to be filled with things. I walked down to the very last warehouse. It wasn’t used anymore for anything I was sure, I had been in here many a time and spent the night when the days got cold. Slipping in I heard talking, I froze, someone had found my hideout. I hid behind a box and looked around the corner.

There were three guys sitting on the hood of a car. They were laughing and talking and drinking beer like it was water and they were in the desert. I noticed only one wasn’t drinking, he was leaning up against the car smoking a cigarette and watching his friends be idiots. I watched as he sighed and shook his head as one of his friends stumbled off, the other one started talking to the big guy and he just stood there laughing slightly. I turned, sitting on the ground to wait until they left, and gasped at what I saw. The guy that had stumbled away and disappeared had somehow snuck up behind me and was now smiling weirdly at me. The kind of smile that just screamed 'i'm about to do something to you that you won't like.'

“Well, well, well looky what I found.” he slurred, then laughed.

He grabbed my arm tightly and dragged me up off the ground. I couldn't get the scream out of my throat as he grabbed my bag and dragged me around the corner to his friends.

“Aye! Look what I found.” he said happily dragging me to the car.

The smaller guy was laying on the ground hiccupping and when he saw me his eyes lit up. He jumped up and came close to me, mere inches from my face actually. He smelled like liquor and somewhere deep down there soap. The big dude stamped out his cigarette and stood up straight. He looked at them and then his eyes landed on me. I trembled under his gaze but then his look softened and he looked at the one holding me.

“Jack, let her go.” he said his eyes turning dark.

“All I wanted to do was play.” he said running his finger over my cheek.

I whimpered and pulled away, or attempted to anyway. He held tight and pulled me closer to him, so close I could feel his breath on me. The other guy was inching closer. I was suffocating in their smell and every breath I took was hot and sticky and gross. I closed my eyes tight wishing I was somewhere else, anywhere else but here. The two guys, Jack and the big guy, were fighting and Jack was inching closer and closer to the open doors in the warehouse leading out to the bay. I wasn’t really paying attention until my heels hit the edge. My eyes snapped open and I looked behind me. My heels were hanging off the concrete and the water was below me. One hundred feet of water below me. My grave was waiting for me below. I knew none of them knew I didn’t know how to swim.

“Fine I’ll let her go!” Jack yelled, letting go of my arm making me fall off balance only to go plunging towards the water.

I screamed as I hit the surface and immediately started to sink. I couldn’t swim at all, I was like a sinking rock as I watched the surface get farther and farther away from me and I got closer and closer to the bottom. As I paniked and ran out of breath, I sucked in water, blackness spreading over me immediately. Just before it all went black I barely saw something splash into the water and head right towards me, then the blackness overtook me and I was gone.

Derek had never been scared in his life. He wasn’t scared when he was arrested and put in the county jail when he was fifteen. He wasn’t scared when a drug dealer sent hit men out to get him.

But right now, as he stared down at the water waiting for the girl to come back up, if she came back up, Derek was so scared he almost wept. If she drowned he would be a murderer. He would be sent to prison for life and never see daylight again.

He was more angry then scared really, it was all Jack’s fault for bothering the girl, for bringing her over here. For telling him to drive here and sit there while he and Sam got drunk. Derek had to do something, Jack and Sam sure weren’t doing anything. They were standing there chugging down a couple more beers.

Derek grumbled under his breath and pulled his jacket off shoving it in Jack's hands. He stripped down to his pants and then jumped in. The light from the sunset was shining down into the water making the girl clearly visible while she sank. Her eyes were closed, her arms and legs floating above her and her dress swaying slightly with the movement of the water. Derek swum down and wrapped his arms around her waist. She weighed nothing underwater, Derek wondered what she weighed up at the surface. He pushed off the bottom of the ground with his legs making some sand stir. He broke the surface with the girl in his arms, gasping for breath himself and wishing he heard the girl doing the same. He swam to the small ladder concreted into the wall.

“Grab her!” Derek yelled up. Just then another guy that wasn’t Sam or Jack looked over.

“What the hell have you gotten yourself into now Barns?” Damian asked as he took the girl and pulled her up effortlessly.

Derek climbed up and watched as Damian did his doctor magic and gave her mouth to mouth. She came to coughing and sputtering, a relief to Derek. Her coughs made an echo through the big building and Damian and Derek sat there watching her. Damian helped her sit up and kept his hand on her back as she swayed from the lack of oxygen in her lungs.

“You okay?” Damian asked. She looked at him and nodded. Then she looked at Derek and smiled slightly.

“Thanks.” she said. Derek shrugged and stood up.

“It was Damian. I just brought you up.” he said grabbing his clothes and walking away.

She looked at Damian, confusion swimming through her eyes. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

“Don’t take it personally. His sister drowned when he was little. Here, take my jacket and get out of here.” he said handing her his brown jacket and standing up.

She stood and walked towards the doors, droplets of water falling onto the concrete, turning it a darker grey. Derek was sitting against the wall. She stopped and looked at him.

“Derek.” she said timidly.

He looked up and waited, taking in her soaked body and the way her hair hung around her shoulders limply. Before he could say anything she took a chain from around her neck and handed it to him. It had a ring on it.

“Take this. Keep it safe for me. You gave me your life. I give you mine.” She pushed the chain into his hand and closed it into a fist around it.

“I’ll be back for it.” She whispered walking out.

As she disappeared around the corner Damian, who had been watching and hearing everything, heard Derek whisper.

“And I’ll be waiting.”