Tears joined the rain in my eyes. I ran. I ran back down to the seafront road, which was towards Travis. We passed within a couple of metres of each other before I hit the sand and headed towards the harbour wall. The sea was high and I had one chance. One slender thread of hope. That I could jump off the harbour wall and avoid the deadly rocks. That Travis would follow me in without knowing where to jump.
The wall was slick with rain. I paused to kick off my sandals and took a quick look over my shoulder. Travis was about ten seconds behind me. He was walking. As if he knew I had nowhere to go.
I reached the end of the harbour wall and looked down. When the sea was flat calm, you could just about make out where the rocks were under the water. But now, with the sea sucking and surging below, I couldn’t tell with any certainty where they were.
‘Eden! Don’t jump!’ Travis yelled. ‘No one’s going to hurt you!’
He was only a metre away from me. I looked down at the sea again, trying desperately to find that safe place between the two groups of rocks. I felt his hand grab for my hood and then I hurled myself towards the place where I had seen my friends jump so many times before.
The cold water opened up to swallow me. I sank deep, down beneath the seething surface. My eyelids closed and then reopened. A pearly brightness high above me suggested twilight. I kicked hard and aimed upwards. By the time I broke the surface, my lungs were exploding with pain. I gasped.
I squinted up to the top of the wall. Travis was there, watching. I swam towards the opposite headland, the way I had seen my friends do countless times before. Glancing back, I saw Travis shrug off his jacket. Someone else was approaching him. I swam hard. I’d never been a strong swimmer. I’d always been terrified of deep water, intimidated by large waves.
There was a deep splash behind me. Travis presumably. I didn’t waste time looking behind me; I swam harder.
‘Eden,’ I heard Travis yell hoarsely.
My arms ached as I parted the water, my mind focused on one thing: reaching the opposite headland. Waves lifted me up and threw me down. I tried not to panic.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. It touched, barely, and slid off. I swallowed a scream and a mouthful of water. When I caught my breath again, Travis was swimming alongside me, a bloody gash to the side of his head. His eyes were wild with panic. He reached out to grab me. One of his hands grasped my shoulder and pushed. My head sank beneath the surface. I struggled, but he had a tight grip on my hoodie. I hit upwards towards his face but the water stopped me from getting any power behind my punch. I tried to swim away. His hand held tight to my hoodie. Bubbles escaped from my mouth and drifted upwards. Above me, red radiated around his head like a bleeding poppy. I panicked and dug my fingernails into Travis’s hand. He gripped my shoulder tighter. My chest was tight with pain. I needed oxygen. My legs began to kick randomly as I used my arms to push for the surface. Travis continued to push me down.
I closed my eyes. My lungs were empty. I felt a heavy movement in the water nearby, but couldn’t register what or where. Saltwater was in my nose and mouth. In my ears. I thought of Ryan. I pictured the sticky pink of blood above me. I saw a blue planet spiralling away from me.
This was the end. I knew it. I had been under too long. The light was too far away. But Connor was safe. The future was safe. The planet would continue to thrive. Ryan. His face swam into my mind. I wanted it to be the last thing I thought about, but a jumble of images floated through my consciousness: my mother’s windblown red hair; the photograph of Connor on the last day of school, a seagull gliding through the air.
And then I felt pain on my arm. A dragging. Brightness in my eyes and cool salty air. Still in darkness, I sensed cold water in my hair. My lungs aching. A tugging that hurt the socket where my arm met my shoulder. And then darkness.
I don’t know how long the darkness lasted for.
The next thing I was aware of was a sharp pain between my shoulder blades and then saltwater again, warmer now, leaving my mouth instead of entering it. My lungs burned. I tried to breathe but couldn’t. A sharp strike to the back was followed by more water. My eyes were streaming, my nose bled saltwater and I couldn’t breathe in because water was still coming out.
I heard voices in the distance, was vaguely aware of people around me. And then I was lifted on to something soft and carried away and I drifted out of consciousness.
Chapter 17
I awoke to a room washed with fluorescent lights and the voice of a bright, chirpy nurse checking my chart at the foot of the bed. I turned my head to the side and saw Ryan sitting in the chair beside me. His forehead was creased with concern, but his rich brown eyes were filled with light and warmth and the corners of his mouth were turned up in a crooked little smile. I wanted to reach out and touch him, but he was too far away.
‘Oh good, you’re awake,’ the nurse said brightly. ‘I’ll be back in a moment to take your blood pressure.’
If this was a dream, I had survived. Unless this was heaven. I didn’t even believe in heaven. But if it existed, Ryan would be there. I smiled to myself. Heaven or a dream. I didn’t care. I just wanted it to last as long as possible, so I could enjoy gazing into his perfect face.
‘Good morning, Sleeping Beauty,’ said Ryan.
‘Am I dreaming or am I in heaven?’ I asked.
He raised one eyebrow.
‘I don’t care which it is so long as you’re there.’
He gently brushed my hair back from my eyes. ‘You’re not dreaming. And you’re not in heaven.’
‘Am I hallucinating? Did they give me morphine?’
He smiled. ‘No. I’m really here.’
‘You can’t be. You left.’
‘I came back.’
I blinked. He was still there. I touched his hand. It was warm. It felt real.
‘What do you remember?’ he asked, running his thumb across the back of my hand.
‘Everything. Up until Travis pushed me under the water.’ An image of blood, pink and foamy, fanning out around his head, filled my mind. ‘Where’s Travis?’ I asked.
‘Travis is dead,’ he told me.
‘In the water?’
Ryan nodded. ‘He was concussed and then he drowned.’
I shook my head. ‘That’s awful.’
‘No,’ Ryan’s voice was hoarse. ‘It’s the best thing. He would have killed you, Eden. He’s dead and you’re safe.’
He leant over and kissed me gently on the mouth. Right on cue, the chirpy nurse came back to check my blood pressure. Ryan stood up to give her space.
‘Too much excitement will raise your blood pressure,’ she said, winking at me.
‘Can I go home?’ I asked.
‘The doctor will be doing her rounds soon,’ the nurse said, smiling at me. ‘If everything is OK, you should be free to go right after breakfast.’
I still had so many questions. How could Ryan be here? Who saved me? Where was Travis’s body?
‘It’s a little high,’ the nurse said, taking my reading. She glanced at Ryan. ‘But nothing to worry about. Breakfast will be here in just a few minutes.’
‘Is Miranda OK?’ I asked once the nurse had left the room again.
‘As well as can be expected.’ He took my hand again.
‘Does she know anything?’
Ryan shook his head. ‘She thinks that Travis was walking along the harbour wall, trying to take a photo of his restaurant. You were there too, helping him. Travis slipped and fell in and then you jumped in to try to rescue him, but he had hit his head on the rocks. Then I jumped in and managed to save you, but it was too late for Travis.’
‘And how come you were there?’