Leah (Carter #2)
Prologue
Carter
T he first thing I felt was ice cold water against my legs.
My eyes flew open, but I saw nothing. I blinked rapidly and tried to shake my aching head to gain some clarity. But everything was black.
I was hysterical. I flailed my body, feeling constricted and in shock. I tried to make sense of all this, but I was too disoriented to string a single thought. I couldn’t understand. My brain wasn’t registering. I felt short-winded and terrified, trying to piece one and one together in complete darkness.
I heard the sound of metal groaning above my head, and the freezing cold water moved higher, sitting now at hip level in my seat.
My seat.
I was in a fucking seat.
I remembered that much.
My hands shook as I tried to undo my belt, and my breaths turned to short pants. What the hell was happening? I didn’t know. I opened my mouth and shouted out a bunch of gibberish as the hysteria from within climbed to dizzying heights.
I can’t see.
I can’t fucking see.
I didn’t know what I was doing.
I couldn’t even undo my belt.
I felt claustrophobic and trapped.
I’m helpless, and I’m going to die right here.
“Here, I got you,” said a familiar voice. I recognized it as the flight attendant that’d offered me peanuts before take-off.
Julie.
That’s what she said her name was.
It was a relief to my ears.
Hands touched mine and I heard the belt snap open.
“Move,” Julie cried out. “The water’s getting higher. We have to go. Now, now, now!”
“I can’t see,” I choked out, hardly able to believe the vulnerable sound was coming out of my own mouth. “I can’t… I can’t see. Everything is black.” I let out another trembling breath. “Don’t—don’t leave me.”
Her hand gripped my arm, pulling me up and out of my seat. I could hardly stand straight. I felt like I was tilted at an awkward angle, and all my body wanted to do was fall forward. But the water rushed all the way inside, climbing within seconds to my face.
“I’ve got you!” the woman screamed. “I’ve got you! Don’t let go! Hold on! We have to swim out of here!”
I took a deep breath and did as she said.
I was disoriented. I couldn’t see, but the hand around mine meant everything to me, and it was taking me up and up. I kicked and swam, but I felt scorching pain in my other arm. It was broken. That was the only explanation, and it hurt.
Fuckin’ hell, it hurt more than anything.
Suddenly, something large passed between the link to my only hope, and I was torn from her. Jolted back without warning, I scrambled to have that hand back on mine. I extended both hands out in every direction, waiting for that grip in the darkness to come back to me.
But as the seconds passed, there was nothing.
Nothing but the screams I felt from within.
The fear of death washed over me.
I kicked and swam, not knowing what was up and what was down.
Had I swum in circles?
My lungs ached, my head was dizzy, and my body felt like it’d been pounded by the icy water. I was moving nowhere. God, I was probably swimming in the wrong direction. Deeper and deeper into the water, into the darkness, into death’s mouth.
I’m dying.
I’m dying.
And the worst part of all was I had nothing to think of that could soothe me in death’s arms. Nothing but… her , but she was gone now, and it was all my fault. I pushed her away after burning us alive.
I’ve got nothing.
You can’t take money to your grave. You can’t take awards or fake bitches vying for your attention for the sole reason of being in the spotlight.
None of that means anything to you when you’re knocking on death’s door.
I was going to die a lonely man with a life filled with regrets.
Regrets I would never fix.
What could I have done differently?
A vague curtain of light took over my senses and a sharp breeze whipped past my face. I immediately realized I’d surfaced from the water, and I desperately gasped in the air and coughed. I tasted blood in my mouth, and I swallowed the coppery taste down. Then I shouted incoherently and spun around in the still water.
I still couldn’t see, but there the darkness was lighter, and I was out.
I’m alive.