Page 66 of A Princess, Stolen
“Sparta,” I whispered in horror. With brute force, he pried back my fingers, which were still grasping the railing. It happened too quickly. Much too quickly since he was so strong.
I didn’t know if I screamed again. I didn’t know anything anymore. Fear squeezed the air out of my lungs. I heard my “hel...” and felt myself falling. The last thing I saw was him.
He stood calmly at the railing, peering down at me with his compound eyes.
Chapter 14
Iunderstood two things. First, Sparta had betrayed me. Second, if no one noticed, I would drown alone in the ocean. I landed hard in the water and felt the waves crashing over my head, and then there was nothing left but panic.
Panic and the shock of the cold.
For a few seconds, I was dazed as I sank with the heavy boots on like a stone and noticed the red sunlight shimmering over the surface of the water like a carpet of embers. I didn’t know if I was screaming or motionless, thrashing or sinking. For a tiny moment, I even thought I was burning underwater and my alveoli would burst when, at some point, I realized that I was floating lifelessly like a doll in the blackness. Almost weightless. Fear had immobilized me and I was sinking.
Mom came to mind. Mom, as I had always drawn her: a white ghost sinking toward the bottom of the sea.
Mom!
It was pure adrenaline that made me react now. I glanced up at the floating reflections of red and gold. Instinctively, I kicked my legs and flapped my arms like wings, but the heavy boots pulled me downward as did the many layers of clothing, thesoaked turtleneck, jeans, and long underwear. Fear gripped my throat. Again, I flapped my arms but I barely made any headway.
I blinked. Something bright floated past me at eye level, very close, almost like millions of tiny fish. It puffed up and contracted as if it was breathing in and out. Only then did I suspect something was around me holding me down, preventing me from rising. It wasn’t my clothes. I reached out at the bright object since I couldn’t see it due to the panic and the murky water. It was rough, solid, and fine-meshed.
My heart skipped a beat. It was a net. A trawling net. Panicked images of my painful drowning overwhelmed my mind as I frantically grabbed at it. The net was everywhere, even under my feet there was something unyielding.
Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!
I thrashed around like a fish out of water when suddenly there was a hard yank. I slid forward without swimming. Then, I understood the horror: I had fallen into the water into a trawling net stretched out beneath the surface. Its round opening had swallowed me like the mouth of a sea monster and I was now at the narrow end being dragged underwater.
Fearing for my life, I tried to swim toward the wide opening, but the net was too tightly wrapped around me, and even if it had been looser, the undertow I would have had to swim against was too strong. The cutter was going too fast. And that meant it kept the net under the water too.
Out of sheer desperation, I flailed my arms up and down again, punching the net. The pressure in my head was building and not only from fear. I had to take a breath. Bubbles from my struggle trickled up through the mesh.I can’t get out! I can’t get out!
Do you know what the most insidious thing is about these nets?I heard Sparta ask.
I tried with all my strength to tear the net apart with my bare hands, but like in the storage room, it was too strong and stretched too tightly. I only felt a sharp burning sensation on my fingers. For a moment, I remained motionless because I didn’t know what else I could do. Then, it occurred to me.
I tugged up the sleeve of the sweater to cut through the net with the rough part of the ring.
But, in my panic, the ring became stuck in the fine fibers of the mesh. Now I was truly trapped. Like a fish on a hook. I screamed and useless bubbles bubbled around me. How long had I been underwater? A minute? A minute and a half? It felt like forever.
I had to breathe. My head was pounding. With shaking fingers, I tried to untie the bracelet, but fear and the water made me clumsy and the knot tightened.
I’m drowning! Like Mom!
All of a sudden, I stopped moving. I saw my braids floating in the water as if in slow motion as did the edge of my sweater. My arms and legs seemed too heavy to move. Everything slowed down. And it was quiet. Deafeningly quiet.
Was it always like this when one lost a fight?
My pulse pounded hard in my temples, chest, and stomach against the dwindling oxygen as if I were merely a single pervasive heartbeat. Da-dam. Da-dam. Da-dam. My eyeballs stung. I had to breathe. I wanted to take a breath even if it was water, but I couldn’t. Something was blocking me as if my throat was closing up. My thoughts drifted into the void as I saw colorful swirls in the water. Brushstrokes without meaning. Suddenly, I felt disembodied as if my memory was sliding through spirals of red and green.
For a few seconds, my mind was still conscious on some level, and I saw Mom.
And again, it was as if this was all happening timelessly, in the past, present, and future.
I see her standing in front of a tiny suitcase that is on her bed. She is stowing some pants and shirts and even packing some of my clothes in it. I spot my yellow ducky underpants and my favorite sweater with the daisies.
“Mom, what are you doing?” I hear myself asking.
Startled, she turns around, her long cinnamon-colored braids swinging back and forth. “Will, I thought you were downstairs with your grandma?”
