James ran through a kitchen and through a door that was already wide-open. Two steps across the patio andhe saw the dock. It was long, notably withered, and stood over a pond he’d never known existed.
If it had been a different situation, he might have appreciated the peaceful scenery.
But what he saw frightened him as much as it relieved him.
“Rose!”
At the end of the dock the most beautiful woman he had ever seen turned to her name.
He didn’t know what he expected but when she yelled for him, he listened.
“Hurry!”
James ran so fast, at one point he wasn’t even sure he was touching the ground. It was just pure propulsion from where Rose wasn’t to the spot by her side. The closer James got, the more confusing the details became. No one was with Rose but there was blood on the wood next to her. The clothes she was wearing, however, were clean. The only thing that had changed since he had last seen her at the hospital was the rope she was currently untying from around her ankles.
Rope that was attached to a cinder block near the dock’s edge. Two more cinder blocks were next to her.
She didn’t seem like she was hurt. Yet her expression was panicked.
He didn’t know why.
Rose pointed to the water.
“Save him,” she yelled.
James didn’t need to know more. He didn’t need the details to make sense. Context wasn’t the key to getting him to act.
It was Rose.
She needed him to do something.
So something was what he did.
Without a single question, James dove into the water.
The house might have been warm and the outdoor air humid, but the pond was absolutely cold. It hit James’s body like a ton of bricks as he immediately started swimming downward. He opened his eyes once he adjusted and the cold was less jarring, and scanned the area.
He didn’t know who thishewas, and he didn’t know why he needed saving, but the second James saw the body sinking toward the bottom, he readjusted his aim.
The man looked like he was standing straight up in the water, his arms suspended above his head, his shirt loose and floating in the same direction. James made it to his waist and realized how the cinder block fit into everything.
The man was tied to it.
Just like Rose was tied to one on the dock.
James didn’t have time to be angry. The man wasn’t moving.
He dove deeper down to try and see if the rope was tied around his ankles too. The water was murky, but James was able to find where the rope connected. Luckily it was around one ankle, not both.
Water displaced above him as James set to undoing the knot. He didn’t turn to see who had jumped in. He knew it was Rose.
She attached to the other side of the man, using him to reorient herself so her feet were touching the ground. James’s chest started to burn with the effort. He was running out of time.
Rose must have realized it too.
She reached out and touched him before pointing to the surface.
But James wasn’t leaving her again.
