Everything felt as it should be. Warm, safe, soothing.
I thought to myself, I could stay here forever. I never wanted to leave.
But then, something emerged from the distance, creeping toward us. The grass beneath my feet became drenched, and I watched helplessly as a stream of water raced around us, swallowing everything in its path.
“No!” I cried, but it was futile. The water surged, pulling them away from me, leaving me alone in the cold, wet expanse of the meadow.
“Amelia.”
A whisper brushed against my ear, soft yet insistent.
“Amelia.”
This time, the voice was louder. My body trembled, a chill wrapping around me like a shadow. I felt so cold. So very cold.
My eyes snapped open, and I found myself face to face with Caiden. A startled scream escaped my lips, echoing in the darkness. My mind was a muddled haze, struggling to grasp the reality of my surroundings.
“Amelia! Calm down. Jesus. You’re alive. You’re okay.”
Caiden’s voice attempted to soothe me, but instead, it only heightened my panic.
“Calm down? Seriously?” The memories rushed back like a tidal wave. “We’re stuck in the middle of nowhere! I’m cold, I’m wet, and my head feels like it’s about to explode! How am I supposed to feel okay?”
“I know,” he snapped, frustration lacing his words. “I’m going to get us out of here. Just calm down. I can’t think when you’re freaking out like a girl.”
Pure adrenaline coursed through me, igniting a fire I couldn't contain. I sprang up and shoved my palm against his chest, feeling the hard muscle beneath my fingers. “I am a girl! I have every right to have a nervous breakdown right now! You must be some kind of inhuman mutant to not feel any stress in this situation.”
He shrugged, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. “I guess I’m just more emotionally grown than you are.”
Seriously? He wanted to engage in this debate right now?
“I can’t believe you.” I threw my hands up in exasperation, sinking back onto the ground. I wasn’t going anywhere with him. I would wait right there until someone came to rescue us.
“You should be saying ‘thank you.’ If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be alive,” he retorted, the tension radiating from him like heat from a flame.
“What in the hell are you talking about? You’re so full of yourself, as usual.”
He shook his head, and in that moment, we resembled the river and sky caught in the eye of a storm. Pushing and pulling, raging and exploding. We swirled around one another like two wildfires, both desperate for control, yet knowing that ultimately, we would destroy each other.
“I came to consciousness before you. Your face was blue; your skin was cold. So cold. You were barely there. I had to perform CPR just to get you to cough up all the water from your lungs.”
He had just admitted that he saved me, and yet I felt a surge of anger and humiliation.
“You should’ve just left me to die,” I muttered, the words tasting bitter on my tongue. A part of me meant it; the dream I had was so perfect, so lifelike. Maybe I was suicidal, like my dead sister.
Had I been that close to crossing over to the other side? Was that glimpse of paradise a sign of heaven?
Caiden's eyes burned with anger, his nostrils flaring like a bull ready to charge. His fists clenched so tightly that the knuckles turned white.
“Yeah. Maybe I should have left you.”
His words cut deeper than any blade. Silence enveloped us, a fog that thickened the air.
There was nothing left to say; his words had drawn a sharp line through the conversation. What could I possibly say to that?
He turned his back to me, his frustration evident as he began examining our surroundings. I sat there, helplessly drained of any determination to fight our way back to civilization.
We were far from safety, that much I knew. The drive to the river from the resort had taken a few miles, and we had been in the kayaks for nearly an hour before the rain began to fall.
