by Elle East
I tried to kick my way back up again, but this time I couldn’t. The salt water stung my eyes, but I kept them open. The dark gray surrounding me was getting darker. Was this it?
I tried to swim but was getting weaker. The cold was sucking all the energy from my body and leaving me with nothing.
I guess this was the end. I panicked and tried to move, but I couldn’t. I was powerless to stop myself from drowning.
I always wondered what I’d think of in my last moments of life. Would my entire life flash before my eyes like a movie on fast forward? Would I wish I had done things differently, or that I had taken more chances? Wish I’d been braver or stronger? Or maybe just be grateful for what I did get to experience?
But when I was actually faced with death, I didn’t think about anything profound. I didn’t think about much at all. I thought about dark gray because that was all I saw. I thought about how I didn’t want to die. I still had so much I wanted to do.
On the brink of passing out, I wasn’t sure if I had closed my eyes or just sunk down so far the water was black. I felt a weird pinch under my arm, near my armpit. What was that? I had never died before—obviously—so maybe that was just something that happened to the body?
I felt a weird sensation, like I was floating upwards, then suddenly I realized there was a hand wrapped around my arm, and it was dragging me back to the surface. Grabbing me right before I slipped off the cliff and pulling me back into the land of the living.
I broke through the surface. I tried to gasp for air, but the weight of the cold pressed my chest down, and I just took tiny breaths. The hand let go of me, then a strong arm wrapped around my back before I could slip under again. I was too numb to panic, so I didn’t drag the person down with me. I stayed still and let them keep me afloat.
I looked over and saw who it was that had saved me.
Archer’s face was strained with the effort of keeping both of our heads out of the rough water. He opened his mouth to say something but then seemed to realize he could barely talk because of the cold. He closed it quickly as salt water rushed in.
I felt his firm grip on me shift as he started to try to swim towards the boat, which was noticeably farther away by now. I knew he was a strong swimmer from when we were kids, but the cold and the rough water were getting to him. He struggled to drag my almost lifeless body along behind him. I tried to kick my feet, but I couldn’t move.
I was weighing him down like an anchor, and we both quickly realized we weren’t going to make it. We were going to freeze to death very shortly.
I could see the fear on his face when he realized our situation was hopeless. I was pretty sure he could get himself back to the boat if he didn’t have me weighing him down.
“Go!” I wheezed out. “Leave me.”
I could barely speak above a whisper, but somehow Archer heard me over the wind.
“Never.”
He redoubled his efforts and swam as hard as he could.
I could feel us moving through the water, but we both quickly realized it was hopeless. It would not be enough to get us back to safety. The cold was getting to him too and freezing his limbs.
I sunk beneath the surface again, and he yanked me back up roughly.
I knew the window for him to save himself was quickly shrinking. If he left right then, he could probably make it, but he didn’t. And I didn’t have any strength left to push him away.
We were going to die together.
I looked up at the boat and saw Brett walk outside. He was looking around the deck, probably for Archer. With a frown, he turned his attention out to the water—and that was when he spotted us. His eyes went wide, but he didn’t hesitate. He hopped the railing and dived right into the frigid water.
He must have been running on pure adrenaline because the cold didn’t seem to affect him, and he swam straight to us. He grabbed me on the other side and helped Archer to keep my face out of the water. With the two of them helping me, we were able to make better progress towards the boat, and I started to think that maybe we did have a chance at making it.
We swam for a bit, but then the cold started getting to Brett and numbing his limbs too. He started to slow down. The two of them began to really struggle. I was useless and couldn’t help them at all. The small waves tossed us around and kept splashing water over our heads, numbing our brains.
I suddenly realized we weren’t going to make it. I was pretty sure Brett could still get back to the boat if he left me. I wasn’t sure if Archer could make it anymore, but he might be able to if Brett helped him.
I tried to speak, but I couldn’t form words or make any sound. I desperately tried to move my arms to push them away, so they’d understand, but I couldn’t.
The guys valiantly kept trying to swim us to safety, but we were losing the progress we’d made when Brett first joined us, and the boat was slipping away again.
Just then, I saw a couple of students come out onto the deck of the boat. I recognized that one of them was Grayson. The second he spotted us in the water, he ran off down the walkway. The other students started freaking out and yelling. I idly wondered what Grayson was doing, but I didn’t have to wait long to find out.
A splash close to us covered our heads in ice water. I turned my head stiffly and saw that Grayson had thrown a ring buoy. He may not have been a star athlete, like Brett and Archer, but he threw it with expert precision, and Brett was able to reach out and grab onto it.
He brought it over to me, but I wasn’t able to hold on to it under my own power. He maneuvered my body between himself and the ring, and he held on for the both of us. The ring was still attached to the boat by a long rope, and as soon as Archer grabbed on too, Grayson started to pull.
I felt us begin to move through the water. The muscles in Grayson’s neck bulged with the strain. He placed a foot up on the railing and used it to brace himself so he could pull faster.
I knew Grayson was in good shape. He was tall and lean with a good amount of muscle, but Archer and Brett were large guys so they weren’t exactly light. But Grayson managed to pull our waterlogged bodies through the rough ocean, and we eventually made it to the side of the boat.
Archer and Brett both reached up to grab onto the railing. They held me with their other hands and struggled with all their might to push my limp body up and out of the water. Grayson leaned over the railing, grabbed me beneath my arms and lifted me up into the air. He scooped me up and then raced inside the cabin.
“MOVE,” he commanded impatiently to a bunch of confused students who were sitting on a padded bench next to the exit.
They immediately jumped up, and he laid me down on the bench.
“I’ll be right back, Maddy. I promise,” he told me before racing back outside. Before he left, he yelled, “Someone get the fucking captain! And YOU, take care of her NOW. If anything happens to her, I’m holding you personally responsible.” Then he was gone.
I felt someone lay something on top of me, and I opened my eyes. A girl I didn’t recognize was placing her jacket on top of me. I could barely feel it because my skin was so numb. She grabbed someone else’s jacket that was resting on a nearby bench and placed it under my head after scrunching it into a ball.
I wondered where Grayson went. I didn’t want him to leave me. But then I realized he had gone back to help Archer and Brett get back onto the boat. I was having trouble forming thoughts, and I drifted in and out. I closed my eyes and could hear a lot of commotion. People asking what the hell happened? But I couldn’t speak, and just lay there.
A blast of cold air came into the cabin, and I heard a bunch of people come into the room.
“Clear out of the way!” Grayson yelled, and I opened my eyes again to see him helping Archer walk into the room.
Archer looked shockingly pale, and I could see how badly he was shivering. Everyone immediately gave them space, and Grayson helped him lay down on another padded bench.
Brett came in surrounded by
the students who’d been on the deck. He was walking under his own power but looked like he might collapse at any moment. Grayson went back and helped him to sit down in a nearby chair.
We were surrounded by people but no one knew what to do. Grayson started barking out orders, and everyone rushed to do what he said. I felt more coats being piled on top of me and saw that Archer and Brett were getting the same treatment.
“What’s going on here?” One of the teachers came over and looked around in confusion. “Everyone stop and tell me what happened this instant!”
Grayson looked extremely pissed. Just as he opened his mouth to tell her off, the captain walked into the room and asked the same question.
“What’s going on here?”
Grayson stepped forward. “They were in the water, and I don’t know for how long.”
The captain immediately snapped into action. He ordered the crew member that was with him to get the first aid kit and the emergency thermal blankets. He got on the radio and ordered the ship to turn back to shore.
He waited a couple of seconds but didn’t receive an answer. He then stormed out of the room, cursing all the way to the bridge.
The crew member ran off and returned a few moments later with the supplies. He went up to Brett who was sitting closest to him, but Brett told him, “She got the worst of it. Treat her first.”
The crew member rushed over to me. He threw off the coats and started wrapping me in the emergency blankets. Once done, he went over to Archer next and did the same thing, then he went to Brett last.
At that moment, Dean came into the room looking completely surprised and confused. He looked around, and when his eyes landed on me, he bolted over to my side.
“Maddy, what happened?”
I tried to answer him, but I couldn’t figure out how to make my mouth work. Everything was confusing, and I forgot how to speak. He turned away from me when he realized I wasn’t going to answer him.
“What the hell happened to her?” he asked the rest of the people in the room.
“A lot of help you are,” Grayson said sarcastically. “Where were you when she fell over the edge? You were just hanging out in here while she was outside drowning?”
“I-I—” Dean stuttered. “She said she wanted to be alone. She was only gone for a few minutes.”
“A few minutes is long enough,” Grayson said angrily.
Dean knelt down next to me. I could see in his eyes he was worried about me. I tried to speak, to tell him I was fine, but I couldn’t seem to form the words.
“Shhh,” he said soothingly. “It’s ok. Just take it easy for now. You’re safe.”
I found his words comforting, and I closed my eyes. I was so tired, and I just wanted to sleep. I drifted off into soothing darkness with Dean’s words ringing in my ears, before being shaken back awake.
“Don’t let her sleep! She might not wake up,” the crew member was saying.
He was gripping my shoulders and shaking me roughly. When he saw I was awake again, he stood up and turned away from me to address the room.
“Ok, everyone move out of this area. We need privacy in here.”
A large crowd of students had gathered to gawk at us. They were hesitant to leave. They were all very wealthy and clearly not used to being told what to do by someone like a lowly boat crew member.
“You heard the man, everyone get the hell out!” Grayson yelled, and without hesitation the students all scattered.
Grayson pulled one of the guys aside and told him, “You’re responsible for keeping everyone out of this area. If so much as one person wanders through, you’re dead. Understand?”
The guy nodded quickly.
“Good,” Grayson said and turned back to us.
The captain came back at that moment. He came over, and I could see his stern, weatherworn face as he inspected me.
“They all need to be stripped out of their wet clothes immediately,” the captain said.
Grayson was the closest to me, and he said, “I’ll do Maddy.”
“I’d bet you’d like to,” Dean growled.
“What was that, tall-dark-and-useless?” Grayson asked sarcastically.
Dean stepped towards him aggressively. Grayson matched him and walked right up until they were standing chest-to-chest. They squared off, anger flying between them.
“Grayson, we don’t have time for this right now,” Brett said in a voice that was shaking because he was shivering so hard.
Grayson gave Dean one last sneer, before saying, “Fine.” And he wandered over to Archer to help him instead.
“Ma’am,” the captain said to one of the teachers who was standing around looking completely at a loss of what to do. “You help her get undressed. Quickly.”
The teacher was Mrs. Melon, my chemistry teacher, so it was incredibly awkward when she knelt down next to me and started taking off my clothes. Dean held up one of the emergency blankets so I would have a bit of privacy as she stripped me.
I couldn’t seem to get my hands to work. They felt like they were made of solid stone and weighed a thousand pounds. My mind was fading in-and-out, and even if I could get my hands to work, I didn’t think I’d be much help. I could barely help her by sitting up when she needed to take my blazer and shirt off.
She made quick work of the rest of my clothes and then quickly wrapped me back up in a blanket. I was confused, and it was hard to make sense of everything, but I knew that later I would be grateful to her for doing her job efficiently and making the whole situation less embarrassing than it could have been.
They piled coats back on top of me and waited. The crew member came back into the room carrying a stack of hot water bottles. They handed them out to Archer and Brett to help them warm up, but I was way worse off than either of them and they couldn’t risk rewarming me too quickly. The captain said they just had to wait.
Eventually, feeling started coming back into my body, and it wasn’t pleasant. I started shivering violently, and that was when the captain said to put the hot water bottles on top of my blankets, underneath the coats. I felt awful.
The crew member passed out hot chocolate to Archer and Brett, but when he gave me one I couldn’t hold it with my shaking hands, so he let me just lie there for a bit.
We were in an area of the boat that wasn’t very private, but the guy Grayson had put in charge of keeping everyone away did a good job—he was too scared of the Kings not to. So we had a bit of privacy to recuperate while the boat sped back to the island.
In the distance, I heard Mrs. Melon ask the students if they knew what happened. A girl, whose voice I didn’t recognize, said she saw me slip over the side of the boat. That was bullshit! Even though I was confused and not thinking clearly at the moment, I was certain I was pushed. I distinctly remembered feeling hands against my shoulder and back only seconds before I’d fallen into the freezing water.
Whoever it was had pushed me from behind, so I hadn’t been able to see it coming or get a look at them. Also, there were rails all around the boat. There was no way someone would just slip over the side—even if the deck was icy. And if she saw me slip, why didn’t she get help? Someone must have made her tell that lie.
I was too tired to be properly terrified of that realization, like I should have been.
“What happened, Maddy?” Dean asked.
His eyes were full of concern as he gazed into mine. I was so exhausted I didn’t have the energy to tell him. I just shook my head slowly. He nodded understandingly, and we went back to waiting in silence.
Chapter 13
When we got back to the harbor, the rest of the students headed back to the school, but the captain kept Brett, Archer and I on the boat for observation. He tried to make Grayson and Dean leave along with the other students, but they both refused to go and eventually the captain backed down.
When the situation calmed down a bit, Grayson started laying into the captain. He told him that if the crew were doing their fucki
ng jobs, they would have seen me slip over the side. If they were doing their jobs, then Archer and Brett wouldn’t have had to jump in and risk their lives saving me. The captain protested, but Grayson was seething. Grayson told him he saw most of the crew—including the captain—joking around and smoking cigarettes on the opposite side of the boat when it happened.
“I will destroy your career,” Grayson threatened.
“You couldn’t do anything to me,” the captain said. He seemed calm on the outside, but I saw he noticeably gulped. “Get the hell off my ship.”
Grayson stared him down for a moment, before finally saying, “Gladly.”
He left, and I could tell the captain and the rest of the crew were rattled.
Brett and Archer recovered much faster than me, so by the afternoon they were told they could head back to their rooms. The two of them seemed hesitant to leave, but Dean told them it was better for me if they went. I needed to rest, and the less stress, the better.
They reluctantly left the boat, and it was just Dean and I and the one crew member who had been tasked with keeping an eye on me. Most of the teachers had gone with the students back to the school. One teacher had stayed behind to watch us, but when the Kings left, she left too.
In the evening, the other crew members came back with fans. They gave me hot chocolate and wrapped the rest of my body in even more blankets before turning on the fans to dry out my cast. I shivered violently until it was over.
They then told me I wasn’t in danger anymore and could leave. The captain said he’d dealt with many hypothermia cases over his career, and I should be fine, but he’d never seen anyone fall over that type of railing before.
“Next time, you need to be more careful. You shouldn’t have been walking alone outside on the deck,” he told me.
I bristled. I didn’t slip; I was pushed. And even if I did slip, he should have had his decks salted better, so they weren’t slippery—or told people not to go outside if it was dangerous. I realized suddenly what he was trying to do. He didn’t want to get in trouble and was deflecting the blame to me.
