Water by Natasha Hardy Page A

trapped in my now starving lungs.
    “Breathe the oxygen you have left in your lungs out through your nose,” he instructed.
    How was he doing it? Every time he spoke bubbles escaped from his mouth, but it didn’t seem to bother him at all. An icy cold that had nothing to do with the water temperature crept through me as I noticed the slight rise and fall of his shoulders, as if he were breathing.
    I started to fight then.
    I kicked and hit and struggled with all of my strength. I didn’t know how he was able to speak to me without air, I didn’t know why his shoulders were moving slightly, as if he was breathing, or how he was going to breathe for both of us underwater. I didn’t trust him any more, and the fascination I’d felt earlier fled before the fear that crashed in on me, pressing me into a cowering, weak, pathetic version of myself.
    He held me for the few feeble seconds it took for me to realise that he was my only option, that I wouldn’t make it to the surface in time, and that regardless of how much I wanted that breath to stay in my lungs, I couldn’t will my body to keep it in.
    A stream of bubbles briefly danced in front of my eyes before drifting upward, growing larger as they raced for the surface. My body went limp with defeat.
    Merrick waited a few seconds more until black spots began to dance in front of my eyes, and then he clamped his warm lips over mine, forcing my mouth open, and breathed rich oxygen into my lungs.
    I slammed my mouth shut over the air. Hope surged through me as I struggled to get to the surface again, kicking desperately against him, using my new-found strength to try to break free.
    The air in my lungs lasted such an awfully short time. Merrick’s iron grip hadn’t faltered once before the strength seeped from my limbs.
    He waited until I was desperate and then breathed into my lungs again.
    After the third time of breath-struggle-black spots…
    “Alexandra!” Merrick’s voice was exasperated. “Even with the air I’ve given you, you wouldn’t make it to the surface in time.”
    I looked up. The circle of light was tiny. We’d been sinking the whole time I’d been fighting for air, and now we were so far from the surface, I’d never get to the top before I ran out of air.
    I stared at him desperately.
    “I will take you up again, but I want to show you something first,” he said. “Trust me.”
    His voice was somehow plaintive. He brushed his thumb over my cheek, the gesture slow and dreamlike in the water.
    I looked at the surface. The circle of light was only a hand’s breadth across. My lungs began to burn again as I searched his eyes and, out of sheer desperation, made the choice he’d been waiting for.
    He smiled.
    “Don’t hold onto a breath, it will only make you uncomfortable,” he instructed. “Breathe the air out through your nose and in through your mouth.”
    I nodded to show I understood and breathed out. This time he immediately filled my lungs with air again.
    “OK, wrap your arms around my neck and keep your legs as close to my body as you can.”
    I lifted my arms from where they’d been pushing uselessly against his bare chest, and put them awkwardly around his neck, my movements slow and weightless in the water. He was grinning mischievously as he suddenly pulled me against him, the warmth of his body pressing against the length of mine.
    My shorts billowed around me, and my bare legs brushed something as smooth as silk.
    My blood ran cold.
    It was the exact sensation I’d had in the jade pool. Exactly the same sensation as my recurring nightmare.
    I didn’t have time to think about it though because Merrick circled the perimeter of the pool with startling speed. I realised he was giving me the opportunity to practise our breathing, waiting for me to become completely comfortable, before he suddenly flipped us downwards and then very quickly spiralled us into a narrow passageway that seemed to be angled upward, although it could