Blueisland (Watermagic Series, #4) (4 page)

I leaned way over the rail of the yacht and considered letting go. What was life? There was no reason to it. It would be so easy to just let go. Fall into the ocean and die.

I swung my legs over
so that I was hanging off the side of the yacht that glided so swiftly over the wake. Wind rushed over my body. My hands still held fast to the rail, but the bottoms of my shoes were only feet away from the black water.

It was an exhilarating feeling. I was so close to the edge of death.
My heart was slamming against my chest. If I let go I would surely die out at sea alone. Is this what I wanted?

But,
before I could make a decision, something grabbed my leg.

Chapter Two

Whatever gripped my leg came out from the water and gave me a sudden jolt. Oh, hell! I didn’t see what it was. It felt like a snake wrapped around my ankle attempting to pull me into the ocean to my death.

But a
lmost simultaneously, as my hands broke from the rail above, someone grabbed me from the other direction and pulled me even harder back onto the deck. The air rushed out of my lungs as I smashed against the wood surface. Damn!

Who could have
such strength to pull an eighteen-year-old girl like me who was hanging off the side of the boat back onto the deck? Even though I was a light weight and not so tall, it hardly seemed possible. I looked up and saw Marcel dart back into the hall out of sight. My stomach twisted up into a knot. Did that cheater save me? Users like that don’t save ragdolls like me. They only think about themselves and their cocks.

But before I could gather my senses,
Donny rushed over to me. “Raz! Are you okay?” His dry voice caught in his throat as he choked the words out.

“Did you
see that?” I demanded while trying to get my aching body off the floor.

“I just came out looking for you and
saw you flat on your face.” His voice was calmer now as I stood up, but his eyelids were blinking much too fast.

I steadied myself. “No broken bones,” I chuckled lightly. “I don’t know what the hell happened.” Cert
ainly, I didn’t want to tell him what I thought occurred.

“Come inside,”
he almost whispered. “I found a room where we can be alone.” 

***

Later, when we were lounging around in the master bedroom by ourselves, Donny said to me, “When the boat docks in Key West in the morning, we should get married there.”

My head jerked up. “Uh—what do you mean?”

“I just meant that instead of just being girlfriend and boyfriend, why don’t we take it all the way and tie the knot Floridian style. It would be funny to shock everyone.”

I hadn’t even thought of making
Donny my boyfriend, let alone marrying him. Tonight was unexpected. But maybe something as crazy as that was what I needed to distract myself from my mother’s death and from the unbelievable, surreal events that occurred that night.

I started to consider the idea. Why not get married? W
ho cares that we were both only teenagers. I lived for thrills and was surprised to see how he knew just how to get what he wanted out of me—I loved shocking people.

“What the
hell,” I said. “Let’s do it. It’ll really piss off my uncle when he finds out.”

H
e didn’t seem to mind the lack of romance in my flippant response. I dosed beside him, thoroughly satisfied in my thoughts of wild beach parties, pranks, and spicy affairs ahead once we got to Key West. I was trying to forget about the inexplicable events that happened earlier that night. Nothing made sense. I must be going crazy.

But I knew I wasn’t.
Just keep your mind on normal things. I told myself. Life is gonna get better.

The yacht jolted harshly in the storm. We could hear the pounding rain and thunder overhead, but I drifted off into
quixotic dreams in full color, Donny by my side.

My sleep didn’t last long. Suddenly, I was
jerked awake. Something was horribly wrong. My mind started to race with horrific thoughts. Oh, this was bad—real bad. Donny looked at me with terror in his eyes. But before I could reassure him, we were thrown to the floor in a loud roar. The fall was violent and painful.

Donny
must have hit his head against the side table because his face was bleeding and he was unconscious. Holy crap. Swallowing hard, I heard kids scream from the other rooms. The panic was intense and rising by the second.

My head spun. I tried to rouse
Donny, but he was clearly out. I decided to leave him there while I went for help, but then as I heard a loud ripping sound, I was thrown upon the floor again.

It sounded like the boat had been split in two. It was like a great tearing of metal and shattering of glass.
My pulse raced. Now, I knew we had to get out to the lifeboats. There must be rafts or something, I thought to myself. Gotta just get out to the main deck.

As best I could, I tried to lift
Donny’s skinny body over my shoulder, but even at his emaciated weight, he was too heavy. Without any other choice, I opted to just drag him. I pulled him along the smooth floor, out the door, gripping the walls as I trekked.

By now, there was already water in the halls
though and it was rushing over his face. I tried to steady my breath. The whole thing was surreal. And there were so many cries and shouts from varying directions.

In desperation, I managed to wedge my body under his and get him onto my back. With a shocking rush of adrenaline, I somehow got to my feet.
His long legs dragged in the water, but his torso rested on my hunched back as I moved onward.

I saw Marc Johnson. “There are life
rafts on the main deck.” He looked at me with shock in his eyes. “Damn, you’re strong.”

Funny enoug
h, I didn’t remember seeing the life rafts, probably because I was thinking of death. “Where’s Savannah?” I asked, making my way toward him.

His face was pale from fright. “Last I saw,
she was in the party room.”

Some cheerleaders came out of a bathroom into the hall. Melisa Hawk, the captain of the squad, was helping Amanda
Sinclair who was screaming in panic, her face bloody all over.

“I can help them,” Marc said. “You get
Donny to the raft. Maybe the yacht got off course. I heard the captain was drunk.”

“Drunk?” I said. M
y voice was tinged with rage. I wasn’t one to judge about drinking, but I sure as hell wouldn’t man a yacht full of kids in an inebriated state. The captain must be out of control like my alcoholic uncle who I moved in with after Mom passed away.

Marc nodded as he wiped the sweat off his brow. “Nobody knows where we are. We must have hit some sort of huge reef in the storm or something. Somebody said we are in the clutches of a gigantic octopus.” He rolled his eyes.

I moved past. The wall of the boat was tilting to the side and I had to grab onto the inner rail to hold myself upright. The yacht seemed to be sinking at an angle. I got to a short stairwell and dragged my body up on all fours, Donny on top of me. I hoped I didn’t drop him. I felt exhausted and off balance. Maybe if he was awake, he wouldn’t feel so heavy.

But he fell off me, rolling down the stairs into the rising water.
Chills ran up my spine as I saw his head fully immersed. He didn’t even try to pull himself out. In panic, I made my way back down and just yanked him back up, hinging my hands under his armpits and dragging him again. Even with all the injuries I was causing him, I knew it would be better than leaving him in the water to drown.

I wedged my bod
y back under his and got him onto my back once again. Everything was happening fast and I didn’t have much time to think. It felt like there was a lump in my throat that wouldn’t go away. I think my body was reacting in fear of the situation.

In a rush, I heaved my torso to the side and shoved
Donny onto the upper level. Luckily, I was pretty limber because I was able to swing my leg over the side of the stairs and onto the main level and pull myself up by the railing. As I made my way, the boat shifted again and a huge chandelier slammed into us.

I fell to the floor, dropping
Donny once again. Miraculously, we were okay and he started coming to. But I saw a body shoot past us with the chandelier. It looked like Juanita Hernandez. I could have sworn she was dead by the lifelessness of her body. As I heard more screams, I felt like I was going to throw up.

Donny
was surprisingly calm. Maybe because he was in shock, he didn’t even complain of injuries, but I could tell he was extremely weak. It looked like he could hardly even hold his head up straight.

It didn’t take him
long to figure out what was happening though. “We have to make it to the main deck. I saw life jackets up there,” he almost whispered like he was dazed and halfway in another world.

As
he spoke, the boat seemed to lift out of the water and shake to and fro. Something very heavy crashed down onto me. I screamed. The pain nearly overwhelmed my senses.

Chapter Three

More water flooded into the main floor where my leg was now pinned under a huge cabinet that had fallen over and slammed onto my body. The water was cool and it had risen up to my waist now.

How could we live through this? Surely we were going to die.

Donny’s face was still bleeding from before. “I’m going to save you. If I can lift my head, I can manage this.” His voice was raspy as he sort of laughed.

H
e tried to lift the cabinet, but didn’t possess the strength or even coherence. If he wasn’t so out of it and weakened from his injuries he could have easily done it with my help. Practically anyone could. But now I was screwed. I tried and tried, but the darn thing was too heavy to lift by myself from my angle.

“You gotta go,” I said. “Try to get to the main
deck and see if there are life rafts or boats.”

“I can’t leave you,” he mumbled. His eyes were lit with fear
and his head wobbled to the side.

“It’s not over yet. Just make it out and keep yourself alive. A rescue team will come.”

“I’ll get help on deck for you if I make it.” He looked at the ground and fell over into the water. I thought he was going to drown, but then he lifted himself out and managed to stand back up. “I can’t leave you,” he muttered as he gazed at the ceiling.

“Go!” I commanded. “If you don’t at least try, I’ll for sure die here.”

He nodded—sort of. “You’re right.” Leaning over he kissed my forehead softly and stumbled forward.

I saw him
leave, but the cabinet blocked my view further. For all I knew, he could have fallen back into the water.

Now that I was stuck and the water was rising, I became more aware of the sounds around me. The storm was still violent and that was probably causing the boat greater instability. I could hear distant cries, screams and sometimes what sounded like voices talking
.
It seemed pointless to yell out for help because everyone needed to help themselves in order to survive.

I w
as worried about my best friend Savannah. She was really close with her family and they needed her. If anyone deserved to live, it was Savannah. Her little sister would be crushed without her.

That’s when I heard
Savannah calling out my name. “Jewel, Jewel, Jewel—Jewel Razzen! Can you hear me, Raz?”

“Hey, I’m here. Over here,” I hollered.

I could hear Savannah thrashing through the rising water toward me. When she was in my full view, she cracked a smile. “You got yourself in some mess here. You okay, bud?” she said in a grunt as she tried to lift the cabinet off my leg with all her might.

I helped—pushing the heavy thing simultaneously and together we got it off, but not without some involuntary screams sliding out my throat. My leg killed. I didn’t know if it was broken, shattered or cut, but the pain was intense.

A girl with thick arms and a double chin ran through the rising water into the room. I think her name was Shawna. She used to be in my history class a couple of years ago, but we never really spoke to each other before. “Crazy bad,” she breathed. She shook her head side to side in panic. The blood was drawn from her face and her chestnut colored hair and brown prom dress were soaked like the rest of us. “It’s not natural,” she kept saying over and over. I don’t think she even thought to help us out.

With
Savannah’s assistance, I managed to get up off the floor. But suddenly, the glass shattered from a nearby window, spraying my face with shards. What looked like a gigantic tentacle reached through the broken window and grabbed Shawna. “Oh, God! Help!” She was screaming in horror. The sounds were blood curdling.

Savannah
and I looked at each other in shock, both our faces pricked in glass, little streams of blood oozing down. Before we could do anything, the tentacle slammed Shawna’s head against the ceiling. I think the monster broke her neck because she was silent and her head flopped to the side before it pulled her out through the jagged glass window.