The silence that followed was deafening. My frantic breathing fogged up the glass above my head, cutting off my view of the ceiling and trapping me in a literal tomb of icy water. The panic swelled, a violent, crashing wave that made my heart hammer so hard I thought it would burst right through my ribs. I screamed again, a raw, animalistic sound of pure fury and terror, until my throat burned and my lungs felt like they were scraping against sandpaper.
But there was no answer. No one came to my rescue.
I didn’t know how long I was locked underneath the pool cover, stuck in the limb-freezing cold water—on the lowest temperature setting purely intended for my suffering.
It had to be hours.
My initial explosion of rage had long since burned out, leaving behind a cold, hollow dread. The s
