30. Lost Time
1413 Words
30
Lost Time
Pain sliced through Jacob’s lungs. He was being crushed by fire. Freezing fire, pressing in all around him. He opened his eyes, and the cold stung him, blurring his vision. He opened his mouth to scream, but salt flooded in.
Water. He was in water. Freezing cold water. Jacob searched the frozen haze, but he couldn’t see Emilia anywhere. He kicked toward the light above, hoping to reach air and a way to find Emilia.
His head broke through the surface, but the air was no warmer as he desperately struggled to pull in breath. “Emilia!” he tried to scream, but his shaking lungs couldn’t seem push out enough air. “Emilia!”
He searched frantically around for any sign of Emilia.
A head of black hair rose to the surface a few yards from him.
Jacob swam over as quickly as he could. “Emilia.” The body floated face down in the water. He flipped her over, but it wasn’t Emilia’s face he saw. It was Rosalie.
“Emilia!” Jacob screamed. His heart raced in his frozen chest as he struggled to hold Rosalie’s head above water while fighting the waves.
“Jacob.”
He heard a faint call and looked behind him. Farther out to sea, a pale arm shot into the air over a cresting wave as Emilia swam toward him.
“Jacob!” She was swimming faster than a person should be able to, sliding over the surface of the water at an unnatural speed. Within seconds, she reached Jacob’s side.
“Are you okay?” Jacob panted through chattering teeth, trying to look Emilia over for signs of damage.
“Fine,” she said, looking at Rosalie, whose eyes were still shut as she lay back in the water. “We have to get her to shore.”
Emilia placed her hand on Jacob’s shoulder. “Alavarus. Sustinemas.” The water around Jacob instantly warmed, and he no longer had to fight to stay afloat. Emilia placed a hand on Rosalie and repeated the spells before wrapping an arm around her chest and hauling her to shore.
Jacob swam behind, his arms cutting easily through the water, every kick propelling him forward as much as ten kicks should have. Within a minute, he had reached the shore and helped Emilia pull Rosalie onto the rocks.
“Is she breathing?” Jacob asked, pushing the wet hair out of his face.
Emilia leaned in close to Rosalie’s chest. “I don’t think so.”
Jacob knelt down and began pressing on Rosalie’s chest.
“What are you doing?” Emilia asked.
“Trying to get the water out of her lungs.” Jacob leaned down to blow air into Rosalie’s mouth.
“Just stop,” Emilia said, dragging Jacob away from Rosalie.
“But we can save her.” Jacob reached for Rosalie again, but Emilia had already laid a hand on her chest.
“Sustunda,” she murmured.
A spout of water flew from Rosalie’s mouth like a fountain as she began to cough. Her eyes flashed open. For a moment, she lay still, her gaze darting wildly around.
“No!” she screamed, tearing at her soaked curls. “Why would she do this? Why would she make me leave?”
“Everything is fine now, Rosalie,” Emilia said, holding her mother’s hands still to keep her from yanking the hair from her own head.
“Why would she make me leave? I had more than the others. Always more!” Rosalie wailed, curling herself into a tight ball as she continued to scream.
“Shh,” Jacob hushed. People ran toward them on the rocky beach, shouting and waving their hands.
A woman ran at the head of the pack, sprinting in her snow boots. It wasn’t until Jacob saw the woman’s thick coat that he noticed the snow laying across the rocks like lace, or that he was shivering badly. Now that he was out of the water, he was freezing.
“Is she all right?” was the first of the woman’s shouts that Jacob was able to understand.
“She’s fine,” Jacob called back. “She’s breathing.” Jacob turned to Emilia and whispered, “What do we do?”
Emilia shrugged. “Get rescued.”
“We saw you from the far side of the beach.” The woman struggled out of her coat and draped it over Emilia. “We got here as quickly as we could. Are any of you hurt?”
“Make it stop!” Rosalie screamed. “Please, I don’t want to feel it again.”
“Ma’am, what hurts?” a young man asked Rosalie, pulling off his coat and draping it over her.
“She’s fine,” Jacob said, stepping forward and tucking the coat around Rosalie. “She went into the water, and we had to get her out. She’s not quite right. She doesn’t understand things all the time.”
An older man forced his coat around Jacob’s shoulders. “We need to get you all someplace warm,” the older man said, his thick white hair blowing in the wind as he crammed his own ski cap on Jacob’s head. “If you think we can move her?” He looked down at Rosalie as she started to screech.
Jacob reached down and lifted Rosalie easily in his arms. Even soaking wet, she weighed little.
“Our RV is ‘round here,” the woman said, pointing as she herded them to a path that wound behind the beach surrounding the base of the mountain.
Jacob looked up to Cadillac Mountain rising above them. The Siren had dropped them into the water where they had jumped. Jacob’s stomach seized at the sight of the jagged rocks lining the beach and shallow water. At least she hadn’t let them land on that.
Rosalie twisted and whined in Jacob’s arms.
“Are you sure she’s all right?” the man with the wispy hair asked.
“My sister isn’t well,” Emilia said. “We just need to get her calmed down and home.”
“Please let me go home,” Rosalie moaned. “She’ll take me back. I’m more than the rest of them.”
“Hush, Rosalie,” Emilia murmured. “Close your eyes.” Emilia placed her hand on Rosalie’s forehead.
Jacob heard the faintest whisper of “Elutio” before Rosalie’s eyes crept closed, and her head slumped back onto Jacob’s shoulder.
“You just have to know how to calm her down,” Emilia said, smiling at the woman, who seemed concerned at Rosalie’s sudden slumber.
“Here we are.” The younger man pointed to an RV in a parking lot next to the trail.
He opened the door for Jacob. The warmth washed over him, stinging Jacob’s frozen hands as the blood tried to flow back into them.
“Thank you,” Emilia said as the wispy haired man shut the door behind her.
Jacob laid Rosalie down on the couch that lined one wall of the RV.
“I’ll get something dry for you to put on.” The younger man disappeared into the small room at the back.
Everything in the RV was shiny, new, and covered in Christmas decorations. Jacob watched Emilia trail her fingers along the Christmas wreath hung on the door.
“We should call a ranger,” the woman said. “We need to get you to the hospital.”
“That’s not necessary,” Emilia said. “We really are fine.”
The woman’s forehead wrinkled. “Are your parents in town? I’m sure they’re worried sick.”
“Not here, no,” Emilia said, her eyes flitting to meet Jacob’s. “We were on a trip on our own.”
“I laid dry clothes out on the bed.” The younger man returned from the back room. “You’ll have to wake her up to get her out of those wet things.”
“I can help,” Jacob said, lifting Rosalie and heading toward the back room. Emilia moved to follow him.
“Sweetie…” the woman began.
“Emilia,” Emilia said. “And this is Jacob.”
“Well, I’m Dawn, and that’s Eric.” The woman pointed to the older man. “And Henry.”
“Thank you for helping us, Dawn,” Jacob said.
“Glad to,” Dawn said, smiling and holding out her cell phone, “but I do think you should call your folks.”
“We will,” Emilia said, taking the phone and closing the door to the bedroom.
Jacob laid Rosalie on the bed.
“Jacob.” Emilia held the phone out to him, her eyes wide.
“We can call Iz in a minute.” Jacob turned back to Rosalie, wondering how best to get her into dry clothes. Her feet were already bare. She wore nothing but the filthy dress they had found her in.
“Jacob”―Emilia pressed the phone into Jacob’s hand―“look at the date.”
The screen read December 20th. Five days until Christmas.
“More than a month,” Emilia whispered. “We were gone more than a month.”
“Is that possible?” Jacob asked. “Can the Siren do that?”
“I guess so.” Emilia stepped past Jacob and yanked Rosalie’s dress roughly over her head. Jacob turned away as Emilia dressed her.
Jacob picked up a pair of pants from the foot of the bed and slid into them.
“Emi,” he said softly, careful not to turn around.
“Yes?” she said. Her clothes hit the floor with a soft thump, and he closed his eyes for good measure.
“Aunt Iz―” Jacob started.
“Is going to murder us.”
- Writer
