Haunted Waters (13 page)

Chapter 46

I fought to stay focused.
There was no way I could afford a seizure now. Bryce said the green car was behind us, but I forced myself not to glance back. It was like monsters in your closet or under your bed—you knew they were in there but you didn’t want to look. The car nudged us again, and Sam fought the steering wheel.

I was crying and trying to comfort Dylan at the same time. “If I’d just taken my medicine!” I wailed.

“Stop it,” Sam said. “This is not your fault.”

Bryce dialed the cell phone again, but it still wasn’t working. Dylan pointed to the left, and I saw a flash of green. The car was right next to us!

It veered right, but Sam swerved and avoided it, jerking our heads to the left. Dylan was crying, and I forced myself to worry about him to get my mind off myself. If only I could distract myself until I got my medicine . . .

The lake was on our right, the reservoir rimmed with a fresh patch of snow. We crossed a bridge and the car kept up, trying to run us into the guardrail. Sam kept both hands on the wheel as the green car pulled just ahead. Sam was going fast—too fast.

Bryce’s neck was rigid. He sat ramrod straight, holding on to the grip above his door. Dylan held my arm and whimpered. Air rushed into the SUV as loud as a freight train. It was so cold I could hardly feel my fingers.

“Shh,” I whispered to Dylan, “it’s going to be all right.” But I had spoken too soon.

The green car forced Sam off the road and into a patch of snowy grass where he lost control. We went up an embankment. Sam slammed on the brakes, but it was too late. At the top of the small hill we went airborne, and it felt like the whole world had slipped from beneath us.

Everything went in slow motion. I saw crystal blue water below. Sam’s knuckles turned white around the steering wheel. Bryce put both hands on the grip above his door. Dylan’s eyes grew wide, and his mouth opened in a silent scream.

Amazing what pops into your head when you think you might die. Would I ever get to talk to Hayley again? Would this be a story we would share? Would the police know this wasn’t an accident? Would Mom ever know the truth? Was this what Dad felt like as his plane was going down?

The green car slid to a stop on the road. Our Land Cruiser dipped forward into its freefall toward the water.

A white bird flew by us, its wings flapping lazily, as if nothing in the world was wrong.

Oh, God!
I prayed.

Chapter 47

I couldn’t believe this was happening.

Twice before in my life I thought I was going to die. Once was when I was riding bikes back in Illinois with my friend Tim. We were crossing a road in town, and I looked both ways, but Tim was blocking my view and I didn’t see a car coming. I was halfway into the street when the car slammed on its brakes and squealed to a stop.

The driver was just as shaken as I was. “Son, I don’t know how I stopped. Must’ve been some angels looking out for you.”

The other time was at my uncle’s house in Indiana. While Ashley and I were fooling around with a tractor, she got on and pretended to start it. Only it did start and it raced straight at me. Ashley banged into the back of a hay wagon. If I hadn’t jumped out of the way, I would have been flat as a Frisbee.

But neither of us had faced anything like this. As we floated in the air, I thought about my friends and wondered what they would think when they heard that Ashley and I were dead.

The SUV hit the water and the air bags blew into our faces. Like lightning, Sam unfastened his seat belt and tried to open his door, but the water kept it shut. It gushed through the broken window as we sank.

I held my breath as the water rushed in.

Ashley screamed, which made Dylan scream.

Sam yelled, “Don’t panic! I’m going to get us out of this.”

Ashley stopped screaming, but none of us could calm Dylan.

Chapter 48

Sam helped Bryce out of his seat belt
and told Dylan to hold his breath as the water poured over us. “Buddy, we’re getting out of here. I promise,” he shouted over the torrent.

He fumbled with the car seat, his hands shaking in the freezing water. “We’ll go out the broken window. Bryce first, then you, Ashley. I’ll follow with Dylan. Swim like crazy to the surface and get to the shore.”

We were out of our belts as the freezing water almost filled the Land Cruiser. We floated to the ceiling, where there were a couple of inches of air. The SUV turned slowly, like a boat listing to one side.

“Act fast and don’t be afraid,” Sam said. “God’s going to help you.”

I wondered how he knew that.

“Jesus, help us get out of here!” I prayed.

“God, please help us,” Bryce said.

Sam held Dylan tight to his chest while the Land Cruiser went fully under. He signaled wildly and pushed Bryce and me toward the open window.

Dylan was holding his breath, but his little face looked chalky and his eyes were glassy. This was a kid who only went into a pool if he had his plastic turtle that held him way above the water.

Chapter 49

I sucked in a last good lungful of air
and dived out the window. The cold water stung my eyes. I turned and reached for Ashley’s hand, and she shot out, bubbles streaming from her mouth and nose.

It felt like we had dived into a pitcher of freezing lemonade. The murky water enveloped us and seemed to reach into our souls, trying to take our air away.

We rose hand in hand, struggling to keep from sucking water into our lungs. Just as I thought I couldn’t hold my breath any longer, golden rays shimmered above us and we broke to the surface, gasping.

Chapter 50

As soon as Bryce and I reached the surface,
I thrashed about, freezing but searching desperately for Dylan and Sam. “They’re not going to make it, Bryce!” I screamed. “Dylan will never hold his breath that long!”

Bryce tugged me a few yards to some rocks where we sat huddled, trying to protect each other from the icy wind that froze the water to our clothes and skin. “Please, Jesus, please, Jesus, please, Jesus,” was all I could say.

My whole body was numb, even worse than at Dad’s funeral, and I couldn’t move my fingers. The frigid water lapped in a lazy rhythm against the rocks.

“I’m going back down,” Bryce said.

“No!” I said, holding him with all my might. “Don’t try and be a hero. I can’t lose you too.”

Bryce’s lips were blue and quivering, and his eyes were red. “I’m not trying to be a hero. I just want my little brother and my dad to be okay.”

His dad? Bryce had never called Sam that before.

I kept my eyes peeled on the water. Dylan could be a pain, but I loved him with all my heart and couldn’t imagine life without him. I cried, thinking of how I had yelled at him so many times, but now all I wanted to see was that big head of his coming out of the water. I promised a million things—that I would never complain about his messing up my room or tracking mud in the house after I had just vacuumed or his crying to get his way around Mom.