The Bookbreather

The BookBreather offered this in response to the picture:



A tight knot formed in the pit of my belly as I looked up. The sky had turned a doleful gray that seemed to mock me. Rain was on the way.

"Mason," I called out, the word coming out shaky.

The reply was distant. He must have been on the other side of the boat. "Yeah, babe?"

"How much longer until we reach the island?" I hated myself for sounding so scared. I'd already taken down a vindictive faerie king and nursed a dying and unstable werewolf to health. The prospect of a bad storm should not have caused my heart to thump wildly behind my ribcage, should not have been giving me wobbly legs.

But i wasn't the rain that frightened me. I'd read the books. I could practically see it already: Two teenagers on a boat in the middle of the ocean, on their way to a mysterious island, when all of a sudden ominous lightning illuminates the night sky and the rain begins to fall, pounding against their skin, obstructing their vision. They crash into a rock and the boat begins to fill with water. The girl screams, high and peircing, and then throws herself into the cold and dark water. She flails and calls for the guy's help, because - duh! - she forgot that she has no idea how to fricking swim. The guy doesn't come to her rescue, so eventually her hand bangs into something that fell off of their boat, and she grabs onto it for dear life, clinging to it as she struggles to tame her ragged breathing. Finally, she looks around. The boy is nowhere in sight! She cries out for him, but he doesn't surface. Then, she sees his pale, lifeless body floating down, down, down into the vast depths of the ocean...

Oh God. A hysterical sob flew from my mouth and I tried to do what my therapist had taught me. Take a deep breath, count to three, then release it.. I only got to two before I felt a light hand rest on my waist. I squealed and jumped about five feet, nearly pitching myself overboard.

Mason's deep laugh wrapped around me and I felt my pulse simmer down. For a second.

"That's not funny," I said, my voice sharp. "You could have given me a heart attack!"

He laughed again and I was extremely tempted to try out that ninja move I had learned in the eighth grade where I flip someone over my shoulder. I thought about it for a second longer, though, and decided against it because I sort of loved him and he was much more fun to kiss when he wasn't groaning in pain.

Instead, I turned to him and narrowed my eyes. "I hate you." It was difficult to remain angry when I looked at his incredible face. Bright blue eyes and, my God, that smile. I could already feel the anger flitting away from me.

Mason's grin widened, revealing a set of impossibly perfect teeth. Why was he so fabulous? "Would you calm down, Molls? Have a little faith in me. I told you we'd make it just fine, and I mean it."

"But the rain--"

"Molly, please. Don't do this." He brought his hands up and cradled my face in them. His thumb lightly traced my lips. "We'll be fine."

The tension immediately began to melt off of me, like ice cream dripping down a cone on a summer day. If he said we were going to be fine, who was I to argue? "I'm sorry I'm so crazy."

"I like it. Makes me feel a whole lot more sane." He smiled, tender and delicious, then brought his lips to mine. I was pretty sure that if I died right then and there, it would be o-freaking-kay. The feel of his lips, warm and expertly moving against mine...Well, I was already in heaven..

Then there was an earsplitting crash and the boat lurched, sending Mason and I hurtling toward the deck. I hadn't managed to disentangle my hands from Mason's hair in time to catch my fall. My head banged against the metal of the boat with a sickening thunk! There was a moment of sharp agonizing pain before my vision began to blur and I lost sight of the world around me.

The blackness swallowed me.