The Calling (Darkness Rising) Read Online Free PDF Page A

the splash of hands and feet hitting water broke the eerie silence. I couldn’t see how much farther we had to go. Couldn’t see how far we’d come. Just fog everywhere, my friends dark blotches in the gray.
    Sam was huffing off to the side. She liked to scrap, but she wasn’t an athlete, and she sounded winded. I was about to veer her way when she stopped puffing, as if she’d gotten her second wind. Or stopped swimming. I opened my mouth to call to Daniel to check on her.
    Before I could speak, my foot brushed something. A fish I presumed, but then it wrapped around my ankle and yanked me down.
    I didn’t fight at first. Something had my foot. Something was pulling me under. Just like a year ago, when Serena drowned. For a second, I thought, That’s it — I’m having a nightmare . Everything that had happened today—the fire, the crash, Rafe—was clearly just part of a bad dream. It had to be.
    Then I began to choke and the survival instinct took over. I kicked. I flailed. But something kept dragging me under.
    No, not something— someone .
    When Serena drowned, I’d been so worried about her that I’d paid no attention to what had me. This time, I could feel warm fingers wrapped around my icy-cold ankle, and when I kicked, my toes brushed what was unmistakably hair.
    I tried to grab whoever was holding me, but every time I moved, my attacker moved. I couldn’t see anything. My eyes stung and my lungs ached. But I knew it was a person holding me down. Just a person. I could fight that.
    Only I couldn’t. I kicked and I writhed, but those fingers weren’t letting me go and I couldn’t breathe, and when nails dug into my ankle, I shrieked and my mouth and throat filled with more water, and I realized I was drowning.
    Then the toes of my free foot touched rock. The bottom. I pushed myself down even as my brain screamed that I was going the wrong way. I bent in half and reached to feel not fingers, but vegetation wrapped around my ankle. Seaweed. I ripped it off, then shot toward the surface.
    After a few strokes, I wasn’t sure I was still going up. All I could see was darkness. Then a scream sounded above me.
    They were looking for me, yelling for me. I was going the right way. I was going to be fine, just fine. I put everything I had left into a few last strokes, propelling myself toward the surface, breaking through, then gasping for air too soon, water rushing in, choking me.
    I went under again. I gave a tremendous kick, arms and legs flailing so hard that a cramp shot through my stomach and I screamed, swallowing more water.
    I could hear Daniel shouting, then Corey. But no one was coming. Why wasn’t anyone coming?
    I broke the surface again, and this time managed to get a breath. Then I heard Nicole screaming for help—that something had her, was pulling her down.
    A fresh cramp shot through me and I went under again.
    My muscles pleaded for relief, but I managed to break the surface again.
    “Maya!” Daniel yelled. “Where’s Maya?”
    Nicole shrieked and I wanted to shout to Daniel to forget me, save her before she drowned like Serena. That’s all I could think of. How he’d saved me when Serena drowned. I wouldn’t let that happen again. I couldn’t.
    Nails scraped my arm and I panicked, then felt wet fur.
    Kenjii. I wrapped my arms around her neck and lay my face against her back, flutter-kicking as best I could. Daniel reached me then.
    “Nicole,” I said. “Get Nicole.”
    He hesitated. I pushed him toward Nicole, getting more and more frantic until Corey called that he and Hayley had Nicole and she was fine.
    “Sam?” I croaked.
    “Sam!” Daniel yelled. “Where are you?”
    “She’s—” Corey started. “Here she is. She’s fine.”
    Daniel made me get on his back and we headed to shore, Kenjii swimming beside us.

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    W HEN WE MADE IT to shore, Daniel didn’t insist on getting to dry ground this time, just let us all collapse where we could, panting and