Page 46 of Unmoored

The door to my room opened, and rough hands picked me up off the ground. I refused to open my eyes, but I knew who was touching me. His sour, oily scent filled my nostrils and made me want to gag.

“Time for your treatment, sweetheart,” that horrible voice said, and I realized my body was being transported down the hallway in long, slow strides.

Cool metal met the back of my calves as I was laid out on a gurney, and I saw bright electric lights hanging from the ceiling. Something in the recesses of my mind recognized those lights. I was back in the hydrotherapy room. Men and women in white coats and masks floated about the room, some taking notes in those ridiculously small notepads, some whispering amongst themselves, and I stilled as one crept up behind me. His dark eyes carried no life, no soul. In that moment, I realized that to be employed by this wretched place, one must be born with evil in their blood.

“No!” I finally shouted, thrashing my arms as I was wheeled towards the tank of cloudy water. I cried and yelled, but it was of no use. Soon I felt a prick in my neck, and within moments my limbs hung limp at my sides. I wasparalyzed, watching as they lowered my body into the tank, left with nothing but my broken, empty heart.

I hoped this treatment would finally kill me. I hoped that as soon as my head hit the water, my body would stop fighting against my death. I couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t continue to fight in this life that brought me nothing but misery.

Masked faces peered at me from above, and gooseflesh covered my skin as the water slowly rose around me. The lukewarm liquid wrapped around my neck, forcing out a choked, strangled cry as I closed my eyes for what I prayed was the final time.

32

HAZEL

Thunder roared in my ears, and all I could see through the burning in my eyes was endless blue as water splashed in my face. I was submerged in the Atlantic, floating aimlessly as violent currents swirled around my body, tossing me in every which direction. Shapes of dark blue and black formed in the water around me, menacing and cruel, refusing to show themselves fully. Saltwater stung my nose and throat, and my limbs thrashed as I tried to right myself, begging the spirits of the water to spare me. But the ocean wouldn’t listen to my pleas. She didn’t care how badly I wanted to be free, she just kept tossing me in circles.

I wondered if I was finally dead, if I’d finally reached the state I’d longed to be in‌ for so, so long.Please, I thought,please, just let this be it.

To my dismay, my visions and nightmares of the deep abyss were interrupted by the sound of someone calling my name in the distance.

“Hazel, Hazel,” the voice whispered, and I covered my ears, trying to ignore the sound.

Let me go,I responded, content with my decision to sink to the bottom of the sea and rot with the sediment.Please, just let me go.

The voice didn’t obey. With each passing second, the whispers grew louder and more frantic, and the dark water around me began to swirl. My body twisted in every direction, and the current seemed angry as I fought against it, trying to gain a semblance of control.

“Hazel!” The voice grew even louder, booming through the water tightening around my throat.

My vision went black, and I sucked in a painful breath, only to cough it out violently as I gasped for air, though there was none to be found this far under the sea.

Faced with the option of rescue or death, at first I thought I wanted the blissful escape that death would provide. But as saltwater burned in my throat and my lungs, and my limbs grew heavy under the weight of the water, I realized that was not a decision I was ready to make. Against my better judgement, against everything I’d thought I wanted over the last few wretched, horrible years, I reached out towards the voice cutting through the storm.

I tried and failed to yell back, but I held fast to that familiar, strange sound calling my name. I’d heard it before, in many different ways, and in the madness surrounding me I recognized the feeling blooming in my soul. The sound of that voice was home.

I’m here, I responded in my mind, trying my best to calm the waters around me. Surprisingly it worked, and aftersome time the ocean slowly ceased to churn, the darkness fading.

A moment later, my eyes shot open, and I was greeted by a piercing pale blue light.

“Hazel, please,” that voice called, laced with frantic worry. The way they said my name felt like warm tea on a cold winter day, wrapping me up in a soft blanket.

Air finally rushed into my lungs as my senses returned, and as my vision cleared, I stared up into emerald green eyes I’d recognize anywhere. Those same eyes that had pulled me out of countless nightmares, the eyes that had saved me from my demise not once but twice. The lovely face of a predator who had haunted my thoughts and dreams for years, yet been the only tether I had to a world and life I so desperately longed for.

“Draya!” I gasped, throwing my hands up and clawing at his face, praying that he was real. I couldn’t take any more mental games, couldn’t be made to believe I was mad for one more second.

This had to be real. This couldn’t be yetanotherdream. If it was, I’d simply pass away.

Strong hands gently engulfed my wrists, guiding my claws away from his cheeks. “Wake up, Hazel,” Draya pleaded, his glassy eyes searching my face for any sign of recognition.

“I’m here,” I tried to say, croaking out the words as water burned in my throat. He heard my strangled voice and immediately wrapped me into the tightest, most protective embrace I’d ever felt in my twenty-five years of life.

“Fuck,” he whispered against my shoulder, stroking hishand over the back of my head. His body trembled beneath me, and it took a moment for my mind to comprehend what was happening.

We were in the pool in my washroom. Draya was fully shifted in his Talassi form, while I must have shifted as much as I could in my panicked state. My hands and feet were webbed, spikes protruded from my shoulders and hips, and my gills were out, beckoning for the water.

“Draya,” I rasped again, my voice and mind much clearer this time.

“Good lord, Hazel,” he said, pushing me away for a moment to examine my face. “Youterrifiedme.”