Chapter 20. Breathe, You’re Okay

2014

Amelia’s POV

All I could feel, all I could see, was darkness. A thick, suffocating kind of darkness that clung to me, drowning out everything. My lungs burned as I gasped for air, but it felt like I was suffocating on the very breath I was trying to take. My limbs moved around, but it felt almost impossible to move—like I was too heavy, too slow, a prisoner in my own skin.

And then it hit me. I was in the pool at Darren’s house.

The sharp realization sliced through the fog in my mind, but it was too late. Panic surged through me in a rush of cold adrenaline, and my heart beat violently against my ribs. I needed to swim. I needed to get out.

Swim up. Swim up.

But it wasn’t that simple. My body wasn’t responding how I needed it to. My legs kicked frantically, but instead of rising toward the surface, I was sinking further, weighed down by a growing sense of dread. My breath came in short, panicked gasps, and I could feel my chest