Chapter 5

Chapter 5: What If All I Need is You in the Bluelit Swimming Pool?

         The first thing I felt when I woke up was someone’s arms around me.

         “Thank God you’re alive. Holy crap…holy crap holy crap holy crap.” Lyla. She was murmuring into my neck, her arms tight around me.

         Thankfully I wasn’t in another white room. And I still had my jumpsuit on.

         My eyelids felt like they each weighed a hundred pounds and my mouth was so dry it felt like a desert.  What happened?

         Her warm breath sent tingles down my spine. In all our time here, I’d never been so aware of her. So aware of every part of her that was touching me.

         “Ly…” I whispered. “Where are we?”

         She let go of me, almost embarrassed. “I don’t know. You passed out, just like…collapsed out there. So I grabbed your feet and dragged you through the grass. I swear to God, I thought I was about to collapse too when this…house showed up.”

         “Wasn’t it all just houses out there?”

         Lyla shook her head. “This one was different. It was blue and just, like, appeared out of nowhere. Like some sort of oasis. Thought it was better than out there. It couldn’t be worse than what we’d already seen, right?”

         I looked around then, taking in my surroundings. We weren’t in a house stuck in time like before. This was a large, tiled space with a doorway in the middle. The only light came from below—blue and serene. Like it was designed to calm us down. My back was wet, and it was then that I realized Lyla and I were at a shore. Sort of. No sand, nothing like the beach, but water gently lapped at the spot on the floor we were on.

         The water went on. Through the doorway, out into infinity. That’s all there was in here. Tile and water.

         Water.

         “Oh my God,” I murmured, turning onto my knees and cupping my hands as I filled them with water, bringing them up to my lips to drink.

         It was the best thing I’d ever tasted.

         She nodded. “It’s good, right?”

         “God, yeah…it’s amazing.”

         I slid my body deeper into the water, relief instantly washing over me. I hadn’t realized how tense I was before, how badly my limbs ached and burned from the long walk until I wasn’t feeling it anymore. I don’t know what noise came out of my mouth, but it made Lyla giggle.

         I’d never heard her giggle before.

         I didn’t know if the other Declan had a favorite sound, but I had just found mine.

         “What?” I asked, trying to lie on my back in the water.

         “Nothing. You just sounded funny.”

         “Well excuse me if I enjoy no longer being in pain.”

         It made her giggle again. 

         The sound of her giggle mingled with the hum in the air made me feel relaxed for the first time. This wasn’t a space to fear.

         It was a promise of relief.

         Lyla had to be just as tired, just as worn out and desperate as I had been. If not more. She had dragged me here after all. Her sigh of relief when she slid deeper into the water sounded like music.

         “Better?”

         “God, yes…why didn’t we start here?”

         Something tugged at me then, something deep in my subconscious. The Watchers, the journal.

         Lyla’s dark brown eyes looked right at me. The hazy, dreamlike look in them.

         The way the blue light from the water danced on her skin.

         We were close now, the water lapping around our bodies like it was urging us together. Neither one of us resisted like we were in a trance. I couldn’t figure out how it had taken me this long to figure out how freakin’ gorgeous this girl was.

         There was practically no space between us now. Her breath was on my face. Her nose was brushing mine. And, for the first time since I woke up in the white room, I wasn’t afraid. I wasn’t confused. I just felt…right. Like I finally understood why the other Declan put me here.

         Another tug at my consciousness. The single phrase. I never want to leave.

         Lyla’s breathing had grown shallow. Her arms wrapped around my shoulders. Damn. I couldn’t help it anymore. I leaned down, putting my mouth on hers.

         I never want to leave.

         Me neither…

         The water cradled us, lapping at our bodies like a warm embrace. Like it wanted us to stay.

         My focus was entirely on Lyla and the way the kiss had deepened. I didn’t know if the other Declan had ever kissed a girl before, but it felt familiar. Lyla’s embrace, Lyla’s mouth felt so damn familiar.

         I pulled her closer at some point, our chests pressed so tightly together that I could feel her rapid heartbeat, and she made a little noise.

         It just about set me on fire.

         “Dec…” She whispered, pulling back just a little.

         I couldn’t muster up any words in response. All I could do was whine like a pathetic little kid in response, burying my face in her neck.

         “Dec…this…” I could practically feel her swallow, “this isn’t right…”

         The water, the proximity, everything was making me bolder. I kissed the curve where her shoulder met her neck softly. “What do you mean?”

         She gasped. “We…we can’t stay here.” Her breath was coming in shallow gasps.

         “Why?” My voice was whiny again, but in that moment, I didn’t care. Nothing mattered to me except her.

         “Dec…” she breathed again.

         I would wake up in the white room a thousand times if I could hear her say my name like that again.

         “Dec…the journal…”

         I never want to leave.

         It took everything in me, but I lifted my head from Lyla’s neck and met her gaze. Her eyes were wide and hazy, her lips just a little swollen.

         I swallowed hard, trying not to focus on how pretty she looked. “The water…”

         She nodded. “It’s doing something to us.”

         We had to get out, I knew we had to get out, but I sure as hell didn’t want to. The fog…the desire…was threatening to take over again. Just let go and stay with Lyla Chen in my arms forever.

         But somewhere inside….the same place that had been tugging at me…I knew it wasn’t real.

         “How do we get out?”

         That was the problem. The whole space was water. No platforms or ledges. Just water like we were in the ocean.

         But…the doorway. This couldn’t be it…the water led to a doorway. There had to be a way out. The endpoint couldn’t possibly be drowning by desire, right?

         We swam, swam on totally opposite ends of the water for fear of getting caught up again. It was a struggle, like we were swimming upstream. When we reached the doorway we just found more water.

         Doorway after doorway led to spaces identical to the last. And as we kept going, the need to be close to Lyla again was painful.

         A shuddering breath came from next to me. When I turned, I could see tears streaming down Lyla’s cheeks. Oh God…oh…

         “Ly…”

         She shook her head, clenching her eyes shut. “Please don’t say my name like that…I just want to get out of here…”

         I couldn’t tell if the tears were from desperation or pain or a mix of both, but I felt the sudden urge to cry too. The desperation was gnawing at me, both for Lyla’s embrace and the fact that it felt like we’d been swimming for hours now, just to end up in the same damn place as before.

         My limbs felt heavy. Exhaustion? Pain? The water that had so gently cradled us before felt thick. Like I was swimming through molasses.

         “Dec…” Lyla breathed out. Then, more urgently, “Dec!”

         I looked. She was treading water, staring at something under the surface. I swam over to her, wanting to know what had gotten her attention.

         Her gaze was fixed on a tile in the water. Loose and displaced. A way out?

         Lyla sucked in a breath before submerging herself completely. My heart skipped a beat, afraid she’d never come back up. I watched as she pried at the tile, gasping when it came loose. We were gonna get out of here. 

         She peered in and disappeared.