A sudden crash of thunder sounded over the clattering of heavy rain. Adrian woke up with a jolt.
He breathed out as a deep rumble lingered in its wake. Lightning flashed briefly in the corner of his eye. It was dark outside, and the storm grew vast as a river churned violently beneath the bridge. Adrian slumped in his seat, feeling bored and very, very lethargic. It’s been a long bus ride - hopefully in another couple hours, he’ll be home soon.
Another crash of thunder sounded. This time Adrian did little more than spare a glimpse into the distance. A lightning streak illuminated the clouds above for a split second. They smothered the sky as far as the eye could see with a dull, endless grey.
Another crash of thunder sounded. Adrian wondered when the next lightning would come.
There was a blinding white flash, then everything lurched forward in an instant. Someone screamed. He heard tires screeching, then windows shattering, and before he could grab on to something, anything, he slammed sideways into something hard. Completely winded, he clutched his head, panicking, silently screaming for all of it to end. There was a moment of confusion as the feeling of momentum turned to weightlessness, then everything plunged into freezing darkness.
Adrian always hated water - and, well, water always hated him. There were often accidents, the earliest one involving an exploding pool back when he was a child, and since then, his parents never took him to swimming lessons again.
A few years later, the school’s PE teacher had talked him into standing in waist-high water as an embarrassing amount of people watched him freak out for no reason at all. He was too afraid to even hold his breath underwater, and starting from the very next day, the school’s swimming pool remained mysteriously out of order for the next three years.
In high school, when he finally worked up the courage to attend a pool party, someone thought it was a hilarious prank to push him into the pool when nobody was looking. He swear the water hollowed out and gave way before him as he fell face-first into the tiles below.
The doctor had a hard time convincing him that it was a hallucination from the concussion.
Adrian snapped out of a stupor. The rushing waters roared deafeningly, tossing him under and washing him away. How he got out of the bus, he didn’t know. He flailed his arms helplessly, screaming himself hoarse until another stream pulled him under.
He kicked his legs frantically and resurfaced, gasping for breath between violent fits of coughing. He could feel his jacket and pants dragging him down with every struggle. A sliver of rational thought told him he should take them off, but he didn’t dare do anything other than try desperately to stay afloat. His movements grew sluggish and powerless. He couldn’t breathe. Another wave of mud and water washed over him.
It’s so cold. Everything hurts.
And then suddenly, a memory came to him. It was like a piece that linked the puzzle altogether.
Every time, before an accident happened, he heard voices.
Voices in his head that nobody knew.
Can you hear us?
Voices. There were voices.
Wake up.
Voices…
Wake up!
Adrian struggled to get a hold of reality, slowly slipping away from him. He drifted in and out of consciousness under the rushing water.
Maybe if he let go, it won’t be so cold anymore.
No!
It sounded like a thousand voices crying out at once. Adrian pulled himself back, little by little. He heard the voices - he was sure of it this time. Still, despite everything he had done, he had no strength left to battle the currents overpowering him.
He mouthed his final words to plead for help.
"Save… me… "
Please.
Someone. Anyone.
The voices, whatever you are.
Then a rogue current pushed against the flow and propelled him up towards the surface.
A fountain formed in the middle of the raging river and hoisted Adrian upwards, coughing and spluttering and gasping for breath again. Each breath felt like a tear in his chest, as if he was getting stabbed by fiery knives. It took a moment for him to recover, during which the fountain fought against the currents and slowly carried him back to riverside in a steady drift.
Then he saw another face bobbing up and down the river. He made to reach forwards, but the water pulled him back.
What are you doing?!
“Save them!” Adrian yelled, then dived under the river.
The rogue current followed, wrapping around him. An air pocket covered his nose and mouth to breathe as they both streaked towards the drowning person like a torpedo. Adrian grabbed onto her arm, then wrenched her out of the currents. Another stray current caught up alongside him. He pushed her away and trusted it to take her to shore.
After that, both of them came across someone stuck under a boulder. It stayed unmoving in the storm and parted even the most powerful of currents, and for some reason, Adrian could sense the person still pounding at the underside of the boulder in vain.
He immediately rushed forward and kicked with both legs, using all the momentum he could gather. Once. Twice. The boulder didn’t budge. Adrian shoved his shoulder against it and pushed with all his might. He felt the pressure mounting up as the river began to gather its power to push with him. Miraculously the boulder began to tilt, and then it rolled over. Adrian shot downwards, grabbed hold of the person below, and kicked off towards the surface again. Another rogue current came and took him to safety.
They went on to rescue another passenger, then another, then another. Each time Adrian controlled the waters more and more effortlessly, and sometimes it was as if he could do anything just by willpower alone. Finally, as he brought the last person out of the river, the current washed him up along with the rest. Too tired to walk, he crawled away, little by little, until he couldn’t anymore.
The last thing he saw was the rescue team and paramedics wearing bright colors running over before he closed his eyes and collapsed from exhaustion.
