Eye of the Storm

Chapter 12

I let my body float on the water, my weight carried as waves glide past my entirety, calming me. The cool touch of the water and sand takes away my worries and brings me back home. Back to when Ethan and I would lounge in the water after a long day at school, back to when Clara would douse me with salt water, making my eyes sting and my throat scream for mercy, but my heart happy. With my ears deep under I can’t hear everyone’s groans and cries. I can’t hear the birds chirping with joy, teasing us with their own happiness. All I can hear are my own thoughts, which are coming to a grinding halt. Suddenly someone pulls me out of my thoughts, tugging my arm upwards, bringing my head with it.
“Leo…” I murmur, I look up, my eyes wide. His face is alive, wild.
“Esme, oh Esme…” for the first time in a long time, I hear joy on his voice. It’s about now that I realise, as the water falls out of my ears. I can hear a plane.

I’m up on my legs faster than ever before, running out of the water and onto the sand, joining the others. I don’t know whether to cry from joy or relief. Sure enough, a plane is softly floating down, it’s engines roaring. But suddenly, I feel a big pang in my heart and all I can see is the plane, hurtling towards the ground, screams erupting, forcing one out of my own mouth.
“Esme, Esme what is it??” Leo asks desperately, holding me. Is he blind??
“Can’t you see?! It’s crashing!!” I scream, burning my throat. I look from the plane into Leo’s eyes. They’re concerned, but not for the plane. For me.
“Esme, the plane isn’t crashing,” sure enough as I rub my eyes and look back, the plane is safely landing on the water just a couple feet near us. As everyone cheers and sobs, Leo keeps his eyes on me. “This is bad…”

I don’t know what just happened but I’m going to blame the dehydration as I have no time to think about my own worries. Finally, the plane lands with a thump, almost as loud as my thumping heart.
I look over at Alexia, holding Lorenzo in her arms tightly. I can’t hear what she’s saying, and by the looks of it, neither can Lorenzo. He looks as if he just can’t believe, or he refuses to believe it. I look carefully at Alexia’s mouth, piecing together what she’s saying. ‘You’re not dreaming, Enz… please trust me’. Seeing the plane has washed a wave of sanity over Alexia, her dead expression nowhere to be seen, but by the looks of it, it’s done the opposite to Lorenzo. I turn my eyes back to the plane, a lump forming in my throat. I didn’t think this would happen and I feel as if I could faint from the relief flowing through me. But as I see a man hop out, I start to realise. For some of us, it would’ve been easier, if we died.

Leo pulls me out my trance, hugging me so tight it feels as if all the air has been squeezed out of my lungs.
“I can’t believe it, we’re going home!!” his deep voice vibrates through me, but I don’t respond, just stand there. A man walks over to us, the relief on his face almost as intense as Leo’s.
“I’m so glad I found you guys! We thought you were dead!!” he looks young, like this is his first proper job, I imagine he’s been training for a decent amount of his life. Another man comes out the plane, significantly older. Must be his adviser.
“Before we do anything we need to do a roll call, then immediate first aid if required,” the older man says. Surely it should be the other way around. I don’t bother mentioning that because I guess they are the professionals. I still can’t get over the fact that they came. I look over at Nic and he looks more shocked than me, which is an achievement.