Truly, Madly, Deeply by Karen Kingsbury

Author:Karen Kingsbury
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2020-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

16

The cracking sound split through the air and Tommy stopped, the wind cold on his face. He was walking with Annalee across the frozen Eagle Creek Reservoir just northwest of Indianapolis. But now… now all around them came the sound of cracking ice.

“Annalee!” He shouted her name. What was happening? They’d done this before and the ice never gave way.

But then, it was way too warm for the reservoir to be frozen. Also neither of them had fishing gear.

“Why are we doing this?” Annalee looked up at him. They were holding hands, walking farther out to the center of the water. “Maybe we should go back!”

Tommy’s teeth chattered. And suddenly he realized what was happening. The ice wasn’t thick enough. It had to be four inches thick before it was safe for ice fishing.

More cracking. Louder, and coming from all around them. Then Tommy saw something that stopped his heart. Lines were appearing in the ice. Faster and deeper. “Annalee!” He shouted her name and pushed her toward shore. “Run!”

But the moment they took their first steps back to land, freezing water bubbled up between the cracks and the ice beneath them began to sink. “Annalee! Get down!”

She dropped to her knees and he did the same. The only way to keep from falling through the ice was to disperse their weight. Tommy knew that. But it wasn’t helping. The water was rising, the ice cracking faster, louder.

And then just as they made a few feet progress toward land, the ice supporting Annalee gave way. “Tommy… help!”

He lunged for her, but before he could grab her boot, she slipped into the frigid water. “No!” Tommy’s scream echoed across the frozen lake. “Someone help!”

But no one came, no one heard. And Annalee was sinking, flailing in the freezing reservoir, and then with a final scream… she disappeared.

Tommy could see her dropping, falling far, far below the surface. He moved toward her, flung his body in her direction and before he could draw another breath he was underwater, too. The cold stung and dragged him down, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t reach Annalee.

She was sinking toward the sandy floor faster, and faster, headed to the bottom. Tommy couldn’t scream, couldn’t call out, couldn’t move. This was it. They were going to die here in the ice-cold waters of Eagle Creek Reservoir and no one would find them till spring. He pushed toward her, arched his back and reached out for her. But the distance between them only grew.

He was dying, desperate for air. And before Tommy could stop himself, he opened his mouth and breathed. Freezing water filled his lungs and his body writhed in pain. The sunlight faded to shadows and the last thing Tommy saw was Annalee. Her motionless body on the floor of the lake.

And then came a darkness like Tommy had never known before.

He squirmed and fought it, pushed through it and suddenly, miraculously he gasped and this time his lungs filled with precious, life-giving air.

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