"Redemption's Run": Chapter 18 begins

A Star Tribune serialized novel by Jane Fredericksen

Chapter 18

The story so far: Kinney is injured and Kacie has been swallowed by the lake.

Darkness everywhere.

At first it seemed that way, as Kacie sank down into the endless lake.

Gradually, her eyes adjusted to the depth and she could see shifting patterns of dark and light within the water. The gurgle of waves echoed in her ears.

She should struggle, try to get to the surface, she knew. But the frigid waters of Superior numbed her arms and something had tangled around her ankles.

She tried to kick it off, but her legs felt like two chunks of soaked driftwood, rigid and heavy.

On top of that, her brain wasn't working right. One part screamed, "Kick!" The other part urged, "Let go. Relax."

That part was growing stronger and it should have caused her alarm. Instead, a strange peace washed over her. Here, there was no storm. No wind or rain. Only the churn of the water, rocking her to sleep.

Pay attention! the dying part of her brain screamed.

She tried. All she could see were the shifting patterns of dark and light, which mesmerized her. They began to form into shapes. One looked like a mermaid.

With a face like an angel, copper hair swirling about her. She smiled at Kacie, and Kacie knew that smile, would always know it in any world or sea, in any nightmare or dream.

Kacie tried to speak, but only a bubble escaped her lips. She felt she was crying, but the salt water mixed with the fresh and it was all a wash.

Gina, still smiling, reached toward her daughter.

Kacie knew that if they touched, all the fear, all the loneliness would disappear at once. She would never be alone again.

She reached toward Gina.

Kacie!

He seemed a million miles away, on another ship, on another sea, in a different life. But she knew his voice, even underwater, and she heard the panic it carried.

He needs me.

Kacie looked at her mother's beseeching face and tried to make her understand.

He needs me.

It was a hallucination, Kacie realized. A trick of the brain.

That meant at least part of her brain was working. She focused her attention on the part that mattered, the part that screamed, "Kick!"

And stiffly, woodenly, her legs obeyed. The strap shook free.

Her lungs were bursting, but Kacie felt her life vest buoy her up, up toward the water's edge.

She had to make it. Had to.

Her head broke the surface and she was back in the thick of the storm, rain pelting her, wind shrieking. Kacie gulped in a huge breath of air and screamed with every ounce of strength she had left.

"Kinney!"

Then another wave pulled her under.