Chapter 4: The Rising Tide
Chapter 4: The Rising Tide
Inside the pool house, the situation was rapidly deteriorating. The automatic cover wasn't just sliding shut; the pool’s high-capacity intake valves had been reversed. Water was flooding into the basin at an astonishing rate. The water level that had been at Elena’s knees was now surging toward her waist.
She scrambled up the incline of the pool floor, trying to reach the shallowest corner, but the chain snapped taut. She had reached the absolute limit of her tether. She was ten feet away from the edge, anchored to the bottom of the deep end, and the water was rising fast.
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The cover, made of heavy, reinforced PVC designed to support the weight of a car and prevent children from falling in, was halfway across the pool. It blocked out the light, casting a creeping, pitch-black shadow over the churning blue water.
Elena clutched her swollen belly. The child kicked, a frantic, fluttering sensation that mirrored her own sheer panic. "I won't let you die," she whispered to the unborn child, the water now lapping aggressively at her chest. "I won't."
