I Saved My Sister, So They Drowned Me Chapter 05
When Henry Walker called the police, his hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
The dispatcher asked for the location.
He repeated it three times before he could finally give the address clearly.
By the time he stumbled back to the broken section of the barrier and looked down, there was someone lying on the shallow part of the Riverside Trail.
The water wasn’t deep.
That section of the river was only about half a meter deep near the shore.
The mud underneath was thick.
She hadn’t been swept away.
But she couldn’t climb back out either.
Her entire body was face down in the mud.
Her hair was spread out, tangled with weeds and broken leaves.
Later, two people who were out for their morning run were the first to climb down and reach her.
One grabbed her arm.
The other supported her waist.
Together, they pulled her out of the mud and turned her over.
She was still breathing.
Barely.
Like her breath could disappear at any moment.
Her lips had turned purple.
Her fingers were pale and swollen from being soaked in the water.
She wasn’t wearing shoes.
By the time the ambulance arrived, the sky was just beginning to brighten.
The early morning sunlight fell across the stretcher.
Most of her face was covered in mud.
The nurse carefully wiped it away with gauze, little by little.
Only after her face was clean did they realize she was a very young girl.
She was so thin that her cheekbones stood out.
She woke up in the hospital.
When she opened her eyes, the ceiling above her was white.
Painfully white.
Like the white paper behind the red stamp on the Medical Diagnosis Report.
An oxygen tube was inserted into her nose.
A needle was taped to the back of her left hand.
There were dark bruises around her wrist.
She didn’t know whether they were from being pulled out of the mud or from the fall itself.
She turned her head.
Aunt Rachel was sitting beside the bed.
Aunt Rachel leaned back in the chair, clutching her phone tightly.
Her expression didn’t look good.
When she saw Nina awake, Aunt Rachel moved forward slightly.
“You’re awake?”
Her voice didn’t sound worried.
More like relieved.
“Your mom asked me to come check on you first.”
“She’s on her way.”
Your mom asked me to come check on you first.
Not:
“I was worried about you.”
It was:
“Your mom asked me to come.”
Even coming to see her was just another task Mom had assigned.
Aunt Rachel stood up and walked to the door to make a call.
She lowered her voice.
But the hospital room was quiet.
Every word could still be heard.
“Yeah, she’s awake.”
“She’s not in immediate danger.”
“She swallowed a lot of muddy water, and there’s a mild infection in her lungs.”
“The psychiatrist said she needs to stay for a few days.”
“Yeah… she did it herself.”
“The river at Riverside Park.”
“She had already taken off her shoes.”
“The police were called.”
“The Riverside Park administrator reported it.”
“A Police Officer came by to ask questions.”
“They need a family member here to sign the paperwork.”
She paused.
“Yeah… you don’t be…”
“Never mind. We’ll talk when you get here.”
She hung up.
Aunt Rachel walked back to the bedside.
She looked at Nina.
Like there was something she wanted to say.
But in the end, she only said:
“Get some rest first.”
“Don’t overthink it.”
Again.
Don’t overthink it.
Nina turned her head and stared at the ceiling.
The oxygen flowing through the tube into her nose was cold.
A steady stream.
Cold.
Suddenly, she remembered the river from last night.
It had been cold too.
The moment she fell in, it wasn’t as terrifying as she had imagined.
There had even been a strange kind of peace.
Like someone had pressed a mute button on the entire world.
No Mom’s voice.
No Dad’s yelling.
No Lily’s crying.
No:
“Attention seeker.”
No:
“Just helping out.”
No:
“Don’t come back.”
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
Clean.
Quiet.
She finally understood.
The feeling of sinking beneath the water was no different from the past seven months.
Except water was more honest than air.
When she was drowning in the air around her, no one noticed.
When she sank into the water, at least someone came to pull her back out.
Even though the person who saved her wasn’t the one she had been waiting for.