by venetum

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Isla is a twenty-year-old medical student with a love for water that stems from her childhood. Kai is a lifeguard whose former career was swept away in the blink of an eye by the very element Isla loved so very much. Isla only swims at night to avoid prying eyes and Kai only works the night shift-a way to avoid ever having to get into the water.

What happens when the very element that makes the two different ends up bringing them together?

She might just teach him to live life to the fullest...they might just end up changing each other.

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Storm clouds clashed against each other, their hue resembling that of fresh bruises on the palest of skin, dark and despair and so very blue. Their reflection staining the stormy ocean, its waves crashing against the jagged rocks that stuck out of the ocean odd angles, water trying its hardest to wear away at them.

He was floating. Deep under the dark water, peace surrounding him for but a millisecond. Then the screaming started; not from around him, but from inside him.

His lungs: screaming for air.

His limbs: screaming for the strength to escape the darkness.

His heart: beating furiously for the will to live.

His mind: welcoming the darkness, letting the water in.

He was d—

Awake.

He was awake.

These were the thoughts that plagued his mind as he sat in the misty room, the warm air fogging up the windows as he stared out at the winter night in London. His back was to the chlorinated water, the repulsive liquid plaguing his every waking thought.

But not like before.

No, never like before.

Audibly sighing, he ran his hand over his face, the day-old stubble scraping against his palm. His thumb went to the button on the side of his phone, unlocking it. He stared down at the applications that were displayed on the little screen and sighed again. It'd been ten months and still, the memory of before seemed to plague his after, the memories that once brought him joy now marred by the in between that led to him sitting in a rickety, old chair doing a job he shouldn't even have been allowed to do.

What good did a lifeguard do who was too traumatised to get in the water?

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