Under WATER

The terrifying nightmares were back – but did they hold a clue to Janine’s lifelong fear?

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Help me! Please! Help me!’

‘Hey! Where are you?’ Janine scanned the shore despairingly, but she could see only the flat, sandy, seaweed-strewn beach and the ever-rolling waves stretching into eternity. It was as if she was the only person in the whole world.

Except for the girl drowning.

‘Where are you?’ she yelled again. The sea was rising now, rolling over her head and shaking her.

She flailed at it unavailingly and her hand met flesh.

‘Ow! Janine! Jan, wake up, you’re dreaming again!’

Sam pulled the duvet away from her face and she lay still, breathing heavily while her heart rate got back to normal. ‘Better?’ he said, smiling down at her. ‘Did I wake you? Sorry. Couldn’t breathe,’ she said weakly.

‘Don’t be. I’m not surprised you couldn’t breathe. You had got your face right under the duvet.’ ‘Was I shouting again?’ ‘Well, you were making a very peculiar noise.’ She curled against his chest.

‘I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.’

‘It was worse,’ he assured her. ‘So was you smacking me in the ear. What were you dreaming, anyway?’ ‘Can’t remember,’ she lied. He wasn’t deceived. ‘Was it drowning again?’

‘It’s not me. It’s never me. I’m not drowning, it’s someone else. I can hear her calling and there’s no one but me to help. And I can’t.’

He hugged her. ‘Poor love. What a nightmare.’

It wasn’t exactly the same dream over and over. Sometimes it was a canal, the swimmer hidden by mist.

It had been rivers, swimming pools, even what looked no more than a puddle. But, whatever kind of watery place it was, there was always someone in trouble she couldn’t see. And she couldn’t help them.