“Bye Mom! I’m taking Lilly to the beach, we’ll be back in a couple of hours!” I yelled loudly to the seemingly empty house. Mom was locked away in her office as usual,

“Alright Sara” with my mom mumbled with a failed attempt to show that she heard me.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my sisters hand as we walked out to the car.  Lilly loaded our old beach toys and towels into my rickety, rusty, beat up pick up truck. We bumped down a street covered in pot holes and said hello to everyone we passed (in a small town, everybody knows everybody).

Lilly’s 6 year old front-toothless smile widened as we pulled up to the white sandy beach, mesmerized by the electric blue water and her eyes seem to turn the same shade as the ocean. Even on this grey and cloudy day the water still majestically glowed. We grab the buckets and shovels out of the truck and squish our toes in the warm sand as we walk to find a good spot near the water.
     

"Lilly I'm going to set our toys down,” I see her inch towards the surface “don't go into the water until I'm with you." I warn her, however I know her and she's generally a trouble maker, so I made sure to keep looking back.
The minute I turned my back for a second too long, Lilly runs out into the waves without her little-mermaid life jacket or flounder floaties, I hear her shriek and whip around, I see a wave three times the size of her approaching from behind. My heart stops and everything in my hands drop to the ground with a thud. 
         

"Lilly get back here!" I scream in terror, she tries to scurry out of the water but the powerful ocean has more strength than her. "Sara help me!" Lillys high pitched helpless voice cries, at that point I knew I had to save her. I start running, running towards the water, my legs moving faster than I would have ever imagined they could. The wave looks like its going to beat me to her. My heart drops to my stomach as the wave peaks over her head, and my toes touch the cold, harsh water. I dive forward, reaching with everything that I have to grab her.
I exhaled deeply with the feeling of her in my arms, making the both of us feel safer than ever. But then I thought of what comes after the wave- the undertow. I quickly try to find the bottom but I don’t even know which way is up. Everything is spinning and I want to come up for air. I’ve been counting...20 seconds underwater.

Using all of my remaining strength, I blindly throw Lilly into the direction I believe is up, pushing against the water resistance in attempt to get her to land. However the moment she leaves my arms I know that was a mistake.

The result of attempting to swim is being violently pulled back. It feels as though some imaginary force is wrapped around me spinning me around and dragging me further down under. My heart pace quickens again as I rapidly flail my arms around. Another wave jerks my legs over my head and a sharp pain strikes through my back as the fight to hold my breath gets harder and harder... 40 seconds underwater.

I concentrate on keeping calm, but lacking oxygen is the most helpless, terrifying feeling in the world.  I force myself to bear the sting of the Atlantic Ocean and open my eyes. I frantically try to get my bearings and throw my arms and legs aimlessly but everything seems like a blur and theres no air or sand in any direction, only little black dots starting to fog my vision from deprivation of air. Fifty seconds underwater.

I can’t take it anymore. I accidentally inhale a deep breath of water and cringe from the pain and sting of salt filling every crevice in my nose, mouth and throat. The salt is a knife cutting everything inside of me. I let out a cry as my head slams against something, but theres nobody to hear it and I just get more filled up with salt water as a trail of blood seeps into the deep waters. I squeeze my eyes shut not wanting to know what will happen next. This is it. I am going to die.

I flinch and open my eyes.

I am surprised not to be underwater anymore but in a sterile environment with doctors whirling all around me. Confused, wondering if any of this actually happened and I felt my head where it hit the mysterious something underwater and sure enough there’s a bump and multiple stitches there.“Where’s Lilly?” I anxiously ask, partially afraid of what the answer’s going to be.

Once the doctors realized that I was awake, a swarm of around 8 of them came running over, “Check her charts,” one doctor ordered the nurses,
“Where’s my sister?!” I said once again, this time a little more irritated.

I sit up and look around, and sure enough, outside of the windows i see two little blonde pigtails peeking up, trying to peer into the room. She jumps up to get a better look and sees me awake, and her eyes light up even more than they did when we went to the beach.