From FAMOUS LAST WORDSI prepared to plunge under again and swim back to the shallow end. Then something brushed my ankle. I yelped in surprise and spun around, treading water as I searched for whatever had touched me. Nothing -- there was nothing. It must have been bubbles, a random current -- maybe a sunken palm frond. But then I felt it again. Only this time it took hold. And pulled me under. Fear and adrenaline burst through me in a massive soul-shaking pulse. My heart slammed around in my chest like it was trying to break out of my ribcage. Then something grabbed my other foot. It happened so fast that I didn't even process it as something that was really happening. Because it couldn't be happening -- it wasn't happening -- Only it was. I tried to kick free, but my legs were held fast. I managed to flail one hand above the surface of the water before being yanked down toward the blue-tiled bottom of the pool. My brain was on red-alert, acting on a purely animal instinct. THIS IS NOT OKAY. I thrashed and grabbed at my ankles in an attempt to pry off whatever had wrapped around them. But I couldn't free myself, because as far as I could see, there was nothing to free myself from -- not another person. Not a rope or piece of plastic. Not even a nightmarish monster. There was only water, and the sharp outlines of my own body as I flipped and struggled. Panicked, I looked up toward the sky -- and saw another person in the pool. For the briefest second I thought it was someone else swimming, and I wondered wildly why they wouldn't help me. But then it hit me with ironclad certainty -- this person wasn't swimming. They were floating. And it wasn't a person. . . . It was a corpse. Excerpted from Famous Last Words by Katie Alender All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
