Note: This story is still in draft form. Published for the Shorts Short Story Club. I could really use help with the structure and maybe even the plot of this story.

(note, working on edits on 8/13/20)

Brian came up for air only to be slapped across the face by the arctic spray and stabbed by needles of hail. The swells were now too high to see over and seemed to come from every direction at once. He caught a glimpse of Anna's red kayak upturned and empty. As quickly as it had appeared it vanished. Where was Jessie? Salt water stung his lungs, choking him. Panic flooded his body.

"Breathe." He felt her ice cold lips against his ear. He fought to take in enough air to cough the water out. He felt her lift the back of his neck. Until another wave crashed upon their heads, breaking them apart.

* * *

Brain carefully lowered himself down the steep sharp rocks to the placid water below the rorbuer, the old fisherman's cabins turned bed and breakfasts painted a gay red with crisp white trim. The picturesque village sat nestled amongst jagged rocky peaks. Though usually snow-covered, during the endless daylight of summer solstice, green vegetation clung to the steep slate gray cliff faces. He kicked off his sneakers and jumped in.

"Breathe, remember to breathe," Jessie had said when he came up gasping, his heart rate having plummeted to 40 from the shock of cold water on his face. She treaded effortlessly in the crystal clear blue water. Having spent the week acclimating to the sea in Lofoten she looked unfazed by the frigid temperature. She insisted she didn't need a wetsuit. He had initially hesitated to join his friend for a swimming adventure vacation, but her persistence paid off. She even claimed it would help his bad knee to swim in cold water.

"It's what the Norwegians do."

"If I didn't know better, I would think you are trying to kill me," he had said to Jessie who smiled like a cheshire cat once he'd agreed to join her. Still, he'd wear a wetsuit, no need to get a cold cramp and put a damper on one of their several planned swims. Lofoten sits above the Arctic Circle after all.

But the wetsuit didn't help his face, hands or feet. Slowly his heart rate climbed back to normal. He gingerly paddled over to Jessie keeping his head out of the water and feeling mildly annoyed at her flippant ease swimming anywhere and his own stupidity for following her. He heard laughter from behind them.

"You guys are nuts," laughed Anna. "I couldn't swim 25 yards in this water, let alone two miles. Are you goons going to get a move on or what?" Jessie's sister enjoyed travel and willingly served as Jessie's support crew on her world-wide swimming adventures. She rechecked the dry bags strapped to her kayak containing towels, long down jackets, and a camp stove to make hot tea and soup when they reached the island. Rewarming was essential. Even with proper measures swimmers could shiver uncontrollably for thirty minutes.

"Last one to Gauk-Vaero Island is a rotten egg," said Jessie laughing as she sprinted ahead creating a wake.

"You promised to swim at my pace if I dragged myself up to this godforsaken place," replied Brian. He could swim slowly long distances at what he called his 'forever' pace, he wasn't a racer like Jessie. She flashed him a devilish smile but moved to his side so that he was flanked by her and Anna's kayak.

"Swim," she commanded.

Brain took one last look at the numerous yellow-bottomed fishing boats and the rows of wooden piers balanced precariously on weathered pylons before he reluctantly put his face back in the water and began to swim. Thankfully, breathing was easier the second time. He looked around underwater. Kelp waved lazily back. Schools of bright silver fish darted about. Enormous orange starfish clustered on rocks.

He tapped his swimming partner and she paused. "Take a look Jessie, it's beautiful underwater."

Despite her fearlessness of the hazard of the water itself, Jessie refused to look under its surface, citing her overactive imagination and fear of monsters as the reason. She made a face at him. "Do you know how many Norwegian crime thrillers there are?"

Brian chuckled.

"No thanks," she said, "if someone dumped a dead body around here I don't want to find it."

As they exited the shelter of the harbor the chopped picked up a bit. The wind came from the north, and the waves sloshed them sideways. Brian didn't mind but he noticed Jessie pick her head up out of the water and swim breast stroke, keeping her eye on the horizon. He knew she could get nauseous quickly. He podded on. After thirty minutes his muscles finally felt loose and he settled in to the swim not fighting the waves relentlessly tossing him sideways. They had Anna to keep them on course, he didn't need to worry about the current or the winds. Jessie continued to glide along side him.

Soon he noticed the sky above and the depths below him darken considerably. He barely felt the rain on the back of his neck in the gap between his cap and wetsuit. He picked up his head and looked up at the ominous clouds. Anna's concentrated on keeping the kayak from knocking into them. Jessie grinned at him.

He knew she loved rough open water but the storm made him nervous. He turned to the side to take a breath and inhaled a mouthful of water instead. He stopped swimming and treaded water while sputtering. Jessie was immediately at his side.

"You're ok, mate. Breathe."

He could have sworn he coughed out a fish. "This looks bad," he yelled into the wind.

"We need to keep going," Jessie screamed back. "We're about midway and I can't just sit in the water not wearing a wetsuit."

She was right of course. Anna had life jackets on the kayak for them both but Jessie needed to keep moving or she would get hypothermic. Brian nodded clearing his goggles, he glanced up at a worried-looking Anna and set off again. Progress became non-existent as the storm strengthened. The howling wind made communication impossible. The three of them remained close but larger waves increasingly pushed them apart.

Jessie stopped abruptly coughing, having clearly inhaled a wave. She gave him a thumbs up and put her head back in the water.

The rain turned to hail biting at his neck and trying to dig into the neoprene of his wetsuit. He pitied Jessie's bare back.

The dark sky turned an eerie green and a flash of lightning caught Brian's eye. Jessie looked up too. He could tell she was scared now. Anxiety crept under Brian's skin wrapping its steely tentacles around his waist constricting his breathing. Jessie pulled him close to her. "We should put on the life jackets," she yelled though he couldn't make out all of the words. She nodded at Anna who began unclipping them from the side of the boat.

An enormous wave crashed over them and capsized the kayak. Anna wriggled out and Brain and Jessie tried to swim to steady the boat for her but another wave pushed them back.

Brain inhaled water again and couldn't breathe.

* * *

Time followed no logical speed. Fragments and snapshots were all Brian could follow. Jessie under him. His head against her cold cheek. Her arm across his chest, her hand wrapped around his neck. Alone in the waves. Lightning. The sting of ice against his face. His foot hitting sand. Pulling Jessie up on the beach. The kayak and Anna nowhere in sight.

He collapsed heaving alongside her as a sun-break burst through the dark clouds and hit the beach. Pulling off his cap and goggles, he lay still his cheek against the cold wet sand. Jessie moaned. He tried to estimate how long they had been in the water but he hadn't the faintest idea. Days lasted so long this far north it was impossible to tell the time given the rolling clouds in the sky. He scanned the horizon again for the red kayak but saw no sign of it. As a day destination for boaters, the island itself felt eerily deserted. The black remnants of a campfire lay a few feet away. 

He turned back to Jessie whose lips and extremities were blue. She needed warming up.

"Let's get you in my wetsuit," He began peeling it off.

"Then you'll get cold", she protested.

"Then you can give it back." He wasn't going to argue. They struggled to get her shoved into the wet wetsuit. Her arms and legs weren't cooperating anymore. She shivered uncontrollably. He wrapped his arms around her.

"Can you walk?"

"I don't think so."

Brian scanned the beach. Maybe the campers were still nearby somewhere, though he doubted it.

"I'll go see if I can find something or somebody to help you get warm." He stood, steadying himself. His own legs were pretty shaky. He stumbled up the beach goosebumps on his arms, a cold breeze coming off the water.

The island was not more than 500 acres, really just a few rocks and a small wooded area. There were definitely signs of a recent camp. He found a flattened area where a tent may have rested as well as some empty cans and water bottles.

As he returned to the beach, a black object a few hundred yards away at the water's edge caught his eye. A boat? A dry bag? As he approached it he could see it was a large plastic garbage bag stuffed with something that appeared to be very heavy. Waves lapped against it shifting it very slightly in the surf. 

A putrid smell reached his nose causing him to retch. Washed up garbage. Still, even if there were a half of a bottle of water inside, it would be worth opening it. Some primal feeling inside him resisted but desperation forced him to try to open it. He looked around for a stick but there weren't any around. He pulled the bag up onto the beach. Unable to untie it, he reluctantly tore the bag open with his hands.

Dark blood poured out of the bag covering his hands. A human arm tumbled out. Brain staggered backwards and then turned and vomited violently. He ran into the surf and rubbed his hands in the sand to clean them. He looked over his shoulder and vomited again.

His brain couldn't process what he'd just seen but he found himself running back to Jessie. She looked terrible, shaking violently. She could read the concern on his face.

"What?"

"Nothing, just some really gross garbage that washed up on shore."

"I can see the kayak," said Jessie.

Brian scanned across the water but saw nothing.

"Can you hand me a slice of watermelon and a hot dog off the grill?"

Brain looked at Jessie's blue lips and the cold empty sand that lay where she stared and then back at her small frame now barely shivering.

Brian forgot the horror he had just discovered and started desperately digging a hole to break the wind.

"We need to warm you up," he said trying to hide his panic over Jessie's hallucinations.

"I love building sandcastles," she laughed and started pushing sand back down into the hole.

"Stop it," Brian demanded. Clumsily she fell into it. He started pulling the wetsuit off of her and then her suit below it.

"I think we should lie skin to skin because you are severely hypothermic."

"I know," she said in a moment of lucency.

Their friendship had never been intimate, nor did it feel so now as he took off his own swimming suit, lay Jessie on top of the wetsuit and then carefully lowered himself down on top of her.

"You don't feel warm," she said, "only your breath does." He pressed his lips against hers trying to warm them with his breath.

"I thought if this were ever to happen between us, I'd have drunk a lot more wine first," said Jessie.

"Shut up," said Brian I'm trying to keep your adventure from killing us." He breathed slowly across her nose, her eyes, eyes her cheeks. She closed her eyes. Exhaustion washed over him and lay his face in the crook of her neck.

"Your tears are warm," she finally said in a whisper.

* * *

Another wave crashed over his head and Brian squinted desperately through the unrelenting pummel of the storm for Jessie or Anna. An arm gripped his neck and tugged him underwater. He kicked and clawed wildly for the surface and wriggled away from his captor.

Brian lifted his head panting and feeling hot. The sun hung low on the horizon and the muddy yellow midnight sky smoldered above him. Under him lay a motionless Jessie. "Jessie," he cried. She did not move.

Up the beach from the ocean walked a figure.

"Is that you Anna?" yelled Brian, but he could not hear his own voice.

The person carried a large plastic bag. Brian struggled to stand but his limbs would not move. The heavy plastic bag came down over his head and everything went dark.

"Breathe," said a voice. He felt warm tears on his cheek.

***

At first Brian could only hear Anna and Jessie's voices in fits and starts.

"...here..."

"...put it on..."

"...coast guard..."

He felt someone push him to the side and place something under him, and something warm upon his chest. Soon he could make out their conversation.

"I saw the garbage strewn along the beach," said Anna. "It was lucky you found that plastic bag to give you both some cover."

He opened one eye and saw Jessie's head cradled in Anna's lap. Anna held a hot cup of tea tried to help Jessie swallow it.

"And no Brian, I didn't find any dead bodies or murders like you were mumbling about," said Anna. "You've read too many Norwegian crime thrillers."

"Me and the swim," croaked Jessie trying to smile. Jessie's voice sounded odd but she was alive!

Anna looked down on her and back to Brian, "Unless you count your friend here trying to kill you by dragging you on a swim above the arctic circle, but that was a voluntary choice on your part. I stand by what I said when we started. You're both nuts."

Brian still couldn't speak. Anna eyed him. He could tell she was still nervous. "The coast guard is enroute," she said. "They'll take you to the nearest medical center."

"Brian!" said Jessie, her voice sounding a little stronger.

He looked at her.

"Alcatraz race next year?"

"Ur," was all he manage. Why not?