Dead in the Water

Prologue

It isn’t only the water pouring down his throat and filling his lungs that’s killing him. It’s her, the person who has him tied in restraints and is forcing his head under the surface.

The ice-cold liquid ignites a burn that spreads inside him.

He coughs and splutters as he chokes, his body desperately trying to reject it, to force it back out, but this only draws more water in.

He tries to move his arms to push his way back up to the surface, but they are restrained behind him.

When he kicks his weakening legs, she climbs on top of him and pushes her knees into the back of his to keep him firmly in place.

He twists from side to side, the internal burning intensifying as the pressure in his chest builds, making it feel fit to burst. Nothing he does to try to save himself is making the slightest bit of difference.

She wants him dead.

He fights and fights until he is too exhausted to carry on and the life inside him begins to ebb. He feels his movements slow as he becomes detached from his surroundings.

Surrendering to the inevitable marks the beginning and end for him.

Now is when he sees it all. Everything that has gone before this moment.

All that has made him who he is, unfolding before him.

He’s been through this before, so he knows what happens: that all at once, thousands of memories begin playing simultaneously.

And somehow, he is able to focus on them all.

The people he has loved, the people he has lost, the moments they have shared, the laughter, the passion, the anger, the joy and the regrets. He remembers everything.

And then he sees him. A final image before the water consumes him and it all comes to an end.

The dead child. The one who started all this.