Drown

Splash! The boy flinched as his little body made contact with the freezing water. It was January after all. The sting of the cold water hurt his skin like the piercing of a million needles, it almost made him forget the discomfort of having his hands and legs tied together. He used the air from his puffed mouth to breathe. He still had his eyes open, and when they felt the water, they stung. He shut them tight and tried to keep the water out, but he had to open his eyes and look around. He blinked constantly and moved his head around to look at his surroundings. The water was so blue, he almost didn't mind. Blue was his favorite color. But as he ran out of air, he knew he had to get out of the water. He saw the moon shining dimly at the surface, he knew what he had to swim towards. As he tried to kick his legs to move up, his body only jerked. He didn't move up, he just kept sinking. He assumed it was a seaweed coiling along the length of his legs, preventing him from reaching up. He remembered the knife he always carried around, a gift from his father for his 10th birthday. He tried to reach towards his pockets to fish it out, but when he looked down, he remembered what his abductors had done. They tied his wrists, and then his ankles. And for precautions, they had then used a big rope to tie his ankles and wrists together. He remembered how hard and rough the jute rope was. Harshly scratching his soft skin. They had tied it so that he wouldn't be able to reach anything. He forced his knees apart as much as he could, before it hurt and stuck his head in between. He always crouched to that position when he wanted to scream. His mother didn't like it when he did that, and always hugged him when she saw him so. He felt tears in his eyes as he struggled to breathe. When his air reserves were exhausted he opened his mouth as an instinct to gulp air, but it only made him choke on the salty water. The dawn of death suddenly settled on him as he kept sinking further and further, with the light of the moon, going further and further. As the cold water filled his insides and made his body shiver, he thought of his mother's warm smile. He wrapped his legs tight and cried in muffled sounds. He uttered the single word, 'Mama' and let the darkness of the lake envelop him and take him into its possession forever.