• I was writhing. Writhing in the water as I burned. Unbearable, this pain, I thought. I couldn't move. To move would be to die with every contraction and relaxation of muscle. Every tiny flinch made me wish that maybe I shouldn't have dived into this river to save myself.

    Maybe I should've just let myself burn.

    My lungs filled with water. I didn't need the air. What was air to me? But my lungs tightened and pressed in protest at the water as I opened my mouth to let it in. To sink and sink and sink- that's all I wanted. The throbbing pain in my lungs from the foreign element was nothing compared to the sheer agony that was every surface of my body. If I came out of the water, to the surface, I knew I'd scream. There's no screaming when your lungs are full of water.

    I could hear him calling for me, shouting, yelling my name. Ahh, no, Haarold. I am here. I am here.

    There is only the darkness now. The cool, blessèd darkness...