01|Chapter One
Drowning; A simple term that followed simple logistics. It was the act of suffocation by liquid, I'm sure many people know what drowning is and that it was something to be sorrowful about, It was shown in cartoons and movies all the time, of course, everyone knows what drowning is.
Although they're wrong about a few things,
1.Drowning was Quiet; You cannot scream when you drown unlike in cartoons, if you scream the water will come seeping in and enter your lungs
The little boy that sat in the corner of the rickety old room swallowed his breath. It was dark in the way that he tucked his head into his knees wishing and praying for someone to come into the room and tell him it was over, that the feeling of bugs crawling under his skin and clothes would be over the minute he was finally allowed to leave the room.
He picked at the skin on his hands hoping that the pain would keep the stinging in his eyes at bay, he wished for a way out but the trembling legs of a three-year-old child weren't stable enough for him to walk out of the room, he had to be strong and endure it, strong enough like the man his mother told him he could be, She would be proud of him then.
But the trembling of his lips let small hiccups escape with every other crocodile tear, he was only a three-year-old unable to comprehend such big emotions thus far.
2.Drowning is not noticeable; People who are drowning cannot splash for help as they sink deeper into the waves
Hands crawled onto his skin smearing what could be scented as dirt and blood, some were large, and others were dainty with bones so obvious it could have been a skeleton, He could only shiver and watch in petrified horror at the smearing of substances onto his skin.
The trembling enhanced as he bit his lip harshly releasing what tears he had been holding back in pain, he was scared, scared for what was happening as he wracked out tiny sobs with each touch of a fingertip, they tore away at his clothes quickly leaving him naked and cold smeared in dirt and blood.
In the stress of things he began to tug at the top of his hair shaking and weaving his head, desperately trying to do anything in order to get away from the cold touch of dirtied hands, he hated the hands, they scared him and they touched him in ways that sent shivers of fear up his spine
3.Most people drown far away from shore; A drowning person will be unable to see where people are or in what direction they are facing towards.
Racking in heaves of breath his heart thumped like a jackrabbit on steroids, He felt so cold, so cold that his skin was made of ice cubes. Fingertips dragged his bitter cold skin every which way, He wished he could scream, to yell out for anyone just outside the loose door on the other side of the room, but his throat was tight letting loose only involuntary hiccups with every blinding tear.
It felt like acid now, everything burned with a rage that could rival hell, he could not scream as he fell to the ground in pain, The hands slowly made their way back leaving one by one they trailed like a ghost haunting its figure until all but one set of hands that rested their way onto his face remained.
The burning grew worse as he looked up fingernails digging into his skin spread cuts of inky blood down his face, her cold dead eyes stared at him again, they scrunched up in the way they were always whenever she looked at him.
The blurring of his vision made it hard to see but he knew her touch, it had been so many times now that he could recognize it by fingerprints alone grazing his dirtied skin.
Lips parched and cracked let out the soothing voice as she dug her nails deeper into the fragile boy, if she were to go any deeper she might have been able to rip it off completely but that wasn't her intention at the moment.
Her ratched voice became clear as she laid his head atop of her lap in a false sense of soothing, his tears continued to fall as the fear left his body in the face of his mother, she was here to save him, he could only thank god that she had found him.
"Just do as I say and I'll spare them alright, little hero?"
And as he closed his eyes in the arms of his mother he couldn't stop the smile on his face as he felt content and pride in being the one his mother chose as a hero
"Ok mama"
Thats how the little 3-year-old boy started to drown.
YOU ARE READING
If you can't see me
General FictionA child lost in the loud sounds of his siblings So when he tries to scream no one hears him He shut his mouth learned to black everything out So when they finally did look back he was already gone