The Red King and the Witch

Knockout

Walking home drunk after a few drinks wasn't uncommon for me when I was in England. Even in my most inebriated state at eighteen after trying to go drink for drink against Frank and Andy, then having to physically crawl up the steps to Uncle Roberts, I never had any issues getting back home safely.

It had started to drizzle slightly on the walk back and my hair had started to wilt with the rain, so I stopped in the middle of the high street and turned my face to the sky and just stood there. The air smelled like fresh grass and soil, drops of rain landed on my cheeks and lips, I inhaled the dark and quiet.

It was peaceful.

Until I saw the man at the end of the street watching me.

He stood like a statue, near the edge of the river wall of what locals called The Cut. With no surrounding lights he was covered in darkness, but I could still make out his silhouette. He wore a long dark coat over a suit and had a cap covering his eyes. Smoke exhaled from his lips and disappeared in the darkness.

I never had any issues walking back after dark in Birmingham, while it used to be a very dangerous part of England, nowadays the only issues were the ones people went looking for.

I knew what I should have done, which was to turn in the other direction, but the alcohol pushed my curiosity and bravery, so I just started walking towards him, hoping to just be able to walk past, but once I got less than a foot away from him, he had turned his back and was gone.

I stood for more than a minute staring at that spot. It didn't make any sense, one second he was there and the next he was gone, there wasn't a path behind him, just water and I didn't hear anything fall into the river.

I felt an uneasy sense of fear build in my stomach and my body froze for a moment. I knew that I was drunk but I wasn't drunk enough for a person to disappear in thin air. People were loud, they didn't just turn and walk off silently into the night.

As I stood trying to make sense of what I saw, a faint ringing started in my ears.

Back in Iraq white noise had been a regular occurrence, from random IED going off to the firefights in the middle of the desert. Ear plugs didn't help when you needed to hear what the hell your team leader was screaming about on top of gunfire and explosions.

The noise started off just like that, a far away ringing. As I walked closer to the river the sound grew louder. Like a song being turned up on the radio. Once I reached the wall of the river the noise had become incessant, it was loud with a sharp pitch, it felt as if the sound was vibrating in my chest.

It didn't make sense, it was two o'clock in the morning and all I could hear was this invisible noise. My brain felt like it was buzzing and the sensation made me feel sick. I bent over to try and take in some air but the sound only grew as I tried to calm down.

Then suddenly the noise stopped, and in the immediate quiet, I heard a low gruff voice from behind me.

"You're too close to the water girl"

I gasped in shock, trying to get my body up right to see who had walked up behind me but my quick movement caused my ankle to twist at an odd angle and simultaneously I slammed my left temple into the river wall.

"Shit!" I yelled out and grabbed at my head, blood gushing and trickling down my hand. The noise had come back, but violently louder.

I tried to stand straight but a rush of vertigo overwhelmed me and the world was spinning. I didn't even feel myself tip over the wall.

The fall into the water should have been quick, it couldn't have been more than a four foot drop, but it wasn't.

While the sensation of falling normally feels like flying that ends with a hard impact, this felt like a bullet train into the arctic. My body was paralized on impact by the icy water, the air freezing in my lungs.