CECE, DISRESPECTFULLY | ✓

14: DROWN

            By some miracle, I'm afloat. On my back in the pool, my small body is still as I stare upward.

There's no ceiling. I don't think there's a sky either. Whatever darkness rises to infinity above me is alive. Though I can't see as much as a pinprick in it, I know it's moving. It hums as it does, not the mechanical whirl of overheated laptop fans or cheap refrigerators but the rush of millions upon millions of wasps.

Two or three fly low enough to catch the blue light glowing from an unidentified source.

They won't hurt me. They're more afraid of me than I am of them.

One lands on my cheek and then I'm definitely more afraid. Don't flinch. Don't flinch. Don't flinch.

Don't move.

I can't swim. Somehow, I know that whatever magic keeps me afloat will break if I move. And I don't know how to swim.

If I move a muscle, I'll drown.

The wasp climbs towards my eye, a slow and meandering path though I feel each step. A second descends onto my lip and blackness above smudges from my glaze of tears. With as little movement as I can, I seal my mouth shut so the wasp can't crawl into it and sting my tongue and my throat and my stomach–

Breathe.

They won't attack if I don't trigger them. They're more afraid of me than I am of them. They're more afraid of me than I am of them. Breathe. They're more afraid–

A third wasp settles onto the bridge of my nose. The first is so close to the corner of my eye now (DON'T MOVE DON'T MOVE DON'T MOVE) that I can only hope it might be deterred by the tears collected there. The second wasp travels the crease of my clamped lips in search of a vent to enter through. The third doesn't move. I can make out a dark splotch where it stands.

I close my eyes. Breathe. They're–

A fourth lands on my throat and I lose. My hand emerges from the water to swat and immediately they sting. I cover my face.

Then I plummet.

Struggling to keep my face above water, I thrash. I've seen people swim in films. I can mimic the way their arms ladle their bodies forward. But I'm not moving anywhere. The walls of the pool stretch out for miles now and my arms are already tired.

I'll drown I'll drown I'll drown I'll drown I'll drown I'll drown I'll drown I'll–

–be locked in forever.

Something moves. Way out in the distance. Far far away wherever the end of the pool is. There are silhouettes lining the edge and hope rushes through me. I try to scream but no sound comes out. Why won't any of them help me? They stand still as statues, move only to blink. Eyes glowing red.

Then they start to chant. Let us pray.

They tried to warn me, the beetles. They tried to warn me to run but it's too late now. The water starts to sting, burn. Not with chlorine but with creed. There is evil within me. They will tear it out.

The only trinity I've ever known is red, blue, black. And–

–trinity of things to break:

Bone, Skin, Home.

Trinity of things that bite:

Dog, Flea, Hope.

Trinity of things that leave:

Mother, Father, Brother.

Trinity of things you lack: