Dipping Into Together

Ch 27

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“You should’ve just died when I shoved you off into the water,” Uncle spits at me. The words seem to come at me from far away; I’m drifting.

I claw at his hands, writhing around on the floor, trying desperately to find some escape.

“But drowning and being strangled, they’re one in the same, really,” he continues. “They both leave you gasping for air.”

Out of my throat comes a kind of guttural, gurgling sound that I didn’t know I could make. I open my mouth, suck in, trying to get air.

“Now you’re at my complete mercy,” Uncle says.

My body goes still, my feet hit the floor with a final thud. My hands relax and fall slowly to my sides. I feel my heart beat slowing, feel the blood rushing through my veins. My head lulls back, and my eyes roll with it. I stare up at the ceiling before my eyes catch something moving in the air. Little dust particles, dancing and twirling about. The light catches them, and they almost look like golden flakes, wandering around, looking for a home.

Then, without warning, it’s gone. The pressure, it’s gone.

Gasping, air rushes into my lungs. Beautiful oxygen washes through me before I erupt in a coughing fit.

“Destiny! Destiny run!” Jonah screams from somewhere far away. Air whooshes in my ears as I fade in and out. His voice rises, turns frantic. “Destiny!—”

There’s a loud crashing sound and then a moan. Another loud noise of flesh hitting flesh makes everything go quiet.

“Jonah?” I say meekly, struggling to come back to reality. Uncle laughs.

“You won’t have to worry about him anymore.”

“Like hell,” I mutter, blinking furiously as I force myself to sit up and my vision clears. Jonah is on the floor, blood leaking from his mouth. His eyes are closed, but I can tell he’s alive from the slight rise and fall of his chest. Gripping the wall, I pull myself to a standing position, stumbling slightly.  Movement catches my eye in the corner of the room. Uncle is pulling something out of his dresser.

A gun.

Before I can react, he’s towering over Jonah, the gun pressed into his temple.

I scream.

“Shush,” Uncle says, almost soothingly. I don’t even look at him; my eyes are glued on the spot where the gun is touching Jonah’s head. Just seeing that sight almost makes me pass out. The seconds slow. I look at Uncle. He looks at me. The world is quiet. The world is still.

It happens in slow motion.

I see Uncle’s finger start to flex as he prepares to squeeze the trigger. By the look in his eyes I know that he’s actually going to do it; he’s going to kill Jonah. I scream and lunge towards him, see his eyes widen in surprise before he turns to face me, the gun going off.

Explosions thunder in my ears, but it’s not the sound I’m focused on, it’s the pain. Like a rocket, the bullet buries itself into my left shoulder. The force knocks me back, sends me plunging towards the floor. Pure agony seeps through me, and I scream. My eyes roll around in my head, searching for an escape. Like fire, the pain spreads down my arm, and I feel something hot and sticky drenching me. I raise my right hand and feel where the bullet went in. When my fingertips softly skid over it, I scream. My vision darkens, blurs, and I’m gone for a second, everything is silent. But then I raise my hand, trying to concentrate, and it’s covered in blood. So much blood.