A Starless Existence {boyxboy}

Chapter 20

The water rippled in a delicate manner, licking sullenly at Kyree's fingertips as he dipped them into the pond. He wanted to touch the fish, wanted to know what their scales felt like under his skin. For weeks, he had been trying to catch one, the big blue one with the long white fins. Yet it always somehow eluded him, no matter how much food he offered and no matter how slow his movements were.

As the frail white fin slipped through the young boy's outstretched fingers, he gasped, his little eyes lighting up with hope that today it might just still long enough for him to stroke his fingers over the cobalt scales. Wiggling his fingers in the cool water, Kyree encouraged the small animal closer, holding his breath as it neared him.

Then it happened. The fish brushed up against Kyree's fingers as it swam past and he finally knew what the tiny animal felt like. The scales were smooth and almost glossy as they skimmed against the pads of Kyree's fingertips, sending a flush of cold throughout the young child.

He giggled triumphantly, lifting his hand from the water, watching the fish duck down into the darkness of the bottomless pond. For just a second, the thought of joining the fish in the pond flitted through the child's mind. To dive deep into the clear waters, venture into a world unknown to him, it was somewhat tempting.

"Daddy, where do the-" Kyree ceased abruptly as he turned, coming face to face, or rather face to chest, with a very tall man. A very tall man with a very sinister look in his eyes, a twisted smirk on his lips and what looked to be blood on his shirt.

"What were you saying, little boy?" Kyree had an awful fuzzy feeling in his stomach that whatever was stood before him was not a man. Rather, it was a thing. A thing that spoke in sort of a husky growl, almost hissing out certain sounds, as though it was a mixture between a snake and a bear.

"W-Who are y-you?" Kyree stammered, a wave of fear washing over the child, "w-where's my daddy?" the creature loomed over Kyree, it's emotionless eyes narrowed as it stared, unblinking, at the young boy.

"I asked you a question, little boy, so..." the creature leant down, so close to Kyree's face that he could feel it's heated breath on his cheek, "answer me!" it shrieked, startling Kyree so much that tears slipped from his eyes.

"I wanted to know where the fish went when they swam away," Kyree quavered, his body trembling as he stared into the colourless eyes of the thing.

"Well, how about I show you?" Kyree cried out as he was swung into the air and plunged into the deep waters of the pond. He thrashed his arms and legs as his head was held under the water, panic spiking his instincts.

But the little boy only had so much fight in him, with the sudden flush of ice cold throwing his body into shock and knocking all air from his lungs. It was mere seconds before the thing no longer had to hold him under the water. He didn't have the strength to lift his head out.

The burning sensation in his chest felt like a fire was growing in his lungs, searing into his flesh and extinguishing the life within him. Through half-lidded eyes, he could see the low sunlight streaming through into his watery prison, fluttering left to right as if it were waving off to him as he passed into unconsciousness.

It seemed surreal but the reality was pain to the child. Agonising pressure spreading throughout his frail figure as it screamed at him for oxygen, begging and pleading with each slow heartbeat. Somehow, Kyree knew that if he breathed in the water, allowed the cold liquid into his chest, that he would go faster.

He just had to fight the instinct to close his throat off, had to muster the strength to die that he could not grasp to live. Just one breath, one breath and his suffering would end.