Chapter Text
iii.
I am on a dock laughing while everything is spread out before me.
Water isn't blue in lakes, or at least not this lake. It's something in between dark brown ink and black licorice and smells something awful, acidic rotting birds and algae mixing together in the bottom with the sand.
(you're not supposed to squish your toes in that little boy don't dip your feet in the lake i said stop).
It isn't pleasant
(do you even hear me oh are there people standing behind him)
but it isn't horrible,
(one of them is putting a hand on his shoulder)
though it is weird.
(i think they're smiling but there are scary masks and happy whispers and i can't see through them no i can't)
But I can stand it
(what are you doing to him while you whisper and maybe-smile)
because there is sunlight dancing on the surface,
(what you can't do that to anyone o god no isn't he only ten)
making things warmer then they should be.
(i'm so scared)
I see bubbles rising from the surface somewhere,
(please o god)
and I smile while I kick my feet
(i am screaming but you do not hear me why can't you hear me or maybe you're ignoring me)
through the air waiting
(please fuck no don't)
for someone with messy hair and sharp eyes
(why can't i get you off of him why do i only go right through)
The bubbles
(am i a ghost)
suddenly stop as the water
(o god is he dead did they)
crashes aside to part into a wave for my
(i am screaming again don't touch me)
brother to laugh at me, wiping that smelly water away from his
(there are hands on my face on my arms on my legs and they are tugging pulling scratching at me)
mouth.
(my head is bent over the water and there is another hand on the back of my neck)
'Bet you can't hold your breath for that long.' he smirks at me but I still smile and shake my head.
(i breath in a huge gulp of air o please no please stop)
Then he laughs as he
(they push me under)
pulls me into the lake.
I come back up again
(i am spitting and spluttering and thrashing but i cannot break free and)
and scowl
(there is a blue face and blue hands that grip my neck and blue lips that talk in my ear such a rough ugly voice)
when he pulls me under again.
(one cannot continue thra_shing when one_is- -)