Little Deaths (Justin)
Justin's eyes fly open and he gasps in surprise. He is wet. Soaking wet and he is floating. He recognizes the very familiar feeling of being in water even as he sees the blue liquid surrounding him. The water is cold, icy cold and he begins to slip down into it before his mind remembers that he must move to stay afloat. He begins to move his arms and legs and he floats back up, the taste of the icy, salty water lingering on his lips and his tongue.
He is frightened.
He is so frightened that he can barely think straight.
He knows that he is next. He has seen his friends tortured one by one in these surreal landscapes and he knows, as surely as he knows his own name, that he is next.
He turns his head as he begins to search for a way out of the water. He sees that he is not far from the shore of a white sandy beach and the relief he feels almost cripples him. He begins to swim towards what he considers safety until the sight of something stops him.
Not something...someone. Two people. A man and a woman. They are standing on the beach near the edge of the water. They wear swimsuits and sunglasses adorn their faces. For all intents and purposes they look like two people enjoying a tropical holiday. A nice young couple enjoying the sun and surf.
Except for their smiles.
Their smiles are cold, calculating. If a snake could smile, this is what it would look like.
No, he cannot go there. He begins to swim away from them, his eyes fixed firmly on those poisonous grins. He can only pray that they do not jump in after him.
Shouts from behind him cause him to tear his eyes away from the couple and turn his head. Much to his surprise he sees that he is equally far away from the shoreline of another beach and that his friends stand on this one. Well, three of his friends stand; Lance is kneeling, his hands roaming over his body as if the insects still touched him. His friends are waving to him and he can see the concern on their faces clearly. He begins to swim towards them as quickly as he able when suddenly he feels the water swirling around him. He stops, then looks around slowly as dread fills his brain.
He does not want to see what made the water move. He so truly does not want to see. But he already knows. Deep in his heart he already knows and his face registers no surprise at all when he sees the fin gliding gracefully through the water. The water swirls around him again as the fin slices through it and he is not even aware that he is so cold that his teeth are chattering or that his friends are yelling for him. All that he can focus on is that fin and the dark shape under the water that moves in lazy circles around him.
"Justin!"
He hears his name being shouted...no...screamed, at him.
He turns his head towards his friends.
"Move!"
This last word, and the urgency with which it was shouted, breaks the near-trance that Justin is in and he lunges forward in the water. He moves quickly through it despite the heaviness of his limbs. He knows it is behind him, he can almost feel it getting closer. Swimming even faster than he ever thought possible, he sees his goal through the splashing water. Yet what he sees causes him to slow down despite the danger behind him.
The shore is no closer than it was when he began swimming.
But...how can that be? He lunges forward, using his legs to propel him. He has moved, he has moved forward, but he is still no closer to the shore. He cries "No!" in a voice burning with anguish.
No, God...he has no chance. He can see that he has no chance. He turns around and sees that the dark mass is coming towards him; moving almost languidly. Justin continues to swim, but he is swimming backwards now because he cannot take his eyes off of the creature. Suddenly the water comes alive as the "thing" rises from the water.
A shark.
Just as he thought. Just as he feared. He looks into its eyes; its cold, black eyes and then down at its mouth and he groans. Its teeth are so much sharper than he ever imagined.
The shark dives back into the water and Justin turns to swim away. He stops when he feels a searing pain shooting through his leg. He looks down and sees that the water is now tainted dark red. His blood. His blood is flowing out into the water and coloring it. The pain is almost unbearable but still Justin moves through the water. He still wants to live. He wants so badly to live.
He screams in pain and terror as he feels the jaws of the shark fasten onto his other leg and pull. His flesh tears and more blood flows as he slips down into the water. He forces himself upward and he takes huge deep breaths when his head again breaks the surface. He looks towards the shore at his friends. He hears their frantic cries and he shouts at them in pure desperation to help him.
His friends shout at him that they can't help. Something about the water being boiling hot. Something about not being able to enter it. They are not making sense. The water is cold, so why aren't they helping him? Why?
Oh God, he can feel the water swirling around him again and he knows he will soon feel the shark's bite if he does not go NOW. He knows now that he can never reach the safety of the shore, but some instinct still propels him to move, to try to live. He uses his arms to move forward while his ruined legs dangle uselessly in the water. He barely makes any headway before he feels the teeth latch onto his torso. He feels them digging into his stomach and cries out as a huge chunk of his flesh is ripped away.
He looks down at the water, water so crimson that one would never guess it had once been blue. The frigid water and the loss of blood from his wounds conspire together to steal his strength from him.
Tears form in his eyes as he realizes that he can no longer move and that all he can do is wait for the final, killing bite from those impossibly sharp teeth.
He still wants to live, God help him, but he knows that he can't. That he was never meant to survive this. He turns his terror-filled eyes towards his friends, then drops down into the water and fills his lungs with the crimson ice as he waits for the monster to finish him.
** FLASH **
White light...then dark.
Then a voice, "One more."