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I have to swim

Panic

Salt burns ht I kick and push against the water and there’s someone else Soone Down in that dark Food for the fish

My lungs burn I’ll never make it

But then there’s an arer than me

He’s a powerful swi up

I gasp e break the surface

A hand in my hair pulls painfully and I reht like this one, the sliver of ht

I remember my mom I see her now

I see her that night Wet and cold and terrified, her hands bound behind her back as he dunked her again and again and again and she gasped and choked, and I watched I just watched

I feel pain as that grip tightens and I’ht like she couldn’t, and soh to suck in a single, gasping, wet breath before I’ inme down

Nothing peaceful about this drowning I wonder if it could be peaceful, after the pain After the terror I don’t think so

No salt in the lake That was a blessing Did it burn as s?

“Enough!” a man shouts in Italian “He doesn’t want her dead for fuck’s sake Haul her up”

Pain again because he’s pulling me up by my hair A moh up water and vo on it

Men talk So

Soarette Small details Why am I concerned with small details?

“She done puking?” someone asks

A nudge at my hip, my back

I roll my head andover

“She’s awake”

“Then get the hood on her, idiot!”

The faceless runts and leans down For an instant, I see his yellowed teeth as he laughs, sticks his cigarette between his lips Ash falls ondrawn over , clawing at arms, a face, a wet eye