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And just like that, I’m in I’m underwater

The icy eup the air carried within The sudden change in environht squeeze The well barely wider than my shoulders A panic threatens to overtakedisorientation of being upside down, underwater, inside out with fear At least I had the presence of o in with one in with ainst h And certainly no ti myself on the back Because I’m still hemmed in My lower (upper now?) body is still above water,to find purchase They feel like separate entities, twirling about like tentacles, a thousand miles above me I envy theh them like they’re straws

I hear the snarl of desire,Even underwater, I feel the ruh the ice water It is cos, anyway For a moment, I feel an irrational sense of relief That I’s, for the buffer they will offer et to ht

I start to thrash frootten to take deep breaths before diving in I’ the surface--almost literally--of the distance I have to cover underwater, and I’ to dislodgethat I should have stripped out of le, squirm Somehoorks: the twisty motion causes me to slide down a few feet My palrip I find so h, just enough leverage for ainst and sliver my body down another few feet

Inch by inch, I pull myself down, until ood My eyes open, seeing nothing but blackness, the icy cold like a thousand pins pricking the skin of my body, void of air, this was all a et air, precious air--

Frorabs my foot

I scream The last remnants of air bubble out of me, like a release of a half-inflated balloon

My shoe is yanked off,now into the black wet, urging ives So,the walls for traction, my shoulders hunched and narrowed as razes the exposed sole ofescapes it There’s no more air, no more sound

Don’t sater! Don’t! A drop of water into my air pipe will set off a fatal spasm I kick out with my foot It finds skin, rounded bone--the dusker’s cheekbone?--as I jerkaround th of ainst the slippery sides, desperate for traction Then, a miracle: the slot suddenly widens Just an inch or so on each side, certainly not enough to turn around, but it feels wide as a canyon My body drops another two feet, then twodown,above alactic five meters I feel the sharp ache of water pressure in my ears

Out of reach of the dusker It will not venture down any farther

And then I feel its clawed hand like a pincer aroundI screa out I kick out, but this only seeain, and this tie, like a head

It is underwater Head subins to thrash I feel the release of its grip onof my pants With its moveht pants leg, it is only able to partially slash through the pants material It tears ers becoht Panic seizes the dusker as I pull it farther down the well; its scream, muted in the water, is accoet disjointed, bent out of shape I feel one final violent spas at all The dusker has stilled It has drowned

My eyes fling open, trying to see the botto myself farther down into the abyss, yard by yard Then a chilling thought What if instead of touching the botto the way, her clothes billowing around her, her face turgid and expressionless in death as her hair swirls about in slow e indoard, the te indeliriu ate of drowning to pass and the repose of death to take over