This portion of beach is still messy with debris from the storm, but even so, he can tell it’s not the picturesque place where the adults celebrated and swam.Lachlan backs out into the water.
‘Hey!Don’t getcute,fucker!’the guy warns, raising his gun.
‘Fenwick is gonna get you all killed,’ Lachlan says, letting the tide pull him out.‘Every single one of you.’
‘Bring him in!’
The spare stumbles through the water, trying to grab Lachlan, who kicks his shin and knocks him flat.His landing kicks up a weightysmack-splashand Lachlan grins, carried out further.
The nameless man fires a shot in the water.
The two men are wading through the dim waters of a pink and milky dawn.
Lachlan stares up at the sky, thinks of home.
Home.He never had one until he let himself love.
When they grab him, he puts up a fight.Water makes all attempts to leave it sluggish.He uses the warped gravity to his advantage, uses his own deadweight to drag them down.
All three men are pulled out, out,out.
Lachlan’s feet are no longer touching the sandy bottom.
The sway of the water surrounds him.
He grapples the spare, arm around his neck as tight as he can manage and chokes him out before letting him passively drown.
The other man, however, puts up much more of a fight.
Lachlan is weak.
He does what he can, uses the water where possible, but he can’t hold out for long.The man beats him into submission, then arranges Lachlan’s body atop his own in the recovery position to aggressively backstroke them both to shore.They’re clearly not done with him yet if such effort is being made to keep Lachlan alive.
The whole way back, the man is cursing violently, spitting frustrated fury and anger in Lachlan’s ear, who stares up at the sky again, only this time he’s seeing stars, little and big, silver and gold.
Rainbows.
Shelovesrainbows.
Lachlan smiles.
There are worse ways to die than in the water.
The man beneath him makes a board of his body to keep Lachlan alive and afloat.They’re close enough that Lachlan sees palm trees coming into view again when something sharplyyanksthem both down.
Lachlan is plunged into the water as if his navel is tied to an anchor.
The water makes instant darkness but notsilence.He hears guttural, bubbly screams, the pair thrown side to side like ragdolls by some incredibly powerful force,thrashinguntil the screaming stops.
The man’s arms around Lachlan’s middle relax, releasing him.
Lachlan kicks up to the surface, gasping for breath.
A final microdose of adrenaline has triggered wakefulness.
He looks around.
The waters arered.
