through the darkness to the dawn
It could kill him and he would never know the difference.
His willingness to allow her to take hold of his mind could spell an untimely end and he would go with that same strange, stilted smile on his face.
He has no opportunity to save himself because he is young and impressionable and the mind is still weak as a result. He has no conviction, Lumineer, not yet. If only because he has never encountered a situation where he needed to defend himself. Not like this.
He sinks deeper into the frigid water and it continues to kick the air out of his chest in shuddering sighs. The muscles tremble and spasm, misfiring in response to the cold. The cold, which burrows its way under his skin and into the marrow of his bones. The cold, which makes the mind even hazier.
It’s not so bad, he says and she says it back and it echoes and rattles in his head. It is bad, the logical brain thinks, but he cannot reach this thought through the fog.
Rosebay, she tells him and how long will he have to remember it? “I’m Lumineer,” he murmurs in response. Polite, even under her spell. His mother would be proud.
She looks away and there is a moment of startling clarity where he realizes what he’s done and wants desperately to turn back for the shore. But she reaches for him, touches him, and finds his eye again. And he is too young, too foolish, to look away. Too foolish to know how to save himself.
Would he drink until his belly burst? He had not been thirsty but his tongue feels suddenly dry. Thick and useless.
“I don’t know,” he admits. “Maybe.”
@[rosebay]