Into the Murky Depths

She didn't know about his panics at night or his fear of death and water, but she knew he didn't care for going into the water, so did the boys so he didn't have to worry about them asking him to come swimming. He didn't know how anyway. Just something a person with a terror of water never picks up. They have wanted him to come out and watch them and talk to them as they went swimming. As the terror was lessened in the day this wasn't to hard, as long as they were in his sights and while thinking of all their faces he once again drifted off to sleep.

Crash!!!

He woke up this time knowing he heard something, this time he was sure. The sweat came, his heart beating hard, his breath heavy...he couldn't sit up he was frozen with fear.

"Just my imagination", he thought to himself. This time the fear would not subside, he couldn't move. The covers over his head like a child, unfortunately he didn't feel any safer, he knew he should get up and run, but the fear was very strong and paralyzing.

He heard footsteps walking up the stairs, "My God!" he thought, there is someone down there.

"Maybe it is my wife", he tried to convince himself, but to no avail...this was the thing that he had felt, it had finally come for him. The door to his room was thrust open and he heard shuffling footsteps stop at the foot of the bed.

"Just my wife", he said to himself again when suddenly a cold hand wrapped around his ankle and pulled him out of bed. He hit the floor on his back and it knocked the breath out of him making it even harder for him to breath. His ankle being held onto like it was trapped in a vise. He was so frozen in fear he couldn't stop himself from being pulled out of the room and into the hall. He noticed a smell, a very strong smell of something rotting, of something salty, of some dead smell from the sea. He finally found the power to try and break the grip on his ankle when suddenly he was being pulled down the stairs. His head hit hard on the first drop and he drifted into unconsciousness, feeling suddenly that this was all a dream.

He began to regain consciousness slowly, thinking he was waking up from a horrible nightmare; he opened his eyes and looked up. He didn't know what he was looking at first, but then realized it was the sky, he was being dragged on the beach. He felt the gritty sand on his back. He was unable to move, not only was he in terror, but his head felt awful and he couldn't think straight. Until he felt the water, it was dragging him into the water just as all his fears of the sea had suggested. He tried to break free, but couldn't, he dug his hands into the sand hoping to stop himself from going into the water, but it did no good.

He finally found his voice and started to scream, "Help me plea....", but he was cut off as the water covered his face and begun entering his lungs. Now he could see nothing, nothing but black, it was as if he were in hell.