Prologue: The Pain of Drowning

They say it can take as little as 60 seconds to drown. 60 seconds for water to rush into your lungs and you choke. In as little as five minutes without oxygen, you can suffer irreparable brain damage.

They say it is one of the worst ways you can go.

There's the initial seconds where you realise you can't breathe. Your brain tells your body not to breathe in. Your mouth closes and won't open. There's a searing. Intense moments of agony where your body tries to subsist on the limited amount of oxygen you have left. Then, you have to breathe. The water touches your lungs and its an instant blackout.

I was under for six minutes. At least that's what they tell me. It felt like ten seconds and ten years all at once. I don't remember anything about being saved. I don't remember anything about why I was there. Or how I was in the water. But the pain. The horrifying growth of pain that metastasized through my body. Starting in my brain until it reached all the way down to my toes.

Six other girls died the same way, around the same place. No one knows why I didn't. No one knows who was doing it, or why. The only thing known is that I was the last one, the last one he tried to kill.

Until it started again.