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Onyx doesn’t sink to the bottom at first. Instead, he gets into form and swims the length of the pool. His face breaks through the surface as he comes up for air before diving back under. Pushing off the side of the pool, he swims the length again with the same perfect form he had on the swim team back in high school.
I watch, mesmerized by the way his body glides through the water. He only uses his arms periodically, sweeping through the changing colors as he kicks his feet. Each movement is deliberate. There isn’t anything uncalculated about the way he maneuvers through the water, pushing his body to extreme measures as he takes the turmoil out on himself.
This isn’t unusual for him, but most of the time it happens in the middle of the night, and by the time I get down here, he’s already sinking at the bottom of the deep end. It’s not often I get to see him in action, actually swimming through the water like this.
When we were in the foster home, we didn’t have a pool, but Onyx was obsessed with water and swimming. I always assumed it was some kind of outlet for him, something that was harmless to others, when in reality he wanted to drown his enemies in the waters he swam through.
I used to go to the pool with him, staying for hours into the evening instead of going back to our abusive home, just watching him as he trained. Not long afterward, his swimmingtook a sinister turn, when he realized he could push his body even further by sinking to the bottom and holding his breath.
There was something so captivating about it. The first time that I saw him do it, I thought he was drowning, but then I noticed that he wasn’t moving. There was no panic or desperation to break through the water’s surface. He was at peace, floating at the bottom of the pool as he held his breath.
Anyone in their right mind would have panicked and dove into the water to pull him out before his lungs filled with the chlorinated water. Not me though. Luckily for both of us, I’ve never been in my right mind. Instead of diving in after him, I sat on the edge of the pool and simply watched him until he eventually came up for air.
It wasn't long before he had me in the pool with him. I understood the allure behind what he was doing, but I wasn't as invested in it as he was. I was invested in him though, so despite it not being my thing, I stayed and indulged in it with him.
The most important thing was always being there for each another, and I was too obsessed with Onyx to ever consider turning and walking away. We followed each other down the darkest of halls, always playing into the desires of whatever the other wanted.
Now, the game has shifted. It isn’t even a fucking game anymore. This is real fucking life now. This is a matter of life and death.
And I can promise you that when it comes down to it, it will never be Onyx and my death.
Whoever dares to threaten us, to destroy everything that we’ve built—they will be the ones to die.
Instead of sinking to the bottom when he finishes his laps, Onyx swims over to me. His head breaks through the surface as he grabs the edge of the pool beside my leg. I watch his chest rise as he sucks in a deep breath before pushing his wet hair awayfrom his face, with small droplets falling down and landing on his cheeks.
“Feel any better?” I ask him softly, pushing my feet through the water as I kick them back and forth.
Onyx stares at me, his bright blue eyes shining under the sun hanging in the sky above us. “Fuck no.” His nostrils flare as he takes another deep breath. I tear my gaze from his, watching the shifting hues of colors around his body in the water. “I don’t know what else to do.”
“Did you want to go down to your place, where you think best?” I question, leaving any judgment out of my voice, because there isn’t any to have. I know what Onyx needs sometimes, but I don’t know what else to suggest right now. “I will join you, if you’d like.”
Onyx shakes his head, the droplets from his hair landing on my legs. “I don’t know if that’s going to help at all,” he says, his voice low and the sincerity thick in his tone. “I honestly don’t know what the fuck we’re supposed to do right now.”
“I know,” I agree with him, nodding slowly. “We’re in a situation that I don’t think we’ve ever been in before, but I think I might have an idea of how we can handle this.”
Onyx tips his head to the side, brushing his hair back once again as the water drops down the sides of his face. “How the fuck are we supposed to find this guy?”
“I don’t know exactly, but just hear me out,” I start, pausing as I figure out how to word this without sounding like I’m completely batshit crazy. “I think we need to do what we trained the dogs to do, you know, in case an intruder breaks into the house.”
Onyx’s brow furrows. “You’re telling me that we need to be like those fucking beasts in there?”
I roll my eyes at his abrasive attitude. “Just listen. We trained them not to bark, right? So they just hide. Instead of stalking outtheir prey, they wait for it to come to them before attacking. They don’t do anything to draw attention to themselves.”
“Okay,” he says slowly, rising from the water as he lifts himself to sit beside me. “Go on.”
“We know virtually nothing about whoever is following us. What we do know is that we need to stop them. That person is currently the one who is on the hunt. They’re searching for us, stalking and watching us like we would with any of our victims.”
“So, are you suggesting we just do nothing instead?” Onyx’s eyes fix on mine, narrowing as his lip curls up in disgust. “No, we have to be proactive. We have to get ahead of this shit before it comes and bites us in the ass.”
I purse my lips, tilting my head to the side as I stare back at him. “And how do you suggest we do that? If you have any ideas, anything at all that you can bring to the table, I have no problem hearing them out. I’m honestly open to a better suggestion than mine because I don’t like the idea of doing nothing any more than you do.”
Onyx glares at me, his expression dark as he sighs. “I don’t have any ideas. We don’t even know what the motherfucker looks like, so how the hell am I supposed to have an idea of where to start.”
“So, don’t shit on my idea when there literally isn’t a better one. We have to wait for him to seek us out again, to find us, and then that’s when we can take action and attack. Until then, we don’t have any leads or know where the hell to even start.”
“Are we supposed to go about our normal business?” Onyx asks, finally getting on board with my idea as he realizes that our options are limited. “Wouldn’t that be too risky to keep doing the shit that we were doing?”
Reaching down, I grab the bottom hem of my shirt, lifting it up as I peel it from my body. Onyx’s eyes are on me, growing darker as I rise to my feet and strip out of my clothes.
