Falling Inside The Black

Jim knew that Seb was aquaphobic. He'd known since the day his friend first arrived at the children's home (he'd been bored. It was hardly his fault that Social Workers could be so deliciously gossipy when they were dropping off fresh meat and the details always came in useful later).

Of course there were plenty of other people who knew about his 'condition' (as Ms Roger's had so charmingly put it) as well. The teachers, obviously, and of course the parents who helped the teacher's chaperon classes to the local pool for swimming lessons. Predictably those parents just had to go and blab to the others about it and before too long, one child would be told or would hear, and then practically the whole school knew, (although none knew why, of course, which was all that was really mattered).

It didn't really matter though. Most of the kids wouldn't dare taunt his friend about that particular weakness (or any others come to that, real or imaginary).

Seb wasn't the most popular boy in school, but he was the coolest. He made the most awesome rifles out of sticks or Connector-Pens, he ran the fastest, played football the best, fought the dirtiest, he could hit any target you could think of with a BB Gun... suffice it to say that if ever he were to decide that actually, he'd rather have more friends than just Jim after all, he'd easily be the most popular boy in their grade.

The thought terrified Jim. He often felt compelled to remind Seb that they slept in the same room, that he had access to him unconscious and if he ever decided to betray him like that then he, Jim, would make full use of it.

Seb's reply was always the same, an amused smirk, a muttered 'idiot', a promise to never stop being his friend and a reminder that he could and would snap his neck like a twig should he ever try to sneak up on him whilst he was sleeping. Seb was so cool.

"Why would I want to be friends with those idiots?" he'd ask. "They're all so ordinary."

So Jim let his fears of abandonment and friendlessness sink back to the edge of his consciousness, where all the other nasty thoughts, memories and voices hid, in the darkness where he didn't have to think about them.

But he wasn't the only one frightened by Seb's potential .

Carl Powers was well aware of it as well, and Jim was pretty sure it scared him even more than it did Jim.

Carl was the most popular boy in their grade. He was almost as good as Seb at everything, he was friends with everybody who mattered and terrorized everyone who didn't.

He hated Seb like nobody else, and unlike all of the other children, he wasn't afraid to show it. Perhaps he should have been. Maybe, if he was, he'd still be alive today, leading a perfectly mundane life with a stupid ordinary wife and stupid ordinary children.

But he wasn't. Instead he was and utter doofus and a mean, bitter one of that. But most dangerous of all, he was scared.

The day before The Incident, they'd been playing football for PE. The teacher had made Carl the captain of one team, as usual, and Seb the captain of the other. That was the pivotal moment, so far as Jim could see, the moment silly little Carl signed his death warrant. Everyone chose their side... and they all wanted to be on Seb's.

Jim had thought it was brilliant. Carl had been so angry his face went red and the PE teacher ended up having to assign people to his team. What made things even better was the fact that he ended up losing the game too - humiliatingly so.

Jim had laughed himself silly about it all the way home. Even Seb, who rarely laughed about anything, joined in.

Carl had still been angry the next day, glaring daggers at both them all through class, not that they gave a damn what he thought, Seb was the better fighter anyway - they each knew that from experience.

For a week, Carl settled for mere glares, hateful remarks and half-bit attempts to alienate Seb from the rest of the school ('How does he think that's going to work? You don't like them anyway.' 'I don't know.' 'What an idiot.' 'Yeah.')

But it wasn't until their next swimming lesson that he finally struck.

Seb was sitting out - like he always did, he had a note from his Social Worker explaining why (Jim already knew, although nobody else did).

He and Jim had been sitting on one of the benches by the pool, their backs to the water because Seb didn't like looking at it, discussing the benefits of being pool-side in the midst of an explosion, when Carl and two of his bravest (read; stupidest) cronies, Gordon and Norman, sauntered up behind them.

"Why don't you swim Seb?" Carl asked, tilting his head to the side.

Seb rolled his eyes.

"Pool water makes me sick."

Carl smirked.

"I don't think that's true," he said. "I think you're scared."

Seb scowled.

"I'm not scared."

"I think you are though," Carl laughed, "I think you're just a scaredy-cat."

"Piss off Carl," Jim growled, glaring up at the boy.

Carl ignored him.

"Everyone says you're scared of the water," he drawled. "You must be a real baby to be scared of something so stupid."

Jim glowered.

Seb merely rolled his eyes.

"You heard Jim," he said, "Piss off."

"You admit it then," Carl cried, "You're a baby."

"I didn't say that."

"You are though, a stupid little cry-baby who can't even swim."

"Carl, if you don't bugger off I'm going to let Jim bite you," Seb drawled, a smirk tugging at his lips. "You really want to, don't you Jimmy?"

"I'm dying here Seb," Jim whined.

"You two are freaks!" Carl sneered at them.

Seb grinned and turned back around, clearly believing that the conversation had reached its natural conclusion.

Jim was likewise expecting Carl to stalk away in that haughty fashion of his, the way he always did after such proclamations, and as such, was rather surprised when the git remained where he was.

"What?" he snapped.

Once again, Carl ignored him.

"Is it because you know I'm the better swimmer?" he asked.

Seb snorted.

"You can't be serious," he laughed.

"Is it?"

Heaving a distinctly put upon sigh, Seb twisted back around and sighed, "No Carl, the reason why I choose not to swim has nothing to do with you, hard as it is to believe."

Carl's eyebrows rose.

"So you think you'd be a better swimmer than me?" he asked.

Seb shrugged.

"Probably," he said, "I'm better than you at everything else."

Jim laughed.

Carl smirked.

"Let's have a race then," he said.

Jim rolled his eyes.

"He told you already, the water makes him sick."

"And I said I didn't believe it," Carl replied. "Come on Seb, race me."

Seb's eyes narrowed.

"No," he growled.

"Why?"

"I don't want to."

"Because you're scared."

"I'm not scared."

"Why then?"

"Because I don't want to," Seb snapped, "Go away."

"But I want to race," Carl whined.

"Too bad."

"Coward."

"Just because you enjoy paddling about a glorified urinal, doesn't mean I have to," Seb drawled.

Jim smirked. Seb was so cool.

But again, Carl wasn't backing down. That was strange. He was stupid, but usually he was just smart enough to know a lost cause when he saw it, and Seb telling someone flat-out that he wasn't going to do something was just about as lost as causes got in Jim's opinion. And yet he wasn't leaving.

"What?" Seb snapped, clearly irritated.

"You know, what my coach does, when I don't feel like training?" Carl said, tilting his head to the side with a small (sneaky) smile.

Jim frowned, something was up.

"Do enlighten us," Seb grumbled with a roll of his eyes.

Carl grinned.

"He throws me in."

Jim jumped forward to... well he wasn't sure what exactly he was going to do, but there was going to be an interception of some sort and there would be blood shed.

However, apparently Carl was just a tiny bit smarter than he looked, because he had planned for that, instructing Gordon, the bigger of his two lackeys, to grab a hold of him whilst he and Norman seized a struggling Seb.

"Hold your breath now," Carl laughed as both they dragged Seb over the bench, to the side of the pool and promptly threw him straight into the deep end.

For two whole seconds, there was absolute silence. The teacher and swim instructor, who'd previously been flirting by the fence, turned to see what the noise was, and watched wide eyed with the rest of the class as Seb, who'd been wearing his full school kit (including leather shoes and jumper), sunk like a rock.

Jim was the first to act.

Biting down hard on Gordan's arm, making him scream, he jumped off the bench and dived headfirst into the water, kicking as hard as he could until he reached Seb.

Wide eyed and too panicked to even think of holding his breath, Seb was thrashing about madly, out of his mind with terror. Jim tried to get close to him but he was lashing out too much, striking him whenever he came too close.

Just as Jim started thinking that he might actually end up watching his best friend, his only friend, drown before his eyes (and he wondered why he felt sad about this) the instructor finally dove in after them, scooping Jim up under one arm and grabbing a hold of one of Seb's flailing arms with the other, before kicking off the bottom and surging upwards.

Air had never tasted so sweet to Jim before, but he didn't take time to relish in it. He pulled himself up the side of the pool and scrambled to his feet as soon as he could.

Seb was still struggling against the instructor, screaming and lashing out, making it barely possible for the man to keep his head above water let alone get him over the side.

But they were close to it though. Jim knelt on the edge and grabbed a hold of the first bit of Seb he laid his hands on and dragged him closer. With the instructors receiving the brunt of Seb's flailing (Serves him right for taking so long to help), Jim was left in the perfect position to drag him up and over the side, and with a lot of heaving, he was finally able to manage it.

He didn't stop there though. Taking advantage of Seb's suddenly going limp the moment he was out of the water, Jim grabbed a better hold of him, wrapping his arms around his chest, and heaved him as far away from the pool as they could possibly get without leaving the building entirely.

Seb was crying, howling into Jim's shoulder and clutching at him so desperately that there were scratches on his back for days.

The pool was absolutely silent except for Seb's heaving sobs and gasps for air.

At least it was, right up until Carl pointed and cried out, "He peed himself!" Then everyone started laughing, no matter how much Jim screamed for them to shut up.

At that moment, Jim decided that he wanted Carl Powers to die a very painful death and he would very much like to do it. That desire burned all the more brighter when his stupid of a mother was able to convince the principal that, 'He didn't mean any harm. He's just a kid, it's what kids do. He wasn't aware of the poor boy's condition,' resulting in his escaping all punishment beyond a slap on the wrist.

But it wasn't until late that night, when Seb, who was always so cool and calm and in control of everything, screamed himself hoarse into his pillow, crying in his sleep as he begged his deadbeat father to 'Let me go. Let me go. Please. I can't breathe. I can't- Please let me gooooo' - ultimately working himself up into such a state that he woke up howling and promptly vomited all over himself, that Jim decided that Carl Powers would die and by god, it would be by Jim's hand.

As he held Seb's hand that night, his best friend curled up in a tight ball at his side (they'd had to share Jim's bed because Seb's was wet (and Jim knew he didn't want to be alone)) Jim made up his mind... he'd drown him.

Fin.