I don’t know how it happened, but it did. I’m drowning. I can’t stop it. The water surrounds me, shrouding me in infinite darkness as I drift further into the depths. Cold. Alien. I never even saw the mast swing around. I guess I should have brought someone with me. My dad always said to never sail alone. I should have listened. I can feel my chest constricting, longing to take a breath that will never come again. I sense the feelings fading from my fingertips, my heavy boots like hundred pound concrete shoes, pulling me. The light fades above, only inky night below. I wonder if anyone will ever find my body.
My heart is quickening, no matter how I try to think clearly and relax, prolonging my waning existence. I’m running marathons of thoughts in my mind. So many things left undone. I’m only seventeen. I haven’t even had a chance to graduate yet. The water is soaking me, chilling me to the bone. I didn’t know water got so cold as you went down, or am I again panicking? It’s no use. I can’t stop. The urge to cough is overwhelming me, even though I know that I’ll reflexively try to take a breath, bringing the end. Mom, please remember me well. Don’t let my brother have all of my stuff. Keep some aside, to remember me.

I’m fading now. The thoughts that were a short moment ago racing are coming slower now. The cough is at my lips, I need oxygen. I’m beginning again to flail and writhe in the void, desperately trying to get out of this sunset of my time here. My arms and legs are numb as I fling them to and fro, like so much strings of spaghetti. I’m having trouble focusing. Too late. Here comes the cough. I try not to, but I take in the breath, only water now, and feel the icy poison slide into my lungs. Desperation sets in as I reflexively cough harder, expelling the water, only to take in even more. I’m going dizzy. I can’t think! I need to find air, to gasp at the open sky and live, but the water presses ever deeper into my system. Dad, I’m so sorry, I hope you find your boat and its okay. The blackness is consuming me, and I feel myself drifting away from reality, like I’m watching this scene unfold on TV. My lungs are full. I’m losing control. I feel every system in my body scream in agony and stop.
My heart has stopped. This is it. I try to take a last look through my life quickly. Was I a good boy?

everlastingnoitall,

Very good short story! Very detailed of the last moments in a drowning persons life!

Just wondering. Have you ever had a near-death experience by drowning before?

It's so real. So eerily real! Good job!

No, never had a near death experience, never known anyone, that I recall, that have had one, but I thought alot about what it would be like.

Too many morbid thoughts alone on the highways and biways, etc.



By the way, does anyone know where to find who won the contest? I saw something about toppers and was curious?