"Surprised to see me?" he asked, stepping closer so I could smell the cigarettes on his breath. I had to stop myself from retching every time I took a breath.
"Do you even recognise me?" he smirked, obviously knowing full well what the answer was. Of course I recognised him. He was one of the men who nearly succeeded in committing a serious crime. He was the older guy, still wearing his singlet and grubby clothes that he was wearing when I first saw him barely three days ago.
"Wh-what are you.. how are you here?" Bill Stuttered, not able to take his eyes of the man now standing directly in front of me. I inched away slowly, only to have him grab my sleeve with his filthy rotten stinking hand.
Bill was dying to launch himself at the jerk, I could tell, but he held back wisely.
“If you must know, Bill, I broke out of that little hell hole I have been stuck in for the past day and a half or so. Me and Bruce knocked the shit out of the door before it collapsed and we could get out. The idiot security or whatever they call themselves didn’t even notice. They only noticed when we, being desperate as we were, caused quite a lot of nice damage to the hull.” he stopped and smirked at the shocked expressions glued on Bill’s and my face. “Unfortunately, old Bruce got caught up when the water started flowing in to the goddam room from the gash we made. I escaped all right, but Bruce, and I’m very sorry to say this, didn’t make it.”
I was surprised to see a sad look of grief come over the guy’s face as he finished his speech. He almost looked real for a moment, and it made you remember that he was actually a human being. As mean and uncaring as he seemed, for just that moment in time, he had a sensitive side. But, as expected, it didn’t last long.
“But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to stop what I planned to do right from the very beginning.” he said. “and that would be killing the both of you.”
All of a sudden Bill launched himself directly at him, not able to keep himself back any longer. Pushing me aside for the moment, but still holding my sleeve with a couple of fingers to make sure I didn’t get away, the guy gripped Bill’s throat with his free hand, and pinned him to the railing. As much as I wanted to do something, I knew it would be impossible. But as Bill was being pushed further and further out over the edge, fighting for air to remain conscious, I forgot everything and just lunged right at the guy holding Bill, anger surging through my veins, just wanting him to go and never come back, even it meant me to kill him, I didn’t care.
He staggered as I ran into him unexpectedly, but regained his composure immediately and turned for me, knocking me over with a direct kick to the face. I fell to the ground, eyes closed for a second. When I opened them, my entire face in pain, it was just in time to see Bill being pushed over the railing and into the swirling water. The one thing that was important to me in my life, gone.
I was about to get up to go jump in after him but the guy, the murderer, stepped right onto my chest, stopping me from going anywhere.
“You bitch!” I squealed. “Let me the fuck go!” I squirmed, desperately trying to escape. He shooshed me by pressing harder with his foot. The pain git worse and I started losing air
“Don’t worry, I won’t keep you from joining your filthy boyfriend much longer. I understand how much you two love each other. It’s disgusting how someone like you could ever love a filthy piece of scum like him. You deserve so much more.” he breathed, leaning down so he was right in my face. “My name’s Joe by the way.” he said, before getting off me, and the next thing I knew I was being tossed into the cold water to join the love of my life.
“Bill?!” I screamed out, trying my hardest to simply keep my head above the water. I heard nothing in reply but the sounds of the waves against the sinking boat and the voices of the people on board as they clambered into their awaiting lifeboats.
I waded around helplessly for what seemed like hours, just searching for Bill. I had drifted away from the boat, but thankfully not out to sea, more towards the coast. Suddenly I felt a pair of hands on my back. It scared the shit out of me, my bloodcurdling scream lasted about a second when someone pressed their finger against my lips, as I turned around automatically to see what or who it was, I found my lover’s eyes staring back at me. They were tired and dull after trying to stay afloat in the water that was gradually getting choppier as the sun went down and darkness began to settle itself in.
As soon as I saw him I gasped, and grabbed his head with my hands.
“Bill!” I breathed. He whimpered back, obviously exhausted. Using our remaining energy together we pulled ourselves along the rest of the 150 or so metres to land.
