I opened my eyes when I was back in the boat. My throat was dry, my eyes were swollen, and I felt something was wrong with my body. It seemed that I had numb muscles, especially my arms. That made me open my eyes wide, waking up completely. Now the one who was chained was me.

"What? Get me out of here!" I screamed in fear.

I was shocked to see once more Obsidian, Ruby and Amber, this time all three on the floor of the boat, trying to get the water that came through the crack that had caused that creature. The three of them were taking as much water as they could with their hands, placing them in the form of a cup, to be able to remove it from the boat.

"Keep your voice," Ruby told me, "it's not going to stop for any reason."

Her voice was now much more tired, exhausted, and in spite of that she didn't stop helping Obsidian and Amber. The first looked at me like someone looking at a spoiled child, while Amber did it with regret, almost with pity, as if she wanted to help me and knew at the same time that it was impossible to do anything for me at that moment.

I decided to pay attention to Ruby. There was no point in shouting or moving. My arms kept rowing no matter what I did, and so I let them do it. It was preferable just to forget, to forget everything, everyone, everything around me.

To forget Obsidian, Ruby, Amber, the Man in Black, the sky, the sea, the air, the thunder, the storm, the monsters... It was easier to forget, to stop thinking. That's why I had committed suicide, that's why the four of us had agreed with that. It was for the better.

I closed my eyes and let myself go.

There was nothing left to do, just to wait. We could sink, either one of us could be saved and live a better life, or we could fall, become beasts like the others, zombies without a mind, without hearts, beings that didn't feel pain.

I couldn't help thinking about the creature that had managed to get into the boat. What kind of life had she had so that she could kill herself? I didn't know what sex it was, but its shape resembled that of a woman, it looked like that kind of skeleton that you expect from a delicate body, one of fine build.

What had caused her to give up, to decide to forget all hope? Being in a boat was no guarantee of anything, I had already realized that, but it was preferable to have the possibility, to wait, than having to fight, to have to recover what was once yours.

I kept thinking in silence while my friends kept drawing the water. I couldn't help but feel guilty. The creature had attacked me, and it was because of my carelessness that it managed to get into the boat. If it hadn't been for me, at that moment we would be talking, trying to make the wait less heavy, trying to make the rower have more strength to continue. But I had made a mistake, I had been careless. I has done a mistake. A. No. Ther. One.

Without realizing it, I managed to forget absolutely everything, even myself, and I felt that I detached myself from everything, that I got separated from that reality to which I now belonged. Time and space no longer meant anything to me, there was nothing that tied me to that world more than just the present, and it began to blur with every breath I took.

"Opal, you damn coward, what are you trying to do?" I reacted when I heard the voice of the Man in Black. He was in front of me, so close to my face that I could have felt his breath and breathing had he had any. "Do you want to challenge me, is that it?"

"I... I... I did not... I did..."

"Oooooh, but you almost did something, little idiot, you almost laughed at me, and no one who challenges me can be victorious." The man took me by the face, just like when the river water hit me. This time, his icy touch made my factions freeze in just seconds. "You do well to stay awake, rascal, you cheater good for nothing, but do not try anything weird again because youn are going to pay."

"I did not... I did not... No... Nothing..."

"You tried to escape, that is what you did," he said with mockery, "you are not the first one, Opal, of course not, and you will not be the last either. But have something for sure. Those who challenge me, who want to know me, get know the real me, and may they repent. Ask your underwater friends if you have any questions about it, Opal. Go ahead. You already met the first one. "

"What?" Amber asked.

"The rules are simple" said the man, now moving away from me, "either wait or participate in the game, but if you look for some other option I will consider it an offense to my authority. This is my game, these are my rules, and those that do not comply, as well as those that fall from the boat, join my garden of souls, my garbage collection. "

"It won't do..."

"Of course not, imbecile. There will be no next time." My throat went dry. "I had given you a choice between waiting or participating. Choose then!"

Without saying anything, the man extended his arms, overturning the boat. This, along with the chains, vanished in the act.

Hands and claws took me everywhere, pulling and trying to dismember me. Something bit my finger, and I pulled so hard that I felt the skin come off. I could hear the screams of others, each trying to defend and helping each other, but I was further away. I pushed a couple of zombies who tried to tear my eyes out. It was me alone against the tide.

Something bit me in the chest, and as I could I tore off the head that had been cut and that was trying to bite again. I kept struggling, but they were so many that as soon as I took one off, as soon as a part of my naked body was free, a mouth or a claw or something else took the place of the previous one.

The water was stirring more and more, choking me with every black wave that crashed against me. A claw scratched my back, making a deep wound. It became more than difficult to breathe at times, and my body stopped reacting from one second to the next. Another claw tore at my chest, right where a second head was biting me. I was struggling with less and less chance of achieving anything, of winning, and I knew that was exactly what the Man in Black was looking for.

He wanted to force us to make a decision, he wanted to surround us, to leave us against the sword and the wall. He wanted to cut us all the options and become pawns, simple pets in his game. And he had achieved it.

"We participate! We participate!"

Amber came forward, screaming desperately, now without an eye, when I was about to say it.

"We have a deal!" He shouted triumphantly.

A circle of turquoise, blindind  light surrounded us, disintegrating the bodies that were inside but ours. A collective scream shattered my ears, and I was sure they were bleeding. The Man in Black now shed his clothes, revealing a dark, stunted boddy, very similar to that of the beasts, only that his seemed to move from within, as if a snake crawled underneath his skin.

The sea stirred more than before, trying to submerge us, but we managed to stay afloat despite it. I did not stop breathing every time I felt that one more wave was trying to drown me, and my friends seemed to do the same.

"Those who sinned shall now repeat the act of treason that brought them to me. Those who killed will come back here, to be their guides and to come back clean."

The man was looking at the sky as he spoke. I swam to Amber, who couldn't stop crying, covering the hole left in the right half of her face. Ruby was holding her against her chest, and Obsidian took me by the hand and drew me nearer.

"Blood to blood and flesh to flesh, what they did before will do again. What was dead is now condemned, and that who lives shall first repeat!"

The water that was inside the circle paralyzed for a second before starting to turn counter-clockwise. Obsidian took me by the hand and extended one towards Amber, who took it and with the other she held onto Ruby. The tide shook us and tried to take us to the bottom, and although we tried to stay afloat as much as we could, in the end it was in vain.

I felt the water, dense, heavy, almost solid, rushing inside me through my lips, through my nose, my ears, even entering through my eyes, that barely existent space through which tears came out.

I squeezed Obsidian's hand to make sure he was still there, that we were still together at least. I could glimpse two bodies that I assumed were Ruby and Amber. I wanted to believe it was them, there was no one else there, but it was all so confusing that I didn't know what to think.

The water began to spin faster, with more haste, as if it were furious and wanted to separate us. I opened my mouth to scream instinctively, and a new ball of water pierced my throat, making me cough and writhe, but without letting go of Obsidian.

Something took me by the hand I had free. First I tried to let go, more and more agitated, but Ruby let me know that it was her piercing my hand with her long nails, always pointed. I gritted my teeth so hard I thought they would break.

Suddenly, we no longer fell, but we went uphill. I felt that the water began to rise, without slowing down at any moment its speed, never losing its strength. I felt as if I was a broken doll by then, moving to where that swirl dictated, and I had no way to fight.

I had nothing left, there was nothing left of me. I was just a thing, an object, a piece of drifting flesh, just like how I had felt many times. There was no point in fighting back. I had already lost the battle anyway, they had already beaten me more than once.

A sharp blow to my ribs took out the air that I didn't know I kept in my lungs, making me react suddenly. Now I had something solid under me, something I thought I recognized for a moment. A laugh rang near to me.

"Welcome, buddy." I heard a voice say, a man's voice. When I stood up, I saw I was alone in what seemed to a cave. A dark lake was behind me, limited by a wall of stone. When I looked to the front, there was a white, naked man sitting in a big rock.

"Who are you?" I asked looking around, but there was nothing more than just rocks and water and darkness. "Where are...?" I coughed, spitting all the blood I swallowed.

"Jeffrey Dahmer, nice to met you."