The Water Hole

This is a horror story for the Vocal Foggy Waters challenge . I do not usually write fiction , but the challenges force me out of my comfort zone, and hopefully that makes me a better writer. The lead in music will be “Drowning” by the Beat. This story is influenced by the style of Franz Kafka where a person does not know why he is where he is.

So here we go

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He was coming to. Where was he? What happened? He could just see bluey green and he realised he was in a vertical tunnel or tube , and it was Perspex or plastic and beyond that was what seemed to be water. He looked up maybe fifty feet above it was open but with a roof to keep out rain or water.

The tube was about four feet across and perfectly smooth. Climbing out was not an option, smashing a hole through it and swimming up might have been an option , but he was hydrophobic and could not swim.

Last night in the restaurant he was wearing a suit , now all he had on was a T-shirt and canvas pants. No wallet and , more importantly, no phone. He had been there with friends and couldn’t remember anything out of the ordinary , he couldn’t even remember leaving, and now he was here, dry sand beneath his feet , surrounded by water.

No communication options , no apparent escape options, and no reason for him to be here. He screamed for help , but knew there were no ears listening.

How had he got here? Why was he here? Who dropped him here?

He was not hurt so he had not been thrown down here.

He went to touch the Perspex side and there was a clank. There was a chain on his ankle running into the sand and solidly anchored. He had not noticed it , so climbing out or breaking the tube and swimming free was not an option unless he could escape , but the chain was secured to his ankle with a seamless secure bracelet. There was no way he could get his foot out or even chop it off Mad Max or Saw style.

Then he noticed the sand around the edges was getting wet, the water was getting in.

Panic

Impossible to move or get away and the horror of the water seeping in was getting to him , destroying his mind. Screaming for help and crying , but all he could hear was his own voice.

Left here to die by drowning for no reason he could think of by no one that he was aware of, with no hope of escape.

He tried digging around where the chain came out of the sand , but however deep he went the chain was secured to something much further down. He considered hitting the tube side to smash it , but there was an inch of water at the bottom of the tube now, and that was going to continue to get deeper.

Always in these situations someone turns up to facilitate your rescue or you find a tool to help you escape from your chains , but not today , not now. He was in a hopeless situation , pulling at the chain and just not getting anywhere. His ankle was bleeding above and below the bracelet , and he wondered if the lubrication could be used to free himself, but there was no way he could extract his foot , it would have to be chopped off and he had no tools to do that.

The water was up to two inches now , that was in the last 30 minutes. He was six foot , he had maybe seventeen hours left , the thought horrified him.

Why?

Who?

How?

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The story continues