Forget Me Not

I - Aidan

Forget Me Not

All Rights Reserved

©2017 Jill Taylor

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Burning.

It felt like a million gallons of boiling hot water had been poured down his throat. Like he'd been walking in the Sahara desert for days on end without water, despite the fact that he was actually in water.

Although Aidan knew he was in a dangerously fatal situation, he couldn't help but think of Ancient Egypt. He was sure Egypt was in the Sahara, after all, his older brother Aaron was a big history and geography buff. So much so that he would read Aidan passages from history textbooks instead of regular bedtime stories.

Aidan remembered the night Aaron had read to him about Ancient Egypt. He remembered feeling admiration towards the Pharaohs and how gallant he imagined them being. Well, most of them, some not so much.

That was also the night that their parents had gotten into another rotten fight. This time, Audrey was the one who had to break it up. Although Aaron tried to hide it, Aidan knew she later cried alone that night, secluded in her room. Which was why she hadn't joined Aaron and Aidan for their nightly bedtime story, even after he had knocked on her door and begged for her to come out.

Aaron tried lying about why Audrey wasn't joining them. He insisted that she just had a lot of homework to do and didn't have time. But Aidan knew better than to believe that. Audrey and Aaron hardly ever missed bedtime story time.

Except when something happened with their parents. That was the only reason why one of them wouldn't join. And no matter how hard they tried to hide it from Aidan, he always knew the real reason deep down inside. They couldn't completely hide him from their parents, as best as they tried to.

Black spots appeared across his line of vision, bringing him back to the present.

Aidan, with one of his little ten year old hands, clawed at his throat while the other hand vigorously waved around in an attempt to move his body. His feet and legs at first helped by kicking back and forth, bringing his body closer to the surface. But they soon grew tired, and the lack of oxygen to his brain made him feel dizzy and confused. It seemed as if everytime he swam a foot or two closer to the surface, a new riptide dragged him ten feet down.

Dazed and scared, Aidan's eyes widened in the deep water. It was dark. So dark that the only thing he could see was whatever sunlight was able to penetrate the water that for down. Everything else was darkness, the scary unknown.

The burning feeling in his throat only intensified as he looked around in a frenzy for either Aaron or Audrey. He yearned to see Aaron's kind smile and painfully sad eyes. He desired to feel Audrey's warm hugs on cold nights and missed when her long brown hair tickled his skin.

He needed them. So where were they? Hadn't they promised to always be there for him in times of need? If this wasn't one of those times, then Aidan didn't know when was.

His eyes stung from the salt water, and more black spots danced across his vision. The tears that poured out of his blood-shot eyes mixed and mingled with the seemingly endless salt water. Just as his throat started to close up, the burning sensation in his throat began to cease. He wanted to move, to swim to the surface and take a much needed and deserved breath of the crispy afternoon air. But he couldn't bring his body to move. His arms were stuck stiff in the water while his legs limply swung with the push and pull of the water.

It was now that Aidan realized that Aaron and Audrey weren't coming, and he was going to die. He was going to drown in the same water that he learned how swim in when he was only four years old. He was going to drown in the same water he learned how to surf in, and in the same water he and his family shared fond memories in.

Like the time when they saved a lost seal pup from certain death, and the time Aaron's boogie board came out from under him and smacked right into his jaw. He remembered those good times like they were just yesterday, like if he held on tight enough he'd never forget them.

But now it felt like they were years ago, like the picture was slowly getting blurrier and blurrier as he forgot more and more of the details. He didn't know what hurt the most, losing those memories or the pain in his throat and chest.

He wanted to fight, to remember, to live, to see Aaron and Audrey again. They were all he had left. Their parents were there somewhere in the picture. But it was like they were strangers living in the same house, strangers that they only called "mom" and "dad" because they had to.

Aidan shut his green eyes, a black cover blocking out his vision. Not that it was any different from when they were open. It seemed like the more he was dragged down, the less color he saw. The once beautiful sea-blue water faded into an endless abyss of black. The young ten year old didn't know there were so many different shades of black until now.

His own body weight acted as the anchor, dragging him down. Although it seemed like invisible hands were reaching up from the deep, grabbing at him; Aidan knew better. He always knew better.

All his strength was gone now, opening his eyes became even too tedious of a task. He knew it was futile to fight and that he should just accept his fate, but he refused to give up.

He wouldn't drown now, he wouldn't - couldn't die like this, he couldn't leave Aaron and Audrey. Especially not with their parents. His siblings had tried so hard to hide Aidan from their parents, to shield him from their pain. He knew how hard they tried and how hard it was for them not to break down in front of him, but none of that would matter if he left them now.

He wanted to protect them from the pain they'd have to endure if he was gone for good. He wanted to be strong like them, to block them from the inevitable. But he was only a ten year old boy that was too weak to swim, and too scared to even fight to open his eyes.

No matter how bad he wanted to live and protect them, he couldn't bring himself to move. It was like his mind and body had two different system controls that were working against each other, making moving impossible.

So he let go of the only thing he had left, the only thing he cared about and held onto by a thread.

Hope.

Hope that someone would save him, hope that he would see Aaron and Audrey again, hope that he'd live through this and later laugh over it years from now.

Before he blacked out, before he gave into the inevitable, his very last thought was to Aaron and Audrey, wishing that they'd somehow hear it.

Please...don't ever forget me....

(~⌘~)

A/N:

Okay, okay, I know this chapter was...dark. But it had to be that way to understand what happened to little Aidan. Fair warning, this book WILL have a few chapters of Aidan's point of view. Of course, all from before he drowned. So, heads up.

Yours always,
Jill Taylor.