I see the swan float past me. I smile at it. Its eyes meet mine and it lets out a horrified shriek. I nod slightly, ignoring the pain in my neck.

The water around me is red. It’s my blood. I saw no one when it happened. They wore black. They grabbed me in the night. They grabbed my throat, suffocating me and brining me to to the brink. Then they let me live.

They cut me, repeatedly. They left me to bleed in a warehouse for hours. For days, I wasted away, bleeding out.

Then they took me and dumped me. Now I float on this lake, waiting for death to find me. I have no means of escape. Everyone I know is dead. I can still hear their screams.

I know why I lived though. He whispered it in my ear before cutting me—before leaving me to die. “You’re my symbol.” He had said.

I was a message. I was the one the police would find. They would lay the rest of the bodies out later. I was the warning.

I watched the swan as it swam away from me, desperate and colored red with my blood. I close my eyes and let the water take me. I let the blood leave my body. I let myself be lost to the darkness.

I can hear their screams.

I can hear their screams.

I can hear…

Nothing.