Drowning was an awful feeling, water rushing into your lungs pushing out the oxygen that had once been plentiful. But it was also cruel in a way, the air above you had plenty of air all you needed to do was reach up, all you needed was for your head to break the surface.

Then you could gasp in a deep lungful of this precious substance, that's all he needed to do. It was mere inches away as if taunting Sylas with what he couldn’t have in his last moments, something that he had once taken for granted and something that he so desperately needed right now.

But he couldn't. 

Or perhaps he should perhaps say that being drowned was a horrible feeling, the tight clammy but firm hands had wrapped around his throat forcing his head under the water holding him there for what felt like an eternity. Soft bubbles of air flew from his lips seemingly in slow motion, the disgusting brown lake water poured down past his tongue and his throat as he had no way he could stop it.

The taste overall was something that could be classified as a first world problem. Especially as his throat burned as if it wasn't water but red hot lava pouring into him scorching every available surface only leaving pain in its wake, his vision was blurry as it darkened around the edges by the second. In the beginning, he had fought back, he had thrashed and jerked against the ruthless hold of his soon-to-be killer. But now his limbs felt as if they were made of lead dragging him further and further into the permanent sleep of death, maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

Maybe he would go to heaven or whatever afterlife there was for people like him, after all Sylas hadn't done anything majorly wrong in his short life. He had gone to high school, he had gotten good grades and graduated like everyone else in his class before getting a job. Sylas wasn't an extremely religious person, in fact, he was a rather scientific person, which is why he knew that had he been drowning in salt water this entire thing would have been at least ten times worse than it already was for him. That being said he wasn't a necessarily bad person, he helped his mother with the chores and watched over his little sister when she had to go to her work. He knew what to do and what not to do for a boy lacking a father figure in life, so why did he have to die?

It seemed like this was a question that would never be answered as the cold sweaty hands released his bruised neck a few minutes after his body had given up on fighting back, it seemed that even his attacker knew that it was just about impossible for him to fight back at this stage. From the foggy watery look up he spotted the heavy set man ambling away, the one molecule in his body that wasn’t waterlogged urged him to go forth, to go forth and attack the man while his back was turned. However, that one tiny cell was the minority as his body lifelessly dipped back into the water sinking below the chilly lapping water, why him? Why did he have to die? It wasn't fair. It wasn’t fair one little bit.

His light sunny sky blue eyes slipped shut, as if he was simply laying his head down for a quick nap for the very last time as he died beneath the cold lapping waters of the freezing lake, never to be seen again. 

But he certainly didn't stay like that, as under the full moon as his body sank deeper and deeper in the muddy brown waters of the lake, a webbed clawed hand curled around his torn t-shirt covered chest. It pulling him much closer and closer to the unknown entity that had an extremely tight fix on him and deeper into the dark murky depths.

This was his fate, after all, water demons were rare and were only made one certain way, the ironic twist of fate that had many shying away from doing such a thing. Death, by the very liquid that gave them life. They say fate is a bitch and they couldn't be more right about something like this. 

A new energy rushed into every pore of Slyas' cold motionless body, it changed him as his bones and joints contorted, molded his once young and versatile human body into one more susceptible to holding the power of thousands of oceans and rivers that ran along the earth acting as it’s veins that gave life to the plants and animals all around it; to have the power of a million rushing currents running through him. At the speed of snail, he floated back to the surface, his tan sun-kissed skin was no more now replaced with a snowy white pallor, his deep inky black hair had changed to a sickly seaweed green color; the color of algae, and his once beautiful sky blue eyes opened slowly revealing the slitted blue eyes of a tameless beast that could not and would not bend to anyone's will ever again. 

He was reborn.