AN: So…THAT was surprising. I was totally expecting a "surprise twist" where Faye was crying with relief and they had managed to resuscitate Nick. Didn't see one of the titular characters dying off this soon. I'm in shock. And to have Diana's dad do it. Damn. How could I not write about it? It's pretty short, but I wanted to write something. Let me know what you think.
Summary: He had done something he couldn't take back. He had looked into those young, frightened eyes, had listened to the terrified pleading, and he had shoved a child under the water and held him there. And a part of him died in that water with him.
Warnings: SPOILERS for "Slither".
Disclaimer: I don't own "The Secret Circle".
Lachrymose
Lachrymose—"In floods of tears"
"Please! Stop! Oh, God! Stop, stop, stop!" Nick had cried. Had begged and plead and sobbed. Drenched and frantic. Tears in his eyes, Charles could see them even through the rest of the water that covered his face when he managed to break free for a moment and breathe. "Don't do this. Please! Don't do this!"
Charles had pushed him back into the water. Had forced him under and kept him there, refusing to let him up. Refusing to let him breathe. Nick's hands clawed desperately at Charles's arms, trying to use them to leverage himself out of the water that was killing him.
Drowning is an incredibly painful way to die, Charles had read somewhere. It's not the water that kills you. It's the throat, knowing that water cannot be breathed, closing tightly in an attempt to save you. That's what got you in the end. And it hurts. Your heart pumping blood that doesn't have the oxygen it needs to keep you alive. Your brain slowly shutting down as it scrambles to find a way to live.
And here he is, holding down this sixteen year old boy, this child, under the water and forcing him to die a most painful death imaginable.
The body stills. The hands loosen and fall. The eyes stare, unseeing up at him. And Charles know he will never forget this moment. He'll see those eyes staring up at him, dead when they should have been alive.
He drags Nick out and water runs off his body, drip-drip-dripping onto the pavement. It sounds like condemnation to his ears. He had killed a child. This wasn't right. This was wrong, all wrong. How had this happened?
Nick reached out then, his grip frighteningly strong. Stronger than even he had been with the demon inside him. "What have you done? What have you done?"
Charles wakes up, bolting upright in the tangled sheets of his own bed in his house. His heartbeat thunders recklessly in his chest and his breathing is ragged, refusing to smooth. His hands shaking with fear and guilt and a self-loathing stronger than anything he's ever felt before. Tears gather in his eyes and streak painfully down his cheeks. Choked sobs suffocate him, lodging in his throat before spilling over his lips.
"Oh, God." He whispers. Whispers because his daughter is in the next room and this grief is for him alone to bear. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
He cries. And he cries. And he wishes he had the strength to cry until he drowns under the weight of his own guilt, his own pain. A flood of tears to sweep him away beneath the currents that he had held Nick under.