It had been an accident. He hadn't seen the coral until it was too late, and by the time he could register what was occurring, his head had already made contact with the jagged edges. He'd tried to locate his surf board, because he'd thought that if he could climb on top of it, he could simply lay down on it as it took him to shore. He'd spotted his board several feet away, but he hadn't had the strength to swim towards it. Instead, he'd remained where he was, wading in the water, and quickly glancing around him. He'd tried to yell out; he'd screamed for help, but no one had heard his cries. It was after he'd been in the water for a few moments that he'd finally decided to attempt to swim to shore. It seemed that his legs and arms were made of jelly, and he couldn't get them to do what he wanted them so desperately to do. He couldn't get his very limbs – the things that had never once failed him – to help save his life.

It was then that it occurred to him that perhaps if he could force himself to roll over so that he was lying on his back, he could then float towards safety. He tried several times to make this happen, but his brain wasn't able to register what he was trying to do. The repeated action of attempting to rotate his body caused even more of his strength to evaporate. He refused to give up, though. No, he'd never quit anything in the twenty-three years that he'd been living, and he wasn't going to start. Although his mind was completely on board, his body wasn't listening, and no matter what he did, he couldn't force his limbs to cooperate.

He couldn't breathe. His lungs were slowly filling with water, and he found himself sinking beneath the tide. All of his strength had completely seeped from him, and he could no longer keep his eyes open. He was dying; he was being drowned by the one element that he'd always adored – the water. It wasn't supposed to be this way. He'd been surfing, which was definitely nothing new to him. He'd grown up surfing, and he'd always loved the water. Now the thing that he loved was killing him, draining his life force from him. He slipped into unconsciousness as the black tendrils of death snaked around his waist, pulling him even further under the water.