A beatdown that began for the sake of uplifting their pride carried on for minutes, and yet, there was no sign of them slowing down. Laughters, mockery, and humiliation, that was today's theme. The theme of this brunch-time party. Each member took his own sweet time until he was satisfied hurting me. I gotta appreciate the fact that none of them used this opportunity to unleash their carnal or deeply sealed desires and try something incriminatingly disastrous, and life-altering on me.
I think 17...no, this was number 19. I probably lost count of it. "Hey, I got an idea." Don't tell me that the one thing that I appreciated about these chumps till now, and acknowledged very proudly was about to be undone? "Get him over there." With the faintest of vision that was left within me, I could just see where he pointed out. It was the swimming pool.
They dragged my carcass like that of a slave, lifting me by my arms but all while my feet were being dragged on their own. I felt like a prisoner who's about to be executed as they filmed in the movies back in the day.
In just a matter of minutes, they transported me from the shady storage area to an open swimming pool. Luckily, for them, and unfortunately for me, there were no bystanders to question the legality of this act.
"So, what is it that you wish to do with him?"
"Easy there Blake, why would want to ruin all the fun?"
"You do know that I'm an impatient man."
"Precisely why I'm biding my time to hype up the suspense. Otherwise, it would be a case of curiosity killed the cat." He made a displeased gesture all while having a smile on his face. "You do say some pretty bold things."
"I've only learned them from you."
"How interesting? Alright, just to entertain your show, I shall sit by the sidelines, and wait. But should you fail to humor me, it will be the end of your peaceful times here, and you shall join him, on his voyage of excruciating humiliation."
"You didn't have to emphasize those words that much." From what I could see, these two clearly didn't appreciate each other's presence and each one had its set of followers. And what brought them together was their unified hatred towards me. Defying your upperclassmen has its consequences, and I was just starting to get the tip of the iceberg.
"Anyway, without further ruining the mood, let us begin this party. Does anyone here know how to tie a fisherman's knot?" There was no response from the boys that gathered around the pool. "Well, that's kind of disappointing, but no worries. Your's truly shall display it to you all."
With that proclamation like that of a showman capturing the eyes of his audience, he began to tie my hands with the help of a fisherman's knot, and soon enough, he did it without breaking a sweat.
The fisherman's knot is a bend with a symmetrical structure consisting of two overhand knots, each tied around the standing part of the other. What that means is that it's more sturdy than a normal knot and quite time-consuming to break apart from, especially without the help of an external factor.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen, allow me, your's truly to perform a magic trick. My subordinate here (that's me) shall toss himself into the deepest end of this pool, and he shall untie himself and spring back to life from this pool. Should he not come back to life, we shall do the needful. Any queries?"
"Yeah, apart from the fact that one, I have never given my consent for this act, and the other one, I'm not your subordinate."
"Well, I'll take that there are no more further queries and shall proceed with the show."
As usual, my voice and opinion are unheard of. This is arbitrarily abuse of power, and I can't go against it. Should I do so, there might be some even server experiments waiting for me down the line.
Now, one must wonder, how am I so calm even in such a tense and fearful situation? The answer is simple, I ain't. I'm actually quite frightened about the fact that this fisherman's hook and this underwater escape might truly be the end of me.
It's the same as strapping one hand to a steering wheel, and driving manual transmission driven car around just by doing everything with the other hand. A risky idea. And something not worth heeding any attention, if possible.
Before I could make sense of what was about to transpire, I already saw myself being swing around a pair, on each end, swinging me in the air, before they tossed me onto the water.
Splash!
I heard a resonating sound that filled my ears, as I just sunk into the water. With this pool at an astounding depth level of 6 meters deep, and the fact that I'm a handicap, this looked like this was the end of me.
The crowd looked at the time...3 minutes...2 minutes...1 minute....
"Time's up. The kid hasn't shown up. Now this was a waste of time and energy on my part."
Everyone there chuckled and laughed their hearts out in unison. Everyone except one.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
A resounding sound filled in the atmosphere and killed the uproar.
"Not bad, eh? I guess I could get used to this a few more times. Anyway, I take it that you guys are done?"
"Wait, how did you..."
"Hmm?"
"You're supposed to be dead!"
"I can see that you guys are clearly astounding individuals but as a unit, you just are miserable."
"What was that?"
"Why, you turning dead or pretending to have bad ears.?"
"That's not what we're asking about. What we want to know is, how is it that you made out of it alive?!"
"The answer's pretty simple. I'm here to settle the score."