There is not much to be said about the journey back into life, at least not for me. There is no bright light, there is no one telling me I went the wrong way and need to go back, no one is convincing me with reasons why Home is better than Heaven or Hell…

Of course, this is Shaman, not Home, well…not yet.

He breathes into me and exhales for me, he repeats. Nothing. He does it again. Nothing. Again. Nothing.

Again.

Nothing.

What comes after that is a short-lived miracle, suddenly life jumps back into view. It’s blurry at first, my eyes stained with ears as I roll and cough up the ocean from my lungs. I swear, I tried to get rid of the flooding myself by how much of it comes out. I cough and hack and repeat. There is no result other than life itself – now it’s just that gritty itchy feeling that won’t go away no matter what I do. I collapse in a shaking, shuddering heap in front of Levi, my rescuer, my resuscitator, my temporary backbone because – I’ll be honest with you – after what happened in the past few minutes I’ve nothing left. At least, not right now.

I mutter something along the lines of ‘Please save me’ and ‘Please don’t leave me’ spoken in that kind of desperation that leaves you reaching for tissues. I reach for him, frostbitten white fingers grasping for Levi’s hand as he reaches for me. He pulls me into his arms and I go unconscious again as he takes us to wherever New Home will be. New Home, of course, will never be as good as Home-Home, but if I’ve just escaped one life and entered into a new one without any signs of Morvick – then I’ll tell you that I believe in miracles.

When Levi takes us to his own private place of stay this is where I find myself waking up. I cough hard but now I realize that the pain I feel when I cough is not from drowning per sey (perhaps a mild part of it is) yet more significantly from trying to body check a boulder four times my size and quite solid, mind you. I groan at first, a frozen hand pressing against my temples. I have a head ache. My stomach hurts and I’ll start bleeding from the knife wound the moment I warm up again. The inner core of my body hurts. The thought of drowning, and drowning again, of Morvick’s face as he slammed me into the water…

I shake my head and try not to shiver as hard as I am.

“My….my name is….Squire….Squire BonTempo….” I croak, Levi doesn’t look at first which is a good thing. I shift slightly, hissing at the pain that jilts up my spine when I sit. Morvick was rough – too rough – it’ll leave marks maybe. I hope not – it’s the last thing I want. “Did you see the man who killed me?” I asked lethargically. “He was there. At the creek. He was…holding my head under the water…Did you see him?”