Excerpt: Smoke Follows Fire

Her throat burned, and she longed for air. She opened her mouth, trying to take in oxygen, but all she got was water. Cold, icy water. She coughed violently, but it did no good.
“She's been under for nearly twenty minutes now. She has to be dead.”
“Yeah.”
The people walked away.
The rocks in her clothes weighed her down, and her eyes hurt. The water was dirty. It stung. She was angry. These people, these people who tried to kill her here, they were at fault for this. She tried to scream in anger, under the water. But the water only filled her lungs more.
She ceased to feel the pain in her throat and lungs, and blackness filled her vision, her head became heavy, and fuzzy, and she sank, lower and lower.
Black. Black. Black. Black.