sharks or some other carnivorous monster waiting in the depths . Will it come back for me ? How long before its appetite returns , and its desire for flesh becomes too great to ignore ?
Paranoia gripped his thoughts , and Giles turned his head to face ahead of him . He was relieved to see his own bare feet bobbing up and down , in and out of the warm water . A faint memory had returned to him . He recalled the water barely covering his knees when his captors chained him to the rocks this morning . His captors , though , remained obscured in his foggy memory . Bizarre creatures silhouetted by the blazing morning sun . He could only recall the outline of their red-skinned shoulders , and the nightmarish vision of their dark heads shrouded under a three-point crest . The waterline encroached closer , passing his waist , and splashing back and forth around his stomach . His arms , which once lay flat against the uneven surface of stacked limestone , now floated next to him in the water flowing under his shoulders .
He could almost see the New York coastline ahead of him . “ Help me ! Help ! I ’ m trapped ,” he screamed out as loud as he could , despite knowing he was too far away for anyone to hear him . Even if a man or woman heard him , would it make any difference ? His memory was foggy ; he barely remembered who he was , so who was to say that he was not some forsaken murderer or rapist ? Maybe he was a monster himself , so despised that his screams for help delighted the ears of anyone waiting on the beaches to hear his suffering . He saw visions of men and women dancing on the shores around great bonfires like heathens , all chanting and cheering in the name of his misery . Each scream and plea was like glorious music to them , as it fueled their hate-filled merriment .
27