Back in high school we had a Muslim kid, Mohammed. After 9/11 he got bullied a lot, things got really bad after he started dating a white girl. Me and a few buddies beat the shit out of him and tossed him in the little pond behind the school. It was like 5 inches deep, so we thought we were fine.
But I guess he was knocked out and landed face down, so he drowned in there. One of my buddies agreed to take the whole blame since his Dad was a cop, he basically just got community service.
I started having really bad dreams after that night, stuff about Mohammed drowning and scratching at my bedroom window at night with bony fingers. I spent time in Afghanistan after I graduated and saw a kid with scars all over his face from shrapnel, about the same age as Mohammed, and I swear to God he knew what I did because he pointed at me and started screaming something incoherent. I had worse nightmares then and when I got back I was on a lot of anti anxiety meds and shit which helped, plus I drank a lot. About 2 years ago my doctor said I needed to get sober and lose weight or else Covid would kill me, so I did. Started having nightmares again because of the lack of booze. Mohammed’s waterlogged corpse floating in the air outside my window. His bony fingers scratching at my window. The nightmares have been getting worse, I was back home for my Dad’s funeral recently and they drained the little pond after Mohammed drowned, but because of all the rain there was this huge puddle in the area. I drove past it and some kid playing in the puddle waved at me and I swear to God he had black pits for eyes. I don’t know what’s real and what isn’t any more.
