Submerged

Hand tight on the lever, tired eyes glued to the screen infront, the middle aged man has been sitting at this spot for hours, so long so his arse has left a groove in the leather stool.

Pulling the lever down the screen spins and the machine lets out this musical tone adding to the small excitement and hope which rushes through the man's mind, “Maybe this time, maybe this time I will win, I'm owed that.”

The first slot stops on a 7, the man leans a little closer, the second slot lands on another 7, the man’s eyes widen a small rush of adrenaline runs through him “this is it.” he whispers to himself. The last slot slows down, on its decline it appears to be landing on a 7 until it stops onto a cherry. The tired man pauses for a moment before he gets frustrated and slaps the slot machine on the side, yelling and cursing at the machine. He looks back to his cup of coins which he has placed on small wooden table on his right next to the free alcohol the casino has been providing him, there is nothing remaining inside the cup.

The tired man’s eye returns to his machines screen, a small animation of a mermaid swimming around the screen collecting gold coins starts to play. The man sitting two slots down the tired man’s right stands up and celebrates his winnings.

“Three cherries!” he yells out obnoxious. He sits back down on his stool, he combs over his bald patch with whatever hair he has remaining on top, leans over his own beer belly to collect his coins. The balding man looks over to the tired man and smiles. “Here on me.” the balding man says flicking over a coin which lands on the stained red carpet.

The tired man gets off his stool and collects the coin. “You welcome.” the balding man says as the tired man picks up the coin. The tired man stands back up and returns to his stool, his eyes are once again glued to his slot machine The Mermaid’s Hideaway it's called

“Well look who we have coming over here.” the balding man announces as the attractive waitress approaches him with more booze. She places the cups on a small table to the balding man’s right side then walks straight past him not saying a word, she walks over to the tired man.

“Would you like another sir?” she asks politely.

For a small moment the tired man is fixated on her looks, her brown blonde hair tired up in a bun to make her look professional but her brown eyes seem sad making the tired man wonder if it’s the job or other personal issues that are making her look this way. The tired man quickly spots the balding man checking out the waitress.

“Just one, thanks.” he says to rush her away.

“Alright, I'll be back soon.” she says

The balding man looks over to the tired man with a grin on his face “Not bad hey.”

The tired man refuses to answer and looks back to his own slot machine. The mermaid animation is still playing on the screen collecting small coins at the bottom of the ocean. The tired man looks to his last coin, on one side of the silver coin is the side of a man’s head while on the other is a golden crown with a silver background. The waitress returns and places the drink onto the side table.

“I’ll be back to clean all this up.” she says pointing to the two other empty cups the tired man had drunk before.

“No need, it's my mess, I'll clean it up.

The waitress smiles “Alright sir.”

“Andy, call me Andy.” Andy asks.

“Alright Andy.” the waitress says as she walks away to collect more cups left on tables.

Andy looks back to his last coin gifted to him and decides to hold onto it for another time. He grabs his last drink quickly drinks all of it then stands from his stool. He collects his empty cups and starts to walk over to the nearest bin swaying as he walks.

He manages to put all his empty cups in the bin however some of the remaining drink manages to spill to the floor, Andy he doesn’t seem to notice.

“Are you okay Andy?” the waitress says putting her arm on his shoulder trying to keep him upright.

“I’m fine” he slurs out.

“I don’t think you are, here follow me.” the waitress guides him to the bar stool and makes the man sit down. “I'll get you some water.” she says as she walks behind the bar.

Sitting down trying to keep himself focused Andy looks around the casino, he makes out several patrons glued to their slot machine monitors including the balding man who managed to spill booze onto his shirt but continues to play disregarding his appearance.

He notices several posters hanging around the walls all with a pirate wearing an eyepatch, he looks to the entrance and sees that same pirate but only as a statute posing with sword in one hand and a key in another.

“Here drink.” she puts the glass of water into Andy s hand, without hesitation he drinks all the water in a couple of gulps. “Best wait here a little moment, you staying far?”

“Near the lake, I can drive back.” Andy insists,

The waitress looks around the room then back to Andy “Look I would strongly recommend you don’t drive in your condition, if you’re staying at the lakeside motel best just walk it but put something warmer on should only be a ten minute walk if you stick to the streets.” the waitress suggests.

Andy nods to agree, the waitress turns to go back to her work.

“What's with the pirate?” Andy asks as he points to the statue.

“Captain Roberts? how does someone come to this town and not know about the pirate legend Roberts? Story goes some hundreds of years ago Captain Roberts took refuge at the lake here, he would offload his cargo mainly being slaves he captured of course but the children’s tales would say he captures exotic creatures, whales, sharks, mermaids, leprechauns, Circe all them fantasy creatures to hide the truth from the children. Well one day one of his crewmen discovered the English were on the other side of the lake not unaware of Captain Roberts's presence, that crewman made a deal with the English told the location of the Captain Roberts and then was immediately killed on sight, the English wanted nothing to do with pirates. Next thing happened was the English took Captain Roberts by surprised filled his galleon named The Silenced Lady with holes sinking it to the bottom of the lake then killing all the crewmen that night, In the summer time tourist love diving down the lake to have a look at the old ship I have been a few times myself its quite a sight to see, no treasure down there however.” the waitress explains

“Wait, there is a pirate ship under the lake?”

“Yeah, that’s the main reason why people come to this town, that and to try and win big, did you just arrive?” the waitress asks.

“Yesterday.” Andy replies.

The waitress laughs to herself “Well good luck finding the ship, the lake is frozen over this time of year, alright I'll leave you too it.” The waitress walks off and returns to her duties

Andy looks down at his watch and notices its one am. Wanting to get back to his bed and rest he stands up off his stool and starts to walk towards the exit.

No longer swaying he decides to go outside, snow lightly covers the footsteps outside the casino, the yellow neon sign which is designed to look like a hand of cards all holding aces above the casino door is reflecting off the snow making the snow appear a mix of yellow and orange. Every breath Andy exhales is followed with a small amount of fog leaving his mouth.

He carefully takes a couple steps down the stairs holding his dark brown coat tight around him trying to contain all the warmth he can. His long black greyish hair catching snow as it falls. Its easy to spot his light brown Cadillac with only a handful of cars parked in the lot, his only issue is the amount of snow smothering the vehicle. He pats his pockets down searching for his keys, he feels the casino coin in his left pocket inside his jacket. He unlocks the car door after he finds his keys and it takes a couple of attempts before he manages to get the into the hole, he opens the door and jumps inside quickly breathing into his hands as he rubs them together. Andy puts the key in ignition and then turns it, the engine starts up for about two seconds then immediately stops, he tries again the same result happens. “Shit!” he yells out, persistent he tries again.

The engine starts up the indicators are flashing, the radio turns on, “Come on, don’t fail me now.” Andy pleads, the engine completely shuts off once more. That small moment of hope fades away, nothing but silence fills the void until he snaps, Andy yells at the top of his lungs punching the roof of his car in some sort of primal anger “Why?” Andy shouts out as he looks up to the roof in some sense preying “Just give me a chance, give me a win any win anything!” he shouts out again before collecting himself. He looks outside the car window to see it still snowing, enough to be cold but not enough to stop him from walking home. He opens the glove box and finds his beanie, he puts it on his head, takes the keys out of ignition, breathes into his hands once more and then exits his car leaving it for the next day.

He walks over the street to the footpath opposite the casino, the forest lines up all up and down the main street, he looks into the forest but all he can see is tree after tree getting darker as the forest gets deeper. For a moment he considers to walk through it, it would save time on his walk to the motel but there is a good chance that he will get lost among the darkness. Following the footpath north he has noticed how quiet the town is no cars driving on the road at this time of night, no heavy party music blasting from someone's yard, the only thing which is making some real sound is electricity powering the stop lights.

Andy stops walking to take in the silence it's rare for him to have such a privilege almost relaxing to some degree, a heavenly female singing voice joins the silence singing a song about redemption, her voice is soft and relaxing to hear, near perfect echoing through the forest. He looks to where the voice is coming from, sounding like someone is in the middle of the forest. He takes a couple of footsteps into the forest and spots the frozen lake which is lit up by the moonlight making it look like a beacon among the darkness.

The singer continues, he has never heard this song before but he can't help but think everything she is singing about is about him, a forgotten hero seeking redemption, he wants to meet this lady with the heavenly voice. Andy convinces himself to go closer to the lake leaving the street at his back. Pushing through shrubbery while trying his best not to slip on snow. Andy notices the singing immediately stops, a loud scream echoes through the forest followed up by a call for help. Relying on instinct Andy rushes towards the frozen lake, ignoring the tree branches slapping his face as he runs into them while trying not to slip.

Andy makes it to the edge of the frozen lake, he can see her drowning in the middle of the lake trying her best to hold onto anything she can get a grip on. Feeling the ice by putting pressure on it with his feet Andy determines the ice is strong and stable.

“Help!” the lady yells out once more.

“I’m here, hold on!” he shouts back

Gently taking his first step onto the ice. As he gets closer to the lady Andy no longer seems to care about how thick the ice is. He can hear the ice making slight creaking sounds but that doesn’t worry him he needs to save this girl. His eyes focused on her, she is holding on tight to the edge of the broken ice trying her best to lift herself out.

He can see her clearly now struggling to stay afloat, exhausted but beautiful. The girl looks over to Andy her light brown eyes pierce through his own captivating him in a single glance, He sprints to the girl ignoring the water that is making his shoes wet, he quickly gets on his knee and offers his right hand ready to pull her to safety, to give her his jacket to keep her warm.

She reaches out and takes his hand, her touch gentle, her skin although in the water feels soft. She stops struggling and she smiles at her savior, Andy smiles back, the win he has been asking for has come true a chance at doing something good and meaningful. She gently pulls him closer, Andy leans forward he tries to lift her up but she won't help. She wraps her right hand around his head slowly bringing his head to hers. He can feel her breath on his face her warm breath. “Warm?” he thinks to himself, he snaps back to reality and notices the ice around him is all cracked, the woman in the ice is refusing to get out. “Thank you for saving me.” she says followed by a kiss to the check, she then uses all her strength to pull Andy into the freezing lake.

He didn’t even get a chance to struggle the ice is so cold it freezes his muscles, he is being dragged to the bottom of the lake. As his vison Is fading, he sees the woman with a tail where legs should be, he sees the broken pirate ship, he sees the casino coin slip out of his pocket and he sees the ice fill over the hole he came through.

It's getting darker the further down he goes until all he can see is darkness.