Twenty Minutes Earlier.

Wind slapped Adrien’s face, lilting him in and out of consciousness. The fall seemed to last forever, and yet everything past him was rushing by at unimaginable speeds. He first felt a weightless sensation, then heavy as lead. Then he felt nothing at all.

Bystanders on the sidewalk would report seeing a small dot plummeting farther, farther down near the icy waters, until water cannoned upward. The figure slowly descended through the green depths of Ellis Island’s surrounding waters, bubbles tracing lazy paths as if eager to escape the sadness below.

Adrien’s still form finally settled in the bottom of the river, sinking waist deep in the mud. He was completely cold, silent, and unfeeling. Catfish and other bottom-dwellers drifted by softly, blind but curious.

The murky depths accepted him into their home and held him still, like a mother watching over her sleeping child.