Synopsis

The water swirled, a dizzying descent into porcelain shadows. A gasp, a flicker of gold, then nothing but the cold, unforgiving curve of the drain. He’d meant to admire the vibrant scales, to offer a gentle scratch behind the fins. Instead, a moment of carelessness, a lapse in attention, and now… this. The echo of the flush resonated in the small bathroom, a stark punctuation mark on a terrible mistake. A desperate hope, fragile as a butterfly’s wing, fluttered within him – a hope that somehow,