Don’t feel sorry for these fools. They’ve had a shit-show for a life and didn’t recognize the toxicity when it happened to them, but still, everyone has to grow up past the trauma and make their own decisions. For these two, it started with the girl.
Starry-eyed she was. Fell in love so quickly at the first sign of kindness, the first sweet word. The boy she met on her lonely walk every day was everything she thought didn’t exist—romantic, gentle, told her she wasn’t stupid and didn’t throw things and scare the children like her husband did. The boy made her forget her bruises. The boy made her promises. And she was willing to do what she didn’t think possible…as long as he was with her.
And so they met on a winter evening as planned, standing hand-in-hand on the top of a large stone wall that surrounded their city. She looked down at the crashing waves below. The boy said the fall would be painful, but it wouldn’t kill them. He said it. She believed him.
“I told him I was leaving,” the girl told the boy with what little breath she had left after all the running. “I told him we were going to be together. I did the right thing.”
The boy’s eyes grew wide, his forehead creasing. “Why would you do that?”
The girl was startled. Why wouldn’t she? The boy’s home was just as terrible, just as nightmarish as hers. But it was only right to be honest, even to one’s captor. It had been the only home she’d known. Surely, the boy understood.
“He was hurting me,” she said, the wind pushing her own hair into her trembling mouth. “He hurts me.”
The boy brushed her brown locks back behind her ear. “And he never will again…are you ready?”
The girl nodded.
With a heavy breath together, they eyed the angry waters, her knees nearly buckling as he counted to three. The fall tore his hand away from hers, the splash of the frigid ocean enveloping her shriek as she went under. It was a fight, clawing her way to the surface again, but she made it—all bruises and tears and laughter. But she made it.
“Where are you?” She sputtered, looking around at waves that threatened to swallow her whole. “I’m here!”
But the boy had not surfaced. Her chest electrified with panic. He couldn’t have gone far. What if he…what if he was still beneath the black waters? What if he…?
“I am here,” a small voice called out from above.
The girl jerked her head up, still coughing up salt and current through chattering teeth. The boy’s forlorn shadow stood where she was standing only moments ago. Confusion mingled with anger. Anger turned to tears. The tears were as lost in the water as she was.
“I’m sorry…I couldn’t,” he nearly whispered, answering the question she hadn’t asked. “I must go take care of some things first.”
The girl sobbed, kicking at the deep and whatever just brushed her leg. “Wait!”
“Please hold on!” He yelled from the wall, turning away. “I promise I’ll come for you.”
A smoothness bumped against her leg again. The tide pushed and pulled her. She couldn’t tread for long like this. Her lungs were already tired and burning. Adrenaline coursed through her shaking limbs, giving her strength for a while, but eventually, her gasps became desperate. She could swim to shore—make a run for it or hide in case her husband tried to find her. But the boy said to wait. She stared up at the empty wall. Her muscles burned and ached as they pushed against the aggressive water, though her skin was beginning to numb from the cold. It occurred to her that she could die here, but the boy wouldn’t leave her to die. He loved her. He promised. He was kind. Kind people don’t abandoned the ones they love.
The girl’s breath hitched, her eyes widening. He would never leave her intentionally. That much she knew. Her body treaded like it had given up before she had. She sobbed at the stones of the wall. Something had to have happened to the boy. And she was treading for nothing.
Too tired to swim to their planned location where she could find solace and safety for the night, she laid on her back, letting the waters carry her farther from shore. Her husband would definitely find her on the shore. That wasn’t an option. She was bruised enough already. Perhaps she could rest here on the waves until she regained her strength. The drifting hem of her dress exposed her, but she didn’t care. It was too dark, anyway. Her fingers floated beside her, goosebumps rising on her shivering arms as a shining body the color of deadened sea kelp ran itself along her legs. It touched her. And she didn’t have the strength to stop it.
The farther it went with her, the more she gritted her teeth, tears burning her eyes more than the salt of the water. Where is he? Something awful must be happening to the boy now, but…why didn’t he just jump with her? This wasn’t supposed to happen.
In one last effort, she kicked at the thing that so had its way with her. She’d had enough.
“Stop!” She screamed, thrashing for her own sanity. The more she fought, the further it dragged her away from the shore. Her home. The only place she’d known. Teeth clamped around her leg. Blood rushed the surface of the water. Her cries were heavy and long. But eventually, the thing let her go. It just wanted to hear her wail.
“Back home,” she stammered, reaching for the shoreline. A small kick here. A raggedy splash there. More time passed in the darkness.
Finally, her shaking hand grabbed a handful of sand, her gasps muffled against the ground. Her dress was ruined.
“Where are you going?”
Her sobs came as hiccups as she lifted her weary head to the top of the wall, horrified at the devastated look on the boy’s face.
“You…you’re going back?” he repeated, backing away from her like she was on fire. “You were supposed to wait for me.”
“I couldn’t stay in the water—“
“What am I supposed to do now,? He grimaced, tearing at his long hair. “I came back to ask for more time.”
The girl’s body jerked, her leg staining the sand crimson. She didn’t have more time. Her husband was coming. She knew it. She wished she hadn’t left. That house was far less horrible than this day. Her dreams were nothing but nightmares. She would never dare to dream again. But going back home wasn’t an option either. It would be worse now than it was before. Neither ignorance nor daydreaming would save her now.
“If you can’t wait in the water,” the boy said, his own voice shaking, “then wait for me in the sunrise.”
The sunrise. The girl’s heart sank. That was where they were supposed to go together. She’d never wanted to go alone. And who knew what was waiting in the deep for an injured girl such as her? All alone. Shivering. Barely able to swim. She would never make it to the sunrise. Realization soaked through her skin and into her bones with the cold. She wouldn’t make it here, either.
She had one choice left—to die here or to die there.
Glaring back up at the crying boy, she hoisted her body back into the water.
“I will come and find you.” His face matched the resolution in his voice. “My prison just won’t let me go, yet.”
“I pray that it does,” she whispered amongst the waves, turning her attention to wrestling waters that seared the wound on her leg. She cried occasionally and let it carry her again. She hoped her death would be quick, but the night kept on, more things in the water taunting her to scream or else they’d bother her again. The sky turned from cobalt to indigo, from sherbet to lavender. Her laughter and tears came all at once, warming her just enough to feel the light on her face. She’d made it to the sunrise.
Reaching for the sky, her stiff fingers stretched out, touching the safety of amber skylight.
It was everything the boy said it would be.
It was everything she would have wanted to see…just before she slipped beneath the waters.
