Treat Me Gently

Chapter One

Ingrid

In a world where everything is dark, and scary, and unpredictable, I was nothing. Nothing but a dim star in the middle of the night sky, a tiny ripple in the middle of the ocean, an empty shell laid alone in the sand.

Here, I was nothing.

I could feel the pressure building up around me, hugging me, singing lullabies in my ear.

My arms, my legs, my hair floated around me, disconnecting sadly from my body. I was weightless. Floating in a big puddle of nothingness, my lungs closing up inside of me.

I sunk deeper into the nothingness, without screaming, without struggling, I let myself float, and began to dream.

My mom, my dad, my beautiful sister. We were happy. We laughed under the old oak tree in the backyard of our house.

I was holding Isa's hand. When I looked at her, the sun seemed to shine brightly on her face, she was beautiful, the more beautiful one of the both of us. She was funny, and kind, and a little bit crazy. She was the other half of me, the better half.

We climbed to the top of the tree, where we would laugh and share secrets.

"What's your biggest dream?" She asked me, never letting go of my hand.

"I don't know."

"Mine is to fly, to feel alive and free and never let my feet touch the ground." She looked down to the ground, the biggest smile on her face that I have ever seen.

"That's impossible," I told her, giggling at her answer. "Nobody can fly."

"Anything is possible, Ingrid." She pointed to the ground, asking me to look with her.

We were surrounded by an ocean, the house and our parents disappearing from sight.

"Let me show you," she said, standing herself up on the branch. I stood up with her, I did everything she asked me to, I trusted her more than anyone else.

"On three," She was getting ready to jump.

"Wait Isa, I don't think this is a good idea," I looked at her worriedly. "Mom! Dad!" I called out for them, I had to tell them what Isa was trying to do.

"They're not here Ingrid, nobody is here, everyone is gone, I'm alone."

"You're not alone Isa, I'm right here with you, listen to me, see me, please." My eyes began to water.

"Then jump with me, on three, okay?"

"Okay." I whispered.

"One, two, three," Isa never let go of my hand as we jumped at the sound of three. It felt like we would never reach the water, my heart was racing in my chest, the air was leaving unbearable chills on my body, but I felt alive. For the 2 seconds it took for my feet to reach the water, everything felt right, everything felt good, I was free.

My body sunk into the freezing water, getting lower and lower. I no longer felt Isa's hand in mine.

I looked around me but she was nowhere to be seen. I screamed for her in the water, trying to swim back up, but I was only able to sink deeper and deeper.

Panic filled my body.

I screamed her name but I knew she wouldn't hear it, the water was stopping me from being able to yell out to her. I was trapped, I was drowning, screaming for help, but nobody could hear me. No one was around to pull me back up.

I was alone.

And once I was deep enough below the surface, once I felt my body start to give up, I opened my eyes.