Mirror Walker

Chapter 12

Thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum.

A rapid, pulsing beat hammered in her ears, pounding between them in the centre of her head.

It was the drumming of her thundering heart.

It was quick, hasty, not what she knew her body to sound like for it was far too unsteady. However, it was probably because she couldn't breathe.

She choked at the first moment. The cold hitting her in a devastating shock, consuming her whole as she longed to gasp but found herself swallowing water instead. The freezing liquid barged into her mouth against her will and ran down her throat, attacking her lungs with the icy knife that it wielded. It was instinct to breathe again, to desperately search for air even though she knew there was none to be found. Hence, she fought against the reflexes that often saved her, for this time they would kill her.

Clamping her lips tightly together, her eyes opened in a mad panic, stinging painfully as she immediately had to close them again, the low temperature cutting into her delicate cornea like a piece of cake before she could shield herself with her lids. Nevertheless, fear outranked discomfort and she forced them open again, utter terror making her lungs tighten as her heart raged in her chest, thrashing so carelessly that she began to gag from the will to breathe.

Brown.

It was a murky brown, littered with tiny bits that she couldn't make out, everything blurred and disfigured with the waves that crashed into her while her legs naturally kicked to swim. She couldn't see anything; she had no idea where she was, and chances were that she was going to die here.

Another agonising surge of fire burned hot inside her while her skin battled the frosty liquid that tightly wrapped itself along her body, hugging her in a strangling cuddle that cooed for her to stay, to stop fighting, stop living. Everything was so heavy, the pressure drubbing against her skull and making her brain want to pop, building up in her ears as she could hear her pulse spike along with the relentless, torturous roaring from the water, hammering unforgivingly and rattling all her senses.

She was overwhelmed.

The liquid tried to squirm into her mouth, sneak up her nose with a prickling deadliness, all while gently lulling her deeper into the lethal depths, misguiding her from her salvation.

Up.

She had to go up.

Legs thrusting, arms jerking, she climbed against the pull, scaling the aquatic scene like she would a mountain, reaching out in a frantic, be it futile, attempt of survival. It was so cold, numbing every muscle and making it as stiff as stone, feeling her hand form into a pitiful claw while her knees screamed in protest at the effort. Even the lungs that so dreadfully begged for air turned against her, biting into her chest like feral dogs snapping in their cages. They tore up everything inside with an ache so excruciating that it made her want to screech and whimper but she couldn't.

She had to focus on the light.

The tiny ray of hope that lingered above her, barely visible to her bleeding eyes that squinted against the harsh element. Just a speck, just a glimmer in the distance, the softest shimmer of white with a hint of yellow but she raced towards it. Every stroke felt like it would be her last, feeling the thrumming of her heart grow more and more violent, fearing that soon it would burst and that would be the end of it.

Dead.

But the primal urge inside her to live pushed her to persevere, the actions so automatic that she didn't think while she completed them, ascending up and up and up till she was so close that the dark brown became light, and she dared hope that she would make it. However, it was still so far, so far even though she was so close. What if she died before she reached it? How cruel would that be for her to lose in the moment she was about to win? With the way that her gut wrenched, and head swirled, she knew that she did not have the luxury of time. Her life would be stripped of her brutally, mockingly right when she thought it could be saved.