Mien

Prologue

It had always been on full moons that she'd drifted a little further away. Away from friends, reality, life. No one ever noticed, so no one ever pulled her back. She had perfected the art of blending in, being invisible, and disappearing. So on that Thursday full moon in the middle of December when she wandered out of her bedroom door, through the house's various rooms and onto the decked area looking into the woods, her parents didn't blink an eye away from the flatscreen TV. Savouring, just for a moment, the feel of the freezing breeze on her face, limbs, neck, and the goosebumps rising up out of her skin, she sighed. Nature was where she felt at home, not the place behind her with its coloured walls, luxurious furniture and pieces of art. She stepped off of the decking, with bare feet, onto the frozen ground beneath. Then she started running. Her feet had now gotten used to this and could resist the pains of twigs and thorns sinking into the skin. Her lungs knew the bitter air all too well and welcomed it in whilst the muscles pumped to take the girl where she wanted to go. 

Within minutes, she was a mile away from her house, and casting her eyes across the lake. It was within that moment, the moment that occured often during this event, that she felt a sense of peace, caused by the round, bright white moon reflecting down onto the expanse of turquoise and navy water and illuminating the whole landscape before her. Every leaf, every branch, ever plant was touched and visible under this sky. It was these moments that she lived for. Some people enjoyed the things around them. Fashion, music, television, food, partying... In their eyes they had so much to live for, but for her, this was it. Going out into the middle of the woods at night time was her idea of fun. It was just her and the air around her. Somehow, her freezing body didn't matter, nor did her schoolwork or anything else. 

Like any other night, she went to the jetty. Its decaying wooden boards were damp and rough under her feet, harshly prodding her soles with splinters. She reached the end of the walkway and looked over the edge into the water. The blackness of the water was plain, with nothing floating on the surface apart from the ripples from the curling currents of the water. Just ahead in the water was the moon, largely placed on the surface, its white set against the black. 

The girl took one step forward and let her body plunge into the watery depths. After the rush in her ears had passed she opened her eyes. Her scarf floated around her, tangling and entrapping her. Her hair could not be felt on the back of her neck, only at the roots and dragging behind her. Her clothes no longer clung to her like the air did just twenty minutes before. Weightless.

A few minutes in the life-extracting water and her lungs howling for air, she propelled her head to above the water level. She gulped in what her body wanted and let the water trickle down in ravines off of her face. Her body drifted over to the leg of the jetty and her hands wrapped around the clammy texture. Her small, now discoloured lips were open and sucking in air. Her head was bent backwards towards the open sky. Her body now contented with air, she looked across the surface of the water. More parts of the water's surface were swelling up and down because of her movement in the water. The tall forest pines looked more giant from her lower place, them casting a shadow across the lake. And it was at the foot of the tree that she'd seen something she'd never seen before. On the other side of the lake was the figure. Its blackness almost camouflaged itself into the background of shrubbery and tree trunks, but the flash of moonlight on its hood distinctly set it aside from the landscape. It was frozen still, watching. She did not know what it was watching, but with the knowledge that it could have been her, she bobbed her head underneath the surface once again, and knowing she was now hidden from sight, she secretly swam to the water's edge and underneath the jetty. In seconds she had picked herself up onto the land and was sprinting to get away from her disturbed tranquility. Her body disagreed with the rituals she put it through, but she disregarded it as she made her back to the house. 

Deciding that leaving wet water tracks throughout the house would be a give-away to her night habits, avoiding going by the well-lit windows which oozed light from behind curtains and blinds, she clambered up the wall and dropped herself back into her room. Having now returned to the reality of her life, she slipped into real life routines. She closed the window and large red curtains, removed her wet clothing and grabbed suitable attire to go to bed in. She layed out the wet clothes to dry; she didn't want to lose remnants of the moment she had just lived. Then she threw herself into the plump covers on her bed and let her eyelids close.