Sisters Three (Completed)

1. Morna (2/2)

Morna was halfway down the hall when she heard the top step creak. The pull was too strong for her attention to waiver enough to glance behind her, but it wasn't long before she heard her name called.

"What are you doing?" Brenna hissed, the stairs squeaking as she ran down the stairs. Morna pressed toward the door, her hand outstretched and itching for the brass knob.

"Morna!" Brenna's voice wasn't any closer, though she raised the pitch. "You're not going out to the water, are you?"

When Morna didn't answer, and instead began to open the door, Brenna continued. "Mama will be so angry! You're not supposed to go out there anymore!"

Morna's hand shook on the handle of the door, the brisk night air spilling through the crack and washing over her heated face. Her stomach lurched, the call of the water insistent. From somewhere deep inside her, she pulled the strength to still her legs. Immediately, nausea swam in her gut and the hook behind her ribs sharpened. "I can't stop, Brenna," she gasped, her voice rising at the end of the sentence. "Help. I don't want to go." Tears sprang to her eyes as she imagined the water against her legs, rising to her waist... she hated it, but the pull was so strong. It yanked now, her legs stuttering forward.

"I'll get someone to help," Brenna yelled, her footsteps already stomping back up the stairs. Morna wished her sister had thought to ask a servant for help, but no doubt she was headed for Adair. Their older sister was the most reliable when it came to this sort of thing. Maybe it was because she knew what it was to keep secrets.

Unable to stop her body from rebelling any longer, Morna opened the door the entire way and let the call draw her down the lawn and toward the lake. Her bare feet stung in the cold, and the hem of her nightgown soaked up the dew and slapped against her shins. Eyes fear-bright, Morna picked her way onto the gravel path and then down the short expanse to the edge of the lake. Behind her, the sound of piano and violin drifted down from the house, along with the laughter and conversations of the party. She sucked in a shaky breath, wondering if Brenna had reached Adair yet. The black seam of the lake drew closer and closer, now only a few feet away.

It was always at this place, right before her feet hit the water, that she gained the most fight. She slammed her legs to a halt, swallowing the bile that rose in her throat at the pull that consumed her. The water seemed almost to rise from its place, swimming in her eyes, the cold wind whipping off the surface and filling her nostrils with the scent of damp. It was the strongest the pull could get, this close to the water, but it was also the place where her fear was the strongest. And fear could go a long way to pushing back the almighty call of the water.

Like a cart with a broken wheel, she stuttered painstakingly forward, her legs not bending but the momentum enough that she still shifted forward. The water licked her toes, sharply cold, and though she fought it constantly, her feet submerged inch by inch by inch.

"Brenna!" she wailed, not knowing if her sister was anywhere nearby, but knowing that even the sound of her name was a comfort. The pond stroked her shins. She bit back a sob. The hook behind her ribs yanked down sharply, and she stumbled so far that her hands brushed the surface.

"We're here," a voice said. Footsteps pounded behind her and a hand gripped her shoulder. It pulled back, her legs unsticking from the mud and sliding across the grass. She tipped her head back to see the stoic face of Adair. Her eldest sister's grip was strong and determined. Claiming her back from the call. Brenna danced nearby to keep warm, her eyes wide and shining.

"Come on," Adair said, lifting Morna up and setting her back down a few feet away from the edge of the pond. The water still whispered in her ears and in her stomach, but with her sisters standing so nearby it did not seem so urgent. "Let it pass. You know it will. Just breathe."