The Short Stories from a Woman (Wattys2016)

Cold Snow

The snow fell down in the dark night air. The sky full of dark clouds full of rain that fell in snow down on everything.

The night was silent, except with the sounds of the creatures that lurked in the darkness. Her hair flew behind her like a flag that moved in the wind on a ship that drifted on the salty waters of the sea. Her hands frozen.

Her nightgown wasn't able to keep her warm in a cold winter night. She needed to escape, she ran to the lake that she admired since she was a young child.

How her mother shared the love of the water with her, of the nature around their mansion. Her mother always told her that water was life, the fish alive in it, flowers and trees that drank the water that fell from the sky. The water that cleaned wounds and made you comfortable if you took a hot bath or swam in a river or played in the snow.

She didn't want to marry. She wanted to choose her own suitor, her own future, her own life. To be a woman in a world like the one she was a part of was not a life you wished you would get or a life you wanted.

Her hair the color of black coal and her pitch blue eyes made her look like a goddess. Men wanted her to be their wife, their possession, but she wouldn't become that.

She wanted to be remembered for the strong independent woman she admired to be. To make a statement to society in this time period, in this century that was a curse to women. 

She had stopped to run, now she walked slowly towards the water. Her gown wet with snow, her hair full of snowflakes that stood out in her dark hair while it slowly melted. She had left a letter in her room, on her pillow, her goodbye. 

The letter would be found that morning. Then her statement would spread through the halls and slowly by words across the land.

She had turned around to look at her home once more. Her blue eyes were not full of complete sadness, but with passion. Her toes touched the ice cold water firt, then her feet, then her legs. It was extremely cold, it was excruciating, but she kept going further and further into the lake. Her breasts lay on the water, her body was so cold, shutting down slowly. Her teeth clattered.

The clouds moved away and the full moon appeared above her, the light surrounded her like a blanket. Her eyes closed and she did let her numbed feet float, her whole body floated in the lake. Peaceful in the moonlight and the snow that was all around her. 

Her eyes closed and her body taken over by the cold. And at that time her body was rid of its soul.

She was gone, but in stories and memories she lived on.