"We weren't meant to be good. We were meant to survive."
Zerlinda has had a sword hanging over her head ever since her father's disappearance.
With her cowardly mother good as dead, Zerlinda is forced to accept a bargain with Hades, the God of Deat...
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Her mother had once told her that the ocean forgave no one. With the water like ice against her skin, she finally started believing it.
She frantically waved her arms and legs in an effort not to be pulled under, but it was of no use. The sea held her captive, and it had no intention of letting go.
Her heart was racing in her chest much like a bird in a cage, fighting to keep beating against the cold tide of the ocean, fighting to keep her from being killed, washed away by the sea.
She opened her mouth in an attempt to scream, but her cries were silenced as she unwittingly took in a mouthful of salty water.
Her lungs burned much as a flame would. It would be the first time she saw no beauty in a flame's burning dance. More water came in through her nose and mouth.
There was no surviving this. She would drown in Nerissa's cold sea, never to be found or remembered by anyone she knew. Would her parents find her body, or would it wither away slowly, carried on by the sea's unforgiving hand? Perhaps it was the water, but she thought she felt a tear roll down her cheeks.
Everything began blurring together until the darkening in the corner of her vision kept her from being able to distinguish truth from lie. Was that something, swimming in the water, just a few feet from her? Could she trust her vision to be more than an illusion? For all she knew, she had already succumbed to the waves long ago.
Her movements began slowing down, her body becoming taut and numb. She could no longer feel her arms and legs, and gave up on thrashing against the water's tight grasp on her. An echo resonated in the distance-no, a song. Its melody lulled her to sleep, her eyes fluttering shut. The cold seemed to fade from her body, leaving only the sea's soft melody. Slowly, she began sinking into the sea, a trail of bubbles escaping her mouth as she did.
♛
Zerlinda shot up in bed, her body drenched in cold sweat. She panted, trying to make sense of what was real and what wasn't. Slowly, she came back to her senses, feeling the absence of the cold water holding her captive.
Only a nightmare. The same one as usual, but a nightmare all the same.
She kicked aside her blankets and tiptoed out of bed, careful not to wake her sister slumbering on the floor next to her.
I need some air, she thought, hoping that it would ease her nerves enough to help her fall back asleep. She walked out of the caravan her and the rest of the family lived in, lifting her long nightgown skirts as she went down the stairs.
