Undine -

Chapter 29

For an interminable time Sophie stood shivering, filled with unshed tears.  She gazed up at the lightening sky realising it was almost morning, then back down to the surface of the lake.  Where Michael had been only a widening circle of ripples remained.  She wondered if he'd become the water, as Raif had said, then closed her eyes and concentrated on feeling his presence; but all she felt was the insane clamour of impending grief.

A sound reached her;  the low, distant chuckle of dark amusement.  The voice was deep and masculine, though Sophie felt uncertain whether the sound really existed or whether it rang in her mind.  She cocked her head, but the sound was gone.  She mouthed his name. 'Raif?'

Silence.

Sophie knew he was there.  Watching, maybe sensing her dread through the water as a shark smells the blood of its prey.  She glanced down at her body, saw that her robe had fallen apart revealing the creamy expanse of her breasts and abdomen.  She shrugged the garment from her shoulders, watched as the oily maw of the lake swallowed it.  Then, she stepped forwards until the water reached her breastbone.

For a moment she hesitated, expecting panic, finding only inner calm at her decision.  It was as though her whole life had come into focus, channelled into this one fatalistic decision.  She stared up at the fading stars, closed her eyes...then sank beneath the lake.

The blackness was denser than anything Sophie knew.  Blacker than her nightmares or fear or her own clouded perceptions of death.  It enshrouded her, smothered her and threatened to take her mind.  She sank deeper, allowing her limbs to droop.

Her lungs ached.  Her heart ached.  Her soul ached to be free of its sluggish case of flesh.  She knew that one swift inhalation would end it all and start the chain of events from which there was no return.  But her will to survive overpowered her, and as the battle for possession of her soul began, her head became filled with voices.

'Time to get up, darling. You'll be late for school.'

'Don't run when you cross the road, baby. Wait for daddy.'

'The storm won't hurt you, if you let me kiss you.'

'Welcome to Rivermead...

'Just put your feet down...'

'I can't. I'm scared.

'I see your courage, my dear, shining like a blade...

'We spend nine months' breathing water.'

'Don't swim in the lake alone.'

'I won't let go of you... I promise.'

Sophie began to lose her grip on consciousness.  It didn't fade, but was like a mass of bright bubbles bursting behind her eyes - each bubble leaving a small, dark blank as it popped.

She brought what remained of her free will into play, focusing her thoughts on Michael, her lungs bursting under the pressure.  She saw his face, handsome, embittered by too many lonely years.  She reached out with her mind, felt his flesh on hers; knew she was hallucinating and that it was almost over.

She wondered at the kindness of death, wondered how anyone could be afraid. Michael's arms embraced her; and when he kissed her, his lips were warm and soft and took away the pain in her chest.

I'm done, she thought dreamily. It's over.   Her oxygen starved reflexes finally took control of her lungs...and she inhaled.

She was being lifted, pulled towards a world to which she no longer belonged. They breached the surface in a glittering nova, the golden rays of the rising sun gilding their bodies, and she was gulping lungful's of sweet, morning air.  Michael held her as she knew he would but she saw he too breathed heavily as though exhausted.