*Watty's 2021 Shortlist*
Samantha Roberts and Ben Evans have one thing in common - they both attend Sir Robertson's School for the Gifted, an elite boarding school for the children of the world's wealthiest. Both scholarship students, they gravitate...
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The mud is nearly up to my knees now. I think the street might be flooding, and that should probably be more worrying than it is.
I raise my hand to my face, watch the water drip off of it. I can't remember what it feels like to be dry.
My feet squelch in the mud. It's hard to walk, but I need to keep going. I need to find it.
I need to remember.
I look up again, the swirl of paint details of the road blurring together into something resembling actual concrete. Ahead of me, stands Ben: face tilted to the sky, paint-raindrops dripping off of him.
The beam of light illuminates him, and I suddenly remember that I've been here before. I've seen this before. So why did I, for a moment, think I was going to see someone else?
"Sam."
I turn. Rose stands beside me, eyes locked on Ben. She's dressed in a loose white dress, completely soaked, blonde hair streaked with mud.
"I've been waiting for you," she says, and as I look closer I can see tears streaking her cheeks. Or maybe just rain, it's hard to tell.
"I don't have much time," she continues, face still, hands clenched. "And I'm sorry, Sam. I'm so, so, sorry. I tried to hold on, I really did. I didn't want to leave you."
She turns to me, and I can see that she really is crying now. "I'm scared. Sam," she says, with little hiccuping sobs that remind me of how young she is. "I'm so scared. I don't want to -"
She stiffened, mouth opening in a silent scream. I reach out for her, to hold on to her, but my hand goes right through her.
"Rose," I say, confused and scared and terribly, terribly sad. "Rosie. Don't—stay with me, Rose. Please."
She shudders, and for a single moment she's back again, looking at me with those huge eyes. "Sam," she says, one pained syllable, a lifetime of apology and terror in that one word.
Then she disappears, leaving me alone in the street, rain washing away even the footprints of where she once stood.
"... I think she's waking up. Samantha, dear, can you hear me? Wake up, Samantha."
I suck in a breath. My head is pounding, and there's this irritating beeping noise that just won't stop. I can't remember where I am, or what happened... I was at the assembly. I was at the assembly, and I fell asleep, and then...
I don't know.
"Can you open your eyes, Samantha?"
I roll my head on my pillow. My eyelids feel far too heavy to even try, but my tongue seems a bit more cooperative.
