Here’s my story for the prompt for Wednesday June 15, 2023. This was really tripped me up, but I finally got something I liked.
Dozens of lifeless spindly trees twisted out from the murky water. A deep mist blurred the thinnest of branches and calmed the voices.
I stepped into the icy water, the chill lapping against my bare feet and legs. I kept walking, watching myself disappear into the blackness until I submerged my face.
Icy peace burned my insides. This is what I ached for, what I missed in the hustle and bustle of living people.
I came here when the urges were strongest, when the voices were calling for reprieve. When I was one step away from the voices taking control.
This was my sanctuary. This calmed them within me.
An ache burned in my lungs, and I pushed through the surface to breathe. Instead, I gasped.
My partner stood on the shoreline, staring at me. Her face twisted in a morbid curiosity.
The voices in me screamed, demanding release.
She knew. She wasn’t supposed to know.
She was only safe as long as my asylum was hidden from her.
“Are you…okay?” she asks, her eyes unsure.
She’d never understand…and she never would.
I walked steadily to the shore, my voices screaming.
“I like it here,” I said, holding out my hand to her.
Her shoulders relaxed, and she took my hand.
I smiled as I guided her into the water, the voices soothed by her squirming at the cold. At waist deep, I took her by the shoulders and submerged her.
Here, she’d forever be safe.
Image credit: https://neaarty.tumblr.com/image/159419525570
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