Immortal Together

• Lilly-may Chorley
• Short Story
• 2022

I wake up abruptly, completely surrounded by water. I beckon my stiff joints to move as I try and force my way to the surface. My lungs send stabbing waves of pain through my panicking body. I don’t know how long I’ve been here but that doesn’t matter. Higher. I just need to swim higher. It’s the only way I will live although, it’s not like I can really die. The lake brings me back it always brings me back.
I gasp violently as I take in air for the first time in what is usually hours, but time here moves differently. I calm myself down and take my time as I swim to shore. My body feels alive, with adrenalin coursing through my veins. I pull myself up and just lay there for a moment. Everything aches. I stand up and peer over into the water at my refection. I don’t recognize myself like this. Scars coat my tired body, they are everywhere. Each made over all the lives I’ve lived. My fingers repeatedly slides over a new small circular one on my abdomen. I remember…

The blare of the explosion is heard from far away. This one is bigger than all the other explosions before it. Shards of glass broken by the other explosions are sent hurling in every direction, some nearby buildings have completely collapsed. Flames scatter across the field, across cars, buildings, they engulf everything they touch. The whole field has now been completely destroyed and the people that were trying to escape are now dead. I tried to save her, but I couldn’t, I only left her for a second to get my purse out of the car to pay for ice cream. I have failed as a mother. I couldn’t protect her. Tears stream down my face as we are evacuated from the area. I still see her face in my mind as I walk. I should have died with her, so I wouldn’t have to suffer a lifetime without her. Out of the corner of my eyes I see him, the one who did this to my darling girl. I don’t know why but I run up to him.

“You killed her,” I cry.

I try to rustle him, get him unconscious, make him pay for what he did but instead he pulls out a gun.
A loud bang rings out shoving me backwards with impact, but it’s not ground that I fall into, its water. My body feels like a magnet being forcefully pulled down. I can’t move, the water paralyzes me. All I hear is my silence. I get propelled deeper and deeper down into the depths of the lake; it seems endless. I’m not breathing but I’m not suffocating either. I watch has the earth closes up behind me. I still see my daughters face in my mind, I dont want to leave her. I want us to be immortal together. Then I get jolted down again and everything goes black.

My fingers continue sliding over my scars.

“Mum?” someone calls from behind.