Fiction Fun: Running through Water, A Selkie Escape

She makes her way through weighted sand that is begging her to stop, holding onto her with each step. The water has beaten wet sand into submission as she treads woodenly in staccato steps. The song of night calls her name and she has no will of her own.  The cool waves crash at her feet, reaching icy fingers toward frozen toes. She's in the depths of a lost reserve and the song she hears howls a sad refrain that promises she'll forget. Slow steps lead to a cacophonous harmony of angry ocean churning until bitten ankles are numbed and the piercing pain gives way to  stiff movements. She's urged forward. A fresh sting of cold hits her thighs in a shocking protest of discomfort. She begins to run forward in a slow lift and fall as the water lifts her and pulls the sifting sand from under delicate feet.  Layers of clothes cling to her and pull her deeper until the water lifts her up then in deeper and she's pulled by the will of the waves. She makes it past the breakers where pinpricks of ice slow her breathing and a shooting star draws her attention away from the siren call that will silence the pain that echoes in her mind and she looks back at the shore where she sees him. He watches her go and longs to save her, but he's not enough.  She often told him that she couldn't be enough and in the moment before them, he was the one that couldn't find enough within him. The shroud of loss fell away and he could see that the well of life within him kept him from seeing where he was empty and she was filling his barren spaces.  Her life hid his death.  He calls her name but she can't hear him.  He can feel her forcing through the waves away from him because as her pulse slows to the chill of the night, he can feel his own heart slowing because she's taken it with her.  She has taken him and his powerlessness leaves him shattered on dry sand.

As she watches him there is a tingling throughout her body and the painful numbing becomes a warmth of freedom.  Her clothes burst free from her as the waves strip her body, but the cold is no longer painful.  She feels warmth burn through her body and her legs are suddenly light and strong. Silky hair halos around her head as she is taken under and she begins to breathe in the salty water. She feels peace and knows she is finally home.

Just when he felt it was her end, she shifted into her selkie form and swam away.