Chapter 11: One Thing
>>Aelin
The water felt so still around me. The warm blood that seeped into it made it feel heavy. It felt like an embrace, one that I hadn’t felt in so long. My dress clung to my body, but even that weight didn’t seem to matter anymore. I let myself sink deeper, my arms limp at my sides, the sharp sting in my wrist fading into nothingness.
The ripples slowed, the sound of dripping water softening until all I could hear was my own heartbeat, sluggish and distant. My eyes fluttered closed as the world around me turned dim. For the first time in what felt like forever, I didn’t feel the ache, the pain, the emptiness clawing at me. There was just... silence.
I saw myself then, sinking into an endless, dark ocean. The water above glimmered faintly, a light I was leaving behind, but it didn’t matter. I welcomed the dark depths that seemed to stretch on forever. I reached out a hand, the light growing fainter, farther, unreachable as I found myself sinking into ocean water
This must be what peace must feel like,
The waves pulled me deeper. My limbs felt heavier. My breath was fading.
I didn’t even hear the knocking on the bathroom door. It was faint, like a distant echo in a dream. The sound barely pierced the stillness in my head. But then it grew louder, persistent, like someone was pounding on a door far, far away.
But my mind easily ignored it to let myself drift further down, but the sound wouldn’t stop. A muffled voice broke through the haze, followed by a loud crash.
The normal reaction to that would have been to flinch, to react, but I couldn’t. My body wasn’t mine anymore. My fingers twitched, barely, but I couldn’t bring myself to move. I didn’t want to.
The water around me stirred violently, hands grabbing at my arms, pulling me out of the dark ocean I had sunk into. I could faintly hear shouting, but it was garbled, distorted, like listening through thick glass. The air hit my skin, cold and harsh, as I was dragged from the bathtub.
"Wake up!!" The voice was desperate, panicked, but it barely registered. "What do you think you’re doing?!!" But I couldn’t help but notice how familiar and warm the voice was.