Burial At Sea
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If we're going into uncharted waters, I don't see the harm in enjoying the ride.
Are you being cute?
I've come round to your way of thinking.
Have you?
Yes. I do believe one can change things, but after all the misery, one often wishes that one had not.
you're a fatalist.
A physicist?
A fatalist.
So was Newton. Especially when it came to apples falling from trees. They always contrive to land with a splat... She left the child to burn.
Are you implying she's the apple?
I'm implying that she did not fall far from the tree.
She has no reason to go back!
The Lutece twins rattled on, their voices cold, emotionless. Their aloofness didn't hide their disgust at Elizabeth- she could see it in the twins' eyes.
They know what I did. They know me for who I really am.
Elizabeth couldn't even summon the courage to look up, or to say a word. She only heard Sally's cries and pained screams in her ears, shrill and accusatory.
"Too hot! Hot! HOT!" The screams turned violent, bloodcurdling. Then, silence.
Elizabeth despised herself- no, hatedherself. She wished over and over again to change places with Sally so that she could have been the one to burn, to scream in agony until she died.
But she couldn't turn back time. Worse, she couldn't even summon the courage to go back to pick up the pieces of what she had broken. The drenched shawl over her head dripped cold seawater and rain onto her cheeks, replacing the tears that had long since run dry.
Yes... I suppose. She'll go to where she will atone.
To where she truly belongs.
The male Lutece stopped rowing. The gentle sway of the boat turned into a violent pitch- and the quiet lap of the waves turned into mighty crashes as the sea grew savage. The twins were on the verge of shouting so that their voices would not drown in the cold, murky depths.
We've arrived.
But even here, there are rules.
Even for one such as you.
She'll forget... For a time.
All the doors.
And whats behind all the doors.
All closed to her now.
She'll be just like the rest of us.
Forgetting the past.
The present.
The future.
I'd wager she won't even remember this coversation.
Until she atones.
One way...
Or another.
The rowboat now rocked violently, threatening to toss all three of them into the black waters. The feral winds howled, the raindrops stung against Elizabeth's cheek, and the waves grew ever more violent. The sea hungered for the sacrifice, and its cries nearly drowned the female Lutece's last shout.
You're trading omniscience and croissants for misery and radiation!
Elizabeth was silent. A single tear rolled off her eye and mixed with the rain whipping against her skin. As she stood, the wind tore the shawl off her head, blowing the sea-soaked locks away from her pallid face. She blinked once, her eyes defeated and hollow. Misery?
She felt the endless guilt weigh heavily on her body. I deserve far worse.
A hand from each of the twins gave her a hard push- and she toppled over the edge, into the water frothing all around her. The last thing Elizabeth felt was the cold murky waters consuming her and rushing into her lungs, as she sank deeper and deeper into blackness.