Laurel: A Very Long and Very Unusual Second Life
Part One: Renascentia [Rebirth]
Prologue: Submersam [Drowning]
After the pain had left her, she could only feel a sense of calmness. Icy water surrounded her completely, enveloping her with supressing force. The girl was floating, no clear destination. Her eyes were closed, not in pain but in relief. Eyelashes brushed softly against pale cheeks, not moving a whisper.
She could not remember what had happened, what came before now to lead to her icy grave. And it was. Her grave, that is. The girl knew it for a certainty. Though she could hear the dull ambience of the ocean and feel the icy water shocking her skin, the girl felt still. She thought, that even if she were on a warm, sunny beach, her skin would remain as pale and cold as stone. As lifeless.
Laurel, the girl thought abruptly. That was her name. The girl, Laurel, remembered lazy days sitting outside in the sunlight, grass between her toes and a hand in hers. She remembered colder, winter days with cosy blankets and a cosier boy. The boy. With indifference she recalled that he had been there with her, before the water. Oh, he had pushed her, hadn't he? That was peculiar. Laurel could not recall him ever seeming less than completely enamoured with her.
But the girl could not find it within herself to care. She observed that it was hard to care when you were dead. It was hard to do anything, mind submersed in a dull acceptance and limbs locked in rigid shapes.
So, Laurel continued. This wouldn't be a bad existence, she thought, a bit boring and almost entirely unremarkable, but she could live with floating. Or, she guessed she couldn't live with it, but she could certainly bear it.
Water tumbled around her, brushing hair back and forward and back and forward. Time may be an illusion, but Laurel did not feel it passing. It could have been days or weeks, probably seconds. The icy cold spread. Laurel could almost feel it tangibly reach her heart. The ghost of her once beating heart quickened, she could hear its pretend thump in her head.
The dullness was fading, Laurel's mind growing sharper. She was beginning to panic. And just as her ghost heart began to reach an impossible speed, it stopped.