Salem wasn't a fan of swimming.
She couldn't swim to begin with. She remembered fondly when she was a little girl, her experience with water ended poorly. It was on a hot summer day, million years ago, and 89 degrees Fahrenheit. It was hot enough to make the children of remnant beg their parents for ice cream and create cannonballs effortlessly in their local pools. Birds chirping and singing to their mates peacefully while some flew around the small village, glancing down at happy faces full of genuine delight.
She could recall the beautiful blue sky above her, colored like the ocean as the clouds served to be foam on the very corners of her eyes. The sun beaming down on her, screaming out its hot breath onto her that only the water could protect her from. The tears of the pool staining her eyes gracefully while pairs of hands lifted her up in the air like she was flying. If she focused enough, she could fly effortlessly. However, she wasn't strong enough yet. She had to depend on someone.
She had to depend on her mother.
The woman who shared the same shade of blonde hair as herself. The same shade of seafoam green that ended up in her own eyes. Blonde hair that had the scent of strawberries and the feel of silk she loved so much. And all white clothes fitted for a woman who resembled that of a queen. A goddess. She possessed the most sincere smile in all of remnant, helping her kind heart stand out from all. She was a woman of hope, always finding the good in all of humanity, even the evilest of beings. She would know.
Her father was basically the devil. Every night she would hear screams illuminate those dark halls of her home. Blood chilling begs to the gods to save her from this madness. Her lips colored with naturally made wine red lipstick that would leak from the corners of her lips. Bruised eyes and burnt marks labeling her as her father's personal play toy. And brands on her legs and arms as if she was an animal, always bowing to her divine god of the household. Sadly, she never looked into it. She wondered why…
Even when her mother had let go of her hand, leaving her to fend for herself, she still didn't question why she retreated to the calls of her father. She didn't know why she let her body be filled with water. Her lungs being filled up by chlorine and her eyes burning from the endless chemicals that traveled to her brain through her ears and their sockets. Why did she leave her to suffer? Why didn't she be a mother and save her child?
Why did she let her neck dance with that damn noose?
She thought she would live for the rest of her time on Remnant. That they would never separate and she would always love her. But as the days passed, her love for her mother began to fade like the summer heat. And her heart began to run cold, turning to stone by her father's mighty touch. She had lost all hope in the world and in her useless dream of being free…
Until he showed up.
Ozma. The love of her life.
She knew someone would come to her rescue eventually. There was a small spark of faith inside her frozen heart, making it beat fluently at the sight of the man. In all his glory, becoming her actual knight in shining armor and making her life what she wanted to make it. He showed her the ways of life, what she had been missing. What was worth living for. And why she was so important to this world. He made her feel two emotions she thought she would never encounter in this world…
Love.
And Depression.
All because of this one man.
She had to remind herself as she tried swimming away from a beast in a pool of her own blood that she hated swimming. That she did all this for her lover. She would go to hell and back just for him. She would become immortal just for the guarantee of his return to her arms. She would testify the gods and curse them for their inappropriate actions towards her and her people. She would even create a new utopia with him…
So why.
Why did his blade pierce her heart in a matter of seconds?
The blonde hair woman had her glistening seafoam eyes on the man who connected his irises with her own. She would feel blood clog up her lungs and throat as she tried to find the right words to say. Her hands reached for the leg she would connect with her own as they slept together. And her mouth gagged on air desperately while it tried to smile to its lover like it always did.
Ashes and smoke clogged up her nostrils as it also blinded her vision, burning her eyes from the fire in the air. The same fire that took her children away from her. The children she promised to raise just like her mother. The same children they would tuck to bed together, their bloods mixed in this horrible pool. Why?
Because of this demonic man before her. A male who used to look as human as everyone else. A man who now had his skin as white as the bodies of snow Atlas would swim in. His eyes red and black like those beasts they so despised. His clothes black as the midnight sky above them and red as the pool she suffocated in. She watched the strained veins pop from his head, face and eyes paint his body like tattoos, reaching the corners of his sickening smile. What was so funny, she questioned mentally as her grip loosened on her love's leg. Their family was no more. No one else was alive because of him. Because of them. He killed his love ones. He had turned into them.
Into him…
And yet this was funny...
His foot pressed harder on her chest, feeling as if he had set an anchor on her bare chest. She couldn't help but scream in grave pain as she cried hard at the sight in front of her.
"Salem… You always wanted freedom. But it's apparent now… You can never have freedom."
Those were the last words that filled her ears before she saw the one color she hated.
Black.
Salem wasn't a fan of swimming. But she kept swimming. Only to drown. And like an endless cycle,
She would keep swimming…