Authors note: sorry for the delay in posting. Thank you for the reviews! :)
What the Water Gave Me
It rushed in. From every window, from every angle. It swept the people up from their seats, unconscious, alive, dead, she didn't know. It was coming forward, towards her and her mother. Her mother.
Bella could see her mother's form, with head rested on the headrest in front of her. Blood was dripping from her scalp down her hair and at the corner of her mouth.
"Mom!"
People around her were groaning, a few voices were crying out for help. The couple across the aisle from her were slumped in their seats. Metal debris continued to fall into the cabin. It was pitch black except for the few illuminated signs and flashing sparks.
Bella's head was swimming. "Mom! MOM!" she shook her, but she wouldn't wake.
Her swift hands unbuckled her belt, then her mother's. Renee began to fall forward into the water that started swirling past her calves. Bella looked up-
The first class cabin was already underwater.
Edward.
You can't think about it now. Get mom out.
Tears poured from her eyes as she hauled her mother onto herself, but the weight was too much and she fell into the aisle- into the water.
They're all dead. We're going to die. We're in the middle of water, the ocean, where's land? Why won't mom wake up? Where's the exit?
She surfaced in time to grab hold of her mother's hand, and haul her to the surface. A woman was floating by her, unconscious. Or dead. The fear grabbed hold of her lungs; suddenly she couldn't breathe.
Where's the way out - How do I get out!
The windows were too small, and she didn't know how to open the door.
A red ceiling light was dimmed beneath the water ahead of her.
The emergency exit sign
"Mom, Mom wake up!" she kept shaking her and squeezing her arms despite the rising water and cries for help.
A weight was on her chest. The air was getting tight and thick, like breathing in syrup.
"Mom, Mom please!" she could touch the top of the cabin now. It was filling rapidly with a few feet left.
"Mom we have to go! Please, Mom wake up!"
Her head was bursting.
I can't leave without her.
Resolved, and incredibly calm for a 12 year-old in her situation, Bella hauled her mother over her shoulder by gripping onto one wrist, and took her last breath before the water swallowed the cabin.
It was pitch black except for the Exit sign one entire row ahead.
Bella fought past the floating masses that continued to bump into her. She refused to acknowledge them, or the reality that she was swimming amongst dead people – bodies – a graveyard she was about to become a part of.
The thought numbed her to the core.
She could see the sign – see the door – reach the handle. It was too tightly secured. No, open! Her lungs were ready to burst.
Sharp pain radiated from her head down her neck; stars appeared like fireworks in her vision. The only sound was the overflow of liquid into her lungs. The heaviness in her chest felt like lead. She opened her eyes to the door, and took every effort to turn her head to see her mother. Her form beside her was falling away; she was floating into the cabin, into the darkness.
She had let go, she had failed. She had to catch her, just reach out and touch her – but she couldn't move her arms…
There was movement in her peripheral vision. A loud squeaking noise, followed by a tugging on her arm. She watched the outline of her mother in the darkness falling away to join the other masses…then all was black.