The theme this month is bridges. I thought a lot about this one, but in the end, this story kind of flowed out of my fingers, taking twists and turns on its own. It's always fun when that happens, isn't it?
Enjoy!
Serafina
leans forward, resting her forehead against the night-chilled steel
support. The water below slides beneath
her feet in a rush, the moonlight occasionally catching upon poorly defined
shapes she’s not certain she wants to see clearly. She takes a deep breath, but it doesn’t seem
to be enough to fill her lungs. Not
anymore.
The
distinctive sound of footsteps on the ancient wood planks of the bridge fill
the otherwise silent night. Serafina
doesn’t bother to turn to see who it is.
She doesn’t need to. Only one
other person knows to find her here.
“You’re
not going to do it, are you?” Harley asks, her typically mellow voice tight
with concern. The wood groans as she
settles beside Serafina.
Serafina
doesn’t answer, because she honestly doesn’t know. She’d have told her best friend if she
did. They’d never kept anything from
each other before.
The
silence stretches out, tugging on the air between them until it’s pulled so
tight that it feels as if the night itself might snap from the tension.
“What
if he was right?” Serafina finally asks.
“He seemed so sure, and they never found a body. You’d think three years would have given them
plenty of time to do that.”
“It
also would have given Jax enough time to get in touch with you if he was still
alive.” Harley’s words don’t sound
cruel, but they cut just the same.
Serafina
pulls away from the hand Harley tries to latch around her wrist. She can’t expect her to understand the
sheer need thrumming through her veins. “Jax
was the only family I had left. What
else am I supposed to do?” Their parents
disappeared one night a decade prior without explanation. Jax, who was eighteen at the time, took care
of Serafina. Just before she herself
turned eighteen, he started telling her stories of merpeople and unseen
underwater kingdoms.
“I
need to go home,” he’d told her, his emerald eyes burning bright with what she
feared was madness.
“But
you are home.” Serafina had tried in vain to convince him of
that, but he couldn’t be swayed.
Harley
sighs. “Jax was a wonderful brother,
okay, but he had problems. You know
that. You told me all the stories. And I get it.
Maybe you need to believe that he and your parents are still out there
somewhere going about their lives and waiting for you to join them. I can’t blame you for that, but if you do
this, you’ll only end up killing yourself, and that won’t solve anything!”
Serafina
stands up, Harley’s panicked words reminding her of the fateful night that Jax
had brought her here to this bridge. His
fluffy brown hair had almost danced in the breeze, the moonlight reflecting off
his bright eyes as he climbed over the railing.
Tears were streaking down Serafina’s cheeks, her nose running from all
the crying she’d been doing in the car. “Please,
Jax, you can’t do this. Don’t leave me!”
“You
can come with me,” he’d insisted. “We
can go together.”
She
felt so sure at the time that he was committing suicide in from of her, and
distraught though she’d been, she wasn’t prepared to follow through with
that. She shook her head
resolutely. “No, I can’t, but I don’t
know if I can stay here without you, either.”
Jax’s
smile was soft and a little sad. “You’ll
be just fine, Fin. Don’t doubt
that. You can come when you’re
ready. I’ll be waiting.” Then he let go, and she looked on in horror
as the angry water below swallowed him whole.
She’d
been so sure at first that he died that night, but the years that followed ate
away at that certainty, and the stories Jax told, ones he said that their
parents passed on to him before they left, seeped into the holes until nothing
but a need to see all of them again remained.
Harley is speaking in a rush behind her, but the words won’t reach her ears, as if
Serafina is already under water and unreachable. “Take care of yourself, Harley, and don’t
worry about me. I’ll be fine.” Her voice is confident. Strong in a way that it hasn’t been in a long
time. “I will miss you, though,” she
adds after a moment.
Then
she lets go. The freefall lasts only a
couple of seconds, but the lightness in her bones makes her spirit soar. I’m coming
home!
Dark
shapes swirl just below her as her body pierces the water’s surface and
sucks her under.
Word Count: 761
FCA
