I asked him multiple times. I can't call his name or face to mind, only his frown as he looked down at a notepad.
What's wrong with me?
We don't know that anything's wrong. You're just different.
By human standards, that is wrong.
That's not true.
Tell me what is.
Your parents obviously don't want you rolling about in the mud like a dog.
I think that you would have done the same.
What caused this action?
Hundreds of hundreds of little feet.
What did I have to gain by lying?
Of course he thought I was lying. The sun gives strength, it does not take it. So says an unwritten creed, somewhere in the ravels of the universe.
What's wrong?
I took the question back to the evening beasts and the phanfasms of the night, when we crouched among branches with falling leaves and crisp winds. They tilted their gentle heads in bemusement, dead-light eyes winking as they thought. They had no words to respond with, and so they stretched out their arms and embraced me, dragging their soothing fingers across my face.
Nothing is wrong?
My parents took me to a lake.
I couldn't explain why the murky blue made the back of my neck tingle, or why the early-morning mist that floated above it made me shudder. This was not water that fell from heaven.
All I could voice was a quiet plea to leave, to leave quickly. It was a silly plan anyway. Would a lake cure me of puddles?
They laughed and went for a swim. The water is cold! they cried, and splashed each other to show how lighthearted they were. I wrapped my arms around myself and ran to the trees for comfort.
As evening fell, the sudden severe stillness hit me. As years had passed, I could sometimes hear the daylight beings, their voices harsher and less distinguishable against my ear, and there they were strong. Very strong, a cacophony of laughter and song, but as the sun set, it all became swiftly silent.
My parents took a night walk, leaving me in the rented cabin.
The unnatural hush unnerved me. Even the crickets seemed breathless.
It was like day again: I was crushed in the vacuum, the cabin walls moving in around me. I sprinted out the door and ran to the lakeshore.
The sand was gritty and ill-feeling against my feet, with sharp rocks poking out in a muted warning.
She was sitting in the water, playing with a water lily.
Oh, hello, I've been waiting for you.
Her hair was long, and the lake tide tugged it gently around her.
Who are you?
I don't have a name.
I watched her as her pale fingers stroked the plant.
Who am I?
I don't know. She smiled and shrugged a little.
So how can you be waiting for me?
Because I knew you would come. Will you come into the water?
I drew back.
This water...
She sighed, unhappy, and let go of the flower. It wilted, and the tide carried it away in a uneven funeral procession.
It's dead.
Why?
Because I'm dead, too.
...All the creatures of the night...
She nodded and sighed again.
I'm not enough anymore.
So why are you waiting for me?
Because we need you. She gestured with one elegant hand around the forest clearing, the shore and the nearby rocks. It is so silent when I am awake...
What can I do to help you?
You are like me. The depths of this place go far below the sun's glare, and the moon shimmers on the surface. Will you come and see where you could be?
I reached and touched the water with a hesitant finger. Cold, but with none of the energy of a heavenly rainfall.
Yes.
She leaned over and laced her fingers with mine.
Be calm.
We were suddenly underwater, senses stretching out in all directions. The only thing to hear was the beat of water against water, the only thing to see was her next to me, and even that faded to only a slight glow holding my hand.
She showed me caves paved with soft sand, crevices that once held life and underwater graveyards marked only by her quiet sobs.
Why?
I'm dying.
We were floating near a sunken boat and she reappeared next to me, face sorrowful.
Please help us.
What happened?
I'm old, and tired.
You have not told me what I should do.
Just take my place. Live here so others in the night can live here. I am dead, so they are dead, and it makes me sad. They should not be dead.
What do I have to do?
She peered at me and her voice became quiet and grave.
You won't feel the drowning.
I must die?
It is hard, for you and me, to live in the evening and the morning, and so, we must eventually choose or be lost to the sun.
If I die, will I be like you?
If you die, you will be you. Lake. Shore. Rocks. Birds of the air, rodents of the earth and fishes of the water. The shards of moon that dance on the surface, the clouds that tumble across the sky reflected upon your face.
The dead lights.
Yes. The dead lights.
And the idea of returning to the sunlight, even in that dead sea, became unbearable.
I would be a dead light.
--
A newspaper clipping blew in the wind near the lake, tattered by the elements.
DARLING CREEK, Indiana --
A (smudge) was found dead in Aloja Lake at 6 a.m. this morning by Mrs. John Liebling of 1341 Starling Way. The body has been id(large smudge)r. and Mrs. Matthew Jacobson who were on vacation. The cause of death appears to be accidental tho(large smudge)
__
Ugh. This deserves an explanation.
I started it a while ago as a sort of "get-the-purple-prose-and-weird-style-out-of-your-system" project, but I actually came to like the narrator. I had up to before the sun rose in 1/2, and then I set it aside for about a month and wrote more bad fiction. I came back to it a week ago and started writing again, and a few nights ago I said, "I want this finished!" After trawling through Wiki's list of mythical monsters, I came across the Aloja, Spanish sort-of naiads. Thought about it for a while and then wrote the ending.
And now you know why this piece is so freaking disjointed. Point is, I've written it, I'm not happy with it, and I have absolutely no idea as what to do to improve it. Obviously I have to cut away the ridiculous amount of description and throw in some feeling and logic (much love to tinny and Avens Dolor), but I still feel iffy on the ending. It's just a bit much like June 14th.
I want to edit the entire thing at once so I don't get another disjointed feeling, but I'm drawing a blank. Any ideas? Any at all? :*meep*:
Rip, and talk to me, pretty please please. (That is, if you managed to get through that preposterously long post-amble. )
~Sumi
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