MABEL
She shrugged; the touch wasn’t something she knew how to name. Comforting? Her parents hadn’t been the affectionate sort – there were too many of them, and too many things to do, to accomplish, on a failing farm. So she sighed, wondered if it was too late to crawl back into the earth, to forget this sad, miserable attempt at human predilections. She was no longer quipped for the task – even simple ones, like wiping the salt off of her features. “I don’t know,” Mabel could only offer in response. She didn’t. She didn’t have a clue.
Another shudder emitted through her shoulders, and the youth couldn’t distinguish if she should rise and flicker off into nothingness again, be left to her own devices, or simply meander, wander, for the rest of eternity, stuck in the same stupefying shell. Mabel didn’t want to remain in this panicked state, in this inconsolable wake, but the notion of conquering the water left her breathless, distraught, and frozen. “What do I do?” Her eyes went to his, as if suddenly the answer would appear before them.
How did one abolish the fear of death over and over again? A slow course of demise, where she could watch the waves churn above her, below her, until the sun starched and stung, until she fell apart in its seams, until she descended into its wake? Or was it not so easy, not so stark, not so clear?
Maybe she was destined to stay that way – hollowed out, caught in the everlasting death throes and throngs. The salt to remind her. The seaweed to taunt her. The liquid in her lungs to tarnish her.
“Did you die?” She asked, quite out of the blue, uncertain why she’d need to drag both of them into this hellhole.
Another shudder emitted through her shoulders, and the youth couldn’t distinguish if she should rise and flicker off into nothingness again, be left to her own devices, or simply meander, wander, for the rest of eternity, stuck in the same stupefying shell. Mabel didn’t want to remain in this panicked state, in this inconsolable wake, but the notion of conquering the water left her breathless, distraught, and frozen. “What do I do?” Her eyes went to his, as if suddenly the answer would appear before them.
How did one abolish the fear of death over and over again? A slow course of demise, where she could watch the waves churn above her, below her, until the sun starched and stung, until she fell apart in its seams, until she descended into its wake? Or was it not so easy, not so stark, not so clear?
Maybe she was destined to stay that way – hollowed out, caught in the everlasting death throes and throngs. The salt to remind her. The seaweed to taunt her. The liquid in her lungs to tarnish her.
“Did you die?” She asked, quite out of the blue, uncertain why she’d need to drag both of them into this hellhole.
I bare my teeth
and stretch my claws out
and stretch my claws out
