The air, lifted by the breeze, is quiet and gentle, the deep blue water below impressively still. The only sound echoes from the taps of her polished mary janes hitting the perfectly spherical faces of her stepping stones.
Her path is set out clearly ahead, winding near the edge, never straying for long from the shore. In the grey twilight, the stones blur as shadows into the water, but she's done this before. In her confidence, she twirls, lightly dancing her way across. In her confidence, she slips and in one fluid swing, crashes gracefully into the calm surface below.
Eyes still wide open under the murky water, she finds she can't even see her hand merely inches from her face. The shallow moonlight just barely trickles through from above, casting a soft luminescence to the darkness.
The depths hold her for an eternity, frozen in the curve of her fall, stretching the moment into forever. She floats serenely in the dark, the haunting billow of her dress giving her the appearance of effortless flight. Black strands of hair snake across her porcelain skin, an eerie blue in the water's filter...
In a snap, she stretches her leg to find the bottom and stands, her face just breaking into air as she cranes her neck. Drawing in one jagged first breath, she gropes the water, wading momentarily in a silent panic.
Shallow breathing echoes in her head, loud in the aftermath of shock. Seconds pass thickly, caught slowly dissipating in the ripples of each drop from the end of her chin. Struggling for composure, she reaches out to grab hold of a stone and weakly begins to drag herself out.
