The Water Spirit

Sera didn’t dream anymore.  Dreams require sleep, and sleep hadn’t been a part of her life for the past six months.  So no, it wasn’t a dream.  It was a memory.  But it was a memory so vivid, so well defined that it was more immersive than any dream ever could have been.

It was the memory of how she died.

***

“Come on!” Damon taunted over his shoulder as he dashed through the trees.  “Keep up, Sera!”

A smile spread across Sera’s face.  She held up the hem of her dress so it wouldn’t drag as she chased him through the woods.  “Damon!” she called out, though the word was mostly a breathless giggle.  “Damon, wait!” 

It was a fine morning in early spring.  A light breeze rustled through the trees, and birdsong echoed across the forest. 
She caught up to Damon on the bank of the small river that cut across the forest.  He stood doubled over, breathing heavily and looking at her.  All these months later, she could still remember the way he looked at her.  Remember the way he made her feel. 
“I win.” he panted.  She could barely hear him over the roar of the river.  “I win.  Again.”

She doubled over to catch her own breath.  The two remained like that for a while, their lungs heaving as they stared at each other.  There’s no such thing as perfection, Sera’s mother used to tell her.  All you can get is close.  Standing by the river with Damon, looking deep into his light blue eyes - that was as close as she ever came to a perfect moment in her short life. 

Damon pushed himself upright, and the moment ended.  “I know what we’re doing next,” he announced proudly. 

Sera was still catching her breath.  “What?”

“Swimming across the river.”

She considered for a moment, then shook her head.  The river was flowing more rapidly than she’d ever seen.  “You’re crazy.  The snows just melted, and the river is nearly flooding.  We’ll be washed away.”

But Damon was already removing his shirt.  “Don’t be such a coward,” he said.  “What are you now, fifteen?  Almost a woman.  You can cross a small bloody river, can’t you?”

She bit her lip.  A mix of emotions tumbled around in her gut.  He’s right, she thought.  And the river isn’t that dangerous.  “Fine,” she said, reaching behind herself to undo the corset of her dress.  “But you have to go first.”  The dress slipped from her shoulders, revealing her white chemise beneath. 

Damon nodded.  He hung his shirt over a low hanging branch nearby, and Sera did the same with her dress.  Damon winked at her and said, “Wish me luck.”  Then he darted for the river.  His feet splashed in the water for a couple of steps before he dove into the water head-first.  She held her breath, afraid that he wouldn’t emerge again, but it was only a moment before she saw his head poke out of the water a few feet away from where he dove in.  Within a few heartbeats he was on the other bank of the river.  He waded out of the water, dripping wet.  “Your turn!” he hollered back at her.

Anxiousness tingled in her chest.  Don’t wait to long, she consoled herself.  Elsewise, Damon will think you’re a coward.  She took a deep, long breath, and then took off for the river.  Following Damon’s example, she took a couple steps into the water before jumping and diving in head-first. 

The cold river swallowed her whole.  The chill made her skin sting, and soaked into the fabric of her clothing.  All her senses screamed at her to get out.  

She kicked for the surface, but the current was strong.  It dragged her downstream, pulling her sideways as she tried to go up.  Her heart quickened.  Panic set in.  Come on, she thought, redoubling her efforts.  With a hard kick she was able to get her hand above the water, but the river sucked her under again instantly.  The water tumbled her head over heels until she didn’t know up from down.  Her lungs ached.  Darkness closed in around her. 

***

In real life, that’s where Sera’s story ended.  But she liked to imagine an alternate conclusion to the tale.  She liked to imagine a savior pulling her from the water, his wet hair glistening in the morning sun.  Usually this savior was Damon, his bright blue eyes beaming at her.  But lately Termon played the role of her daydream hero more often Damon.  Termon's brown hair, brown eyes, and soft features made him a less handsome rescuer, but picturing him made the fantasy feel more real.

Where is Termon? she wondered, not for the first time that morning.  Floating down the river on her back, she looked for signs of the sun poking through the leaves.  Judging by its position, it was an hour past the time when he usually came to take his bath.  It made her paranoid. 

What if he finally stopped coming to see her?  What if she was left alone forever?

Then Sera heard the crunch of leaves.  With a start, she stood upright in the river and began to hungrily scan amongst the trees for Termon.  It’s probably just another rabbit, she told herself.  Don’t get your hopes up again. 

But then she spotted someone in the woods, off in the distance.  It had to be Termon.  No one else came to her river anymore, or anywhere near it for that matter, so it had to be him. 

The river had once been the village’s main bathing place and water source.  Now, people avoided it like the plague. Termon told Sera everyone, even her parents thought she was some sort of evil ghost.  And because she couldn’t leave the river, she couldn’t go see anyone to prove them wrong.  So Termon was the only person she saw anymore.

Termon approached the river.  His dirty clothes and soft features made for familiar, comforting sights.  “Termon!” Sera said.  Speaking to him made her whole body surge with excitement.  “Where have you been?  You’re late for your bath!"

He grumbled something under his breath as he came down to the river bank.  Once he got to the water’s edge, he began to disrobe.  Boots first, always, then stockings, then the tunic, then the linens.  The way he kicked his boots off, the way he pulled the off left sleeve of his shirt before the right - it never changed.  It was a constant, a ritual.

“Where have you been?” she repeated. 

Termon was down to his breeches now.  He took one step into the water, then another, still not answering her.  An anxious giggle bubbled from her mouth.  “Come on, Termon.  Don’t ignore me.”  She giggled again, the shrill sound lasting just a beat longer than it should have.  With her mind, she willed a bit of water to splash against his bare chest in a playful gesture.  She’d had the ability to manipulate the river with her mind since she died, though the powers seldom went to use except when she toyed with Termon.

When the small lap of water hit Termon he froze in his tracks. His expression told Sera that he was not in a playful mood.  She cursed herself.  You should have known better.  That was out of place. 

Termon sighed as droplets of water dripped off his chin.  A few moments passed, and then he continued to wade into the river.  Sera knew better than to bother him again.  She floated away, leaving him to bathe in peace.  But her eyes never left him.  Her eyes remained fixed.

He began to bathe, splashing water against various parts of his body.  All the while he pretended as if she wasn’t there.  The silence was painful.

“…Termon,” she said after a couple minutes.  The word slipped out.  She didn’t mean to say it, but she couldn’t help herself.  This was the only time of the day she got to talk to another person, and she couldn’t, she couldn't, let it go to waste. 

Termon froze again.  He beamed at her, his eyes burning with annoyance.  Just when she thought he wasn’t going to reply, he said, “What?”

Careful, Sera.  She couldn’t ask too much of him.  He was the one doing her a favor, after all, by coming out to see her.  He was the only one who came to see her.  Not her friends, not her parents, only him.

Once, Termon admitted to Sera that he didn’t like her very much.  When Sera became a river spirit, every villager besides Termon started bathing in a different river.  The reason he didn’t join the others, he claimed, was that he wanted to prove that unlike everyone else, he wasn’t afraid of Sera.  He told her that he would have gladly switched to the other river just to get away from her, but he didn’t want anyone to think he’d grown afraid.

He was the only one who came to see her.  So she couldn’t ask too much of him, else wise he might not come back. 

“I just…” she started.  She was submerged from the neck down, her black curls floating all around her.  “I just wanted to talk is all.”
He started to splash water against his chest.  “‘Bout what?” he said, then quickly added, “I’m not much in the talking mood.”

There, she told herself.  He said he doesn’t want to talk, so leave it alone.  She put her mouth beneath the water to shut herself up.  He’ll be back tomorrow.  You can talk to him then.  But the impulse to speak swelled up inside her like a hunger, like a sneeze.  She lifted her mouth back above the water almost immediately.

“What about Caitlyn?” she blurbed. “You were talking about her the other day, and you seemed to like her a lot.  How’s that going?”  Feeling foolish, she dipped her mouth back beneath the water.  Shut up you idiot.  Shut up shut up shut up.  What’s wrong with you?

His eyes shot daggers.  “I haven’t really talked to her since.”  He cupped some water in his hand and splashed it on his right shoulder.  “Why do you care, anyways?”

“I’m just trying to find something you want to talk about.  What do you want to talk about, then?”

“Nothing.”  He splashed water on his other shoulder.  “I already told you that I don’t really want to talk.”

So that was it, then.  She would stop talking.  She had to make herself stop talking.  It was clear that he didn’t want to talk to her.  Tomorrow, perhaps, he would be in a more conversational mood.
But she couldn’t help herself.

“Do you like me, Termon?”

“What?”

She swam a little closer to him.  “You come out here every day, so I was just wondering…do you like me?”

He scrubbed an elbow.  “I come here to bathe, not for you.  We’ve been over this.”

“I’m not saying you come here for me.”  She swam a little closer.

"I’m just saying is that if you didn’t like me at least a little bit, you would have stopped coming by now.  Right?” 

He splashed water into one of his armpits.  “You’d be surprised.” 

“Well…perhaps you like the view?”  She leaned back until her chest was above the water.  Months ago, she learned that she could consciously manipulate her appearance.  She started by making herself look more womanly.  Bigger breasts, longer legs.  Termon complimented the changes, and his praise made her feel elated for hours after he left. 

Termon looked at her, casually appraising her body, then went back to washing himself.

Sera closed the distance between the two of them partially by lunging towards him, and partially by mentally manipulating the water to pull him towards her.  “Termon,” she said, wrapping her hand tightly around his forearm.  His eyes went wide with surprise.  “Come live with me, Termon.  Build a house on the river side.  Marry me.  You can have kids by some other woman, and we can raise them as ours…”

When she saw the anger in his expression, panic and regret anchored themselves in her stomach.  It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.  She had been planning to say this for a month, waiting for the right moment, but her impatience got the better of her.  It wasn’t supposed to happen like this! 

“You’re dead, Sera!” he told her, his face twisted in rage.  “You died, and you should have stayed dead, but there was some curse on this river that brought you back to life as a river spirit.   You’re a monster!”  He ripped his arm free of her grasp, making her hand explode into a spray of water.  “Your body isn’t even real.  It’s made from the river!”

Her hand reformed itself with river water, proving the validity of his statement.  She backed away from him, sobbing.  The saltless tears streamed from her eyes only to reabsorb into her cheeks.  No no no, she thought.  It wasn’t supposed to happen like this!

Termon watched her with contempt as he backed out of the river.  He wouldn’t come back, she knew.  He would leave her, and he wouldn’t come back.  She would never see him again. Ever.
Then without even realizing what she was doing, Sera stretched her arms toward Termon.  Using her ability to control the river, she made water flared up over his head and crashed down up him.  He let out a shriek as he was sucked down into the river. 

His limbs flailed as he tried to break free of the river’s grasp, but Sera wouldn’t let go.  She held onto him tight, until his limbs became weak and the air bubbled out of his lungs. 

“That’s it, Termon,” she whispered.  “Join me.  Be with me.  Forever.”

Termon stopped flailing.