| |
Darkness swallowed me whole. I didn’t know where I was, hardly remembering who I was. All I’d known at first was pain before it consumed me and kept me pinned down, numb. I gave into it without fighting. I let myself sink into the depths, I let that anchor pull me down... down... down...
And then I heard the voice.
Three voices, four, pushing down with me, wrapping around me in an attempt to bring me back up again.
Wake up.
Great Dragon, please save her.
Come back to me.
Cousin, please live.
Daughter...
It was that last voice that gave me pause, that awakened me in the darkness, made me grapple for a scrap of memory. When I remembered everything, when it all hit me painfully, it made me thrash against my invisible bindings.
They were waiting for me, praying over me. Who were they? That’s right, my family. I’d never had a family before, but now I did, and they were calling out to me. They wanted me, accepted me, and I was failing them. I was giving in to the pain, falling deep into the depths of an abyss that would swallow me up and spit me from their memories.
I wouldn’t give up.
I was not a victim.
I was not afraid.
Wake up.
Great Dragon, please save her.
Come back to me.
Cousin, please live.
Daughter...
I grabbed onto the voices like a lifeline, I let them wrap themselves around me, and I pulled with all of my might. There was no pain in my fins with the strain. There was nothing inside me but determination, and love, so much love. Whether it was mine for them, or theirs for me, I wasn’t sure.
All I knew was that it saved me from the darkness.
And pulled me from that abyss.