Week No 2 of the April Shower Monthly Writer’s Prompt: And then there was the flood
294 Words
She watched as he stood there, holding the other girl’s hand. She hated how beautiful the girl was. He had said he loved her once. He still might.
The heatwave had dried her small river, making it impossible for her to move or speak. The young water spirit watched as her lover arrived daily to search for her, powerless to reach him. Then his searches grew weekly. Then monthly. It had taken a few months for her to realize he wasn’t coming back.
Sorrow had gripped her. She longed to search for him, worried the forest had taken him. After almost a year, the rain returned.
Her limbs slid out of the riverbed easily, the euphoria of movement lifting her to the surface. She almost forgot her lover, until she saw his pendant on the ground.
The river girl raced through the woods, saturating the ground as she went. She sought to start at his village. Someone would know where he went.
They were kissing when she arrived. Her sorrow turned to rage and she went straight to him. His eyes widened when he saw her, not with joy but with fear.
“I loved you”. She saw his fear mirrored in her eyes and hated her all the more.
Both the betrayer and his new love looked down when they felt the water arrive at their shoes. The river girl laughed as they ran, there was nowhere to go. She let what was left of her dissolve into the ground below, coaxing the ground water to swell up.
The flood never rose to a dangerous point, at least not for most. In the house at the far edge of town the villager found two bodies, the only casualties of the night the river died.
C.M. Wellsmore 