‘Ocean breeze caress

Carry the bird so light

Returning from snowy lands

Ephemeral winter air

In the distance your echo fades

Castles in Spain!’

--Caresse sur l'océan

Les Choristes

‘A taste on my lips

Your salty kisses

They say I’m seeking out the danger

That one day you will let me go

I need you, Aquarius.’

--Aquarius

Within Temptation

PART ONE:

DROWNING

                                       The salty ocean water was everywhere, in my hair, in my face, in my lungs, in my throat. I was dying, and this was not the way I would have preferred to go. The water stung my eyes, the salt burned my throat, yet I kept on screaming - a gut reaction. If I stopped, I knew I would stop trying, that I would give up. I would drift down into the black, abysmal depths, never to reach the surface, never to see Jasper’s face, beautiful and lovely, again. The procession of silvery bubbles shooting forth from my lips was lessening, and I knew it wouldn’t be long until it stopped altogether. My lungs were filled with water; my throat seemed as if it were being consumed by devil-flame. My flailing arms tried desperately to reach the surface, but the frilly gown my mother had forced me to wear was only weighing me down.

                                       A last reserve of intelligence and strength came to me in a burst, and I ripped of the heavy silk of the dress it drifted slowly down into the dark below, as the buttons of the bodice floated in a chaotic, twirling dance up towards the surface. My body immediately felt lighter, yet the surface was getting farther away and the water was getting colder.

                                       I stopped thrashing. I knew my time had come. And I wasn’t going to fight it. I finally closed my aching, frightened eyes, and stopped screaming, letting the current catch my body and preparing my welcome for God. Goodbye, I thought. It was my last philosophy before everything turned black.