It had been a long journey for her, she had seen a lot of things and felt even more. She had ventured to the darkest corners of her mind and there was a time that she had wallowed in her sorrows, bathing herself in her own misery. She had emerged from these dark places with cuts on her arm, for a battle worth winning was never won without a few scars.
It had taken her over a year to find the surface after clawing through the dark waters of her emotions, crippling fear had iced her veins and as she breathed the cool air once again she realized just what she had done to get there. To breathe, to be alive, she had fought with everything she had to just become that once again. She had fought herself, too, because somewhere along the line she had convinced herself that she wasn't even worth saving.
Now, as she walked on the shore, dripping wet and exhausted, she turned and gazed at the stormy waters that rolled and crashed with a thunderous sound that had echoed in her ears for what felt like an eternity. With her chest slowly rising and falling she allowed a small smile to stretch upon her lips, the journey home was a long one, but she had made it through the storm. She had conquered the worst she could think of, she was scarred and bruised, but she wasn't dead. She stared for a moment, proud. No one had helped her, she had screamed as loud as she could but it was as if her mouth had been filled with cotton because no one had thrown her a life jacket, no one had even acknowledged the fact that she had been drowning in the first place. But here she was, all on her own account, and she was glad.
She turned, expecting nothing from the world except pain in the future, but she knew she could handle it, anything it threw at her she could handle, she was sure. Confident, she took a few steps in the sand, determination racking through her being because she would not drown again.
Too quick though everything changed, as life tends to do, and she found herself looking into the eyes of a boy. He stood there and looked back at her for a moment, then his eyes wandered to her wrist where her scars lied and he brushed his fingertips against the pale skin that resided there. A shiver ran through her body, chasing after it an emotion she had never felt before. She had built walls around herself, to protect herself from drowning again because she had not gone into the water by her choosing but had been thrown into it, then held down to choke on the water that surrounded her. Walls she had constructed so that no one could see her, so that no one could reach her. Sure, she would appear cold, maybe even distant, but it was all for the greater good, she needed them, they were her only protection. But as the boy looked back at her with eyes the same color of the water she had been fighting through, the walls she had taken so much time to construct were invisible.
He walked toward her effortlessly, as if he had found a hidden door in her fortress, one she hadn't even known existed and he held the key. She had never been so terrified and thrilled in the same exact moment. Terrified because this stranger, this boy, had the key to her, he had full access to her and she was his to hold or throw away. Terrified because she was vulnerable to him, that he had all the power in the universe to thrown her back into the roaring ocean. Thrilled because it didn't matter what he could do, because the feeling he provoked in her by just being there sent her veins aflame.
"You're beautiful," he said as if it were the only true fact in the whole world, his eyes unwavering as they stared into hers. She was dripping wet, weak from swimming, scarred and bruised and he thought she was beautiful? How could it be that someone as glorious as he, someone as graceful and strong could think that someone so unworthy was beautiful? Her knees trembled, and he smiled at her and took her hand, spinning her to face the ocean once again.
"I can't," she mumbled, looking at the ripping waves, "I'm afraid,"
"You don't have to be," he said, squeezing his hand where his fingers intertwined with hers so perfectly, "because this time you have me."
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