“The only way to escape the suffocating, cold darkness of the water is to swim. When survival is the only option, it allows one to do things they never thought was possible. Only when one is pushed to the brink of death is their true strength revealed.” ~Unknown

-

He swam as fast as he could, breath ragged and painful as the onslaught of soldiers advanced ever closer, fighting to encircle the lake and trap him within it. The sound of water splashing, and heavy breathing was all that he could hear, relying evermore on his hearing as the sun dipped below the trees, turning the sky into a deep orange, streaks of yellow and pink rippling amongst the clouds above.

Water splashed in his face as he frantically attempted to swim away from the threat. He was unable to see them, he could only hear them. The faint thundering hoofbeats of their horses reminded him that they had the advantage, the speed, they were winning. The shortest way to the other side of the lake is to cross through it, and as his arms began to burn, legs struggled to move the water behind him and push forward, he started to slow in the water.

He no longer felt he possessed the ability to breathe, that his lungs were replaced with a fire that continued to spread throughout his body, taking over his limbs; exhaustion threatened to pull him under the ink black, freezing water as he fought desperately to stay afloat. The dangerous yet sweet promise of sleep began to creep through his body. He did not know how long he had been swimming, nor how long he would have to swim to reach the opposite shore, and giving up started to seem like a better idea than fleeing until he could no longer move.

They were going to catch him; if he even managed to drag himself out of the lake, they would have had more than enough time to surround him, trapping him in a cage where the only way to leave was to die. Suddenly, thoughts began to float to the front of his mind, overwhelming his senses: He did not want to die. Why did he have to die? What did he possess that scared them so much?

A surge of energy radiated through his body, reviving his near-paralyzed limbs, and stoking the fire in his body to move, to swim, to survive. The only way to escape was to keep moving forward, if there was any chance of escape left. He refused to yield to the soldiers whose only mission was to end his life; if they wanted him to die, they were going to have to work a lot harder than that. His nagging thoughts disappeared from his mind, leaving only the will to live fueling his body as he swam swiftly forward. He was no longer thinking, he was only surviving.

He began to focus his attention on the position of the soldiers, listening as well as he could with the loud torrent of water being displaced beneath him. The light was quickly fading from the sky, the sun retreating below the horizon.

Where are they? Wait. They’re behind me, they haven’t reached the other side of the lake yet.

An overwhelming feeling of golden light burst forth from his chest and, for the first time since the soldiers attacked, he had hope of escaping, of living to see another day. The feeling was whisked away immediately when he sliced his leg open on something in the lake, causing him to cry out in pain and bring his movement to a halt. It was only when he oriented himself vertically that he felt his feet slam onto a large stone beneath him. The water was shallow.

He pushed himself up on his feet and rose out of the water, the black abyss below him reaching only to his torso. He exhaled sharply and attempted to move forward, fighting to ignore the intense pain radiating from his left leg. Pushing through water that is too shallow to swim in is just as difficult as swimming through water too deep to stand in, and his injured leg was certainly not helping the situation. He kept wading through the darkness engulfing him, favoring his left leg heavily, forcing the latter to pull most of his weight through the infinitely heavy water.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

In the last minutes of sunlight, he was able to make out the shoreline, it was a mere few meters from where he was. But as he got closer to freedom, the soldiers got closer to him. The hoofbeats were slowly becoming louder, and he was becoming all too aware that he could not outrun those soldiers. No matter how far he ran, they would always be right behind him.

A suffocating fear enveloped his body, stopping his legs from moving. It was a miracle he even made it to the other side of the endlessly long lake, and even if he managed to escape the onslaught of bloodthirsty soldiers on their unnaturally fast horses, they would never stop chasing him; not until he was dead. He began to panic, clutching his chest with his right hand as he fought to keep breathing, feeling as if the air was avoiding his lungs. There was no way he was going to survive this; he didn’t even make it out of the lake before the situation caught up with him.

He could barely breathe as he dropped to his hands and knees, sobbing helplessly into the water underneath him as he tried to catch his breath. He had nothing left to live for, he was running from the people who carelessly turned his life upside down in one evening; the people who wanted to destroy him and everything he’d ever loved.

“Stand up.”

A faint feminine voice spoke behind him, gentle, yet stern. He threw his head around so fast his hands slipped out from under him; he nearly fell flat on his face before he managed to extend his arms out and land on his elbows.

“Who’s there? Who are you?”

He spoke, his voice raspy and strained. He narrowed his eyes and scanned the area behind him; there was nothing apart from the seemingly endless lake he’d managed to cross. He held his breath, there was no one there.

“Stand. Up.”

The voice, louder now as if she was speaking directly into his ear, demanded. He startled and jumped to his feet, nearly buckling when he accidentally put weight on his injured leg; he cried out in pain. He tried to look down and see just how badly he hurt himself, but all he could see was the lighter color of his leg and what looked like black ink running down it. He figured he must have cut his leg enough to bleed heavily, as he started feeling slightly lightheaded.

“Come to me.”

She spoke once more, beckoning him to her. He took a step forward, pushing through the impending doom he felt. One step after the other, and he was walking faster, as fast as he could while injured.

He reached the edge of the lake and took his first step back onto dry land, feeling relieved that he had made it across, but still panicking about the soldiers approaching. They were close, he could see the light of the soldiers' torches spreading toward him at a rapid pace, the hoofbeats nearly deafening at this point. If that light gave him away before he could hide, he was surely dead.

As best as he could, he took off running towards the tree line, pushing the pain in his leg to the back of his mind as he raced for cover. He would have less than a minute to reach it before the light would reveal him to the soldiers; or before he passed out from the blood loss. He no longer cared about the strange voice he’d heard, rationalizing it as a hallucination he had from losing so much blood.

Just as the soldiers' lights spread over where he would have been, he made it past the tree line and took cover behind one of the first trees he was able to reach. Squatting down as low as he could and bracing himself against the tree to stay upright, he listened as the hoofbeats passed by him. They were gone for now, but they’d likely double back soon enough when they weren’t able to find him.

Vision blurring, he pushed himself off the tree and started moving through the forest before him; he had to put as much distance between him and the soldiers before he inevitably passed out. Even then he was sure he was going to die, from blood loss if anything; but he would rather die alone in the forest than be executed by the soldiers.

He was struggling to walk, his legs were going numb, and he knew he didn’t have much time left. He had put as much distance between himself and the lake as he possibly could. He was ready to stop. Despair enveloped him like a thick cloud of smoke. He was going to die here, alone in the forest. Not realizing where he was going, he ran directly into a large boulder, sending him falling backwards and landing on his back. He looked up, just before he succumbed to the sleep he had been avoiding and saw a pair of golden eyes piercing through the darkness, staring into his soul.

“Hello.”