Severed from her will, her physical body was now incapable of moving, but strangely, all manner of sensations could it still feel. Methodically and rhythmically, an icy coldness started to creep its way up her body, rising up to a point and then subsiding slightly before stretching even further up each time; beginning with her toes, and then spreading to her thighs and then to her spine, and wherever the ‘frost’ ascended up to, it replaced the frantic tingle of raindrops that reached down through her garments and unto her skin.
In her imagination, through the eye of her mind, she saw an image of herself from above, as though she were perched atop the rattling roof of the patched-up church, looking down at her very own body, and in that image she saw that the floodwaters had already risen up to her shoulders.
And yet, as though oblivious to the threat of drowning, all she could think of at that moment was how much she missed the blissful days that remained blissful regardless of the weather or the time or the season that she had so happily spent together with him once upon a time.
But short-lived was her dream; her delusion, for then came a pivotal moment that abruptly ended the wanderings of her mind, a turning point that cruelly snatched her back from the sweet escapism of her memories, a wake-up call triggered by the horrifying feeling and reality of suffocation.
The sudden realization that she no longer had access to air brought with it a sense of fear and anxiety so deep that it practically forced her back to consciousness. Eyelids springing open almost instantly, with a wide-eyed stare she struggled to understand the plight that had crept up and surrounded her in the confusion of her sub-consciousness.
An ever-shifting, poorly focused image of the cloudy sky she now beheld, and drawn over it was an unstable, transparent veil of light blue; a veil that was perpetually being decorated by rings of a uniform size appearing and disappearing upon its surface like tiny fireworks erupting across festive skies.
Consciousness and awareness of mind she had regained, but physical mobility and strength of body she had not, and completely submerged, she drifted helplessly mere inches beneath the surface of the floodwaters, with the distance between her and her only hope of survival growing larger and larger as she continued to sink deeper into the unfathomable depths of the sea of rain.
In resignation of her inevitable fate, her panic began to ebb away, displaced by another emotion – one of greater strength, and the look in her eyes, now absent of fear and desperation, softened to reveal the pain and sorrow that had remained hidden all this time from the day of his departure up till now.
Numbed to the physical torture of being on the verge of drowning by the superceding agony of the untreated wounds bleeding on the inside of her broken heart, she once again lay in total surrender to the rain, with her visage tilted up toward the sky and with her hands stretched out in the same manner as one who had just been crucified, but this time, she did not feel the rain beating down upon her skin.
Teetering at the precarious edge of life while leaning toward the uncertainty of what lay beyond, in her final moments she witnessed the approach of the vague shadow of a hand, with palm opened wide and fingers outstretched, plunging down toward her as though being the very hand of Death itself reaching out to claim her weeping soul. Around her wrist it latched on tightly, with a firm yet unexpectedly gently grip, and from out of the floodwaters it drew her up in a single swift and unbroken motion.
As her head emerged through the sparkling ceiling of water, she instinctively took in a huge breath, inhaling so deeply that her shoulders were raised right up next to her chin. Uncontrollably, she continued to gasp for air in between bouts of prolonged coughing, furiously filling her lungs with oxygen while expelling the excessive water that had forcefully flooded its way into her respiratory system.
Leaning forward as though she were on the verge of collapse, with one hand resting heavily just below her collarbone and with her body being held up by the wrist of the other hand, she cleared the water out of her eyes with a hard blink and with face still pointed toward her feet, saw a sight so surreal that it made her unsure of whether her mortal life had already come to an end.
Beneath her soles lay the floodwaters, now towering high above any structure in the town, and still falling from above her was the rain that had not subsided to any lesser a degree, but nonetheless, what she saw amazed her beyond all things thus far, for her feet were set upon the surface of the water as though they were set upon dry, solid land, and upon the face of the water she stood, steady and unwavering like a sturdy ship anchored firmly at port.
In search of an answer to the unexplainable circumstances that she now found herself a part of, she unknowingly raised her head in a quick arch, looking up at whoever or whatever had rescued her from the abysmal depths of the deluge, but what she saw upon doing so was in no way an answer, but rather the start of many more questions.
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