I’m drowning.

 The thought ran through her head like wildfire, burning away her rational thought and control until opened and the water flooded in. Air, she needed air, but such a sweet thing was so far away. She couldn’t understand why her legs seemed to be leaden and tangled, why she couldn’t kick herself to the surface that was only a few feet away. How many times had she swam in these waters, luxuriating in the feeling of the soft caresses of liquid around her? How many times had she dived beneath the waves and let their power wash over her? Even if it was only here, she felt safe, until now.

Another current battered her, sending her flipping and letting more water slip down her nose, . The salt burned its way down, the grit and sand in the water rubbing her raw. Mira kicked out around her, lungs burning with the knowledge that she would have only seconds left before she fell unconscious. Already her head felt lighter, detached almost, but that spurred on her desperation.

And then she felt the sand.

Beneath her hands, a whole bank of it, swaying back and forth as the water moved around it. But it was all she needed to find up, all she needed to kick off and find the precious air—

The water was too dirty to see clearly, but she looked up, found the bit of light, and moved towards it. Something bumped into her leg, and then her arm, and pulled, but she kept moving through the darkness that narrowed her vision. She was losing track of the light. She was losing track of everything.

Mira watched as her arms stopped moving, as the last little bit of air bubbled out of her and escaped away. Just a little further, she screamed in her head as she was swept away. Too close, too far. Her eyes began to close, the far-off blue light seeming to come closer, closer… and then, darkness.

***

“Mira, stay away from the water, be careful of the waves!” Her father called from where he sat on the blanket, helping her mother put on sunscreen. “Don’t go in too far!”

“Okay!” Mira called back, pulling Rory by his smaller hand toward the wet sand. He squealed when the cold squished between his toes, a happy sound of excitement. She pulled him again, but he was distracted by the sensation, his child’s feet stomping up and down happily. Mira let go and ran towards the water.

It washed over her toes, surprisingly chilly in the summer sun, and she dashed back and forth, back and forth, going further in each time. The was so bright, glinting off the peaks of the waves, glinting—

She froze, her tiny body going still as she strained her eyes out into the sea. What was that? She took a step further, then stopped. It moved. A fish, but it wasn’t, and the eyes that looked back at her, they were human, blue, bright.

“Mira!” Rory came over and grabbed her by the hand, screeching in excitement. “A crab! I found a crab! Look!” He tugged her back up the beach, and when she looked back over her shoulder, the glint was gone.