The Lady in the Lake
The world went silent. In that last moment before the hurricane hit,
everything went still.
At the bottom of the sea, Annalise could sense the change. Trapped, she
raised her hands to the glass wall that separated her from the sea, and looked
out at the aquatic world that surrounded her.
Nothing moved. Usually, a variety of fish would be darting around her
with a daring curiosity, but the fish were nowhere to be seen. The glass orb
that was her chamber, and her prison cell, sat motionless on the ocean floor.
Her ‘bubble’, that forever swayed, keeping time with the dance of the coastal
tides, had ceased its rhythmic movements.
A sound like thunder roared over her head and her bubble shook with the
resulting wave.
Annalise banged her fists against the glass. “What’s happening?” she
screamed, suddenly afraid. “Is this you, Liam? Are you changing the tides to
scare me?”
The words were barely spoken when the earth began to vibrate, and the orb
started to move, not an easy rocking, but a rolling full circle across the
sand. Practically running in place, she tried to keep up with the erratic to
and fro motions of her previously settled prison. To maintain her balance, she
kept a hand on the glass wall and watched the way the water changed around her.
The great waves swirled, heaving her world up and down, sending the orb
spinning and twisting all through the water. Annalise felt herself fall, tossed
from side to side with each roll of the orb. Was it never going to end, she
wondered. Was this the Faerie King’s doing because she consistently rejected
him?
The sea dragged the orb down and just as suddenly threw it up again, hitting
the rocks along the craggy shore with a terrible crash. The abrupt stop had
done much damage and water seeped in the cracks that spread along the surface
of the orb.
Annalise, stunned by the harsh landing, shook her head and took stock of
where she was. She could feel the water pooling at her feet and quickly looked
around. Water had surrounded her for months, but never had there been water
inside the orb.
Looking up, she could see the sky, dark and ominous, the winds blowing,
and then the rocks. The crack in the orb was spreading, the water rushing in,
but all she cared about was getting out. Fighting against the wall of water to
gain her freedom, she grabbed the jagged edge where the rocks had broken the
orb open and hoisted herself up and out of her prison.
It was freedom she felt when the wind swept across her face. The waters
calmed, come to rest after the storm, as she jumped from the orb in to the
water. She waded to shore, hands held high above the water; and settled on the
sand to bask in the sunlight.
Liam, the Faerie King, would search her out, she knew. But for now, she
was free.
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