A Salem Awakening

Chapter 10

The plunge into the cold water lasted less than one second, but time slowed for Millie and she had complete thoughts on the way down. Her journey comprised three distinct segments, and she noted the irony of those being the 'fourth three' to append to Mr. Warnock's first 'three threes'.

The first segment was hard, jagged and bumpy as the two large rocks thrown over the edge dragged her body across the rocky ledge, tearing and bruising her skin on the back of her legs and arms. Her head bounced off the stoney surface of the ledge at least two times before she cleared the edge and entered the second segment of her journey.

The fall was the most pleasant part of her trip and she again noted some irony, as the fall was also her favorite season of the year. "If I must die, I'd like to die in the fall," she thought, using morbid humor to bring some comfort as she prepared for the unimaginable suffering she was about to endure.

Compared to the bumpy start, the fall was silent – almost peaceful. It seemed to last for minutes. She felt the air push against her body as it flung her hair straight above her head. She wanted to rub the hairs away from her forehead, but then realized her hands were tightly bound to the side of her body. Not having the use of her hands when she needed them seemed a most cruel form of torture.

The first sound she heard after falling from the ledge was the splash of the three stones beneath her feet. They did not fall next to each other, so instead of forming a clear splash crater in which she could land, they created three smaller separate craters a few feet apart from each other. This resulted in a surge of water directly in the middle of the three stones, which is precisely where her feet entered. It was as if the water was reaching up to welcome Millie to her liquid tomb.

Each of the stones slowed significantly when they contacted the water, almost causing them to float for the briefest of moments. Her body, however, hit the water like an axe splitting wood. She swept past the stones and went straight down. The stones ended their brief pause and dropped quickly, catching up to her feet and eventually dragging her down faster.

She thought she would be ready to hit the water, but she wasn't. It was colder than she expected. Subconsciously, she took a big gulp of air on the way down. This would be her final breath. She savored the last taste of fresh air in her mouth. The stones pulled her down to the bottom of the water, which was about twenty feet deep in this location. When the stones came to rest on the silty floor, Millie continued her descent and then floated back toward the surface. When she reached the point where there was no longer any slack in the ropes, she opened her eyes and, much to her surprise, she could see. Her cheeks were bulging in an effort to keep the precious air as long as she could. She turned her head in a quick jerking motion, half attempting a miraculous escape, and half looking around to take in her last views of the home she loved. Off to her left, about fifteen feet above her, she saw a small underwater cave she played in when she was younger. It was a good size for a six or seven-year-old, but now she was much too big for it. "I suppose it doesn't matter anymore," she realized. This was the first moment she consciously acknowledged her impending death.

Her body reacted to the circumstances of its own accord, with no intentional effort on her part. She had limited control over her movements. Millie started gyrating frantically, attempting to free either her hands or feet. She needed two of her limbs to be free in order to attempt a potential escape. She squirmed as much as she could, trying to loosen the tight bonds holding her in place. But the two men did a fine job of restraining her. The more she squirmed with her legs, the tighter the rope became around her arms. And the more she struggled with her arms, the more restrictive it became around her legs. She looked down and attempted to kick her feet out of the knots around her ankles somehow, but to no avail. She looked directly up. The sun was still in the sky, and she could see a shimmering crimson glow of sunlight above the water. "It's beautiful," she thought.

Her cheeks were still bulging, but she could tell the air was nearly depleted. Still, she kept her cheeks in that position, hoping to store every last bit of air she could. The urge to take a breath was overwhelming. Without realizing, she shimmied violently back and forth, trying desperately to move her arms, all the while looking up, praying for a miracle to save her. There would be no miracle today.

Finally, her body forced her to succumb. She could not prevent the urge to take a breath, though her mind was telling her, pleading with her, not to do so. She knew what would happen if she opened her mouth or allowed anything to pass through her nose. But the agony of not breathing became more than her body would allow her to bear. And coupled with the torturous imprisonment imposed by the rope, it was now out of her control. The pressure of not breathing was building in her head. She could feel the blood vessels around her eyes strain from the lack of fresh oxygen. The pressure forming behind her eyeballs made her entire face throb with pain. Her body was begging her for air. She was still looking straight up at the beautiful view of the sunlight shimmering against the water above her. Despite her best effort, she opened her mouth and took a deep gulp. Her body reacted pleasantly at first, relieving the urge to take a breath. But the cold, salty water quickly rushed down her throat, flooding her lungs and depriving her body of any life-nurturing oxygen. If only there was some biological process to convert her environment into the elements she needed to live, like fish using their gills to harvest oxygen from the water or plants turning toward the sun to generate energy from the sunlight.

The last few moments of Millie's life were heart-wrenching. Her body was violently struggling to survive. The fight between the outside elements which bound her body versus the ocean water now taking up residence inside her body was unwinnable by either side. There was nothing left for her to do except die, which she did, while continuing her desperate struggle for air. Finally, painfully, the last particle of air escaped her tightly bound body and made its way to the surface twenty feet above, as if her soul was ascending to Heaven using the bubbles as its transportation. Her body halted all motion and floated lifelessly above the rocks to which she was prescribed. Her lips, blue from deprivation, ceased their fearful quivering as her eyes remained open, still looking straight up to the beautiful crimson glow above the surface.