Under the moon, the reflection was clear in the lake. The beams of light skimmed the water as if scared to reach the dark depths, scared to be pulled under and whisked away forever, scared of death.
It had been a while since Emily's porcelain skin had felt the cool touch of the water. She wasn't allowed to go in, not since she was stuck in the recovery ward of the hospital, wheelchair by her bedside.
She remembered every moment of the accident as clearly as she remembered her own name.
~
The cool night air had brushed against her neck. Alastair had stood beside her as they prepared themselves to plunge into the calm, glimmering ocean. Emily had clutched his hand like a small child with her mother.
"I don't know about this..." she had said.
"'Life is either a daring adventure or nothing' as Hellen Keller said." Alastair stated with a smug look on his face.
"Hellen Keller wasn't about to jump off a cliff," Emily argued. She loved that he would always say the same quote all the time, it was his favourite.
Alastair looked her dead in the eyes. She loved the gold specks in his brown eyes, they were reassuring. She had felt more at ease and decided to trust him.
"3, 2, 1!" Alastair yelled as they leapt over the edge.
Before she could say anything, Emily had slipped on the rocks. Her feet fell out from underneath her as Alastair's hand dragged her down. She had felt a sharp pain strike her lower back and shoot up her spine then...nothing.
Emily remembered the fall as if in slow motion. It felt as if her lower back had been severed from the rest of her body. She couldn't feel anything in her legs nor could she move them. Her feet became numb as did her toes. The water engulfed her entire body. She was helpless and struggled to stay above the surface. It had felt as if her lungs were filling with the liquid. She started falling down, down into black abyss. Her body became rigid, frozen with cold and fear. She was struggling to stay conscious. Her chest ached for the sweet taste of oxygen. Her vision became blurry and spots started to appear before her eyes. She had to reach the surface. Her arms were weak but still had some energy, she was able to propel herself. Her biceps were burning.
Her head emerged and her first breath tasted like heaven. After turning onto her back, she began to look for Alastair, eyes scanning the water for any sight of movement. She saw nothing. No movement anywhere. Emily's breathing had begun to steady and her breaths became more rhythmic. Despite this, she was still struggling to stay afloat, her legs slowly dragging her down. She decided to scull back to the shore.
Emily had known that Alastair was a good swimmer, she had faith that he would be able to find his way back. Despite this, she had an ache in the back of her head telling her to go back and look for him. She had ignored it; the worst mistake of her life.
She let the water pull her body back to shore, floating as if on clouds in the sky. The sky was beautiful. Filled stars coating an endless black blanket.
~
It had been two months since the freak accident. Two long months of physical and mental recovery. Slowly, Emily regained some of her strength, she could feel her toes again but her legs remained motionless.
She had been found - unconscious - by a man walking his dog along the beach that night. He had brought her to the hospital and she had been there most days of each month since. She had suffered hypothermia and was diagnosed with a semi-permanent paralysis of the lower body.
The physical pain was no the problem though. It was the mental strain of losing Alastair. Her parents had informed police of her having a companion and they used four boats to search the seemingly endless sea for him. His body was located within 48 hours and the news was devastating. Her heart felt as if it was ripped into shreds, shattered like fragile glass smashed with a sledgehammer, torn into two pieces.
She shut herself of from her family for three weeks before properly interacting with them. She sat in the hospital bed staring out the window. A psychologist had come in to see her but it was pointless, she would never feel the same again. Never love someone the same way again. Rehabilitation was slow and also pointless seeing that she would never walk again. Emily could feel the tips of her toes again but that was as far as it would ever go.
She tried not to think about things that would bring her down. She just concentrated on the white colour of the recovery ward, the smell of disinfectant in the air. The warmth of the wooden blankets and the heavy breathing of the other patients in the room. Two people in the ward were awake, one a lady reading a magazine and another a boy about Emily's age. He had golden brown hair and blue eyes. His gaze was fixated on the luscious green grass outside and his arm tucked away in a sling.
She just looked at him for a little while, she couldn't take her eyes off him. He looked her way and they locked eyes.
"You're Emily, right? Sorry, I read your file on the end of the bed- you've had a rough time. The name's Daniel." He said
"Yeah, that's me. It's been a long few weeks. What are you in here for?" She replied. Daniel gestured to his arm which had been wrapped in a cast.
"Fell off my bike and tumbled down a few metres of rough, rocky hill."
"Ouch." She winced at the thought of bones snapping.
"Yeah well, as Helen Keller said- 'life's either a daring adventure or nothing.'"
