The Essence of Water

OLD VERSION Chapter 15

I don't see Aiden for the rest of the day, but sometimes I hear him snap a branch, he's being good about keeping his distance. When evening comes I find a place to sleep, I eat cold can of beans and small bag of chips, and then I roll over and close my eyes. Aiden finds me, he doesn't try to talk to me, or ask me anything. He simply exists, and a part of me hates him for it, even though he's doing exactly as I told him to.

Just go to sleep, you're acting insane, one minute you want Aiden to talk to you the next you want to strangle him. Just make up your mind and stop being so emotional.

Shut up.

And then I bit my cheek because I'm arguing with myself. I push the world away and I sleep.

"I want you to know something." The woman whispers softly. "I want you to know this because I'm afraid that I won't have the chance to tell you. And I'm afraid that if I do have the chance, I won't be able to tell you, that you'll hate me. You have to know this little one, we've made this decision for you, and I'm sorry. We've never given you the chance to choose your own life. It's unfair, but I know and believe that you're strong enough for the task."

She's sad, I can hear it in her voice, I feel like crying to but I can't cry. I don't have that ability yet, but know what crying is. How strange.

"We knew that if we continued on our path, you would be placed in danger, and that your life would never be the same. That you'd never have the opportunity or the choice to live in bliss, or find a peaceful love. We knew we were pregnant when we started this journey, and I'm sorry there we weren't selfish enough to offer you a better life. I'm so sorry."

She takes a deep breath, very voice low and shaky, "If this actually works, if this memory comes to you then I am most likely dead, and that means you don't know the truth. And the truth is this my little love, your father and I started the war.

"We saw what the government was doing and we knew, we knew we had the power to stop it. But we weren't strong enough to rally the others together, we tried, but we failed. We underestimated the power of fear and now we hide and run. My sweet little love, they will not have mercy on you, because of what we've done, because of who we are. But perhaps you will find the strength. Perhaps you will be the one to do what we couldn't. Perhaps you will be the one to show the world what it means to be afraid and to face that fear despite it. Perhaps my little love, you will be the one to have courage."

"Adie wake up." Hands shake my shoulders and pull me awake. "Adie."

I focus on Aiden's face, "What?" It's still dark out. I sit up, pushing his hands away, "What happened?"

"You were dreaming...actually you were dreaming and you were calling out to the water." He points to where I sit and I see that there is a puddle of water soaking through my pants. I curse and stand up, pushing the water away and pulling it out of my pants until I'm sure that I'm dry again. "So what happened? What were you dreaming about?" He asks.

I rub my forehead, "I don't remember."

"You're doing it again."

I sigh, too exhausted to be angry, "Doing what?" My eyes are heavy and I just want to curl up and go back to sleep. I sit back down.

"Rubbing your head, you keep doing it when I ask you questions that cause you to try to remember things." He moves closer and kneels next to me. "And you were mumbling in your sleep and then I saw the water drawing to you, which means that somehow whatever dreams you were having were connected to that part of your brain."

"So?"

"So, I think you should try to remember."

I drop my head onto my knees, "Aiden, it was a dream, no big deal, maybe I was dreaming about the compound or my old life. Maybe I was having a nightmare and I was trying to fight with water."