Drowning in Love

Elizabeth sat on the chair in an awkward position with her leg hanging out over the armrest. The silky cool feel of the wood rubbed against her bare leg as she twirled a strand of dark hair around her slender finger. Her short dress rose up like a puff of layered clouds around her and trailed out uncomfortably over her lap.

Her mother would not approve of the dress or the unacceptable position her daughter was seated in. But since when did Elizabeth care? Her mother would not approve of anything, nor would she enforce punishment. Her mother was not strict nor easy-going. She simply was.

It was too ironic. They all said the same thing about him. That he simply was, that he wasn't good enough for Elizabeth, because he was not good at all. Or bad. They told her he was neither. But Elizabeth could easily see that he was both. He had so much emotion, so much life, and yet they thought he was not worthy of living. She didn't think so at all.

No one believed her. Or, rather, they didn't even listen to her. She could easily gather the distaste along with some sort of crude sympathy in their eyes when they looked at her. Elizabeth was known as the town's lunatic. Wherever she went, the whispers started, but Elizabeth didn't know if they seriously believed it. Of course she was not insane! If everyone thought so, maybe the rest of the world's inhabitants were mentally ill. But Elizabeth knew that she was not in the wrong for loving him, even if they all thought so.

Elizabeth was not used to being in deep thought for so long. It was quite tiring and her neck was starting to cramp. The room was growing dark and she could hear the sounds of nocturnal nature outside the open window as the first few fireflies came out of hiding.

And then a lone, simple thought slowly crept into the back of her head. Elizabeth's lips parted in surprise at the thought. And then she swung her legs around, rising off the chair and pattering quickly over to the window.

An unseen breeze licked her shoulders as she leaned down to watch the courtyard beyond the ruffled silken curtains bathed in a dark maroon, as if the moon had bled on them and then decided to shower them with its soft lunar glow.

There he was beyond the vast courtyard, waiting for her with all the patience in the world. She could only just make out his head over the walls of tall green shrubbery, but she could see that he was calm tonight. Sometimes he tended to get angry, but not at her. No, never at her. He got angry at the weather, at the sky. She thought it was rather silly to be upset about storms, but they always seemed to bother him.

Elizabeth's mind trailed off as she slowly sat down on the windowsill, contemplating if she was going to do it or not, if she would accept the plan her brain had conjured up and follow through. Was he really worth it? Of course he was. Would she be brave enough to do it? She didn't know.

And then she remembered the first time they had met, and it gave her the answer she needed. The first time she had seen him had been years ago, when she was just a little girl, not quite old enough to wear a corset yet. Her mother and her had been out on a picnic, just the two of them, when she noticed him running right through the cluster of trees outside their home. He was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen before, and she never forgot him.

Elizabeth remembered how she would always go down to the tiny woods outside their manor and play with him. She smiled as she thought about how he used to always love tickling her bare feet and toes, and how he used to give her polished rocks that he had a habit of collecting. Elizabeth kept each and every small stone he had given her in a small elegantly carved chest that was cushioned with deep blue on the inside.

But their fun did not last. When Elizabeth started to become a woman, they forbid her to play with him any longer. She had been devastated. Sometimes she would sneak out of the manor to visit with him in the woods, but their time together was undeniably limited. And yet he always waited for Elizabeth in the same spot each night, right outside the courtyard in the thin forest. No one else understood a devotion that pure. They only mocked Elizabeth for loving him so deeply and expressing the romance and sorrow so often. She knew that there was no way for her to be with him. They could never be together.

And so this was what made Elizabeth's decision final. She slid down from the windowsill and walked across the room to the door, noticing that there were a few stray tears staining her cheeks as she passed her mirror. Not bothering to slip on a pair of shoes, Elizabeth crept through the darkened hallways of the manor and down a flight of stairs, clinging to the wooden banister as she made her decent as silently as possible.

Once in the grand foyer, she kept her eyes open for any maids before walking quickly over to the front doors and yanking them open. Elizabeth stepped outside and closed the heavy doors behind her.

The stones that lined the courtyard were cool beneath her feet as Elizabeth's heels slapped against the ground almost inaudibly. She made her way through the tall, neatly trimmed hedges and then through the large iron metal gate that separated the manor from the woods and fields surrounding it, closing and locking it shut behind her. A gate that had always irritated Elizabeth for unknown reasons. Maybe it was because she knew she was trapped in the manor, and when she could finally be set free, she would be trapped in some other man's home. A man who she must call her husband. But Elizabeth would love no other besides him.

And so she continued on her way into the trees, her feet now scraping against twigs and squishing into leaves and dirt. She tripped over a log in the dark and landed on the ground, only a few feet in front of him. He didn't help her up again, but she wouldn't hold it against him. She knew he would have if he could have.

Her pretty white dress was now quite dirty, but Elizabeth didn't mind at all. She brushed a leaf out of her hair and got to her feet again, stepping down the little slant in the earth to where he was waiting for her. He seemed happy to see her, but she could never tell for sure. His emotions were always difficult to determine.

Elizabeth sank down to sit on his bed, letting the dress spread out around her instead of tucking it to the side like a normal lady should do. But she was not a normal lady. After all, she had fallen in love with him.

After staring into the water for a few moments, Elizabeth crawled over the bed until she reached the edge of the rocks, dipping her feet and hands into the gentle water. He tickled her skin just like he always did when she was a little girl, and Elizabeth smiled down at him before scooting closer until the bottom of her dress had sunk through the surface of the water. The dress turned sodden and heavy, encouraging her the rest of the way into the water.

She waded deep into the gentle flows before tilting her chin up and smiling at the sky one last time. And then she let go of her skirts and let the gentle water of her beloved drag her under. Elizabeth sank to the bottom and did not come back up. Water bubbled up to the surface as she let out the last of her breath. And then Elizabeth drowned.

What else did they expect from a girl who fell in love with a river?