Shelly flew down the back porch as the screen door slammed shut behind her. Heading for the lake in tears, she could still hear her adopted parents yelling inside. Without slowing up, she ran down a short trail to the pier, held her nose, and jumped feet first off the ledge into the small lake in their backyard. Safety! This was her escape. She closed her eyes and let herself slowly sink to the bottom of the murky water. No more fighting. No more yelling. No more tears. For years now, she'd been doing this...each time holding her breath for as long as she could. Now she was up to a full 3 minutes and 9 seconds.

She wished she could hold her breath forever, because down here, she lost herself in fantasy. Shelly always pretended she was a mermaid princess swimming through the beautiful kelp forests of the ocean, with thousands of fish all around her. They sung to her...in delicate little fish voices that only ocean people can understand. She pretended her real parents were rulers of a lost city like Atlantis...and loved her. They never fought about anything - ever.

For three perfect minutes, Shelly lived in an ocean dream...

---

I just want to say thank you to ~sandyle85 for taking this absolutely heavenly stock photo and letting everyone play with it: [link] The second I saw it...I pictured her in this setting - how can you not?

Music listened to: Evanescence, Nightwish, After Forever

Enjoy.