I saw this INCREDIBLE post on TIK TOK and then on INSTAGRAM with singer/songwriter Morgan Clae singing this INCREDIBLY epic and dark moody song called: Get in the Water. The lyrics are from Odysseus, and he pleads to poseidon to let him live. I think what’s great about this lyrical shift is the plea of a man to a god changes into a man to a scorned woman. The sound clip was used in several different videos of women singing to a man telling him to get in the water and it just resonated with me. I thought it might be fun to write a quick sprint short story. No real editing, and no real thought behind it outside of a sprint.

Writing sprints are ALWAYS great practice for a writer, and also can get the juices flowing. If you, like me, hear a song and feel inspired then write. Doesn’t even matter what it is, you are just flexing the muscle. I hope you enjoy this little short story inspired by Morgan Clae’s rendition of “Get in the Water”.

SHORT STORY: Get in the Water

The icy water lapped at her naked toes but the feeling of pain had died long ago along with the remnants of her shattered heart. Lacy snow drifted through the stagnant air, a filmy fog falling across the black lack but it didn’t soften her resolve. The thud of where her heart would race was cold, a blackened dead illusion of what heart she used to cherish.

“Get in the water,” she heard herself say, a tumble of words ripping from her throat. She’d cried last night, screamed into the void. Every syllable on her tongue had raced out in a torrential plea to the gods. He couldn’t have done this to her. He wouldn’t. He loved her.

“Wait,” he said, the whispering plea falling on deaf ears.

“Get in the water,” she said again, her voice building in strength as she spoke.

She’d trusted him, gave everything in her soul worth to give and he’d betrayed her. All the lies he’d spit from his serpent tongue, the deceit he’d hidden behind a song of true love. He’d yanked her through the depths of shame, clinging to her like blood on a white dress.

“Stop this please.”

“I’ll make tidal waves so profound, that both your wife and your son will drown.”

He’d called her his true love, but it wasn’t true. She gave him heart virtue and tossed her innocence behind her without a second glance. The future had been theirs, a cluster of diamonds in her grasp she’d held tightly to her chest hoping no one would see the glory of what they were to each other. Fear had grasped hold of her, yanking at her skirts and scratching at her legs. What if they took him from her, what if fate wrapped its fingers around their happiness and slowly choked it out of existence?

“No,” he barked, tearing at the binding of rope around his wrists. It wasn’t his vocal demands or the tone of his voice that finally pulled her eyes to his, it was the ache of loss in his words that irked her.

“Get in the water,” she repeated. He shook his head and she unleashed her wrath and fury on him. “GET IN THE WATER! Don’t mistake my threat for bluff, you have lived more than enough. Get in the water.”

A tear slipped down his cheek, the skin blotched pink from the cold. His cracked lips, swollen from the beating he’d received the previous night had once been her sanctuary. His arms, pimpled with the chill of the dawn had once been her home. His face, the sharp lines of manhood still harboring a hint of boyish charm had been her undoing. It was what she hadn’t seen that had destroyed her; his greed.

“I’ll take your son and gouge his eyes unless you now choose to die. Get in the water.”

He took a step forward, the icy lap of water encasing his naked ankles and a thrill of anticipation washed through her. Another step and the black waters of the lake clawed its way up to his thighs.

“We’re both hurting from losses,” he said, trying to force his way back out of the water but her guards kept pushing him back. “Why not leave this here and just go home.”

Home? She had no home, not anymore. He’d taken her home, her future, her love, her happiness, her youth, her heart, her soul. She could leave the only thing she had left to hold onto. Vengeance. It was all she had left and she’d never let it go.

“No,” she said, a soft whispering command but it fell like a hammer against a nail sealing his fate for the final moment. “Ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves.”

She waded into the water, accepting the rush of icy water as it swallowed up her legs to her hips but the pain didn’t seep through her. With a simple nod of her chin, her guards moved in behind the man she’d once loved with her whole heart and soul and together they hefted an iron-caged mask onto the man’s head and shoulders. It was heavy, far too heavy for him to hold up on his own. Once they wrestled it in place and locked over his chest and cinched at his back he teetered trying to head back to the shore but he wasn’t strong enough to hold himself up.

He sank to his knees, water lapping around his neck as she leaned forward. With a hand on the back of the iron mask, she pushed the man backward into the water. He fell without much fight, his hands tied behind him and the mask cinched in place. He sank slowly, the bubble expelling from his mouth as he screamed. It was light enough even in the early dawn that he’d be able to see through the slats of the metal mask to see her face as he landed on the floor of the lake. He was three feet below water but even an inch beneath the icy black would be too much to survive.

She could see the soft blue of his eyes rimmed in panic, mouth open in a silent scream for her to spare him. He begged, he cried, he sobbed but she had no words left to give him save one.

“Die.”

I hope you enjoyed this little short story exercise but know that you too can get the writing juices flowing by listening to a favorite song and building a scene, world, and characters around the mood of the song.