Art by Mori_art_ti

Challenge: Sea Creature

Manatee

Idea by @minipage

Unkeepable promise

minipage

We make a lot of promises as humans.

We promise not to do it again. We promise it won't hurt. We promise to come again soon. We promise forever. We promise.

And when you say the word over and over and over again, it becomes nothing.

Like, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.

Now, it has become nonsense to you and there's no real meaning.

The same thing happens with promises.

We make guaruntees but the word has become so empty now.

I could promise you a great day today, but do I really mean it? Can I really promise you a great day?

No.

I can't.

I'm only human.

Granted, I am a more superior human, but I am human none the less. 

I can't control the weather. I can't control you (for the most part). I can't control other people. I can't control traffic.

And I can't control time.

But when I was 15, I made a promise I fully intended to keep.

Feet swinging over the ledge of a very tall building, I made a promise to the person sitting beside me.

I promised to protect them forever.

But now they're dead.

Do you see the futility in promises yet?

"I will keep you safe," I promised, backing up towards the ledge. I pulled her hand with me as I backed up. 

"Forever?" she giggled.

"I promise," I said. I could almost feel her relax, like a wave of cool energy. She came with me and I got her to sit on the ledge, at least 200 feet in the air. 

Her feet didn't swish back and forth like mine. She was still tense but malliable in my hands. Like cold clay.

We stayed up there for awhile that afternoon, just talking, hoping we didn't get caught. 

When we got hungry, we went to Taco Bell because that was all our 15 year old wallets could afford.

And it was a delightful day.

But you can't protect those who refuse to be protected.

She eventually jumped off that building as a sort of symbolic representation of our broken, fractured love.

Our love had ended with an explosion of violence and hateful words.

I was too wrapped up in my own hate to worry about her the night she jumped.

If she had just talk to me, if I had just been there for her, I promise that it would have been different. 

mere_inkslinger

"Just do it, butterfly! I'll save you if you can't swim to the surface!"

"Are you sure, Max?" I called to him from the high dive. I was dangling my legs with my broken right foot off the edge of the board.

"Just do it, Reagan, it'll be fine!" he called back, his friends laughing to themselves.

I went back to the end of the board, limping, and turned to place my foot.

This is stupid. Why am I doing this? I could drown. I could hurt myself even more. But if I don't do it, I would turn down a challenge. I would loose. I have to do this! I can't back down now, anyways.

I placed my broken foot in front of me, and I raised my arms.

I wonder how much pain I would be in right now without the pain killers?

Well, here goes nothing.

I stepped forward, skipped with my broken foot, and leapt high, bringing my right foot up to keep the pressure off it.

Meanwhile

"What the hell does she think she's doing?" Coach Mann screamed, standing up.

"She's flipping twice, coach." Enrico muttered, like he knew something he shouldn't.

Coach Mann's whistle blew long and hard, just as she hit the water.

"Everybody out of the pool!" he commanded.

"Coach! What are you doing? She's fine!" Max argued, almost steaming with anger.

"You may have just shattered what was left of the girl's ankle!" he barked back at him.

Max backed off with a terrified look on his face.

Meanwhile

I completed my first flip and denied myself a second one. I just couldn't push through the pain that falling was putting on my foot.

My face hit the water and my first reaction was to cough the water out of my lungs that had been lodged deep within my chest.

I drifted upside down from all the coughing, and realized a little too late I was in the worse pain imaginable, out of air, and at the bottom of a fifteen foot pool.

I opened my mouth to scream, because I was terrified I was about to die.

What little air I had left floated away from me and towards. The sun. I looked to it, and saw a figure coming towards me.

Please... Max...

Suddenly I saw stars and everything was black.

Meanwhile

"Dude, she's waking up," Enrico gawked.

"You don't say!" Brady snapped, sarcastically.

Enrico shoved Brady and Brady shoved Enrico, and soon one was in the pool, trying to get out to kill the other.

"I hope you know you could have killed her," Coach said to Max. "You know she gets competitive. You knew it, and you pushed her!"

"I'm really sorry, coach," Max mumbled.

"Don't apologize to me. She's the one that deserves it." Coach walked away, putting his fingers on his forehead to concentrate.

Meanwhile

Suddenly, there was a light coming straight for me.

It's a train. It's going to hit me! Move! You have to move!

I struggled against hands grabbing my arms and legs and yelling for me to stop fighting. But I had to get away. I had to escape.

"Reagan! Stop! You're okay! Stop fighting!" 

I tensed up and froze, unable to move. I grabbed someone's hand, anyone's hand, and I just hugged it. I squeezed their arm, because my ankle was shooting pain through my whole body. I might even...

"Oh, god! She threw up on the EMT!"

"Someone get me a stretcher! She's going in!"

I was lifted, my eyes feeling as big as dinner plates, onto a stretcher.

Someone laid me down to rest.

"Max," I mumbled. "He promised to... Get me..."

"Max won't be hanging around much longer." Coach was suddenly there, looking angry.

"I'm sorry.. I couldn't..."

"Just rest, Reagan. We'll deal with this tomorrow."

A tear left my eye.

"He... promised!" I cried. "I... I drowned!"

"Where were you..." I cried.

Meanwhile

Here I am. I'm at the bottom of the pool, Reagan. I'm here to catch you. I said I would be there. I didn't keep the promise. I can't live with almost killing you. I'm sorry.

Meanwhile

"These two almost drowned. Separate cases. We're looking into where's or not they were connected," the office told the parents.

"Oh, knowing our kids, they were connected," a father mumbled to his wife.