no happy endings

the girl races down the path
her hair flying behind her
skirt flapping around her knees
bare feet hitting the earth in a dull rhythm

she turns a corner
the woods are all around her
she can't hear anyone
no sound of human life

perfect
peaceful

she can feel herself slowing
her muscles screaming for rest
she must have been running for at least ten minutes
only a little farther

she pushes onward
unwilling to let her tired legs slow
or her aching feet falter
in their pounding rhythm

another minute ticks by
and another

she rounds another corner
and sees lightening ahead of her
a clearing coming up
finally
she's almost there

she runs the last few steps
and the path comes out of the woods
showing instead
a small pond
small,
but deep
she can see the weeds growing on the pond

there is a small, old dock
streatching out into the pond
this is what she runs to
unhesitatingly, she runs to the end of the dock

here,
finally
she stops
poised on the edge
about to fall
but holding herself back

she stands there
frozen
for one more moment
before swinging her arms up and over
and diving into the pond
she comes up for air again
the cool water clearing her head

her feet are burning
after the heat of excersizing
and then the cold water
but she doesn't care

she floats on top of the water
staring at the sky
the white clouds
drifting across the vast expanse
calming
soothing

she lies there for hours
her hair spread out around her
watching as the sun gets lower
and lower
wishing she didn't have to go back
to her house
her family and friends
her life

after a long while
she decides she must go back
before leaving
she flips
and does a surface dive
comes back up
does another
deeper this time
and deeper still
pushing herself ever further
her heart beating
her ears ringing with the silence of the water
she is in among the weeds now
but she is not scared
they are calm and green

swaying gently back and forth

she waves her hand
and makes them swirl around
caught in the currents
her motion created
she laughs to herself
down there
in the weeds and the water
at how silly
all her worries seem
now that she is here
he lungs are starting to hurt
so she goes to push herself back up
to the surface
and the oxygen

she kicks off the bottom of the pond
reaching for the light
when she feels something tug at her arm

a weed
has wrapped around her hand and arm
trapping her in the cold water

lungs aching now
she goes to brush the weed away
only to find
that it's not just one weed
but many
that have been tangled together
into a giant knot

she tries harder now
to rip them off
her lungs burning in her chest

and in a moment of derision
she thinks to herself how perfect this would be
to have her end be here
locked in a web
which she found herself caught in
just like the web of lies
and drama
and pain
and love
that her life has been made up of

the thought passes
and she is truly worried
her lungs are killing her
crying out with their need for air
cursing to herself
she kicks at the weeds
and her foot gets stuck in the soft silt
at the bottom of the pond

slowly
she can feel herself getting dizzy
her brain's need for oxygen
outweighing her need to focus
to break free of this mess

slowly
her eyes close
seemingly unable to keep open any longer
in her head she is screaming
but her body
is slowing
shutting down

and quietly
her final action
her lips open
and her dying lungs
take one last inhale

sealing her fate
as the water rushes in