Deprivation- The Feast and the Famine

Chapter 15- Dark Waters

The downward motion of Claudia's fingers tugged on her lip, revealing a flash of white teeth.  It was the closest thing to an expression Claudia had worn in what might have been a day, give or take two.  Her eyes stared out seeing some distant disappointment, so removed it had ceased to bother her.  

She followed Eudora to the edge of the underground pool they washed at and then stopped.  Her toes made ripples in the cold water.

Meanwhile, Eudora shed her clothing.  Her pale body no less perfect for lack of cover.  At least from the angle Claudia could see.  Which is to say, from the back.  Last Eudora moved the strange bag she wore at her side around her neck.  With hands splayed out to the side dispensing of any shred of modesty, she stepped into the water.  A small gasp escaped her lips as the water reached her waist.  

At the sound, Claudia's eyes flickered, and her mouth opened, her fingertips remained at her mouth where her top and bottom lips joined. She started at the jagged rock of the cave. The overhang of rock was uneven and made her think of sweet little Julien. How he would love to adventure in a cave like this. He always played at such things with his toys but of course never got to leave the nursery. "He's so young; my brother and I loved him.  I wonder what will become of him."

"He'll grow into a man," Eudora said.  She took another step forward, but the water rose no higher.  She had reached the deepest point.  "And he will not be so very young."

"But will he fall in love?"

"Do you set such stock in love?"  Eudora turned back around to face her companion.  There was a slight tracery of stretch marks at the edge of her breasts.  They were so fine that they almost added to her appeal, grounding her in the real world and not in heaven.  

Claudia's hand fell away from her lips.  Her face almost haggard.  "I don't know."

"My life would have been better but for it," Eudora responded.  Her hand stroked the water softly, and it lapped up against the slight curve of her stomach.  

"No, no.  I do not.  It's love that brought me here."  Claudia sat at the edge of the pool mindless as her skirt began to soak up water.

Eudora dove beneath the surface.  A few moments later she came up just a few feet further away.  She tossed her hair back.  It plastered itself against her shoulders and back, a few resistant pieces stayed strewn over her face.  

"Will he have children I wonder?" Claudia said.

"If he does, you'll never meet them.  You'll never know, and you'll certainly never hold them.  You'll never embrace any child ever again."  Eudora's voice had an edge that surprised Claudia.  This checked Claudia's urge to retort sharply.

"You are reprimanding me."

"I am not your teacher nor your parent."

"And yet the fact remains."

"There are no facts."

Claudia lowered her face and looked at it in the water.  In the dim light, she could only catch a vague image.  Basic ideas of form and shape, nothing more remained.  "I am fading into a ghost."

"I will care for you, little pretty.  Haven't I taken good care of you?"

Claudia remained silent.  She thought about pigs and cows fattened up before they were slaughtered. He wants me dead and she will be his sword. Earn her freedom so she can spill his blood. "Perhaps it is best to fade away and forget."

"Never forget," Eudora said.  "No never that."

Claudia looked back up and saw something she'd never seen before.  For an instant, she swore that Eudora was glowing a gentle red light.  It surrounded her and made her creature of sunset and fire.  And it lurked there in her eyes.  

"What are you?" Claudia asked even as the glow faded leaving Eudora in the ordinary dim light.

Eudora laughed.  "What are any of us?"

"Sorrow," Claudia said.

"Revenge." Eudora's eyes burned with it.

"Regret."

"Hate." Eudora took another step out of the water.  It streamed down her body.  Claudia wondered if she reached out if the water would have seared her flesh the bone.  For certainly Eudora's body had all the heat of the fires of hell.

"I am barren.  I can't even fear.  Will you kill me?"

"You are here already, even had I wished revenge on you.  I have already had it." Eudora took another step.  What will happen when she reaches me? Claudia thought, not soothed by her words.  Her body steamed as though the water was boiling right off of her flesh.

"You have been leading me deeper and deeper into hell all this while."

"You are not a ghost to be led back up, no matter what you like to believe.  Though I would not look back if you were."

Claudia waited patiently for Eudora to get to her.  She waited for death.

The black waters now lapped at Eudora's thighs.  Her hair was filled with tiny demons, and they laughed.  They danced there, unaware that they were trapped.  Claudia felt sorry for Eudora's hair demons.  Even as their claws reached out to stroke Eudora's full cheek.  They loved this angel-devil woman.  Part of Claudia wanted to go play with them, but she was not small enough.

"Hello, little demons," She whispered.

"He would have married you," Eudora said.  "You should have had the life I wanted, but instead you are here.  I've almost forgotten what that world is like, but I remember him, and now I know you."

"You are a good friend, Eudora, and I don't mind a bit that you are going to kill me."

A ripple crossed Eudora's face.  Something akin to a flinch but filled with surprise.  Claudia's initial impression that she caused the expression blew away.  Eudora's eyes swept down to the water. Claudia saw nothing, and Eudora was now only submerged up to her lower calves.  After the flinch, Eudora's face froze.  Not a soft relaxed frozen but a stiff uncontrolled paralysis.

"Dora?"  Claudia asked.  

Eudora fell.  Her legs crumpled from beneath her, and she descended at an alarming rate until she crashed into the water.    Her hair spread out across the surface and a loud crack resonated as some part of her came in too swift contact with the rocks.  She stayed there, motionless, face down in the shallow water with one arm pressed beneath her and the other spread out across the water's surface as if trying, too late, to stop her fall.

Claudia screamed.  She thought she had forgotten how and was surprised to find how easily her throat remembered.  

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