Free Riven by Alivia Anders

more dark than I was immediately aware of.
    Oddly, my lungs didn't ache. There was no burning need to breathe, no sting of the chest to warn me that I was dying. Instead I felt peaceful, the misery compounded inside of me gone, vanished with the water around me.
    I had only just begun to close my eyes when something caught my attention. A dash of yellow, coming in my direction. It came closer with every rocking motion of the sea, until I came face-to-face with a familiar person.
    She looked beautiful, her soft blonde hair floating calmly about her. Perfect, pale skin gave way to dainty and fragile features, instantly reminding me of a porcelain doll.
    This wasn't the first time I had her. Then again, it probably wouldn't be the last. It was me, an imprint of what I once was, back before I knew how marred my life was. Back before I learned how important I had become to a mix of supernatural races, all pining for my blood.
    Oh Ebony, how you continue to haunt me.
    She lingered in the water in front of me, hands wrapped around her sides as if she were cold. Her eyes were shut, face composed into a mask of peace and serenity. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought she was sleeping.
    As if she could read my thoughts, she opened her eyes. Large, bottomless brown orbs stared back at me, their stare practically digging into my soul with chipped, broken nails.
    “You came back,” she said, a hint of surprise in her tone. Her red lips spread into a small, yet bright smile. “I knew you'd see me again.”
    “Where are we?” I waved a hand through the water, keeping my eyes on my carbon copy. “Is this all a dream?”
    Her smile widened. “Not exactly.”
    “Then what is it?” A shock ran through my body. “Am I... am I dead?”
    A flash of something, sorrow perhaps, ran through her eyes. She placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. “That's your choice.”
    “Oh, so there's a choice now if I die? Not sure if Death will like me messing up his collections roster,” I muttered sarcastically. A heaviness was beginning to seep into my body, the all too familiar sensations of life blossoming on my skin, charging in my cells. Bruises I hadn't even realized I was missing rapidly pooled in patches over my body, each one like a bee sting.
    The lovelier version of me remained unharmed, hand still on my shoulder. Either she had one hell of an iron stomach, or she was used to seeing bruises spawn on people in record time. Then again, if this was all my imagination, maybe I made her up to be stronger than me.
    “Essallie, look below,” she told me. Turning my gaze below the both of us, all I saw was an endless stretch of black. A mystery, hiding secrets far beyond my reach. “What do you see?"
    I stared down at black expanse below. At first, nothing but darkness stared back at me, and I had half the nerve to call Ebony out on messing with my head. But a closer look brought out shapes, features of a person, chained to the ocean floor.
    Without words, I knew who it was. How could I not know that hair, the set of those shoulders? I looked up at my copy in horror, the question glued to my lips.
    “You have a choice,” she whispered, a grin of pure malice spreading across her face, her enjoyment barely containable. She raised a hand and pointed above, then pointed back to the very thing ripping my heart in two. “The question is, which one will it be? Which one will you choose?”
    I opened my mouth again to speak. This time, water rushed into my empty lungs, the taste of salt and brine cloying my senses. I couldn’t die, not like this, not in a dream. Not with the way things were left.
    I had seconds, ten at the most, to decide. To free myself from the burning sensation of dying by drowning, or to save the person below in an act of sacrifice. Fight or flight, that’s what it came down to. That’s what everything came down to at this point, and I hated it. Despised it with a violent, boiling