Veronica opened her eyes, to find herself scared and vulnerable all over again. Because everything around her had changed. She remembered falling asleep on some kind of pathway but right now she was surrounded by stone walls on three sides while strips of stone blocks locked the fourth side, she was behind bars. She was feeling that her attempt to suicide was so jinxed that she was continuously landing herself into trouble since then. Looking around, she realized that there were other stone cells too lined up in front of her and also next to her own cell but there was no one inside them. There was a black stone wall kind of structure behind the cell she was facing.

She started banging her foot on the stone bars and screamed her lungs out.

"Let me out of here, Hello? Anyone there? Let me out!"

But there was no reply, the adjacent cells were still quite and she couldn't see anyone in the two cells right across her own. She tried to peep but couldn't see anything. She sat down, angry and detested with herself. She should have jumped from a high rise as she had earlier decided and not trust the seas to take her away, she thought. Holding her head between her legs, she cramped herself to a corner. She knew the one who had locked her would definitely return to either set her free or end her life once and for all, she was hoping whoever it was chose the second option.

A few tiring hours later someone appeared at her cell. She didn't want to come out of it once she saw him, or her or whatever it was. It was a human like figure with a face which resembled a reptile, large skull and unblinking eyes which were completely yellow were staring at her. It had no eye balls and his face made Veronica cringe, she hated reptiles anyways. She could see it's tongue flitting into the air rapidly like it was tasting something in the waters while it's skin was covered with green scales and bulgy patches like those of an alligator.

With his reptilian claw like hands he opened the cell lock by inserting his claw into  the stone lock. The creature stared at Veronica for a few minutes and then left while Veronica froze in shock.

A few minutes later she walked out of the cell and was exhilarated by the view around. The cells were surrounded by huge grey mountains, bigger than the biggest mountain she had ever seen. She never thought waters had so much hiding in them.

She could now walk easily, the muddy floor was replaced by a stone path and there was no one around. She was mesmerized by these mountains, unknowing of the dangers that they were covering.

Someone was watching her every move, someone wanted her here and was just showing off his power. While she was busy roaming the mountains and observing the underwater life and trying to find a way to escape, her past had knocked on her doors.

Veronica's Ex boyfriend William was standing at the doorstep of her Brooklyn home where her parents were still not able to digest the fact that their teenage daughter had disappeared and supposedly died without leaving any trace.

The Jones were busy watching the news though in their head everyone was lost in thoughts, the door bell rang and broke the tension in the room.

Veronica's father opened the door and found a guy in black hoodie standing at the doorstep.

Sorry sir, I am Veronica's friend, I heard about her. I just wanted to share something with you. I feel it is important for you to know."

Mr. Jones welcomed the boy in with a grim face and asked him to sit down.

"What is your name? Since when do you know Veronica? Haven't ever seen you around", Mr. Jones exclaimed.

"Right sir, actually she was my classmate. We were very close for sometime and she had given me this as her promise to never have these thoughts ever again, like some six months ago. Now that she is no more, I feel you should have this." William said while holding a black package in his hand. He handed it over to Mr. Jones, Mrs. Jones and Veronica's younger brother James stared at William in amusement. He left immediately after handing over the package, leaving behind a confused and amused family.

 Mr.Jones looked at the plastic package for a minute and opened it carefully. It had sketchbook inside it. The sketch book was Veronica's world in black and white. It was her darkest dreams on paper, while most of the pages were filled with sketches depicting pain and anger in the form of blood drippings and cut marks on body parts, the last sketch in the book stood out the most. The last sketch scared the entire Jones family, it was a secret they were hiding from her for years.

"In the waters, lies a world,

In the waters, swims her blood"

The snake like creature whispered after swinging it's head and lowering itself to stare more closely into Veronica's eyes.

Veronica was so scared that she could not move a bit. She could feel a chill run down her spine. This creature was crazy looking and was speaking English, it was beyond her understanding. Her throat was drying, the creature gave her one long stare, looked around and swam away swiftly.

All Veronica could do was stare into the endless waters he had just disappeared into. She felt breathless and just then she realized she was breathing underwater, bubbles erupted from her nose every time she tried to take a deep breath. She wanted to get away from here, some place safe where there were no swimming snakes with large red blood eyes.

She tried swimming but she failed, she had tried learning to swim many times but could never get around it. She walked a few meters and struggled to keep up her balance, the floor was now getting slowly covered with slippery moss. Strangely she could see a pathway surrounded by tree like structures, underwater trees? Sea weed ? She decided to just stop trying to understand and  go with the flow, quite literally.

There were carbs adjacent the pathway, crawling on the mossy seabed and a few small fishes swimming in and around the sea weed kind of trees which were almost double Veronica's height.

She kept walking until she was tired and decided to sit down and take a moment to relax.

"What if mom and dad find me? I can't face them. Shit, what have I done. I am such a failure, I failed at killing myself and now am lost here in this crazy world which I cannot decipher. God, please let this be heaven, that way at least I won't have to face my parents ever. Within a few seconds Veronica fell asleep.

If only she knew her fate,

If only she knew the dangers,

If only she knew that she would wake up in a different place,

She would have walked anywhere but this  pathway...

Veronica opened her eyes, everything was a blur at first. As soon as she regained senses, she regretted it all. She regretted the fact that she was still alive. While her head was still heavy, it started bursting with pain when she looked around. There was a water everywhere and she could feel small moss like thing beneath her feet. A few plant like structures covered the area that was visible to her.

She was underwater, she looked up and she could see rays of sun reflecting on the surface which was like a million kilometers away. She moved her hand to check if she was in water and indeed she was. But how could she breathe ? She had no idea. All she could she was aquamarine nothingness.She tried swimming up but she just couldn't; it was as if the sea wanted her to be here.

She tried walking and it was difficult, she was pushed around by the weight of water. Her feet barely touched the ground even though she tried hard to be steady. The corner of her eye saw a part of a tail like fin and she got extremely anxious. Suddenly all the documentaries she had seen about seas and sharks and what not came alive, she sensed danger. She always thought jumping in the waters will be the least painful deaths of all, but now she was rethinking her decision.

Checking her jeans pocket she took out her mobile phone and it was not working, she wasn't surprised but was getting a very strange feeling about the whole scenario. A chill ran down her spine when she again noticed the tail like huge structure swimming rapidly just a few meters away from her. This time she noticed it's feet as well, covered with nasty nails and it's skin pitch black dotted with cringe worthy rocky grayish scales. Her stomach was churning, her throat clinched and she could feel a warm feeling rise up her chest.

Before she could contemplate what it exactly was, a fish or a sea creature or a snake, it swooped right in front of her and raised it's head above Veronica's. She stared into it's deep round black shinny eyes and froze with terror.

"Rajeev, you conned me into thinking you were dead. And that too for as long as 11 months. How can you even expect normalcy?" Natasha had lost her cool.

"I am really sorry Nats, but you know the situations had become such that I had no option but to act dead. Do you have any idea what they would have done to me if they knew I was alive?, they would have really killed me."

Rajeev had faked his own death to run away from his undying debts. He staged everything, and did not include Natasha in his plan because he knew involving anyone else would endanger everything. Natasha's parents knew about Rajeev & Natasha's relationship and found him extremely warm and helpful, but they never knew that the warmness he was oozing was out of a volcano of debt.

"Ya Rajeev, but 11 months ? Its a long time Rajeev and a lot has changed. Damn Rajeev, I was never proud of your timing but now I am really pissed off by it. I don't even know what exactly I should be feeling, weather I should be happy for your sudden come back or upset for your timing" Natasha raised her voice as the loud noise of music from outside the room was making it difficult to speak.

"I know I shouldn't have come here Nats, I knew this was a wrong idea but I just couldn't stop myself from seeing you once and telling you that I was alive" Rajeev went closer to her.

"What now Rajeev? Even if I decide to leave all this and run away with you, for how long will we keep running? For how long are you planning to remain dead for the world? Will you ever be able to reveal to the world that you are alive without fearing for your life?" Natasha sat down on her bed with her head in her hands.

Rajeev sat at her feet and rested his head in her lap.

"Forgive me Natasha, but I just wanted to see you once. I didn't want to die with the guilt of hiding something as huge as my very existence from you". Tears started rolling down both their cheeks.

"Why didn't you come sooner Rajeev? Why today? Of all days, why today?" Natasha's mind was flooding with questions, confusing and haunting questions.

Their teary eyes kept staring at each other while the aggressive knocking on the door kept increasing with every passing minute, like it was in competing with the noise of loud music. Natasha rose up suddenly and rushed to the mirror. She wiped her tears and corrected her smudged kajal, touched up her make up and realised she couldn't not change her decision at the ninth hour like this.

"I am happy you are alive Rajeev, but there is nothing beyond that happiness which I can offer. 11 months is not a long time but it isn't even a small one. You knew the situations, you left me alone; you don't always get to choose when and how you appear in my life and how I put everything upside down for your comebacks Rajeev. I can't make my family go through this, I can't make myself go through this"

"This door will open in the max 10 minutes. You have to decide if you want to destroy my life or you want me to finally live my dreams". Natasha spoke whilst staring at Rajeev's reflection in the mirror.

Around 15 minutes later the door was opened, forcefully by relatives accompanied by Natasha's parents.

Natasha's mother entered the room to find it empty. Natasha ran away with her Ex Rajeev on the day of her marriage.

Since her parents believed Rajeev to be dead, they couldn't connect the dots and from that day onwards Natasha died for her parents; just like Rajeev had died for the world in spite of being alive.

Sometimes you have to make a choice which is your heart's longing desire, even if it's fulfilment isn't the conventional choice under normal circumstances...