One might think that Elena would be afraid of the water after all that she'd been through in the last couple of years. Two incidents of near or complete drowning might have that effect, but she'd never attributed it much to the water. It had been more about the cars, the accidents, being trapped, helpless.

She liked swimming, even if she wasn't the best at it. She loved the beach, laying out in the sun.

When the song had first begun, she'd resisted, if only because it felt like the right thing to do. But she'd felt at peace when she'd finally given in, dipped her toes in the water's edge, floated on its surface. She'd spent a lot of time here, but she'd resisted the urge to take it too far.

Until now.

It filled her head until there wasn't room for anything else, this need to swim out as far as she could, to dive until she couldn't dive anymore. It needed her like nothing else had, and she needed it too. She wasn't thinking; the water was doing all of that for her.

She didn't even hesitate. She simply rose from her spot near the edge of the water and dove in, still dressed in her clothes and shoes. They weighed her down, but she was strong, and her strokes were sure as she headed toward the center of the lake.