Kumo kicked and struggled, trying to get back to the surface, but all of her strength was gone.
The water near her was tainted red, which Kumo knew was from the blood from where she had hit her head.
‘No,’ Kumo muttered into the dark water, ‘I can’t die yet, not like this.’
* * *
Kumo’s eyes fluttered open. Her head was throbbing and the light was blinding her.
She sat up slowly and looked around.
She was in a soft bed with white sheets on it. The walls of the room were bare and painted white. Besides the bed, the only piece of furniture in the room was a small bedside table.
There was a small girl sitting in the corner, playing with some toys.
The girl had blond hair pulled up into two messy pigtails. She was wearing a white dress and had a doll clutched in her hand.
‘Where am I?’ Kumo didn’t really expect the girl to know the answer but it was worth a try.
‘You’re awake!’ the girl cried, dropping the doll and running over to the bed, ‘I’m Risu. Your name’s Kumo, right? I mean, that’s what it says on your bracelet.’
‘I’m not really sure, I don’t remember,’ Kumo spoke slowly and unsurely.
Kumo looked down at her left wrist, the one Risu had pointed to when mentioning the bracelet.
The bracelet was made in a pattern with vivid orange and dull blue beads. In the middle there were four white beads with letters on them that spelt out the word ‘Kumo’.
Kumo’s head began to pound worse than ever. Her vision went blurry and she tried to find something to lean on.
A fuzzy image appeared in her mind. She closed her eyes to better take it in.
The image was of a pair of hand, holding her bracelet. Then she heard a voice, sweet and caring.
‘This is for you Kumo,’ the voice said.
A pair of smaller, pudgy hands reached towards the bracelet and took it, fiddling with the small beads.
‘Look on the inside,’ the voice continued.
The small hands turned the bracelet inside out, looking on the inside. Written on the inside, engraved into seven of the little beads were the words ‘Love Mum’.
Kumo groaned as the image left her mind. It felt so familiar to her, but she couldn’t remember seeing it before.
‘Kumo!’ Risu called from the side of the bed, ‘Kumo, are you alright.’
Kumo pulled herself back into the middle of the bed, shaking slightly. She took a deep breath to calm herself.
‘Yeah,’ Kumo said, trying to calm herself and Risu at the same time, ‘I’m fine.’
I'm stopping it there for now because that's all I've got on my ccomputer so far!
