The floodwaters, the colour of a deep bruise, clawed at their shoulders. Kacy's bloodless lips parted, but the roar swallowed her scream. A half-submerged tire bobbed past.
"Mom—grab it!" Kacy rasped, her fingers digging into the slick rubber. Anna seized the other side, her face a mask of grim determination, as the current tore Kacy's legs from under her. The rooftop, their last island of hope, vanished beneath the foam.
Rag dolls in the torrent. Kacy thrashed, her nails scraping against the tire's tread while her mother kicked with a desperate, failing rhythm. The water, a malevolent force, hurled them toward the dark maw of a two-story building. Anna fought the flow, muscles cording in her arms, but the current twisted them like driftwood in its merciless grip.
Then—a sickening CRACK.
Kacy's spine hit brick, pain splintering up her back. Blinked water from her eyes. "Mom—?"
Anna floated eerily still, her chest skewered by a broken metal pole. The water surrounding her bloomed crimson, her eyes glazed.
"YOU!" A shout cut through the roar. A rescue boat teeming with lifeguards surged towards her. "GRAB THE BUOY!"
Kacy didn't move. "I won't leave her."
The lifeguard's voice was raw. "She's gone. You drown here, her death's for nothing."
A shuddering breath. Kacy let go of the tire. Swam towards the floating buoy, only a few feet away from her.
The lifeguards hauled her into the boat. On board, a volunteer pressed a blanket and coffee into her shaking hands. The boat was an ark of weeping survivors, their sobs and prayers a fragile chorus against the flood's roar. Kacy stared past them, at the endless, churning water.
First, diabetes had claimed her father. Then the war had stolen her brother. Now the water had taken Anna. The coffee steamed untouched in her hands.
Not cold anymore. Just empty.