IV Brides Don't Drown
So when the lake reached for me,
I did not kneel.
I did not sink.
I did not become what they expected of me
Instead, I opened my mouth
and screamed.
The sound split across the water like lightning.
The lake convulsed.
The shoreline cracked apart.
Churchbells howled beneath the depths like wounded animals
For one terrible moment,
all the drowned brides rose.
Veils dripping black water.
Pearls spilling from their mouths.
Eyes bright as stormglass.
Not victims now.
Witnesses.
The village sank before sunrise.
Every house.
Every stone.
Every man who called that sacrifice tradition.
The lake swallowed them whole.
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